October 1st, 2026 is the final day to submit yield data in the 2026 National Wheat Foundation’s Wheat Yield Contest, and with new categories to compete in and tough conditions to contend with, this year’s competition promises to be fierce.

To bring us the latest updates on the contest and the wheat season, we’re joined by Anne Osborne, Executive Director of the National Wheat Foundation, and Boyd Heilig, a farmer from Moore, Montana and the Director of the National Wheat Foundation board. 

They’ll discuss a little history of the contest, what new innovations and categories growers can expect to see this year and into the future, and dig into how the contest helps individual farmers, and the industry alike, continue to grow the best quality and most product wheat in the world. 

This special edition of FieldPosts is brought to you by the National Wheat Foundation in Partnership with Bayer, WestBred, BASF, Dyna Gro Seed, and Nutrien Ag Solutions.

If you’re interested in learning more about the national wheat yield contest, or in signing up for future competitions, visit www.wheatcontest.org to learn more.

The September WASDE dropped Friday, September 11th, offering fresh insights on the market as weather and headlines continue to drive prices. 

This week, we’re joined once again by DTN Lead Markets Analyst Rhett Montgomery, who discusses his expectations coming into the report after a hectic few weeks in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. 

Then, he’ll take us through all the highlights on the corn, soybean, and wheat balance sheets, tackling demand shifts from trade to biofuels. 

Finally, we’ll talk basis, and hear what Rhett will be watching between now and the next USDA report drop.

As one of the hottest summers on record draws to a close, farmers across the country are hankering to get into their fields and see the final results of another difficult growing year. 

After spotty weather left some farmers struggling with extreme heat or flooding while others battled pollination, pest, and other issues, growers are preparing for a challenging harvest season ahead.

To help growers gear up for the end of the season, we’re joined today by DTN’s Team Lead for Ag Weather John Baranick, who brings us his latest ag weather forecasts for the U.S.’s key growing regions. He’ll offer insight on the summer that was and the impacts it had on the crop in the field, and then he’ll take us on a region-by-region tour of what he expects to see as far as temperature, precipitation, and other conditions going into the fall. 

Plus, we’ll discuss the growing impact of the super-El Niño brewing in the Pacific, and hear how it’s likely to impact both conditions in the U.S., but also those in Brazil and Argentina as growers there head into their planting season.

Finally, we’ll hear the latest about conditions around the globe, and learn what we know about how the winter forecast is shaping up so far. 

 DTN Crops Technology Editor Pamela Smith has been making a name for herself in ag journalism for about five decades now, covering topics and issues across the industry and at multiple publications. 

As she hangs up her keyboard, we’re sitting down for one last conversation, about what’s changed in the last fifty years, what hasn’t, and what might be coming down the pike. 

Today, we’ll wax nostalgic about the early days of Pam’s career in the late 1970s and early 1980s, before digging into the stories — from genetics to crop protection to rural life — that have shaped her career. 

We’ll hear more about her experience spearheading the award-winning View from the Cab series, reflect on the enduring bonds she’s formed along the way, and offer insight on why both readers and farmers who participate find the process so impactful. 

Finally, we’ll hear what Pam is looking forward to, in agriculture and beyond.

Today, we’re welcoming back DTN Senior Livestock Editor Jennifer Carrico to take the reins and talk about a key topic for cattle growers — communicating the country of origin of beef products, especially through the recent “Product of the USA” labeling program launched by the Trump administration. 

Jennifer is joined by a pair of cattle producers who will together explore the history of mCOOL and Country of Origin Labeling, and how these programs might work for producers, and the industry, in the long run. 

The 9th Annual DTN Digital Yield Tour took place August 10th through the 14th, 2026, offering an early forecast of the crop that’s still in the field, based on DTN’s proprietary models and data. 

And this year, for the first time ever, DTN released national corn and soybean yield estimates, in addition to state-level analysis for more than a dozen states.

DTN Crops Editor Jason Jenkins joins us today to walk us through the results of the tour, sharing national and state-level information alongside ground-truth stories from farmers in the field. 

We’ll hear first about conditions in the I-states, the Dakotas, the recently flood-hit Eastern corn belt, and the Southern plains and Missouri where drought has persisted in some areas while elsewhere, conditions are good. We’ll also talk about the “best of the rest” touching on results from Arkansas, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Colorado, and then hear Jason’s outlook on what might be ahead for crop conditions between now and harvest. 

To talk about the August WASDE this week, we’re joined once again by DTN Lead Markets Analyst Rhett Montgomery.

He's been keeping an eye on everything from conditions on the ground to analyst expectations, and brings us a complete picture of the Department’s latest updates. 

He’ll walk us down the balance sheets for corn, soybeans, and wheat, putting demand and international trade in perspective and offering insight on the wildcards that will persist between now and harvest. 

Then he’ll offer his take on what’s next — how the strengthening El Nino might influence the last weeks of the season, how the intensifying Ukraine conflict is threatening wheat and corn movements in key regions, and how extreme drought in Europe might echo across commodity markets for many months to come. 

Since the start of Dan Miller’s career in ag journalism, the pace and scale of news has only increased. 

His first gig in the biz, as the very first writer for the old Iowa Farmer Today paper, introduced him to current and future Presidents, to farmers from across the country, and sent him on reporting missions around the world, including to the former Soviet Union.

For just a little while long, we know Dan as the Senior Machinery Editor at DTN Progressive Farmer, but as he heads off into retirement, he joins us for one last conversation about his career as an ag journalist, what he’s noticed in more than four decades of watching the ag industry change, and what he thinks might lie ahead.

Today, we’ll reminisce about Dan’s early career, how he learned to cover agriculture after starting out in small town journalism covering courts and crime, and hear what it was like to be there to witness history being made first hand.

He’ll then look forward to what he sees as the future of farm machinery and the future of agriculture more generally, and shares the best advice he’s learned about farm reporting, and why he thinks this work will remain relevant into the uncertain future.

With election day 2026 just over three months away, lawmakers in Washington are facing the end of the runway for passing legislation they can take home to their districts before November. 

Farm state legislators in particular would like to finally have a completed Farm Bill to show for their efforts over the last 18 months, but the possibility of passing farm legislation in both houses and getting it to the President’s desk in time is growing more unlikely with each passing day. 

And yet, hope springs eternal, and we have our very own, brand new DTN Ag Policy Editor Jake Zajkowski bringing us the latest on the efforts in D.C. 

He's here to tell us about current Farm Bill work and what to expect in the weeks ahead, but he’ll also give us an update about the ongoing USDA reorganization, and how it might go on to impact farmers as harvest approaches. 

He’ll then talk to us about the current trade picture, from USMCA reauthorization to the latest tariff announcement, and clue us in to happenings around farm aid, labor, and MAHA. 

We’ll wrap up with a look ahead at what the outcome of the November midterms could mean for ag policy in the lame duck session. 

This episode was recorded on July 31, 2026. See DTN newsroom's coverage on the Senate farm bill markup on dtnpf.com. 

Today’s cattle market is a wild place, and there is so much to keep up on.  

To help us stay up on the latest, DTN Senior Livestock Editor Jennifer Carrico is taking over the show today — bringing in multiple experts from across the industry to check in on new proposed policy around grazing CRP acres and other emerging stories.