Around Farm Progress

Looking back on markets, celebrating a passion for agriculture

What better way to end the year but with a look back on this interesting ag marketing year. And there's no better way to look ahead then to connect with a student who is sharing is passion for agriculture.

Jacqueline Holland, senior market analyst, Farm Futures, kicks off this podcast with a look back on 2021, and some insight into 2022 - including the prospect for input prices.

New complex ramps up cotton classing in Texas

We like to share a range of different aspects about farming in Around Farm Progress. This time out we're talking cotton, and more specifically cotton classing. Shelley Huguley, editor, Southwest Farm Press, shares insight on a story she's been following since 2019. It's about a new cotton classification facility that brings higher capacity, but adds value to education on the Texas Tech University campus too.

Checking up on ag tech developments

When two editors focused on covering agricultural technology start a conversation you're never quite sure where they'll go next. That's what happened this week for Around Farm Progress.

Tom Bechman, Indiana Prairie Farmer, follows agriculture and provides farmers a kind of "early warning" about technology with Hi-Tech Farming. With all the information coming in daily, it's part of his job to make sense of what's new and give readers that important heads up.

Last-minute gift ideas and more

We explore an interesting lift of unique gifts for the farmer, and others on the farm, for 2021. And there's a discussion of the power of the photo gallery as a tool for readers.

Exploring the aftermath of a weather disaster

The images of broken water pipes and people lining up to get fresh water filled the airwaves and newspapers as residents of the Southwest worked to dig themselves out of some of the coldest weather on record. But what about the farms and ranches hit by that same weather?

Temperatures dropped into the single digits during the second week of February and yet a week later, they rose back into the 70s. We wanted to get a closer look, so we turned to Shelley Huguley, Southwest Farm Press, for her insight, and while she found plenty of bad news, there was one silver lining.

Photo: Shelley Huguley

Advancing mechanization in the West

This week we're exploring the latest trend in farm mechanization. Sure, row crop farmers ditched horses for iron decades ago, and even in specialty crop areas mechanization has come a long way. But when it comes to the actual harvest for those specialty crops, mechanization has been slow to arrive. Yet there's a new effort underway to ramp up the use of mechanization for more than corn and soybeans.

Tim Hearden with Western Farm Press shares some insights on a new initiative in the West that has implications for specialty crop producers in other states and around the world. He shares some of what he's learned, and what it might mean. And even for a row crop farmer this move to mechanization in non-traditional crops is interesting.

Photo: Vineyard tech Kaan Kurtural/UC Davis

Do-it-yourself planter; and an electric pickup

When it came time for the Nugents in Elnora, Ind., to update their planter after last season, this father-son team decided to go custom. Really custom. They're building their own planter for the 2021 season and Tom Bechman with Indiana Prairie Farmer shares their story.

It's an interesting look at the project, it's cost and even the relationship the Nugents have with a neighbor sharing a heated shop for the project. Tom offers more details about this machine, including some of the tech the farm is using.

And there are some more details about the Rivian electric pickup mentioned in last week's podcast. The specifications for this zero-emission vehicle will surprise most gearhead listeners. Could the truck be a game-changer? Possibly. Does the podcast host still want that test-drive? Definitely. 

Photos: Planter, Left- Tom Bechman; Rivian Truck – Willie Vogt

Robot crop tender, and a view from CES

In this week's episode of Around Farm Progress, Mindy Ward, editor of Missouri Ruralist, takes the reins as the interviewer to explore what technology host Willie Vogt has been seeing. The opening technology is a new farm tool under development at 360 Yield Center – the 360 Rain. They discuss this in-season crop tender and what it might mean for crop production.

Then the discussion turns to technology and a recent digital posting with a look at new tools from CES, the former Consumer Electronics Show. The lineup of ideas they discuss is diverse, but the aim was to showcase some tools farmers might find interesting. The listener will have to be the judge, but you can check out the technology they discuss online.

Photos: 360 Rain/360 Yield Center; Robot Kitchen/Moley Robotics

Derecho impact lingers, and digging into new software

The derecho that ripped across the Midwest last August brought a fair share of damage to crops, buildings and more as those high winds pounded a 700-mile stretch. And while the harvest was a challenge, and the rebuilding has begun, trouble still looms – volunteer corn. Tyler Harris, Wallaces Farmer, is digging into the issue and shares some thoughts on tactics for what will be a significant challenge in 2021.

Then we turn to Tracy Uhlman, go-to-market manager for imbedded systems at John Deere. When John Deere launched AutoPath late in 2020, a Twitter post and questions in replies got our attention. We turned to Uhlman for some more answers about this new tool and how it works. We even learned how it helped one test farm after that derecho.

Photos: Flattened corn - Meaghan Anderson, Iowa State; AutoPath screen – John Deere

A beef industry event, and new tech for corn

There are two very different topics brought together for this week's episode of Around Farm Progress. First up we're offering a preview of an important virtual event coming the week of February 1 – the Virtual BEEF Experience. This is a FREE event, and we wanted to learn more so we connected with Sarah Muirhead, managing director with the Farm Progress team to find out what you can expect.

Then we turn our attention to corn, fertility and a new tool that may help you maximize nitrogen use. Adam Litle, CEO of Sound Agriculture, shares insight on the new SOURCE product. He explains how it works, and some results they've seen. It's an interesting way to boost nitrogen availability to your corn crop and has shown promise on other crops too.

Photos: Cattle - Jacqueline Nix; Corn - Willie Vogt