At its Tech Day near Chicago, AGCO is demonstrating retrofit autonomy for mixed fleets, AI-enabled spot spraying and Aurora, an AI assistant that answers farmers' questions by voice or text.
AgrotechSensor ear tags from Merck, 701x and Ceres Tag alert cow-calf producers to heat, calving and health problems; an Iowa couple say the system helped them breed more cows this year.
US pork and beef have been placed on a list of products expected to get improved trade treatment from China, a step the Meat Institute says lays the ground for tackling high retaliatory tariffs.
AgribusinessThe International Dairy Foods Association says audits driven by the EU's corporate due diligence directive could cost US dairy plants more than $29 million and wants USTR to seek exemptions.
VegetablesOregon State University's Dry Farming Program is testing tomatoes, cucumber melons, sorghum and cut flowers that grow on moisture stored in the soil from winter rain, without summer irrigation.
AgrotechUniversity of Georgia engineers are developing plant sensors that work like a smartwatch, reading hormones, volatile compounds and transpiration to warn of drought, disease or pests before the leaves show it.
Bonsai World turns satellite images of a farm into a 3D environment where the company's autonomy software can rehearse routes and meet dust, animals and vehicles before a machine enters the real field.
CropsWith the 2018 farm law expired on 30 September, USDA's Farm Service Agency has stopped approving new Conservation Reserve Program contracts while Congress has yet to agree a new bill.
EnvironmentThe 27-metre lava-rock arch in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park was intact on 23 September; after storm Nolo passed, park officials confirmed on 1 October that it had fallen.
Daily lifeThe US nonprofit Clean Label Project tested 100 products from 62 brands and found lead in 99 percent, cadmium in 96 percent and arsenic in 94 percent, with the weedkiller glyphosate in 37 percent.
OpinionIn the third part of his series on the economics of farm autonomy, adviser Graham Gleed argues that the dealer channel is how driverless technology reaches farmers, citing U.S. Sugar's deployment and Monarch Tractor's collapse.
AgrotechNurtured Nuts Co. planted peanuts in Georgia that were CRISPR-edited to knock out three major allergy proteins; the crop was due for harvest in September, but no data on the allergen reduction has yet been published or approved.
In a Green Queen column, Madre Brava chief executive Vicky Bond argues that blended meat-and-plant products and a revival of beans can cut the climate impact of meat without changing habits.
