April 3, 2025

Missouri Ag Director Chris Chinn says the recent rains are welcome and more is needed across a mostly dry state. “We are hopeful we’ll get more nice, gentle spring rains that will help pastures grow and be plentiful for hay cutting, but we also hope we get rain to fill up the ponds.” She says […] The post Spring rains can help alleviate dry conditions appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A livestock economist says beef cow slaughter will be an area to watch in 2025.   Kenny Burdine, with the University of Kentucky says, “We are not culling this cow herd as hard as we have been the last few years.” Burdine says he doesn’t expect beef cow slaughter to remain at this level for the […] The post Livestock economist says he continues to monitor beef cow slaughter appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

Producers are expressing more concern about the current trade environment in the latest Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer. Professor emeritus Jim Mintert tells Brownfield, “People were much more worried about interest rate policy than trade policy, in fact that was true all the way through 2022 and 2023. After the election that flipped.” He says farmers in this month’s survey […] The post Farmer concerns shifting to trade policy appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

Market analyst DuWayne Bosse tells Brownfield the grain markets would likely be lower if additional reciprocal tariffs on Mexico were announced. “If we had additional tariffs on our top buyer of U.S. corn, I think the corn market would be 10 to 15 cents lower, easily.” Bosse says the retaliatory tariffs shouldn’t affect old crop […] The post Grain market response to tariffs “not horrible” appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

The agronomy education lead with Beck’s Hybrids says the soggy start to April in some areas is leading to nutrient concerns. Matt Montgomery says many farmers have applied their nitrogen needs for the season. “What did we do in the nitrogen stabilizer space? And because of cost pressure, which is completely understandable, some people pulled […] The post Soggy start to spring leads to nitrogen worries appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A central Nebraska farmer says he’s on high alert for additional wildfires this spring. “We’re definitely in significant fire risk.” Clay Govier of Broken Bow tells Brownfield there have already been a pair of wildfires this spring and one impacted his operation. “Half of a pivot of corn stalks burned up on a smaller fire […] The post Fire risk remains high for producers in Great Plains appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

Supporters of year-round E15 say there’s still a lot of uncertainty around a permanent solution. Randy Gard, chief operating officer with Bosselman Enterprises based in Grand Island, Nebraska, tells Brownfield retailers are waiting to finish updating infrastructure. “We’ve been converting tanks and dispensers to blender pumps. We’ve got about 2/3 of our locations now that’s […] The post Ethanol supporters push for permanent solution amid uncertainty appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A Missouri seedstock producer says now is the time for operations to invest in genetics. Blake McDonald is a cow/calf producer from Sullivan, and raises Angus and SimAngus bulls. He says, “Everybody’s making a little money.” He tells Brownfield he’s seeing more operations make significant investments in better bulls. “The bull sale average is just […] The post A good time to invest in herd genetics appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A Wisconsin Farm Service Agency official says there were a few less producers signing up for the Dairy Margin Coverage program in his state this year.  Deputy Executive Director Tyler Radke says, “We had a fair amount of sign-ups. Maybe not quite as much as in the past but several thousand producers.” Radke tells Brownfield […] The post DMC signups down some in Wisconsin appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A new report finds Michigan is losing specialty crops at much higher rates than other areas of the U.S. Michigan State University Extension’s Chris Bardenhagen tells Brownfield the loss of production is a national food security issue. “We can grow a lot of different types of crops, and if we lose our infrastructure, if we […] The post MSU report assesses specialty crop loss repercussions appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story