Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins says USDA’s new data modernization plan is designed to provide farmers with better and more useful information. “USDA will expand use of administrative data and improve mobile access.” Secretary Rollins unveiled the new plan Tuesday at the Farm Progress Show and says it will enhance acreage and yield estimation.

Retail fertilizer prices shifted mostly lower in the fourth week of August 2026. After four weeks of mixed prices, six fertilizers were lower compared to last month, while the remaining two were slightly higher. DTN designates a significant move as anything 5% or more.

The Renewable Fuels Association welcomed the passage late Monday night of Calif. SB 795, the E15 Clean-Up Act, which removes the final impediments that are preventing Californians from accessing the lower-cost, lower-carbon E15 fuel blend at the pump. The bill passed unanimously out of both the Assembly (56–0) and the Senate (34–0).

Farmer sentiment improved for the second month in a row, with the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer (AEB) Index increasing from 126 points in July to 135 points in August (see Figure 1). Both subindices also increased; however, the Index of Current Conditions rose by only 1 point, while the Index of Future Expectations increased by 11 points (see Figure 2). For the first time since June 2025, a higher proportion of respondents expect their operation to be better off financially (28%) than worse off (24%) a year from now.

USDA voluntary and incentive-based conservation practices are widely used by America’s farmers and ranchers. They have proven to be an effective tool for contributing long-lasting benefits to soil, water and wildlife habitat resources while helping farmers and ranchers diversify their income streams.

Corn good-to-excellent ratings held steady last week, while soybean ratings declined, according to USDA NASS's weekly Crop Progress report released Monday.

Ag and biofuel groups say they’re cautiously optimistic about the U.S. EPA’s Small Refinery Exemption decision, despite the agency granting more relief than initially projected. Dave Walton, vice president of the American Soybean Association and Iowa farmer, says the situation turned out better than expected.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Luke J. Lindberg arrived in Wellington this week to meet with senior New Zealand government ministers and agricultural importers ahead of the U.S. agribusiness trade mission to Australia, Aug. 30 to Sept. 2.

In this farmdoc daily article, we build on our previous analysis (see farmdoc daily, February 27, 2026) and examine farm equipment sales, manufacturing production and inventories, machinery prices, and capital purchases by Illinois grain farms. Together, these indicators point to a market that is still contracting at the retail level even as the supply-side adjustment progresses.

U.S.-Canada trade tensions and the importance of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) — What do they mean for American farmers? That and more on Agri-Pulse Newsmakers with NGFA’s Mike Seyfert and RealAgriculture’s Shaun Haney.

The nation’s largest ag cooperative, CHS, is partnering with a major phosphate fertilizer producer to build a fertilizer production facility in Louisiana by the end of the decade. CHS CEO Jay Debertin tells Brownfield the joint venture is with Moroccan-based OCP

President Donald Trump on Friday said he wants to give farmers and ranchers more authority to process their own meat, pitching the move as a strategy to challenge the control of the Big Four packing firms.

The CEO of R-CALF USA says the decision to import more foreign beef underscores the need for Mandatory Country of Origin Labeling. Bill Bullard says President Trump’s recent proclamation to attempt to lower beef prices creates more competition for U.S. cattle producers and muddies the water for consumers. “If we had country of origin labeling today, then these cheaper imports would be priced accordingly for consumers. They’re not. Instead, the meat packers can continue to hide the origins of the foreign beef and then sell the beef as if it were produced here in America.”

This is going to be economically painful. Last week, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called off the trade talks with the United States and asked our negotiators to come back to Ottawa. Immediately there was a U.S.-imposed 50% tariff on about $27.6 billion of Canadian goods.

This article provides findings from an exploratory study focused on identifying mechanisms by which use of these emerging technologies could contribute to similar outcomes. The recent study employed scenario-based survey methods and was conducted with a small sample of practitioners experienced and actively engaged in issues associated with conservation and agriculture.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced sweeping new efforts to strengthen school meals by connecting more American farmers with local schools, investing in school kitchen infrastructure, and giving states and school districts new tools to serve healthier, more nutrient-dense meals to America’s children.

A federal judge in California on Wednesday invalidated a Trump administration rule that could potentially lower wages to foreign guest workers by as much as a projected $2.46 billion annually.

Some ag groups are asking President Trump to reverse a proposed plan to import beef that he says would lower prices for consumers. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association President Gene Copenhaver tells Brownfield the move isn’t going to lower prices for consumers. “What he’s going to import is trim, and it’s going to be with a byproduct of fat mixed with it. There’s no way that’s going to help the producer either. The only thing it’s done has lower cattle prices.”

Blue Point One, a joint venture between CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CF), the world’s largest producer of ammonia; JERA Co., Inc. (JERA), Japan’s largest energy company; and Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui), a leading global investment and trading company, broke ground in Modeste, Louisiana, on a low-carbon ammonia plant that can serve both traditional agricultural customers and emerging energy applications.

The National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) filed comments with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) urging the agency to carefully consider the impacts of extending agricultural energy futures markets to 24/7 trading and introducing perpetual futures contracts.

Fertilizer price increases associated with the conflict in Iran seem likely to result in higher fertility costs for farmers for the 2027 crop year. Much attention has been given to higher nitrogen fertilizer prices. Prices for phosphate fertilizers, such as Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), have also been increasing. Today’s article links the increases in phosphate fertilizer prices to the significant increase in the price of sulfur, a primary input to the production of phosphate fertilizer products.

The President’s plan to facilitate record imports of beef will have a significant impact on farmers and ranchers who are rebuilding their herds devastated by drought. American Farm Bureau Federation economists analyzed the potential consequences of increased imports in the latest Farm Bureau Intel. Also today, Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall sent a letter to President Trump urging him to reconsider his plan to flood the market with foreign beef.

The regional administrator for the U.S. EPA Region 7 says the public comment period is closing soon on a proposal to end the Diesel Emission Fluid system deratements. Jim Macy says the roll back is common sense for farmers as they operate equipment.

Retail fertilizer prices remained somewhat varied during the third full week of August 2026, according to retailers surveyed by DTN.

The American Soybean Association is sounding the alarm over reports that small refinery exemptions for the 2025 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) compliance year could far exceed previous government projections, delivering a major blow to domestic biofuel demand when U.S. soybean farmers can least afford it.

An ag economist says the latest Cattle on Feed report from the USDA should be supportive to the cattle market. Kenny Burdine is with the University of Kentucky. “It’s a simple story here,” he says. “Placements are lower than expected. Marketings are is as expected, but we marketed more than we placed. So, we brought on feed numbers down and significantly lower than we expected. It was bullish overall.”

The Meat Institute announced the publication of new peer reviewed research in Frontiers in Climate that gives livestock and meat companies a practical way to better account for emissions and disclose methane's role in their greenhouse gas inventory.

The national corn crop continued its downward trend last week, with its good-to-excellent rating dropping 3 percentage points, while soybean ratings also declined, according to USDA NASS's weekly Crop Progress report released Monday.