Farming

The U.S.-Canada trade fight is drifting from border drama into fertilizer anxiety, because apparently crop planning was not already enough of a trust fall with weather, input prices and machinery that beeps only when it wants money. Border nutrients: Canada’s retaliation list includes dairy products and agricultural equipment, and the bigger worry is that the fight could expand toward potash. The U.S. imports more than 80% of its potassium from the Elk Point Basin in Saskatch

Farmers can handle paperwork. They would just prefer the paperwork come with a human on the other end of the counter. Office hours: Staffing losses across USDA are making basic services harder to reach in parts of farm country, from loans and grants to conservation technical help. In one reported example, New Mexico farmers Mary and Zachariah Ben waited months for a USDA loan tied to a 47-acre expansion. Private financing helped fill the gap, which is a polite way of saying t

The rumor mill became a rulemaking mill, and corn country is once again standing near the blender with one eyebrow raised. Waiver math: EPA announced decisions on 34 small refinery exemption petitions for 2025 Renewable Fuel Standard obligations. The agency granted 18 full exemptions, 11 partial exemptions, denied three and found two ineligible. That is not a tiny paperwork shuffle. It is a stack of fuel policy receipts big enough to make ethanol plants start stress-chewing c

Biofuels had finally found a little tailwind, so naturally Washington grabbed the weather machine. The rumor mill: Reports that EPA may grant nearly double the expected number of small refinery exemptions from 2025 Renewable Fuel Standard obligations have rattled biofuel groups. The concern is not tiny. If nearly all refinery requests get a pass, industry leaders say roughly 1 billion gallons of biofuel demand could disappear from the blend pile. Backstory barrel: EPA already

The U.S. and Canada are now doing that neighborly thing where everyone smiles at the mailbox while pricing out retaliatory tariffs. The list: Canada says counter-tariffs will take effect Sept. 8 on products covering $27.6 billion in U.S. imports, with rates of 15%, 25% and 50%. The targets include steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, and electronics. Nothing says “stable trading partner” like making lawn mowers read customs law. Farm machinery mat

No deal, Deere: UAW members at John Deere voted down a proposed contract extension that would have stretched the current agreement through 2029. The offer included 4% annual wage increases, $3,000 yearly bonuses and no major changes to pensions or health care, which sounds tidy until workers remember job security also exists. Green machine tension: Shawn Fain, UAW president, said workers know their worth and want the company back at the table in 2027. Deere said it was disapp

Pest control, but make it financial: Agriculture has entered the era where the risk menu includes old pests, new outbreaks and supply chains that can bruise if someone looks at them too hard. Recent disruptions have put a spotlight on whether producers and small businesses have tools that work before a crisis arrives carrying a clipboard. Bug buffet: New World screwworm is back on the national radar, and USDA is coordinating a One Health response across animal and public heal

The Department of Health and Human Services is now wandering into weed control, which is the kind of sentence that makes every agronomist check whether they missed a memo. Spray drift: U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is pushing the new STREAM program toward pesticide monitoring, next-generation herbicides, drift modeling, drones and nonchemical weed control. The idea, per the program, is to reduce messy chemical exposure while still leaving farm

The Pacific is warming up its plot twist, and agriculture gets to do what it always does: make plans while the weather laughs softly in the background. Forecast fence: The latest ocean temperatures have forecasters watching a potentially historic El Niño, with one outlook putting a 69% chance on an exceptional event later this year. That does not mean every field gets the same treatment. Weather loves nothing more than making regional maps look like spilled salsa. Global shuf

How it starts: A huge generational land transfer is already underway, with aging landowners, heirs, trusts, LLCs and non-operating landlords turning farmland succession into a very expensive family group project. By the acres: More than 2 million landowners rented out 348 million acres of farmland in 2024, and 79% of those rented acres were owned by non-farming landlords. USDA also says about 43 million acres are expected to transfer ownership within five years, before wills

The Senate farm bill did not make it out of the gate before August recess. So yes, farmers are once again waiting on Congress, which is basically crop rotation but for disappointment. How it started: U.S. Senator John Boozman, R-Ark., chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, had hoped to move his Farm Bill 2.0 discussion draft through committee before the break. The draft included more than 100 bipartisan priorities, including risk management, conservation flexibility, spec

River rules: The federal government released its post-2026 framework for managing the Colorado River, which is a fancy way of saying the West still has to decide who gets less water and how loudly everyone gets to object. The proposal could trigger drought-related cuts for Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico through 2036. By the bucket: The process would replace expiring rules for Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Instead of one forever plan, the government is looking at operatin

Europe’s summer has reached the point where the weather map looks less like a forecast and more like a dare. Heat dome buffet: After brutal heat domes, wildfires have pushed through parts of Spain and France, forcing evacuations and turning dry ground into kindling with a passport. It is the kind of season that makes “resilience” sound less like a grant word and more like an emergency grocery list. Scorched spreadsheet: The damage is already sprawling. Fires across France and

Somewhere, an invasive bug is probably packing a tiny suitcase. USDA is trying to make sure it does not enjoy the trip. Bug budget: More than $90 million is headed toward plant pest prevention, mitigation and clean plant work. That covers surveys, response plans and the deeply unglamorous jobs that keep one weird insect from becoming everyone’s personality for the next decade. The pest guest list: The work includes detector dog training, honey bee surveys across dozens of sta

Hog wild: USDA is putting $35M on the table to help partners fight feral swine, which sounds like an expensive pest-control bill until you remember the pigs have been treating fields, forests and fences like an all-you-can-root buffet. The big pen: The money is part of a broader $105M effort through the Feral Swine Eradication and Control Pilot Program. NRCS and APHIS are teaming up on targeted projects, landowner support and damage reduction. By the numbers: Earlier pilot wo

Rotation renovation: A new look at the Corn Belt says farmers want more room to grow beyond the corn-soybean two-step. That does not mean producers forgot how elevators, crop insurance and equipment payments work. It means many are interested in adding small grains, forage, livestock, trees or other options, but the system keeps whispering, “Have you considered another 80 acres of corn?” The bottleneck: The report lays out barriers that are painfully familiar: limited markets

Risk management boomerang: The prevented-planting buy-up option is getting another chance after producers made enough noise to be heard over the rain gauge. The option lets farmers add extra protection when weather keeps acres unplanted, which is not exactly a niche concern when spring can turn a field into soup with property taxes. How it started: The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation removed the 5% buy-up coverage in late 2025. Then the comments rolled in, with more than 3

Venture capital meets work boots: The Farmers Innovation Fund has been certified as a Rural Business Investment Company, which gives ag tech another lane for private capital. The twist is that farmer testing is not treated like a polite afterthought. Companies receiving investment are expected to work directly with producers across real operations before broader adoption. Field trip, but make it finance: The fund is designed to move tools from the drawing board to the field f

Property plot twist: Pennsylvania’s high court just told game wardens the countryside is not a public hallway with trees. The case involved two hunting clubs that had posted signs, purple paint, gates and fences, yet officers still entered without consent, a warrant or probable cause. Cameras were even part of the mix, because apparently the woods needed a reality show nobody ordered. The legal fence line: The unanimous ruling said officials generally need a warrant or a reco

Chemical whiplash: Bayer’s Ruveon unit is backing away from petitions that sought antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese glyphosate imports, which means farmers can briefly close one input-cost panic tab. The petitions asked federal officials to investigate imports and potentially layer duties onto a product many growers still use like duct tape for weeds. The withdrawal followed farm group pushback. Sticker shock avoided: The original request landed at a delicate t