Weeds are always a problem for American farmers.

But a warm spring and recent burst of wet weather in many parts of the country has created ripe conditions for everything from waterhemp and Palmer amaranth to Kochia and newly arrived species like Asian copperleaf.

As farmers feel the pressure to use inputs sparingly due to cost while bringing in the biggest crop they can, keeping these weeds under control through good management will be even more critical this season. And with planting nearly completed and the crop widely emerged, options are changing rapidly.

To help keep farmers informed on what’s out there, and what control options they should be thinking about now, we’ll hear today from DTN Crops Editor Jason Jenkins.

Jason will start us off with an overview of conditions he’s seeing in the heart of the country right now, and what might be in the offing weed-, disease-, and insect-wise as a result. Then we’ll get into the strategies, discussing how farmers might want to think about their pest management strategies in terms of timing and modes of action to achieve peak effectiveness with the minimum amount of product applied.

We’ll also talk about his last cover story on electrical weeders in Missouri, and discuss the outlook for non-chemical weed control options going forward. He’ll also walk us through what he’s watching right now in terms of new products, and new concerns that farmers should be keeping an eye on this year.

While a hectic spring season brought with it welcome rainfall, it also brought an unruly mix of record heat and late local cold snaps that has set some farmers back in their planting efforts.

But as May makes way for June and a Super-El Niño summer, likely the most extreme on record, emerges, American farmers are looking to what’s in store for the heart of the season.

DTN’s Ag Meteorologist John Baranick joins us today with his very latest forecasts on what the 2026 season might have in store. We’ll start with reviewing how his spring forecast held up, and then dive into his expectations for June, July, and August as the El Niño pattern officially sets in. We’ll dig into what’s likely in terms of precipitation, heat, and severe weather across the corn belt, southeast, and the plains, especially in light of the evolving drought picture across these key regions.

Then we’ll take a look at the West Coast, which is likely to get the short end of the El Niño stick, before turning our attention to the harvest and winter weather outlook in Latin America.

Finally, we’ll get a birds-eye view of potential weather impacts around the globe, and hear what John expects for the harvest season.

The debate over year round E15 has become a perennial battle ground for biofuel interests, but farm state lawmakers are increasingly optimistic that 2026 will be the year.

With the extraordinary market pressures farmers are facing after 2025’s bin-busting crop, and the pain that voters are feeling every time they fill up their gas tank, policymakers are pushing forward once again.

To help us understand the current situation in the biofuels market, we’re joined today by DTN Environmental Editor Todd Neeley. Todd will start us off with an update on the latest year round E15 legislation that passed in the house just days ago, and offer insight on the measure’s prospects for making it to the President’s desk. Then we’ll talk about the latest 45z tax credit news, and what other steps advocates are taking to open up new biofuels markets for farm commodities.

We’ll also dig into the biodiesel story, with conversation on how these biofuel priorities are affecting crush margins and how recent updates coming out of the EU might influence soybean demand. Finally, we’ll check in on the courts, with a discussion on where ongoing lawsuits related to everything from EPA volume announcements to small refinery exemptions currently sit.

Coming into the 2026 planting season, many expected a significant crop shift thanks to the war in Iran.

Little sign of this shift has been seen so far, but with less than half the crop in the ground and weeks left for farmers to finalize decisions, there are still plenty of wild cards on the table.

To give us an update on planting thus far, and help us understand what might be ahead for the emerging crop, we’re joined today by DTN Crops Technology Editor Pamela Smith and DTN Crops Editor Jason Jenkins. They start out with their expectations around conditions going into planting this year, including discussion of drought impacts and unusual temperatures this spring throughout much of the country.

Then, we’ll dive into updates on planting so far, with data from across the corn belt and the southern plains that suggests that inconsistent temperature and precipitation are helping some farmers stay ahead of schedule while others are dealing with setback after setback.

Finally, we’ll dig into what all this means for the crop ahead, with insights on what diseases, weeds, and insects are most likely to be at play, given the conditions we’ve seen so far.

The May WASDE dropped Tuesday, May 12th, offering some bullish surprises for the wheat market, and giving the whole grain complex a boost in advance of President Trump’s long-awaited trip to visit American agriculture’s most important trading partner — China.

With both news and the latest report driving markets this week, we’re joined once again by DTN Lead Markets Analyst Rhett Montgomery who helps us find the signal in the noise in one the USDA’s heftier annual publications. Today, Rhett walks us down the balance sheets for the major grains, offering updates and insights on the latest new and old crop figures, and fills in the details on how these updates are shifting world stocks as well.

After he gives an update on the basis picture, we’ll also hear what he’s on the lookout for from the Trump-Xi meeting, from the fallout from the ongoing conflict in the Persian Gulf, and from weather outlooks across the Americas.

Finally, he’ll flag current trends to watch that might indicate unusual opportunities, and growing risks, being created by speculators in the grain markets.

The winners of the National Wheat Yield Contest, hosted by the National Wheat Foundation, represent some of the best wheat growers in the country. And today, we're ducking behind the curtain to learn the secrets of growing bin-busting crops.

DTN Crops Editor Jason Jenkins takes the reins to lead us through a conversation with Greg Anthis, a wheat grower and agronomist from Wheatland, Indiana, and Alec Horton, a grower and seed supplier in Leoti, Kansas.

These long-time contest participants discuss how participating in the annual contest has become common in their areas, and along the way, they dig into what they’ve learned about management, technology, seed selection, quality, and wheat rotations while being part of the community of state-of-the-art wheat growers.

With challenging conditions across much of the ag economy, cattle markets are a bright spot in the first few months of 2026.

Despite high prices, consumers are continuing to buy beef, even in advance of what is usually the peak demand period for the year. Add that to the fact that the Southern border has been closed for nearly twelve months with no signs of reopening anytime soon, and you'll find cattlemen across the country are still motivated to take advantage of top dollar prices — keeping the herd firmly out of the rebuilding cycle.

But all that doesn’t mean that there aren’t potential risks on the horizon.

To help us make sense of all the news that’s affecting cattle markets today, we’re joined by DTN Livestock Analyst ShayLe Stewart. She'll walk us through the market-moving meaning behind the latest cattle-on-feed report, bring us up-to-date on the most recent confirmed case of New World Screwworm in Mexico, and help us understand what we might expect from the worsening drought situation across the American West.

We’ll also hear her advice on how to make sense of the firehose of news coming out of the Middle East and Washington at the moment, and finally, give us a boots-on-the-ground update from her own cattle operation in Wyoming.

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The April WASDE dropped Thursday, April 9th, representing the third big update from USDA in two weeks following the Prospective Planting and U.S. Grain Stocks reports.

Though expectations from analysts were relatively low, wider uncertainty in the markets related to the ongoing US-Iran conflict and the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz have left farmers hungry for any clarity on what might be in store for markets in the coming months.

To help us dig into all three of these reports, we’re joined today by DTN Lead Analyst Rhett Montgomery. He’ll offer insight on the latest news, and then take us beat-by-beat through USDA updates to the balance sheets for the major grains, highlighting the biggest changes along the way.

Then, we’ll hear updates on the Latin American crop, the current corn trade picture, and hear Rhett’s thoughts on the world wheat market and what that might mean for U.S. growers as 2026 continues.

Finally, we’ll talk about the Prospective Planting report, understanding how last year’s crop is influencing this year’s acres, and thinking about how planting plans might still adjust as concerns about war-disrupted fertilizer continue to crystallize.

Plus, we’ll hear what Rhett will be watching most closely in the common weeks, from Trump’s trip to Beijing to energy markets.