The Van Trump Report

A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

For Investors and Ag Professionals

Try our report FREE for 30 Days!

Ag News

The Most Expensive Cow in the World…

A huge white 4-and-a-half-year-old Nelore breed cow named Viatina-19 FIV Mara Imóveis, has sold for the highest price ever, making it the most expensive cow in the world. One-third of the ownership of the cow, was sold for over +$1.4 million at an auction held in Arandú, Brazil,  placing its total value at a staggering $4.3 million.This sale earmarks the ...
Read More

How a Farmer From Connecticut Became the Most Well-Known Name in Finance

The Dow Jones futures index, the first modern American stock index, was created by a not-well-educated farm boy with little money named Charles Henry Dow. When the young Charles Dow left the family farm for the big city, there was exactly no one predicting he would go on to become one of the most famous names in American financial history ...
Read More

America’s Large Animal Veterinarian Shortage is Barreling Toward Crisis Levels

Livestock producers all across the US are dealing with a serious shortage of large and food animal veterinarians. According to the USDA, in 2023, the shortage or rural veterinarians has reached an all-time high, with 500 counties in 46 states deemed as having a critical shortage of large animal vets. The shortfall poses risks to not only livestock and farmers, ...
Read More

CORN… The Magic Behind Bourbon Whiskey! 

It was this week back in 1785 that a Baptist teacher and preacher named Elijah Craig founded a distillery in Kentucky using corn to make whiskey. Craig has sometimes been claimed to have been the first to age the whiskey in charred oak casks, "a process that gives the bourbon its brownish color and unique taste". Many historians argue that ...
Read More

Bird Flu Season Has Arrived… What You Need to Know

Bird flu, aka highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), is making an appearance already this fall with several cases now confirmed on several Midwest and Mid-Atlantic. The risks of the disease are heightened now as migratory birds make their way south, a danger that will likely repeat in the spring when they head back north.The current "H5N1" subtype outbreak is considered ...
Read More

How a Former USDA Worker Made Millions!

It was on this day back in 1952 that Clarence Birdseye marketed his first frozen peas to the public consumer. During the summer after his freshman year of college Birdseye worked for the USDA in New Mexico and Arizona as an “assistant naturalist”, at a time when the agency was concerned with helping farmers and ranchers get rid of predators, ...
Read More

Did You Know People Used to Regularly Eat Acorns?

Along with a kaleidoscope of changing leaf colors, acorns are a staple of fall across the United States. The strange little nut is actually the fruit of an oak tree and is sometimes referred to as an oaknut. While they can be found in abundance all across the country, they oddly enough play little to no role at all in ...
Read More

With The Future of Coffee Production in Question… Here comes “Beanless Coffee”

Over the next 30 years, the regions suitable for growing coffee are expected to decline by some 50%, according to some climate models. The decline is primarily the result of an expected increase in annual temperatures in key coffee-producing countries like Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Colombia. The world could be spared a future in which coffee is a luxury item ...
Read More

After More Than a Century, “Wonder Bread” Remains One of America’s Most Enduring Brands

An interesting story about "Wonder Bread" was on CNBC a while back that talked about how the brand has survived the precipitous decline in white bread popularity. According to the article, in the first half of the 20th century, white bread accounted for as much as 30% of the American diet. But since around 2006, more US households are regularly ...
Read More

Researchers Develop System to Capture and Reuse Nitrate Waste

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) have developed a new "smart" farming system that aims to solve a key problem in modern agriculture - the overuse of fertilizers. In tests, the system had the ability to match or increase crop yields over traditional methods while also minimizing environmental impacts.The system uses a copper-based hydrogel that captures excess ...
Read More