In a period when retail beef prices are at an all-time high and consumers are still willing to pay, South Dakota rancher Calli Williams would love to cash in. But it’s not so simple.

A new biological product that its company says protects row crops from environmentally stressful conditions like drought, heat, excess salinity and excess sunlight will be widely available in 2023.

In a recent telephone conversation, a southwest Kansas farmer casually noted that he had stopped growing irrigated corn some years back because “it cost too much.