Data centers create both economic opportunities and resource pressures, particularly around land, water and energy.

At a time when farmers are facing the toughest economic environment we’ve seen in a generation, we need every tool available to help strengthen farm income and create new opportunities for agriculture.

As cases of New World screwworm spread and threaten the beef and cattle industry, the Trump administration is rolling out a familiar playbook: Blame former President Biden.

For most of my life, I assumed everyone’s dad worked as hard as mine. It wasn’t until I got older that I realized what I witnessed growing up wasn’t something everyone experienced.

Few special ag interests today slide on more lard than the nation’s highly integrated pork giants.

The use of AI in agriculture has potential to enhance efficiency through precision agriculture, optimize resource use and improved production.

As I walked through the exhibits and visited with producers, industry leaders and exhibitors at the 2026 World Pork Expo, I couldn’t help but reflect on how dramatically pork production has evolved over the years.

Pesticides are an important tool for farmers, protecting billions of dollars in damages each year from weeds, insects and other pests.

Life on the farm now smells like hard work, sunshine and memories. It smells like fresh-cut hay drying in the field, warm soil after a rain, leather gloves and diesel fuel clinging to hot tractor engines.

Farmers are invited to submit nominations for the 2027 Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year contest, which comes with cash prizes and bragging rights.

The 2026 farm bill marks a new opportunity for Congress to take a bold step to upset the status quo by rebalancing the grazing livestock sector’s legal and regulatory framework.

While no one actually says an ag trade deal with China is in trouble, many find it troublesome that China is playing the cool customer.

The economic value of food and agriculture — and the fact that so much of it remains within the United States — is essential not just for food security, but for long‑term economic stability.

USDA and software company Palantir Technologies announced the signing ‌of a $300 million blanket purchase agreement.

Expanding access to American-grown fuels is one more way agriculture can help keep our country moving.

If we want this way of life to be here for the next generation, we must be willing to speak up for it by showing up in conversations where decisions are made and making sure rural voices are heard.

Farm Bureau has long advocated for reforms to the H-2A guest worker program to ensure workers are treated fairly and that farmers can afford to fill their labor needs.

Farmers are constantly looking for better ways to care for our crops, protect our animals and keep our farms sustainable for the next generation.

We know that retail beef prices have been increasing for more than a decade, so let’s determine how much of that increased beef price is attributable to higher input costs versus the concentrated retail sector’s leverage over beef pricing.

Two weeks after the U.S. House passed its “skinny” farm bill — the law’s usual lard had been cut into last July’s reconciliation bill — applause is still yet to be heard in either Washington, D.C., or rural America.

Another class of young people will soon head out to find their place in the world. No matter how far they roam, they will carry a piece of home with them. And home is always rooting for them.

Farming is more than a livelihood. It’s a way of life, and sometimes, it’s a heavy load to carry.

For my entire adult life, I’ve heard people talk about what’s closing, what’s changing and what’s next in their rural hometowns. Maybe those small towns aren’t dying, but instead adapting.

It was recently revealed that the White House reached way down into the routine, mundane approval process of five nominees to the soybean checkoff’s operating body to deny all five their well-earned seats.

Farm Bureau’s new Weathering the Storm checklist promotes six key practices: nourishment, movement, unplugging, pausing, connecting and sharing.

After years of economic pressure, farm families need the stability and certainty that comes with a new, modernized farm bill.

You’d think that the three extra years Congress has taken to update the 2018 farm bill might mean it stumbled upon solutions to today’s falling farm income, sagging ag exports, the need for more federal bailouts and the White House’s bubble-gum-and-baling-wire trade policy.

The younger professionals entering ag marketing today bring a different kind of energy.

As we see more solar fields dotting our rural landscape, it’s understandable to question if this is the best use of our productive Illinois land.

Now in its 13th year, the Ag Innovation Challenge gives entrepreneurs a chance to showcase their innovative businesses that address challenges facing America’s farmers, ranchers and rural communities.

Farmers are entering the critical spring planting season under a cloud of uncertainty as the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran disrupts global trade, causing fertilizer and diesel costs to spike.

Graduation season isn’t just about diplomas and tassels. It’s about what comes next and the people who help get you there.

Global disruptions have tightened fertilizer supplies and driven up costs. At the same time, fuel prices continue to rise, further tightening balance sheets.

For decades, farmers and ranchers have been begging antitrust officials for probes into concentrated industries like meatpacking, seed, fertilizer, machinery and grain merchandising.

Farmers and ranchers can capture more of the food dollar through value-added production, direct marketing and partnerships that move them deeper into supply chain activities.

For our U.S. cattle and sheep industries, do you want free markets or competitive markets? That’s not a trick question as there’s presently significant political tension between these two goals.

Today’s higher fuel prices will be the norm regardless when, or even if, a U.S.-Iran ceasefire comes together, say market experts.

For generations, farmers and ranchers have been the backbone of rural communities and a driving force in our nation’s economy.

Land in the Midwest is not just dirt. It’s legacy, livelihood and, increasingly, a line in the sand.

With farmers capturing only a small share of the food dollar, even modest swings in commodity prices or increases in input costs can quickly strain farm finances.

In its program-slashing 2027 Department of Agriculture budget plan, the White House hoped to head off sure-to-come complaints by tying spending cuts to that handy whipping boy, big bad government.

Differences between pastures become more apparent each spring, largely based on how they were managed the previous year.

There has never been more information available to farmers than there is today — and yet, in many ways, it’s never been harder to know who or what to trust.

It may be a surprise that last year’s biggest ag story — tariffs — was swept off today’s front pages by even bigger news: a Middle East war, its sharply higher fuel and fertilizer prices, and the near certainty of another multi-billion dollar farm aid package.

Whether you farm five acres or 5,000, you’re part of something bigger than your own farm. You’re helping support jobs, strengthen communities and power an economy that reaches every corner of this country.

Installing the necessary drainage tile on your farm often requires a tile main to direct water through an underground drain tile system and then through a neighbor’s property to reach a drainage ditch.

Hiring an experienced, reputable farm tile installation contractor is essential to the longevity of the system.

Spring often just burst onto the southern Illinois farm of my youth. One morning you’d see a green blade of something peeking through the bare ground by the mailbox and by the time you got off the school bus a day later a brave daffodil waved, welcoming you home.

As April 1 rolls around each year, I’m mentally transported back to 1985, when I went from student teaching in a high school ag classroom to work at a local radio station.

Warm and dry this early is both a bad combination and a bad omen.