Fresh Farm News, Ag Tech & the Week Ahead | Daily Farm Brief – Sept. 28, 2026

This is FarmTales Unplugged Daily Farm Brief for Monday, September 28th. Brought to you by World TradeX, empowering farmers. I'm Rick Cordonova. Coming up this morning, rain is creating a strange situation in the soybean market where processors want beans that farmers can't necessarily get out of the field. America's hog herd just got smaller. We've got ranch technology that can tell you when there's a problem with a water tank miles away, or the cows have to tell you themselves. And this afternoon, the USDA will release its crop progress report. We'll also dig into the farmer's almanac, and apparently, roadrunners have decided Kansas looks close enough to Arizona. So grab the coffee, fire up whatever you're driving, and let's find out what was happening while you were busy actually working. We'll start with soybeans because there's a pretty interesting situation developing in parts of the western Midwest. Persistent rain has slowed the early soybean harvest, just as processors are looking for fresh new crop beans. In other words, this isn't necessarily a shortage of soybeans. It's a shortage of soybeans being in the right place at the right time. In some wet areas, farmers have had very limited opportunities to get combines into the fields while processors are trying to bridge the gap between the last of the old crops and incoming new crop supplies. Some processing plants have reportedly slowed operations while waiting for those beans to start moving. For farmers who can harvest and deliver, this makes the local cash bid and especially bases worth watching closely. Because this is one of those situations where the futures board doesn't tell the whole story. Your local elevator or processor may want your beans considerably more than the guy 200 miles away does. The crop is ready, the processor wants it, the trucker can haul it, everybody is standing around waiting for one guy, Mr. Sun. Now, over to livestock. USDA's brand new quarterly hogs and pigs report says there were about 74.3 million hogs and pigs on U.S. farms as of September 1st. That's 2% fewer than a year ago, although numbers are up about 2% from June. About 68.4 million are market hogs, with roughly 5.9 million animals being kept for breeding. And there's another interesting number buried in that report. U.S. producers average nearly 12 pigs per litter from June through August. So once again, American livestock producers are managing to squeeze more production out of fewer breeding animals. But overall, the message from the report is pretty straightforward. The hog herd is smaller than it was this time last year. That doesn't mean bacon disappears Wednesday morning. It does mean pork producers, processors, and livestock markets now have a tighter supply picture to work with heading towards the end of the year. And again, we have a USDA crop progress report coming out this afternoon. But what we do know is that wet weather has interrupted soybean harvest in portions of the Midwest. And when this afternoon's report arrives, we'll finally get a better national picture of how much progress Combine's actually made. And we'll have those fresh numbers for you in tomorrow morning's show. Time for the technology minute. Here's something that may not look quite as futuristic as a robot driving through a soybean field, but it might be considerably more useful on a working ranch. Remote livestock water monitoring is getting better. Ranchers can now install sensors on stock tanks and troughs that monitor water levels and send information directly to a phone. Some systems use satellite connections and others use cellular connections. If the water level drops too low, you can get an alert. Some systems can monitor pumps, water flow, and pressure, and certain setups can even allow a rancher to control pumps remotely. Think about what that changes. Instead of driving several miles just to discover that everything's just fine, you can just look at your phone. And more importantly, if something isn't fine, you may find out before livestock runs out of water. That is agriculture technology at its best. Not technology because somebody wanted to put another screen in a tractor. Technology because somebody got tired of driving 15 miles to look inside a water tank. Now let's go old school. According to the traditional almanac style planting and harvesting calendars, September 28th is considered a favorable time for harvesting below ground crops. That means things like potatoes, carrots, beets, onions, and turnips. These old calendars base many recommendations partly on the moon's position and phase. Now, whether you plan your potato harvest according to satellite imagery or according to the moon is entirely your business. But long before GPS tractors, soil probes, weather radar, and smartphone apps, farmers paid extremely close attention to the sky, the seasons, and repeating patterns. Some of it was science before it was called science, some of it was folklore. And under the category, you don't hear that every day, finally, apparently roadrunners have been expanding their territory in Kansas. Yes, Roadrunners. The bird most Americans learned about from a cartoon involving an extremely unlucky coyote and an alarming number of products manufactured by ACME, Greater Roadrunners have now been documented in 56 Kansas counties. Back in 1990, they were documented in only 28. Sightings have pushed farther north, including areas not all that far from Nebraska. And these birds can really move. A greater roadrunner can run roughly 15 to 20 miles an hour, chasing insects, lizards, snakes, and small rodents. Scientists say warmer conditions and changing habitat may be helping them expand northward. So if you're in Kansas and something shoots across the road looking like it belongs in New Mexico, you may not be imagining it. And if there's a coyote behind it carrying a box marked Acme, just keep driving. Now for the farmer joke of the day. Farmer tells his neighbor, my banker says I need to diversify. Neighbor says, So? What'd you do? Farmer says, well now I owe money to three banks. And there you have it. Rain-delayed soybeans are creating tight nearby supplies for some processors. America's hog inventory is down from last year. Satellite technology can now tell a rancher what's happening with a water tank miles from his house. The almanac says it's a good day to dig root crops. And the roadrunner apparently looked at Kansas and said, close enough. I'm Rick Portonova, and this is FarmTales Unplugged Daily Farm Brief. To everybody in Farm Nation, have a safe day. And to everybody in Truck City, keep the shiny side up and the rubber side down. The future of food starts with the people who grow it and depends on the people who move it. FarmTales Unplugged is brought to you by World TradeX, empowering farmers. And if you could share this episode with someone you think might appreciate it, give us a like or a share, or leave us a review, we'd really appreciate it. This is Rick Portonova, and I'll see you tomorrow morning.