Author: staff
With Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins wrapping up her first calendar year as head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she released a statement highlighting the research priorities and development activities that agency is going to pursue for 2026. She emphasized that her approach (a Secretary’s Memorandum) will intentionally distance the USDA from the initiatives of the Biden Administration, which she argues were built on “misguided policies focused on DEI and environmental justice in agricultural research, extension, and education programs.” She said these things “diverted resources away from solving actual challenges that American farmers and ranchers are facing.” Image by Heidi…
A century of shifting federal priorities transformed wolves from ‘public enemies’ into protected predators, and reshaped life on working lands. Editor’s Note: This is the second in a three-part series exploring the impact that wolf reintroduction in the U.S. has had on livestock operations. Humans and animal interactions have long been complex, and as development and commercialization has minimized encounters in urban and suburban parts of the United States, rural ranchers are bearing the brunt of evolving ecological policy. And though this issue goes back more than half a century, the toll to modern ranchers is accelerating. In the 1960s,…
Mallory O’Steen is the Senior Southeast Program Manager for American Farmland Trust (AFT). Based in Athens, Georgia, her work focuses on securing a brighter future for farms and farmers in her home state and across the region. Lately, she has been directing more time and energy toward supporting aging farmers in the succession planning, or “farm transfer,” process. Such efforts are essential to the success of Georgia agriculture. Without help, many farm families risk losing their land and legacy. Below, Mallory is in conversation with Brooks Lamb, AFT’s Special Advisor for Strategic Communications. Together, they discuss the challenges of generational…
In a December column on AGDAILY, Perspective: USDA ‘regenerative’ program capitalizes on a buzzword, Amanda Zaluckyj voiced her frustration with the hollowness of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s use of “regenerative” in the agency’s new $700 million Regenerative Pilot Program. Ms. Zaluckyj has rightly asserted that “Regenerative has turned into more of a trendy buzzword than an actual, scientific approach to agriculture.” Instead of using buzzwords to deploy funding, what would truly benefit producers is if USDA actually helped them learn how to regenerate their soil. Since there is no mention of any means to facilitate farmer and rancher education…
U.S. farmers are facing one of the widest gaps in a decade between what they pay to produce food and what they earn from selling it. U.S. Department of Agriculture data released on Dec. 15 show that by October 2025, the prices paid index had climbed to 154.6, while the prices received index had fallen to 120.5. The agency measures the indexes against 2011 levels, which are set to 100, making it easier to see how prices have changed over time. In practical terms, that means production costs were more than 50 percent higher than in 2011, while prices farmers…
The United States was hit with numerous multi-billion dollar extreme weather events in 2025, and many of them took harsh tolls on the agricultural sector. In its year-end recap, AccuWeather says seven of the worst disasters this year — most notably floods in the central U.S. and Texas Hill Country — resulted in $378 billion to $424 billion in total damage and economic. Graphic courtesy of AccuWeather One of the big ones that impacted farmers and ranchers was a historic winter storm blast through the Gulf Coast in January. It ushered in snow and ice to parts of the southern…
Image by Nokwan007, Shutterstock Top Third Ag Marketing, a division of StoneX Financial Services Inc., helps farmers become better agricultural marketers with the goal of marketing crops in the top third of prices. Mark Gold and his team provide AGDAILY.com with the latest information and a look ahead in their audio commentary. Listen to Mark Gold’s Weekly Grain Comments here! https://www.agdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Top-Third-agdaily-2025-12-29.mp3
Happy New Year! (Well, almost.) If you need a little kick in the door to make good on a resolution, perhaps the best place to begin might be with just 12 words: “Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.” Those aren’t just an FFA motto, they’re a roadmap for how to grow as a leader, a teammate and a person in agriculture. There’s something about a new year that just inspires us to hit reset. We ponder on what we want to change, what we want to be better at, and hope to achieve before…
New research highlights the potential of precision farming around the world, with growth estimated to be $12.8 billion in 2025 to $21.2 billion by the end of 2030, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.6 percent from 2025 through 2030. This report, titled, Global Markets for Precision Farming, presents a detailed analysis of the global market for precision farming, segmenting it by solutions (hardware, software, and services) and applications (crop management, livestock monitoring, and precision irrigation). It explores regional market dynamics across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America, and the Middle East and Africa. The study, conducted by…
Five years ago, American Farmland Trust launched the Brighter Future Fund with a simple goal: get resources directly into the hands of farmers who need them most. What began as an emergency response quickly grew into something larger and longer-lasting. Today, the Brighter Future Fund is a national engine of resilience shaped by thousands of farmers, partners, supporters, and community members alike. Since 2020, the Brighter Future Fund has awarded more than $5 million in grants to over 2,000 producers across all 50 states and U.S. territories. That reach was made possible by early leadership from companies like Tillamook, Applegate,…