The ideal 2025 growing season is giving way to the dog days of August, as farmers finally start to see the hot and dry conditions that were expected months ago. With harvest in sight, the rise in temperatures and lack of precipitation is putting a damper on a brilliant season, but also promises to ease harvest, even as it hints at a longer range forecast that’ll impact farmers in the U.S. and around the world.

To help us peek into the weather forecasts for the coming months, we’re joined once again by DTN’s Ag Meteorologist John Baranick. John will bring us up-to-date with the weather picture in each of the key regions of the country, and help us understand what we know about both harvest conditions and the overall situation going into the winter months. We’ll also look back on the summer that’s been, and hear John’s insight on whether the crop in the field is likely to hit the stratospheric numbers put forward by USDA, and what impact late season conditions and disease have on that crop.

Then we’ll expand our focus beyond the corn belt and plains to hear the latest on weather conditions around the world, and what wild cards we’ll be keeping an eye out for that might yet disrupt global supplies and markets.

In the middle of the 2025 DTN Digital Yield Tour, the U.S. Department of Agriculture dropped a bombshell — predicting a record-breaking corn crop in the August WASDE. As the fallout continued throughout the week DTN data scientists, analysts, and reporters were keeping up with the latest data coming not from USDA but directly from the field, just as beans are starting to fill and corn enters its final stages before harvest.

DTN Farm Business Editor Katie Dehlinger was in the thick of it all, connecting with farmers as she published her daily stories on state-by-state conditions across the country.

Katie joins us today to talk more about the yield tour results, going beyond the corn and soybean yield estimate to share what she was hearing about crop conditions in different regions and what growers think might still leave room for numbers to shift. As she takes us through predictions for each state, she’ll offer her insight on what worked and what didn’t during this season, and what farmers she spoke with are thinking about as they reflect on everything from marketing plans to fungicide applications.

Finally, we’ll hear what she’s keeping an eye on as harvest comes into view, and get a first look at the 2025 DTN Ag Summit Event this December.

The August WASDE dropped Aug. 12, stunning the market with a nearly 17 billion bushel corn crop prediction — shattering the previous record. The eye-popping number was helped along by a 188 bushel per acre yield estimate and an additional 2.1 million planted acres over the July figure. This news comes as a summer that was expected to be hot and dry remained persistently mild, and farmers across the country are eyeing excellent looking stands even as prices soften.

To help us understand all the details, DTN Contributing Analyst and longtime veteran of the podcast Todd Hultman joins us today. He’ll walk us through this record forecast and the corresponding demand estimates, helping us keep in mind what wildcards are still at play and what he expects as far as changes that might yet be ahead for the crop itself. Then, he’ll tackle the updates on the soybean crop, which also included a record high yield — though not likely high enough to alter the fundamental supply picture. We’ll also talk through the updates to the wheat side as a bin-busting crop in North Dakota comes into view.

Plus, hear insight on the current and emerging trade situation, think through the weather forecast as we head into harvest, and gain a better understanding of where cost of production sits today relative to price.

Mud and mosquitos were plentiful on this year’s Wheat Quality Council Spring Wheat tour, which brings together dozens of industry officials to travel the highways and byways of the Northern Great Plains in order to get a boots-on-the-ground perspective on this year’s crop. After collecting yield estimates from hundreds of fields, and taking a closer look at hundreds more from the road, the results are in and experts are offering their reactions.

DTN Basis Analyst Mary Kennedy joins us to discuss the latest on the nation’s Spring wheat crop. She’ll talk us through the expected conditions, including the latest impacts related to extreme summer weather. Then we’ll dig into the day-by-day results, offering insight on the impact of the different routes on the final tallies and how these figures compare to the current USDA forecasts.

Finally, she’ll communicate the reactions she’s heard from farmers, traders, and analysts, and offer her perspective on what might still be ahead for this crop– from disease pressure and weather risk to market uncertainty related to the tariff situation.

Then we’ll taking a broader view of market and crop stories that Mary will be following in the weeks ahead.

Despite the investment that many farmers make into crop insurance products, some policies in some parts of the country simply don’t pay out. As farmers look ahead to increasingly difficult conditions and no real prospect of improved indemnification, many are on the hunt for alternatives to conventional insurance products that are better built for unique and changing conditions in agriculture.

Today, we’re joined by DTN Farm Business Editor Katie Dehlinger, who walks us through her feature reporting on emerging risk management tools like micro captive insurance. She’ll help us understand what this tool is, how it works, and for which kinds of operations it may be a good fit. We’ll also dig into why these tools are becoming more desirable and worthwhile for farmers and the implications they have for tax liability and succession planning.

We’ll also talk with Katie about the upcoming DTN Digital Yield Tour, which will take place August 11th through 16th. She talks us through changes from previous years, what she expects to see in terms of results, and how farmers can get access to the latest yield predictions and attend the Ag Summit Series event.

Register for the 2025 DTN Ag Summit Series: Digital Yield Tour, Crop Updates at https://dtn.link/2025AgSummitFall

Agriculture news has gone mainstream in a big way recently, and few farmers are happy about it. Immigration raids on farms, especially those in California and elsewhere along the U.S.’s southern border, have been growing as Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials become a more and more constant presence on the road and in the field. And even farmers whose workers are hired through the H2-A program, the federal guest worker system, are feeling the heat.

Today, DTN Ag Policy Editor Chris Clayton brings us up to date on all the latest policy news around the agricultural workforce. We’ll dig into the details of his recent story on the H-2A program, talking through the benefits and the drawbacks farmers experience, and why it seems to be becoming increasingly expensive and risky to use, even as the number of H-2A visa requests continues to grow. We’ll also hear updates from Capitol Hill and the White House about how farmers' concerns are being heard and what policy solutions might be on the way as advocates continue to raise their voices.

Then, we’ll hear about how labor issues collide with shifting trade pressures, trends in the U.S. workforce, and even changes to federal staffing levels due to recent restructuring of key organizations, including the USDA.

The July WASDE dropped Friday, July 11th, coming fast on the heels of USDA’s big June 30th update for planted acres, grain stocks, and more. Those latest figures updated the balance sheet, and when combined with the USDA’s new expectations for domestic and global demand, there were at least a few fireworks lighting up the market in the days after.

To help us drink from this firehose of recent news, we’re joined today by DTN Lead Analyst Rhett Montgomery. He talks us through why unexpectedly quiet grain stocks and acreage reports still managed to cause a stir in the soybean market, and then discuss production expectations for the wheat crop as winter wheat harvest continues apace. Then he’ll dig into the unexpected updates to the corn demand picture, which puts estimated ending stock numbers in record range, a startling situation given the current price picture, but one that traders might not believe given the current weather and trade forecasts.

Finally, we’ll look ahead to the rest of the summer, taking into account the latest news around tariffs, interest rates, and other hiccups that might still lie ahead.

Finding good help on the farm is an age-old problem, but in recent months and years, the difficulty seems to have risen exponentially. Between the struggle of an aging rural workforce, the new pressures introduced by COVID, and the gaps and expenses of federal programs like H-2A, the challenges are piling up, while meaningful solutions remain thin on the ground.

The DTN team is no stranger to this problem, which is why we dedicated a whole series of stories in the summer issue to understanding agriculture’s worker shortage and highlighting how progressive farmers are turning labor struggles into opportunities.

Today, DTN Managing Editor Anthony Greder joins us to discuss these stories. He starts by digging into what the data shows about the true barriers to work on the farm, including why compensation might not be the thing that’s holding farms back. We’ll learn about the current challenges and benefits of the H-2A program, and what tech solutions are becoming increasingly common, thanks to their labor saving benefits.

Finally, we’ll hear about the creative strategies that farmers are turning to — from offering expanded benefits to delivering on a positive workplace culture, in order to attract and keep the employees they need.