A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

Land O’Lakes and Microsoft, two organizations with very different backgrounds, have been working together to address some of agriculture’s chronic headaches—tight profit margins, unpredictable growing conditions, and a workforce that struggles with high turnover. Their latest initiative, a digital assistant called “Oz”, is less about flashy disruption and more about the realities of getting information to the people who need ...
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Farmers are an innovative bunch of people. Doing what you can, when you can, and with what you’ve got is the best you can strive for some days. And what do you do when all you’ve got are misshapen carrots or broken rice? The answer for these farmers was to create new markets.Baby Carrots - Many of you may already ...
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On this day in 1933, the first giant dust storm, dubbed "The Great Black Blizzard," began rolling across the Great Plains. Most Americans are familiar with the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, but the story of how we got there is rather interesting. It really begins back in the ealry-1800s when explorer and map-maker Stephen Long labeled everything west ...
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The recent launch of Nebraska’s Trailblazer Pipeline marks a new chapter for the state’s agricultural industry, especially for corn growers whose operations are closely tied to ethanol and biofuel production. The $1.5 billion project, led by Tallgrass Energy, converted a 392-mile natural gas pipeline into a major carbon dioxide network. This line now carries CO₂ from eleven Nebraska ethanol plants ...
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The global cotton market is experiencing notable volatility and structural change as 2025 draws to a close, with developments abroad shaping the outlook for U.S. growers, shippers, and merchants. Internationally, a combination of high global stockpiles and subdued demand from major textile-consuming economies has kept cotton prices under sustained pressure and near multi-year lows. This bearish tone is attributed in ...
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America’s farmers are celebrating some recent changes to US farm labor policy while struggling to fill the gaps left by others. There is relief over changes to how H-2A worker wages are calculated, which is estimated to save farmers more than $2 billion every year. At the same time, some farmers are forced to scale back dairy herds or watch ...
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Funding across the Agrifoodtech space was down -32% in Q3 2025 compared to the previous quarter, and down nearly -50% compared to last year, according to preliminary data from AgFunder. Deal count is also down, and overall funding in Q3 was led by just a few big fund raises that AgFunder calls “a handful of bright glimmers against an otherwise-gloomy ...
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As the cool temperatures start settling in, we will all be reaching for cozy sweaters to fight the chill. Once upon a time, odds were very high that any given sweater in an American’s closet was made with 100% US-produced wool. Those days are long gone and it’s nearly taken the US wool and sheep industries with it. This holiday ...
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Before becoming the iconic Autumn symbol it is today, the pumpkin was often a food of last resort for early American settlers. The colonists learned how to grow the squash from Native Americans, who considered it one of the “three sisters,” along with corn and beans. They would grow the squash along river banks next to maize and beans, a ...
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As the US and Mexico continue to hammer out details of a new trade deal, a problematic old deal between the two neighbors is back in the spotlight. The “1944 Water Treaty” obligates Mexico to deliver an average of 350,000 acre-feet of water annually to the US over a five-year cycle. The most recent cycle ended on October 24, with ...
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