Editors' Notebook

As everyone settles in for winter holidays and end-of-year financial chores, we've once again tasked our staff to delve into the top 10 ag stories that defined the year. The 2022 countdown starts Dec. 19 and carries through the eve of the big ball drop in New York City's Times Square.

One of the most startling things to contemplate, as I look back, is that a year ago most of the world thought the prospect of a fully declared war was absurd. I was just recalling my exchange with one of our more popular columnists, who at the time was convinced the whole notion of Russia attacking Ukraine was a scare tactic of a certain political party he disagreed with. My cup was less than half full on that notion. I don't recall ever wishing I had been more wrong.

Ten months, hundreds of billions of dollars, and possibly tens of thousands of lives later, we are once again shown what happens when political power is too concentrated in one human's hands.

The past year brought bright spots as well, which we'll call out in pieces about solid land prices, slowly recovering supply chains, an enthusiastic future for domestic soybean needs, and the continued promise of expanded packing plant choices for livestock producers.

We'll document the continued challenges with input prices and supply chains, as well the heavy hand of that natural force that always holds sway with us in farm country: weather.

As always, we don't just hope you'll enjoy the retrospective. We hope those stories set the stage for thoughts of the issues we'll face, and enjoy, in the coming year.

What were your biggest challenges, and triumphs, in 2022? You can share them on our social media pages, or directly with me at greg.horstmeier@dtn.com.

Have a safe and rewarding holiday season!

Greg D. Horstmeier can be reached at greg.horstmeier@dtn.com

Follow him on Twitter @greghorstmeier

(c) Copyright 2022 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.