The new federal tax law reduces the benefits of carryover losses that farmers had used to their advantage in the past. Fortunately, farmers and ranchers have several strategies they can use to adjust their income between the current tax year and the next tax year.

Conservation practices can pay out financially for farmers, but landowners are the ones who see the most benefit by increasing long-term value and resiliency of land.

Brice Custer breaks down the economics of cover crops on his operation in western Kansas by comparing what his cover crops cost compared to how much he saves by not spraying weeds.

Science From The Field is brought to you by Pioneer.

Soil labs report that about 65% of soils they test from across the Corn Belt are deficient in sulfur. "It was close to zero percent until the early 2000s," says Steve Gauck, a Beck's Hybrids field agronomist.

"We will be at a bit more elevated risk in western Kansas this year," she notes. Plentiful rain throughout the summer allowed volunteer wheat to germinate and emerge continuously through the summer months and September, she says.

Ethanol demand has suffered little due to EPA's recent approvals of small-refinery exemptions (SRE) to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), a new analysis from a University of Illinois (UI) economics professor finds.