Other Ag News:
(Washington, D.C., October 14, 2026) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced a historic $3.3 billion loan to Oglethorpe Power Corporation to help finance its Smarr Combined-Cycle electric generating facility in Monroe County, Georgia, during a visit to the construction site. This new facility will deliver dependable, affordable power for generations while helping meet America’s growing energy needs.
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with USDA News
(Washington, D.C., October 13, 2026) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced it is awarding $86.6 million in grant funding to support the specialty crop industry through the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP). The program funds innovative projects designed to enhance the competitiveness of specialty crops.
Read the full article: USDA Announces $86.6 Million Investment into the U.S. Specialty Crop Industry
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with USDA News
USDA’s October WASDE report
caught the corn market off guard Friday. The agency raised its national corn yield by nearly 3 bushels per acre to 181.2 bu. per acre, lifting production 234 million bu. to 16 billion bu. Corn ending stocks climbed 282 million bu. to about 1.85 billion bu., well above what the market expected.
With harvest underway, the frustration among farmers is rising. Not only do they now face tougher choices on when to sell, the one report caused corn prices to sell-off, costing farmers. Corn futures fell around 5%, with soybeans and wheat also under pressure.
One Missouri farmer says while he had already sold some of his new crop corn, he hadn’t sold enough. Friday’s move alone cost him about $40 per acre, even though he had some of his crop priced. For a farmer with 2,000 unpriced acres, that one report would amount to an average of $80,000 lost in a single day.
All Eyes on Nebraska
Much of the national increase traces back to one state. USDA raised Nebraska’s corn yield estimate by 11 bu. per acre to 188 bu. per acre in the October report. For context, USDA’s August forecast for Nebraska was 183 bu. per acre, so the September-to-October jump more than recovered a drop in between. But the question is why did Nebraska see such a major increase in a single month.
The size of the jump is drawing scrutiny because of what the field sample data shows.
How USDA Generates Yield Forecasts in October Report
Seth Meyer is director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri. He served as USDA’s chief economist for five years and knows how the yield data is gathered. He says the change between September and October is built into the process.
“You’re switching from field-level counts, so they’re going out into the field and you’re getting farmer reporting,” Meyer says. “Now they’ve actually got harvest results. So you’re transitioning from pure field level without harvest for a maturing crop into a combination of that and farmers’ actual results.”
Meyer says that’s why an October yield change wasn’t a complete shock to him. He had told AgWeb before the report that USDA could surprise the market by going higher.
“October changes in yield are not uncommon when you have that kind of transition,” Meyer says, adding that large yield changes are less common from here forward, because farmers are now reporting actual yields.
No matter how USDA calculates yield in September to October, there is a glaring issues that came through with this report, specifically yield samples in Nebraska. AgriTalk AM host and Farm Journal Economist Chip Flory is following this issue closely.
“The September anomaly in Nebraska was detected because there are three data points to reconcile – irrigated, non-irrigated and all. In other states, there is just one data point. That doesn’t tell us if the sample count was at planned levels,” explains Flory. “Because the ear counts are ‘raw data,’ counts for Iowa could have been based on one field or 500 fields – there’s no way to tell. That’s why this is so important. The Nebraska problem in September could be an isolated problem, but it is possible this is a broader problem, not a one-state problem”
Flory says he does not question the methodology used in October and agrees the transition from survey-based estimates to actual harvest results is very important.
“But only 15% of the Nebraska corn crop was harvested as of October 4. That means field observations from NASDA enumerators still likely carried significant weight in the October crop estimate from NASS,” Flory points out.
Does the Increased Irrigated Sample in Nebraska Explain It?
Meyer doesn’t believe the swing in the sample mix explains the 11-bu. increase. NASS publishes plant counts by irrigated and nonirrigated fields, he says, but it doesn’t publish how those samples are weighted to reach a state yield.
“While there may have been an issue in terms of how many acres you were able to survey in the sample, it isn’t because of how they weighted irrigated versus nonirrigated that caused the increase in yields,” Meyer says. “When you are not getting your full sample, there’s a bigger chance of error. That’s absolutely part of it,” he says. “But look at the nonirrigated sample as well.”
For Flory, this reiterates the point of needing answers from NASS.
“If what Meyer is saying here is correct and the September Crop Production Report did not get a ‘full sample,’ that’s exactly why we need to understand why it was not a full sample,” says Flory. “Was it an isolated problem or is it an issue that is more widespread?”
“It Seems a Little Bit Sketchy”
Darren Frye, president and CEO of Water Street Solutions, agrees Nebraska is the story. He says the state accounted for about half of the total national increase.
“It was about half of the total increase. It represented 1.2 bushels over the national average,” Frye told Michelle Rook on her Markets Now podcast. “But obviously, there was another 1.5 from other places. A lot of it came from the Plains states, and very little of it came from anywhere else.”
It wasn’t just Nebraska. South Dakota’s yield was up 6 bu. to 151 bu. per acre, Texas was up 8 bu., Kansas was up 9 bu. and North Dakota was up 2 bu.
Frye questions how the Plains numbers square with the growing season.
“I don’t know how we had those types of moves when you have a 46% good-to-excellent Nebraska crop,” he says. “We’ll have to see if they adjust this back down in November, if this is the number we have to live with.”
Frye also points to the jump in ear counts as the major red flag in the October report.
“Ear counts went up 1,700 ears per acre in Nebraska. That seems like a big change from September,” Frye says. “I know they used more irrigated plots this time than nonirrigated plots. I don’t know why they switched that from September to October, other than they were trying to correct a mistake. But it seems a little bit sketchy when you have a lot of nonirrigated fields in Nebraska yielding under 110 bu. per acre, and we know last year they were pretty much record yields. So you just wonder how they’re going to come up with a yield anywhere close to 188 for Nebraska.”
His bigger concern is how the new numbers compare with last year’s crop, and considering how good the crop was last year in the Plains, that piece is also making him question the accuracy of the latest report.
“You would think that just because of how they blew it out of the water last year, you’d be lower than last year. This year’s weather makes it much lower than last year, and to see some of these yields come in pretty close to last year, like Nebraska for example, 188 bu. per acre versus 194 bu. per acre. That’s awful close to the same crop, and you had an excellent year versus not such an excellent year. So a lot of questions, and a lot of the answers from NASS will have to be dealt with over the next month or two.”
Is a Staffing Shortage to Blame?
The big question in Nebraska, according to Meyer, is why enumerators didn’t reach those irrigated fields in the first place. Irrigated and nonirrigated ground is “sprinkled amongst each other,” he says, so he wonders whether a geographic problem kept crews out of certain areas.
“I think that’s a legitimate question,” Meyer says. “I expect NASS will answer that.”
He doesn’t think a staffing shortage is the answer as to why NASDA didn’t sample more irrigated fields in September, otherwise you’d see sampling issues across a wider geography.
“If you were just short everywhere, then you wouldn’t see the skew of irrigated versus nonirrigated,” Meyer says. “So I think it has to be a geographic issue. I don’t know why.”
But other critics aren’t so sure staffing issues aren’t to blame. As one analyst told AgWeb, it’s possible NASDA didn’t have enough staff to collect the data in Nebraska.
Which Report is More Reliable?
After digging through the numbers, Meyer says he has more confidence in October than in September.
“I like the fact that they got out to those irrigated fields and were able to look through them,” he says. “If there was a concern, it might have been the September one, where you didn’t get into those irrigated fields and your potential error on irrigated yields was higher.”
Falling survey response rates are an issue. And according to Meyer, they are a concern about the impact on yield reports.
“Any time you have falling response rates, you worry about how much it hinders your accuracy,” Meyer says. NASS is trying to compensate with other techniques, he says, “but it’d be even better if farmers would respond.”
Farmer Frustration is Legitimate
With the report reaction on Friday, there’s no denying farmers are frustrated, especially considering this is the report the market will trade.
“The number that’s printed is the number that the algorithms trade. It clearly changes the trajectory of everything that we’ve thought for some time,” says Matt Bennett, of AgMarket.Net.
As for when USDA might revise the number, if ever, Frye says farmers shouldn’t count on it.
“We could be stuck with this yield somewhere between 179 and 182 bu, per acre all the way through,” he says. “Then it comes down to the stocks report. Was the crop really that big? It’ll show up in the stocks reports, but that’ll probably be March before we see that. I don’t think we have enough data in the December one. So we could live with this type of yield, this type of carryout, for some time.”
Meyer says farmer frustration is understandable, especially when one report can move the markets like Friday’s report did.
“Margins are poor. These people have their livelihoods on the line,” he says.
But he doesn’t think farmers deciding to pull back from answering surveys is the solution.
“I don’t think withdrawing your support and responses is the best answer either,” Meyer says.
He says NASS needs to keep being transparent and explain what happened in the field. He also sees a gap in how the data is understood.
“We have a knowledge gap between statisticians who say, ‘Well, clearly this is the number,’ and what people understand that to be,” Meyer says. “We’ve got a gap that we need to try and close.”
A Look at the Balance Sheet
Moving forward, Meyer says the bigger crop adds to a balance sheet he already watches closely. He says the feed and residual number for 2025-26 looked too large relative to animal numbers, and it still looks high for the coming year.
“Now we’ve got a little bit of a bigger crop,” Meyer says. “We’re really going to have to watch that disappearance as we go forward.”
With harvest underway, the frustration among farmers is rising. Not only do they now face tougher choices on when to sell, the one report caused corn prices to sell-off, costing farmers. Corn futures fell around 5%, with soybeans and wheat also under pressure.
One Missouri farmer says while he had already sold some of his new crop corn, he hadn’t sold enough. Friday’s move alone cost him about $40 per acre, even though he had some of his crop priced. For a farmer with 2,000 unpriced acres, that one report would amount to an average of $80,000 lost in a single day.
All Eyes on Nebraska
Much of the national increase traces back to one state. USDA raised Nebraska’s corn yield estimate by 11 bu. per acre to 188 bu. per acre in the October report. For context, USDA’s August forecast for Nebraska was 183 bu. per acre, so the September-to-October jump more than recovered a drop in between. But the question is why did Nebraska see such a major increase in a single month.
The size of the jump is drawing scrutiny because of what the field sample data shows.
- In September, the data suggests about 90% of the Nebraska fields sampled were nonirrigated, only 10% irrigated
- In October, the balance of ear counts was a more typical measurement, with 55% irrigated and 45% nonirrigated.
How USDA Generates Yield Forecasts in October Report
Seth Meyer is director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) at the University of Missouri. He served as USDA’s chief economist for five years and knows how the yield data is gathered. He says the change between September and October is built into the process.
“You’re switching from field-level counts, so they’re going out into the field and you’re getting farmer reporting,” Meyer says. “Now they’ve actually got harvest results. So you’re transitioning from pure field level without harvest for a maturing crop into a combination of that and farmers’ actual results.”
Meyer says that’s why an October yield change wasn’t a complete shock to him. He had told AgWeb before the report that USDA could surprise the market by going higher.
“October changes in yield are not uncommon when you have that kind of transition,” Meyer says, adding that large yield changes are less common from here forward, because farmers are now reporting actual yields.
No matter how USDA calculates yield in September to October, there is a glaring issues that came through with this report, specifically yield samples in Nebraska. AgriTalk AM host and Farm Journal Economist Chip Flory is following this issue closely.
“The September anomaly in Nebraska was detected because there are three data points to reconcile – irrigated, non-irrigated and all. In other states, there is just one data point. That doesn’t tell us if the sample count was at planned levels,” explains Flory. “Because the ear counts are ‘raw data,’ counts for Iowa could have been based on one field or 500 fields – there’s no way to tell. That’s why this is so important. The Nebraska problem in September could be an isolated problem, but it is possible this is a broader problem, not a one-state problem”
Flory says he does not question the methodology used in October and agrees the transition from survey-based estimates to actual harvest results is very important.
“But only 15% of the Nebraska corn crop was harvested as of October 4. That means field observations from NASDA enumerators still likely carried significant weight in the October crop estimate from NASS,” Flory points out.
Does the Increased Irrigated Sample in Nebraska Explain It?
Meyer doesn’t believe the swing in the sample mix explains the 11-bu. increase. NASS publishes plant counts by irrigated and nonirrigated fields, he says, but it doesn’t publish how those samples are weighted to reach a state yield.
“While there may have been an issue in terms of how many acres you were able to survey in the sample, it isn’t because of how they weighted irrigated versus nonirrigated that caused the increase in yields,” Meyer says. “When you are not getting your full sample, there’s a bigger chance of error. That’s absolutely part of it,” he says. “But look at the nonirrigated sample as well.”
For Flory, this reiterates the point of needing answers from NASS.
“If what Meyer is saying here is correct and the September Crop Production Report did not get a ‘full sample,’ that’s exactly why we need to understand why it was not a full sample,” says Flory. “Was it an isolated problem or is it an issue that is more widespread?”
“It Seems a Little Bit Sketchy”
Darren Frye, president and CEO of Water Street Solutions, agrees Nebraska is the story. He says the state accounted for about half of the total national increase.
“It was about half of the total increase. It represented 1.2 bushels over the national average,” Frye told Michelle Rook on her Markets Now podcast. “But obviously, there was another 1.5 from other places. A lot of it came from the Plains states, and very little of it came from anywhere else.”
It wasn’t just Nebraska. South Dakota’s yield was up 6 bu. to 151 bu. per acre, Texas was up 8 bu., Kansas was up 9 bu. and North Dakota was up 2 bu.
Frye questions how the Plains numbers square with the growing season.
“I don’t know how we had those types of moves when you have a 46% good-to-excellent Nebraska crop,” he says. “We’ll have to see if they adjust this back down in November, if this is the number we have to live with.”
Frye also points to the jump in ear counts as the major red flag in the October report.
“Ear counts went up 1,700 ears per acre in Nebraska. That seems like a big change from September,” Frye says. “I know they used more irrigated plots this time than nonirrigated plots. I don’t know why they switched that from September to October, other than they were trying to correct a mistake. But it seems a little bit sketchy when you have a lot of nonirrigated fields in Nebraska yielding under 110 bu. per acre, and we know last year they were pretty much record yields. So you just wonder how they’re going to come up with a yield anywhere close to 188 for Nebraska.”
His bigger concern is how the new numbers compare with last year’s crop, and considering how good the crop was last year in the Plains, that piece is also making him question the accuracy of the latest report.
“You would think that just because of how they blew it out of the water last year, you’d be lower than last year. This year’s weather makes it much lower than last year, and to see some of these yields come in pretty close to last year, like Nebraska for example, 188 bu. per acre versus 194 bu. per acre. That’s awful close to the same crop, and you had an excellent year versus not such an excellent year. So a lot of questions, and a lot of the answers from NASS will have to be dealt with over the next month or two.”
Is a Staffing Shortage to Blame?
The big question in Nebraska, according to Meyer, is why enumerators didn’t reach those irrigated fields in the first place. Irrigated and nonirrigated ground is “sprinkled amongst each other,” he says, so he wonders whether a geographic problem kept crews out of certain areas.
“I think that’s a legitimate question,” Meyer says. “I expect NASS will answer that.”
He doesn’t think a staffing shortage is the answer as to why NASDA didn’t sample more irrigated fields in September, otherwise you’d see sampling issues across a wider geography.
“If you were just short everywhere, then you wouldn’t see the skew of irrigated versus nonirrigated,” Meyer says. “So I think it has to be a geographic issue. I don’t know why.”
But other critics aren’t so sure staffing issues aren’t to blame. As one analyst told AgWeb, it’s possible NASDA didn’t have enough staff to collect the data in Nebraska.
Which Report is More Reliable?
After digging through the numbers, Meyer says he has more confidence in October than in September.
“I like the fact that they got out to those irrigated fields and were able to look through them,” he says. “If there was a concern, it might have been the September one, where you didn’t get into those irrigated fields and your potential error on irrigated yields was higher.”
Falling survey response rates are an issue. And according to Meyer, they are a concern about the impact on yield reports.
“Any time you have falling response rates, you worry about how much it hinders your accuracy,” Meyer says. NASS is trying to compensate with other techniques, he says, “but it’d be even better if farmers would respond.”
Farmer Frustration is Legitimate
With the report reaction on Friday, there’s no denying farmers are frustrated, especially considering this is the report the market will trade.
“The number that’s printed is the number that the algorithms trade. It clearly changes the trajectory of everything that we’ve thought for some time,” says Matt Bennett, of AgMarket.Net.
As for when USDA might revise the number, if ever, Frye says farmers shouldn’t count on it.
“We could be stuck with this yield somewhere between 179 and 182 bu, per acre all the way through,” he says. “Then it comes down to the stocks report. Was the crop really that big? It’ll show up in the stocks reports, but that’ll probably be March before we see that. I don’t think we have enough data in the December one. So we could live with this type of yield, this type of carryout, for some time.”
Meyer says farmer frustration is understandable, especially when one report can move the markets like Friday’s report did.
“Margins are poor. These people have their livelihoods on the line,” he says.
But he doesn’t think farmers deciding to pull back from answering surveys is the solution.
“I don’t think withdrawing your support and responses is the best answer either,” Meyer says.
He says NASS needs to keep being transparent and explain what happened in the field. He also sees a gap in how the data is understood.
“We have a knowledge gap between statisticians who say, ‘Well, clearly this is the number,’ and what people understand that to be,” Meyer says. “We’ve got a gap that we need to try and close.”
A Look at the Balance Sheet
Moving forward, Meyer says the bigger crop adds to a balance sheet he already watches closely. He says the feed and residual number for 2025-26 looked too large relative to animal numbers, and it still looks high for the coming year.
“Now we’ve got a little bit of a bigger crop,” Meyer says. “We’re really going to have to watch that disappearance as we go forward.”
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with Farm Journal - Dairy Today
Faster than the pull of silk from a pocket, Alec White slipped into the grind of a horror show. Foot snared in the blades of an unforgiving auger, White flailed in the corn and chalky floor of an Indiana grain bin, hands grasping in vain for anything. Everything. Nothing.
Five seconds, boot shredded. Ten seconds, foot mangled. Fifteen seconds, lower leg disappearing. Stuck in a spiral of endless torque, White knew the inescapable truth: What the corkscrew gets, it keeps. Helluva way to go.
However, White possessed remarkable resilience and a phenomenal ability to maintain focus in the most extreme of situations. “I can still see it happening so clearly,” he says. “It’s like a movie that plays in my head. Every instinct to keep calm was racing through my body.”
Mind. Heart. Soul. Survival at all costs.
Touching the Void
On a workaday Thursday, May 30, 2024, surrounded by the plentiful flats of northeast Indiana’s Wells County, White woke at 6:30 a.m., and rigged a slender, 6’3” frame in khaki shorts, leather belt, black t-shirt, and steel-toed, 10.5 Thorogood lace-up 6” boots.
Against a bruised sky threatening rain, White, 23, climbed in the cab of a brown Dodge Ram 1500 and scrambled away from home, bound for his manager’s role at Phenix Farms outside Geneva.
Alec White, far right, with the Phenix Farms crew.(Photo by AW)
“Because of the rains, it was a good time to sweep out a series of bins, and we started out normal as could be,” White recalls. “There was nothing out of sorts; nothing wrong; nothing unusual. It was just a day that felt ordinary.”
However, at 10:30 a.m., approaching the last bin of the morning as temps climbed toward the mid-70s, White left behind the “ordinary” and stepped through the door of a 48’-diameter structure with an 80,000-bushel capacity. Unbeknownst to the young Indiana farmer, he was perilously close to touching the void.
Repetition Kills
The grain bin was empty. Almost.
Piled to the right of the bin entrance, a stubborn 400-bushel mound of corn partially clumped by moisture, sat the final target of cleanup. Armed with scoop shovels and brooms, White and a single co-worker began moving grain toward the growl of a power sweep—characterized by an auger partially covered by a shield, moving around the bin in clockwork fashion, pulling grain via helicoid flighting to a sump hole. Simplified: a giant, corn-eating screw.
“It started to suck me in,” White describes. “From my heel, it ran over my foot, and then took me down to a carrier bearing where it stopped and wrapped me around it.”(Photo public domain)
However, despite the sweep’s design, the mechanism repeatedly caught on the bin floor as White worked. At each instance, he responded in the manner of many a farmer comfortable with repetition and pressed for time: He kicked the backplate of the auger, nudging the sweep back on course.
“One too many times,” White says in a seasoned manner vastly exceeding his age. “I knew better.”
On went the cleanup, until, once again, the sweep hitched.
Right leg positioned toward the auger, White kicked out with his left leg. His foot deflected up and over the backplate. In a millisecond, his bootheel was inextricably snagged in the auger’s flighting.
Amid the din and dust, White stumbled over the sweep and tried to yank free. No forgiveness. No tug-of-war. A death dance was on—and it would last at least 20 seconds.
“It started to suck me in,” White describes. “From my heel, it ran over my foot, and then took me down to a carrier bearing where it stopped and wrapped me around it. There was no pain. Only adrenaline.”
“I’ve read or heard about other people having accidents and they describe it all as a blur or a flash in time. Not me. This was the longest 20 to 30 seconds of my life. I remember it all.”
Even Keel
In simplest terms, White, whose only prior injury in life was a broken arm in childhood, was in danger of being torn apart.
Right leg over left, he was knocked to his back on the corn and corrugated steel of the bin floor, his entire torso mere inches from the auger’s whir. The flighting bit into his right arm, causing White to instantly jerk to his left side, surrendering his back to the auger, but momentarily protecting another limb from entrapment.
Alec White, third from right, with his brothers in farms.(Photo by AW)
Once more, the auger took another bite, pulling a small chunk of flesh from White’s right buttock through his shorts. And all the while, the sweep chewed on White’s lower leg, splitting the steel in his boot and ripping the leather down the side, as both footwear and sock disappeared toward the sump.
In the madness of the moment, White’s co-worker, who stood less than 5’ away, rushed in to help, trying to pull White’s body from the entanglement. No dice. Precious seconds drained off the clock, despite a power sweep shutoff switch outside the bin door.
The direct move, from the get-go, was a dash to the switch panel, but amid the gruesome chaos unfolding on the bin floor, instinct drove attention toward the extrication of White’s leg from the auger.
“Hindsight is so easy, but that’s not how it worked out,” White recalls. “I finally told him to turn off the sweep shutoff. Truth is, I’m indebted to him forever and if he hadn’t been there, I’d have died. Him being inside with me was my saving grace. He ran out the door, hit the red switch, and stopped the auger.”
Instantly, the mayhem within the metallic bin went quiet as a teardrop. White’s leg was wrapped around the twists of the auger, shattered and grotesquely stretched into multiple pieces south of the shin. The gore told the story. White was now in a race against blood loss and shock.
Covered in corn and unable to see the extent of his injuries, White kept an even keel. Methodical. Deliberate. He removed his leather belt and cinched it around his left leg, as his co-worker pulled the belt a further 3” and maintained an iron hold. White’s urgency echoed in the bin: Whatever you do, don’t let go.
Bible and Phone
Tourniquet in place, White pulled phone from pocket and dialed 911. He then called his mother, describing the dilemma without heavy detail, and promising her that rescue was en route. However, the surreal call was layered by the unspoken.
“I talked to my mom for about 45 seconds. I tried to reassure her, as best I could, that I’d be fine. It’s a tough, tough thing to call somebody who loves you and basically tell them everything is OK when you don’t know if it is.”
Waves of adrenaline continued to flood White, holding back a flood of pain on the periphery.
Phone calls completed, he began a 30-minute, ultra-stakes waiting game: Maintain composure and fend off panic.
“At that point, I didn’t want to know about the extent of my injuries. I just wanted to keep focus on rescue and push away thoughts of dying. Those thoughts were trying to come in, but I couldn’t afford to dwell on my condition. I forced myself to calmly wait for help.”
Inside 15 minutes, volunteer rescuers and White’s boss arrived on-site. The questions over extraction from a 350-lb. auger began immediately. Reverse the auger? Cut the auger? All action was paused until the arrival of paramedics and painkillers.
“I remember four or five volunteer firemen and a policeman in the bin. Then, after about another 15 minutes, an EMT team arrived and gave me several drugs, including ketamine—a dose of horse tranquilizer. Everything started blurring and I went into a stupor, but I wasn’t totally knocked out.”
There was no consideration of amputation on-site. Rather, halving the auger was discussed, but the associated vibration generated by an estimated 10-minute cutting process was deemed detrimental. Instead, rescuers chose to spin White free.
“They decided to turn the clutch off and turn the auger backwards. They then backed me out of it. They said I was screaming, but I don’t remember that part. The drugs had me too foggy.”
Out of the auger, beyond the bin, and into the air via helicopter. “The drugs finally wore off, and my adrenaline was all used up, so the pain was burning. Kinda like fire. I was asking the obvious question: ‘Am I gonna lose my leg?’”
The experienced medical team deflected, but they knew. They knew.
Landing at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, White quickly was surrounded by trauma doctors. Miraculously, he suffered no clipped arteries. However, his left lower limb was mangled and crushed—irretrievable.
“I remember the surgeons telling me they’d save my leg if they could. I asked for a Bible and my phone, and then a clergyman walked in and prayed with me. And then it was time.”
As nurses cut away his clothing, White stared in surreal silence before drifting to unconsciousness. Fade to black.
On With the Farm
Two days later, White awoke, intubated and unable to speak.
By pen and pad, questioning his family, he learned his lower leg was gone 8” below the knee.
“I still have the writing pad and it contains some very colorful words,” he chuckles. “Right away, my attitude was to get going. I couldn’t allow pity or blame in the door. I was blessed with some wonderful people around to help me.”
“I’m never going to be afraid to tell this story, because I hope it helps someone avoid what I did, or I hope it helps someone dealing with a tough situation,” White says.(Photo by AW)
Three weeks later, on crutches, White was back in a sprayer, rolling across a cornfield.
Yet, White doesn’t sugarcoat the road home. Recovery, he emphasizes, was the most difficult chapter of his life. “It was the hardest thing imaginable, at least for me. My nerve endings got inflamed and it was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt. Painkillers only work so well.”
“Worse than the pain in the long-term, I had a private mental battle. I don’t want to pretend that I didn’t have some really bad days. I asked the Lord a lot of questions while I tried to wrap my head around what happened, but it brought me closer to God and more grateful for everything I have in life. The easiest thing to is blame or lash out, but that’s a storm everyone has to weather.”
On August 22, 2024, roughly three months after his accident, White received a prosthetic and began learning to walk. “Yeah, I looked a little goofy at first. But who cares?”
White tossed the crutches. On with farming. On with life.
Buck Stops Here
Farming is perennially ranked among the most dangerous occupations. In 2025, according to a report steered by Bill Field, professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, 48 cases involving agricultural confined spaces were documented (22 fatal and 26 non-fatal).
Grain entrapment was the No. 1 threat, featuring in 21 cases. However, Field’s report also noted 10 asphyxiations, 7 falls from grain structures, 4 livestock waste accidents—and 8 entanglements by in-floor or sweep augers.
“I can still see it happening so clearly,” White says. “It’s like a movie that plays in my head.”(Photo by AW)
Testament to the grim statistics, perched on a pedestal inside his office at Phenix Farms, White passes by a daily safety reminder: a mangled Thorogood left boot, size 10.5.
The boot holds multiple lessons for farmers, he explains.
“First off, always keep a charged phone on you. Second, there’s no better safety tool than your brain, and that means thinking ahead. As farmers, we’re all going to be close to dangerous situations, and just because you’ve gotten away with something 100 times doesn’t mean the next one won’t get you. And your leg or your life are terrible, terrible prices to pay for getting in a hurry.”
For those injured or already dealing with adversity, what is White’s advice?
“Tough, tough days are going to come at first, but if you keep battling, the good days are coming back. Get off every pill as fast as you can. The painkillers or antidepressants numb issues that’ll surface later anyway. Stay off them because they’ll do more harm than good.”
“Last, I’d tell anyone to swallow their pride and rely on others for help. As farmers, we’re self-reliant to a fault, and that results in punishing the people around you, the same people that love you. It’s easy to push others away, and that was almost my biggest downfall. Instead, be sincerely grateful, always stay busy, put your energy into a goal—and get there.”
No one can wash away the past, least of all White. Each morning, he straps on the prosthetic before hitting farmland. Unquestionably, it is now part and parcel of his being, and a permanent reminder of May 30, 2023.
Yet, his attitude is a thousand miles from self-pity, with the distance growing further by the day. No blame. No excuses. The buck stops here.
“Almost every farmer has kicked a sweep, even though we know better,” he concludes. “I kicked it and I paid. It wasn’t the bin’s fault or the machinery’s fault or someone else’s fault. I’m never going to be afraid to tell this story, because I hope it helps someone avoid what I did, or I hope it helps someone dealing with a tough situation. We all have choices to make.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Five seconds, boot shredded. Ten seconds, foot mangled. Fifteen seconds, lower leg disappearing. Stuck in a spiral of endless torque, White knew the inescapable truth: What the corkscrew gets, it keeps. Helluva way to go.
However, White possessed remarkable resilience and a phenomenal ability to maintain focus in the most extreme of situations. “I can still see it happening so clearly,” he says. “It’s like a movie that plays in my head. Every instinct to keep calm was racing through my body.”
Mind. Heart. Soul. Survival at all costs.
Touching the Void
On a workaday Thursday, May 30, 2024, surrounded by the plentiful flats of northeast Indiana’s Wells County, White woke at 6:30 a.m., and rigged a slender, 6’3” frame in khaki shorts, leather belt, black t-shirt, and steel-toed, 10.5 Thorogood lace-up 6” boots.
Against a bruised sky threatening rain, White, 23, climbed in the cab of a brown Dodge Ram 1500 and scrambled away from home, bound for his manager’s role at Phenix Farms outside Geneva.
Alec White, far right, with the Phenix Farms crew.(Photo by AW)
“Because of the rains, it was a good time to sweep out a series of bins, and we started out normal as could be,” White recalls. “There was nothing out of sorts; nothing wrong; nothing unusual. It was just a day that felt ordinary.”
However, at 10:30 a.m., approaching the last bin of the morning as temps climbed toward the mid-70s, White left behind the “ordinary” and stepped through the door of a 48’-diameter structure with an 80,000-bushel capacity. Unbeknownst to the young Indiana farmer, he was perilously close to touching the void.
Repetition Kills
The grain bin was empty. Almost.
Piled to the right of the bin entrance, a stubborn 400-bushel mound of corn partially clumped by moisture, sat the final target of cleanup. Armed with scoop shovels and brooms, White and a single co-worker began moving grain toward the growl of a power sweep—characterized by an auger partially covered by a shield, moving around the bin in clockwork fashion, pulling grain via helicoid flighting to a sump hole. Simplified: a giant, corn-eating screw.
“It started to suck me in,” White describes. “From my heel, it ran over my foot, and then took me down to a carrier bearing where it stopped and wrapped me around it.”(Photo public domain)
However, despite the sweep’s design, the mechanism repeatedly caught on the bin floor as White worked. At each instance, he responded in the manner of many a farmer comfortable with repetition and pressed for time: He kicked the backplate of the auger, nudging the sweep back on course.
“One too many times,” White says in a seasoned manner vastly exceeding his age. “I knew better.”
On went the cleanup, until, once again, the sweep hitched.
Right leg positioned toward the auger, White kicked out with his left leg. His foot deflected up and over the backplate. In a millisecond, his bootheel was inextricably snagged in the auger’s flighting.
Amid the din and dust, White stumbled over the sweep and tried to yank free. No forgiveness. No tug-of-war. A death dance was on—and it would last at least 20 seconds.
“It started to suck me in,” White describes. “From my heel, it ran over my foot, and then took me down to a carrier bearing where it stopped and wrapped me around it. There was no pain. Only adrenaline.”
“I’ve read or heard about other people having accidents and they describe it all as a blur or a flash in time. Not me. This was the longest 20 to 30 seconds of my life. I remember it all.”
Even Keel
In simplest terms, White, whose only prior injury in life was a broken arm in childhood, was in danger of being torn apart.
Right leg over left, he was knocked to his back on the corn and corrugated steel of the bin floor, his entire torso mere inches from the auger’s whir. The flighting bit into his right arm, causing White to instantly jerk to his left side, surrendering his back to the auger, but momentarily protecting another limb from entrapment.
Alec White, third from right, with his brothers in farms.(Photo by AW)
Once more, the auger took another bite, pulling a small chunk of flesh from White’s right buttock through his shorts. And all the while, the sweep chewed on White’s lower leg, splitting the steel in his boot and ripping the leather down the side, as both footwear and sock disappeared toward the sump.
In the madness of the moment, White’s co-worker, who stood less than 5’ away, rushed in to help, trying to pull White’s body from the entanglement. No dice. Precious seconds drained off the clock, despite a power sweep shutoff switch outside the bin door.
The direct move, from the get-go, was a dash to the switch panel, but amid the gruesome chaos unfolding on the bin floor, instinct drove attention toward the extrication of White’s leg from the auger.
“Hindsight is so easy, but that’s not how it worked out,” White recalls. “I finally told him to turn off the sweep shutoff. Truth is, I’m indebted to him forever and if he hadn’t been there, I’d have died. Him being inside with me was my saving grace. He ran out the door, hit the red switch, and stopped the auger.”
Instantly, the mayhem within the metallic bin went quiet as a teardrop. White’s leg was wrapped around the twists of the auger, shattered and grotesquely stretched into multiple pieces south of the shin. The gore told the story. White was now in a race against blood loss and shock.
Covered in corn and unable to see the extent of his injuries, White kept an even keel. Methodical. Deliberate. He removed his leather belt and cinched it around his left leg, as his co-worker pulled the belt a further 3” and maintained an iron hold. White’s urgency echoed in the bin: Whatever you do, don’t let go.
Bible and Phone
Tourniquet in place, White pulled phone from pocket and dialed 911. He then called his mother, describing the dilemma without heavy detail, and promising her that rescue was en route. However, the surreal call was layered by the unspoken.
“I talked to my mom for about 45 seconds. I tried to reassure her, as best I could, that I’d be fine. It’s a tough, tough thing to call somebody who loves you and basically tell them everything is OK when you don’t know if it is.”
Waves of adrenaline continued to flood White, holding back a flood of pain on the periphery.
Phone calls completed, he began a 30-minute, ultra-stakes waiting game: Maintain composure and fend off panic.
“At that point, I didn’t want to know about the extent of my injuries. I just wanted to keep focus on rescue and push away thoughts of dying. Those thoughts were trying to come in, but I couldn’t afford to dwell on my condition. I forced myself to calmly wait for help.”
Inside 15 minutes, volunteer rescuers and White’s boss arrived on-site. The questions over extraction from a 350-lb. auger began immediately. Reverse the auger? Cut the auger? All action was paused until the arrival of paramedics and painkillers.
“I remember four or five volunteer firemen and a policeman in the bin. Then, after about another 15 minutes, an EMT team arrived and gave me several drugs, including ketamine—a dose of horse tranquilizer. Everything started blurring and I went into a stupor, but I wasn’t totally knocked out.”
There was no consideration of amputation on-site. Rather, halving the auger was discussed, but the associated vibration generated by an estimated 10-minute cutting process was deemed detrimental. Instead, rescuers chose to spin White free.
“They decided to turn the clutch off and turn the auger backwards. They then backed me out of it. They said I was screaming, but I don’t remember that part. The drugs had me too foggy.”
Out of the auger, beyond the bin, and into the air via helicopter. “The drugs finally wore off, and my adrenaline was all used up, so the pain was burning. Kinda like fire. I was asking the obvious question: ‘Am I gonna lose my leg?’”
The experienced medical team deflected, but they knew. They knew.
Landing at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, White quickly was surrounded by trauma doctors. Miraculously, he suffered no clipped arteries. However, his left lower limb was mangled and crushed—irretrievable.
“I remember the surgeons telling me they’d save my leg if they could. I asked for a Bible and my phone, and then a clergyman walked in and prayed with me. And then it was time.”
As nurses cut away his clothing, White stared in surreal silence before drifting to unconsciousness. Fade to black.
On With the Farm
Two days later, White awoke, intubated and unable to speak.
By pen and pad, questioning his family, he learned his lower leg was gone 8” below the knee.
“I still have the writing pad and it contains some very colorful words,” he chuckles. “Right away, my attitude was to get going. I couldn’t allow pity or blame in the door. I was blessed with some wonderful people around to help me.”
“I’m never going to be afraid to tell this story, because I hope it helps someone avoid what I did, or I hope it helps someone dealing with a tough situation,” White says.(Photo by AW)
Three weeks later, on crutches, White was back in a sprayer, rolling across a cornfield.
Yet, White doesn’t sugarcoat the road home. Recovery, he emphasizes, was the most difficult chapter of his life. “It was the hardest thing imaginable, at least for me. My nerve endings got inflamed and it was the most painful thing I’ve ever felt. Painkillers only work so well.”
“Worse than the pain in the long-term, I had a private mental battle. I don’t want to pretend that I didn’t have some really bad days. I asked the Lord a lot of questions while I tried to wrap my head around what happened, but it brought me closer to God and more grateful for everything I have in life. The easiest thing to is blame or lash out, but that’s a storm everyone has to weather.”
On August 22, 2024, roughly three months after his accident, White received a prosthetic and began learning to walk. “Yeah, I looked a little goofy at first. But who cares?”
White tossed the crutches. On with farming. On with life.
Buck Stops Here
Farming is perennially ranked among the most dangerous occupations. In 2025, according to a report steered by Bill Field, professor of Agricultural and Biological Engineering at Purdue University, 48 cases involving agricultural confined spaces were documented (22 fatal and 26 non-fatal).
Grain entrapment was the No. 1 threat, featuring in 21 cases. However, Field’s report also noted 10 asphyxiations, 7 falls from grain structures, 4 livestock waste accidents—and 8 entanglements by in-floor or sweep augers.
“I can still see it happening so clearly,” White says. “It’s like a movie that plays in my head.”(Photo by AW)
Testament to the grim statistics, perched on a pedestal inside his office at Phenix Farms, White passes by a daily safety reminder: a mangled Thorogood left boot, size 10.5.
The boot holds multiple lessons for farmers, he explains.
“First off, always keep a charged phone on you. Second, there’s no better safety tool than your brain, and that means thinking ahead. As farmers, we’re all going to be close to dangerous situations, and just because you’ve gotten away with something 100 times doesn’t mean the next one won’t get you. And your leg or your life are terrible, terrible prices to pay for getting in a hurry.”
For those injured or already dealing with adversity, what is White’s advice?
“Tough, tough days are going to come at first, but if you keep battling, the good days are coming back. Get off every pill as fast as you can. The painkillers or antidepressants numb issues that’ll surface later anyway. Stay off them because they’ll do more harm than good.”
“Last, I’d tell anyone to swallow their pride and rely on others for help. As farmers, we’re self-reliant to a fault, and that results in punishing the people around you, the same people that love you. It’s easy to push others away, and that was almost my biggest downfall. Instead, be sincerely grateful, always stay busy, put your energy into a goal—and get there.”
No one can wash away the past, least of all White. Each morning, he straps on the prosthetic before hitting farmland. Unquestionably, it is now part and parcel of his being, and a permanent reminder of May 30, 2023.
Yet, his attitude is a thousand miles from self-pity, with the distance growing further by the day. No blame. No excuses. The buck stops here.
“Almost every farmer has kicked a sweep, even though we know better,” he concludes. “I kicked it and I paid. It wasn’t the bin’s fault or the machinery’s fault or someone else’s fault. I’m never going to be afraid to tell this story, because I hope it helps someone avoid what I did, or I hope it helps someone dealing with a tough situation. We all have choices to make.”
For more from Chris Bennett (@ChrisBennettMS or cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reaves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Never Told
How the Deep State Tried, and Failed, to Crush an American Farmer
Game of Horns: Iowa Poacher’s Antler Addiction Leads to Historic Bust
Ghost Cattle: $650M Ponzi Rocks Livestock Industry, Money Still Missing
When Conservation Backfires: Landowner Defeats Feds in Mindboggling Private Property Case
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with Farm Journal - Dairy Today
(Washington, D.C., October 12, 2026) – Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins urged state partners to review their wolf management policies, strengthen engagement with livestock producers, and work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to address wolf predation. This outreach follows President Trump’s Executive Order 14425, titled “Supporting America’s Ranchers,” and builds on the Trump Administration’s commitment to give producers the tools they need to protect their herds and livelihoods.
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with USDA News
(Washington, D.C., October 9, 2026) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reminds communities, farmers and ranchers, families and small businesses in the path of Hurricane Isaias that USDA has programs that provide assistance in the wake of disasters. USDA staff in regional, state, and county offices stand ready to assist as conditions develop and to support recovery.
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with USDA News
USDA delivered a bearish surprise to the corn market Friday with its yield forecast in the October Crop Production and World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) Report, raising national corn yield when traders expected a decrease.
Corn Yield Jumps Unexpectedly
USDA raised the national corn yield from September by 2.7 bushels per acre to 181.2 bushels — a shock when the trade was looking for a 0.7-bushel cut. That increased production by 234 million bushels to more than 16 billion bushels.
“Everybody kind of went through the motions with the USDA, thinking that with the yield reduction we saw last month, we were going to still reside around that 178-ish type of number,” said Brian Splitt of AgMarket.Net. “With all of the rain that was in Iowa and some of the early harvest reports we’re hearing for corn, the thought was that we would maybe see yield come down a touch more.”
Carryout Stocks Rise Sharply
USDA increased carry-in stock on corn by 173 million bushels as expected but did raise demand.
“This number definitely was about as bearish as you could get for yield,” Splitt said. “Now, we knew the beginning stocks were going to increase and they did accordingly — the 173 million bushels.”
The only bright spot came from demand increases. Feed residual rose 50 million bushels, exports increased 25 million bushels, and food, seed and industrial use climbed 50 million bushels. Total demand increased by 125 million bushels.
That increased carryout by 282 million bushels to 1.849 billion bushels and raised the stocks-to-use ratio back above 10%, which tanked the corn market.
“We very briefly had stocks-to-use below 10% at 9.7% last month. And now we’re back to 11.3%,” Splitt said. “So that 10% number really is a key stocks-to-use percentage that separates the possibility of a bigger picture, long-term bull market. We’ve definitely seen the wind taken out of the sails for that conversation today.”
World corn ending stocks also rose by 8.3 million metric tons, adding to the bearish tone.
Soybeans See Modest Yield Increase
Soybeans also saw a 0.3-bushel-per-acre increase in yield to 53.1 bushels. That raised production by 27 million bushels to a record 4.566 billion bushels with ample rains in much of the Corn Belt.
“The concern is going to be if yield went up today, and we just saw what the USDA did with corn, what do they do with bean yield in November?” Splitt said.
He said early harvest results have been strong in the central and eastern regions, offsetting quality issues in the West. Still, soybean ending stocks were only up 5 million bushels.
“Overall, we had a production increase of 17 million and we had a demand increase of 12. So only 5 million bushels get added to the new crop balance sheet for soybeans,” Splitt said. “That’s a pretty big victory, I think, all things considered.”
Wheat Stocks Also Rise
USDA raised wheat ending stocks 23 million bushels to 740 million bushels. World wheat ending stocks shrank slightly to 276 million metric tons.
Corn Yield Jumps Unexpectedly
USDA raised the national corn yield from September by 2.7 bushels per acre to 181.2 bushels — a shock when the trade was looking for a 0.7-bushel cut. That increased production by 234 million bushels to more than 16 billion bushels.
“Everybody kind of went through the motions with the USDA, thinking that with the yield reduction we saw last month, we were going to still reside around that 178-ish type of number,” said Brian Splitt of AgMarket.Net. “With all of the rain that was in Iowa and some of the early harvest reports we’re hearing for corn, the thought was that we would maybe see yield come down a touch more.”
Carryout Stocks Rise Sharply
USDA increased carry-in stock on corn by 173 million bushels as expected but did raise demand.
“This number definitely was about as bearish as you could get for yield,” Splitt said. “Now, we knew the beginning stocks were going to increase and they did accordingly — the 173 million bushels.”
The only bright spot came from demand increases. Feed residual rose 50 million bushels, exports increased 25 million bushels, and food, seed and industrial use climbed 50 million bushels. Total demand increased by 125 million bushels.
That increased carryout by 282 million bushels to 1.849 billion bushels and raised the stocks-to-use ratio back above 10%, which tanked the corn market.
“We very briefly had stocks-to-use below 10% at 9.7% last month. And now we’re back to 11.3%,” Splitt said. “So that 10% number really is a key stocks-to-use percentage that separates the possibility of a bigger picture, long-term bull market. We’ve definitely seen the wind taken out of the sails for that conversation today.”
World corn ending stocks also rose by 8.3 million metric tons, adding to the bearish tone.
Soybeans See Modest Yield Increase
Soybeans also saw a 0.3-bushel-per-acre increase in yield to 53.1 bushels. That raised production by 27 million bushels to a record 4.566 billion bushels with ample rains in much of the Corn Belt.
“The concern is going to be if yield went up today, and we just saw what the USDA did with corn, what do they do with bean yield in November?” Splitt said.
He said early harvest results have been strong in the central and eastern regions, offsetting quality issues in the West. Still, soybean ending stocks were only up 5 million bushels.
“Overall, we had a production increase of 17 million and we had a demand increase of 12. So only 5 million bushels get added to the new crop balance sheet for soybeans,” Splitt said. “That’s a pretty big victory, I think, all things considered.”
Wheat Stocks Also Rise
USDA raised wheat ending stocks 23 million bushels to 740 million bushels. World wheat ending stocks shrank slightly to 276 million metric tons.
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with Farm Journal - Dairy Today
One more combine pass. One more grain-cart trip. One more loaded truck crossing the end row.
When soils are wet, every trip across the field can leave a mark that lasts long after harvest is over. Soil compaction happens when equipment pressure squeezes out the pore space that roots need to access air and water, explains Jeremiah Lazo , Beck’s PFR research technician.
As soil structure deteriorates, water infiltration slows, oxygen becomes less available and roots struggle to push through the soil profile. The damage caused at harvest often shows up next season when crops need deeper roots to reach water and nutrients.
Here are four strategies to help you reduce compaction risk:
1. Wait for a dry window, when possible.
The simplest (and most obvious) way to reduce compaction risk is staying out of fields when soils are too wet. Even a short drying period can improve soil’s ability to support equipment.
Lazo recommends a simple field check — the ribbon test — to help you make the call: Grab a handful of soil and squeeze it. If it smears or forms a ribbon instead of crumbling apart, conditions are likely too wet for field traffic.
If harvest pressure and weather forecasts are making it difficult to wait, prioritize fields firm enough to support equipment and identify the most vulnerable areas. Avoiding the wettest parts of a field helps limit damage.
2. Reduce grain-cart and truck loads.
A full grain cart or heavily loaded truck puts substantial weight on the soil. When conditions are wet, that weight can compact soil well below the surface, where repairs are difficult and expensive.
Lazo recommends running grain-cart and truck loads at roughly half to three-quarters capacity rather than filling them completely when soils are marginal.
More trips may be needed, but lighter loads reduce risk associated with heavy axle weights. The right approach depends on soil conditions, equipment configuration and how much weight each axle carries.
A key point, Lazo adds: Don’t focus only on total equipment weight. Pay attention to how much weight each axle puts on the ground.
3. Manage tires, tracks and inflation pressure.
Tires and tracks influence how equipment weight is distributed across the soil surface. Properly sized flotation tires, duals and tracks can increase the footprint and help reduce surface contact pressure, Lazo says.
Tire inflation matters, too. Follow tire manufacturer’s recommendations for the actual load and operating speed rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all pressure setting.
But don’t assume tracks or flotation tires eliminate compaction risk. They help reduce surface pressure, but heavy axle loads can still compact deeper soil layers.
The bottom line: Manage both load and footprint. Neither one alone guarantees protection against compaction.
4. Keep heavy traffic in designated lanes.
Every trip across a field creates another opportunity for compaction. The more widely your equipment travels, the more acres may be affected.
Before harvest begins, establish a traffic plan that coordinates combine operators, grain-cart drivers and truck drivers.
Diagnose Before You Do Tillage
Ruts and suspected compaction after harvest can tempt farmers to bring out deep tillage equipment. But disturbing soil without knowing where the problem lies can waste time, fuel and money.
Lazo recommends using a penetrometer to identify compacted layers and determine their depth. Soil moisture affects penetrometer readings, so comparisons should be made under similar conditions — ideally when soil moisture is near field capacity rather than saturated or extremely dry.
Start by taking several readings in an uncompacted area with soil similar to the rest of the field. Then compare those readings with measurements from high-traffic areas, such as end rows, grain-cart paths and field entrances.
Look for consistent differences between the two areas to identify where compaction may be occurring. Use those findings to determine whether tillage is warranted and, if so, how deep the operation needs to go. Avoid working deeper than necessary.
Get all of Lazo’s recommendations in the video available at the link below:
When soils are wet, every trip across the field can leave a mark that lasts long after harvest is over. Soil compaction happens when equipment pressure squeezes out the pore space that roots need to access air and water, explains Jeremiah Lazo , Beck’s PFR research technician.
As soil structure deteriorates, water infiltration slows, oxygen becomes less available and roots struggle to push through the soil profile. The damage caused at harvest often shows up next season when crops need deeper roots to reach water and nutrients.
Here are four strategies to help you reduce compaction risk:
1. Wait for a dry window, when possible.
The simplest (and most obvious) way to reduce compaction risk is staying out of fields when soils are too wet. Even a short drying period can improve soil’s ability to support equipment.
Lazo recommends a simple field check — the ribbon test — to help you make the call: Grab a handful of soil and squeeze it. If it smears or forms a ribbon instead of crumbling apart, conditions are likely too wet for field traffic.
If harvest pressure and weather forecasts are making it difficult to wait, prioritize fields firm enough to support equipment and identify the most vulnerable areas. Avoiding the wettest parts of a field helps limit damage.
2. Reduce grain-cart and truck loads.
A full grain cart or heavily loaded truck puts substantial weight on the soil. When conditions are wet, that weight can compact soil well below the surface, where repairs are difficult and expensive.
Lazo recommends running grain-cart and truck loads at roughly half to three-quarters capacity rather than filling them completely when soils are marginal.
More trips may be needed, but lighter loads reduce risk associated with heavy axle weights. The right approach depends on soil conditions, equipment configuration and how much weight each axle carries.
A key point, Lazo adds: Don’t focus only on total equipment weight. Pay attention to how much weight each axle puts on the ground.
3. Manage tires, tracks and inflation pressure.
Tires and tracks influence how equipment weight is distributed across the soil surface. Properly sized flotation tires, duals and tracks can increase the footprint and help reduce surface contact pressure, Lazo says.
Tire inflation matters, too. Follow tire manufacturer’s recommendations for the actual load and operating speed rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all pressure setting.
But don’t assume tracks or flotation tires eliminate compaction risk. They help reduce surface pressure, but heavy axle loads can still compact deeper soil layers.
The bottom line: Manage both load and footprint. Neither one alone guarantees protection against compaction.
4. Keep heavy traffic in designated lanes.
Every trip across a field creates another opportunity for compaction. The more widely your equipment travels, the more acres may be affected.
Before harvest begins, establish a traffic plan that coordinates combine operators, grain-cart drivers and truck drivers.
- Designate travel lanes. Keep equipment on consistent routes whenever possible rather than crossing the field in different places with every load.
- Keep road trucks on firm ground. Use field edges or roadside staging areas when conditions allow, limiting the need for loaded semis to travel across wet fields.
- Plan entrances and exits. Decide where equipment will enter, unload and leave the field before harvest begins. Keep employees and family informed.
Diagnose Before You Do Tillage
Ruts and suspected compaction after harvest can tempt farmers to bring out deep tillage equipment. But disturbing soil without knowing where the problem lies can waste time, fuel and money.
Lazo recommends using a penetrometer to identify compacted layers and determine their depth. Soil moisture affects penetrometer readings, so comparisons should be made under similar conditions — ideally when soil moisture is near field capacity rather than saturated or extremely dry.
Start by taking several readings in an uncompacted area with soil similar to the rest of the field. Then compare those readings with measurements from high-traffic areas, such as end rows, grain-cart paths and field entrances.
Look for consistent differences between the two areas to identify where compaction may be occurring. Use those findings to determine whether tillage is warranted and, if so, how deep the operation needs to go. Avoid working deeper than necessary.
Get all of Lazo’s recommendations in the video available at the link below:
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with Farm Journal - Dairy Today
(WASHINGTON, D.C., October 8, 2026) — Today, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins sent a letter to all livestock ranchers holding grazing permits on U.S. Forest Service allotments, outlining the Department’s June 12, 2026 Grazing Directive and inviting producers to put it to work on their allotments.
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with USDA News
(Washington, D.C., October 8, 2026) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today it is issuing approximately $1.8 billion in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) payments to agricultural producers and landowners for their participation in key conservation programs for 2026. These payments include Grassland CRP payments that play an important role in the Trump Administration’s Ranchers First Initiative announced by USDA Secretary Brooke L.
Learn more about Agriculture in New York with USDA News
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