Top Farmer Conference a success

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — More than 200 farmers and agricultural professionals attended this year’s Top Farmer Conference.

Topics for the Jan. 9 event at the Beck Agricultural Center in West Lafayette included global competitiveness, tariffs and trade, long-run corn and soybean outlooks, and practical strategies to manage costs per bushel.

Highlights

• Ben Brown, senior research associate with the University of Missouri’s Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, shared his long-term outlook for corn and soybean markets.

• Russell Hillberry, professor of agricultural economics at Purdue and former economist with the U.S. International Trade Commission and the World Bank, discussed how U.S. tariff increases and retaliatory actions have affected domestic agricultural exports.

• Joana Colussi, research assistant professor of agricultural economics at Purdue, compared production costs and returns across agricultural regions, including Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Ukraine and the United States to provide insights into the evolving competitiveness of U.S. agriculture.

• Trey Malone, associate professor of agricultural economics and the Boehlje Chair for Managerial Economics in Agribusiness at Purdue, introduced “option thinking,” a mindset drawn from business strategy and innovation management that helps farmers make incremental decisions today while keeping flexibility for the future.

• Michael Langemeier and Purdue agronomy faculty members Dan Quinn and Shaun Casteel ended the event with actionable approaches to help reduce costs per bushel.

Next Year

The 2027 Top Farmer Conference will take place Jan. 8. Learn more at https://tinyurl.com/Top-Farmer-2027.