The Amazon effect is coming to Agriculture. In fact, it’s already here. If you need something on your farm, chances are you can order it up on your smart phone and have it by the end of the week. Even chemicals, seed, and fertilizer. But will Ag retail go away? Not likely, given the proximity, re...

All indications are, money is going to be blowing into Agriculture from a myriad of sources over the next year, largely in the form of environmentalism. Is this trend for real? Will the funds come from a new Farm Bill? Are corporate players truly investing in Ag or just covering their tales in th...

If you’ve worked in the Business of Agriculture for one year or the past 50 years, all you’ve known is increased globalization of our industry. That’s changing and the pace of change will likely accelerate during the next decade. Todd Thurman, co-host of The Business of Ag Success Group discusses...

North American Agriculture has benefited greatly by China’s rise during the last couple decades. But, as you’ve heard, all good things must come to an end and in this case, the end might not end well. Tensions between China and the west — particularly the United States — have ramped up. And frank...

American Agriculture often times suffers from a disorder I’ve termed Acute Commodity Mindset. Symptoms of this disorder include thinking customers should purchase what we produce — regardless of what they actually want — and resisting opportunities to up-sell higher profit margin products. We saw...

A few years ago, it seemed that capital was on every corner looking for a place to invest. But even in those cash-rich days, not a lot of investors looked at Agriculture as an investment objective — aside from biological crop inputs and technology. Then there is Open Prairie, an Illinois-based pr...

Luke Roush was just a kid when I met him, now he’s managing a diversified Indiana farming operation with his father. We talk about skill sets, strengths, weaknesses, employee management, growth, money, the future, and more. What does Luke see from his perspective? Where are the challenges, and wh...

A shovel full of soil contains billions of microbes, thousands of bacteria, and a biological complexity we’re only beginning to understand. With the advent of soil sampling, we’ve generally tossed out macronutrients in large quantities and started to look at micronutrients. But we’ve not done muc...

More than half the states in the U.S. are considering “right-to-repair” laws according to a recent article. Legislation at the federal level is being pushed by Montana senator Jon Tester. Pushers of “right-to-repair” regulation position themselves as victims of big equipment companies. Big equipm...

I’ve been hearing the complaint, “it’s hard / impossible for a young person to start out in farming these days” for decades. Recently, an interviewer went down this road about the struggle of young people to get into farming and blamed the phenomenon on “corporate-ization.” You’ve no doubt heard ...

Kelly Garrett is an entrepreneurial farmer from western Iowa. His business interests include farming, trucking, plant food distribution, ag retail, and now: direct to consumer beef. Kelly joins me to discuss the motivation behind creating GLC Beef and the opportunities for increasing profit margi...

We’ve been hearing about carbon credits for several years in Agriculture. Finally, the vagueness of the ecosystem marketplace is becoming more clear. In this episode we learn how farmers enroll their acres to get compensation for carbon sequestration and nitrogen reduction. Who pays for these env...

The Business of Agriculture trades commodities. We produce them, buy them, sell them, and process them to make products for our end users. But who does all this trading and who ultimately, uses the goods we make? Dave Smoldt and Kyle Schrad with StoneX Financial give us a behind the scenes look a...

U.S. net farm income set a record in 2022, up 14% from 2021 to $160.5 billion. To put it mildly, things in Ag are good financially speaking. 2022’s farm income number is double what it was just 3 years ago during the China - U.S. trade spat. What does this mean for those of us who earn our living...

Agriculture has a lot of battles to fight beyond the daily challenges of producing our food, fuel, and fiber. Causes against production Ag have turned into religious movements as well as full-blown business models. Call it what it is, it’s “the conflict industry” and in places like Holland, farms...

In 2022 American farmers produced the fourth largest soybean crop on record at 117 million metric tons or roughly 4.4 billion bushels. The good news: Demand is matching global supply and prices are decent. The challenging news: Our demand for soybean oil is outpacing our demand for soybean meal. ...

Cow farts cause “climate crisis” and climate crisis is reducing crop yields, eating eggs causes high cholesterol, global population growth will cause mass starvation, sunlight exposure is harmful to your health. You’ve likely heard these dire predictions confidently proclaimed by so-called expert...

Shay Foulk with Ag View Solutions predicts cost of corn production for 2023 will average $5.35 per bushel. That number is an all time high and it’s due to an increase in every crop input from nitrogen to diesel to labor. The story is the same for the other major commodity of soybeans, and presuma...

Farmers love to talk about the weather but in this episode we go deeper and talk about systems, climate, global weather patterns, and the year ahead. My guest is Eric Snodgrass, Senior Science Fellow for Nutrien Ag Solutions. Will we see the sort of devastating dryness we experienced in the west ...

Lasse Jakobsen was born in Denmark, now the Millennial heads up U.S. business development for the company his grandfather created to serve European hog production. Today, Protekta is a joint venture with a Danish organization that produces feed additives, among other things, for pork, poultry, an...

Your smart phone has more technology and capability than NASA’s Apollo program had 50 years ago. Think about that, then think about the technology in today’s modern farm machinery. Data collection, yield monitoring, analysis down to the square foot…It’s amazing to say the least. John Deere busine...

Two weeks ago I posted on social media a photo of an antique tractor next to a modern machine. In my post I referenced the advancements we’ve made since the antique tractor worked the land — 7 times increase in per acre yield, less natural resource consumption per calorie produced, environmental ...

Renewable diesel is the new buzz talk everywhere in Agriculture. Will its take off and reality match the fervor in farm circle discussions? Will the tax credits giving RD lift off remain with us? Will more biofuel fuel the “no food for fuel” debate? Well, yes, that’s almost a guarantee! Mac Marsh...

Fertilizer markets have been tumultuous for a few years now. Just when you thought things had settled down on fertilizer price and availability, a hurricane hit, a war broke out, and the Mississippi dried up. Nathan Carson is VP of Operations with Chemical Dynamics, a Florida specialty fertilizer...