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🚜 Your Move: Start planning now. Price seed and fertility inputs before spring demand kicks in. Consider allocating part of this aid toward regenerative fertility, like litter or residue-building amendments, that pays you back in both yield and system resilience.
OTHER STORIES
Soil Erosion Rearing Its Head After Dust Storms
👉 NEWS : Minnesota faced severe wind erosion this year—blamed on a dry winter and thaw-freeze cycles (Agweek).
✅ WHY IT MATTERS: Erosion eats yield potential. Prevention is faster, cheaper, and more effective than recovery.
🚜 YOUR MOVE: Get covers or poultry litter down post-harvest to hold soil and moisture in place. Even minimal residue cover makes a difference.
Smarter Fertilizer Use = Better Margins
👉 NEWS : Iowa State’s updated soil fertility guide helps refine nutrient decisions—lowering costs and boosting ROI (Farm Progress).
✅ WHY IT MATTERS: With input prices up and margins tight, fine-tuning fertilizer plans can protect profitability.
🚜 YOUR MOVE: Post-harvest, recalibrate your nutrient plan using updated soil tests. Adjust rates based on poultry litter inputs and real field needs.
SEPTEMBER: 🌤️ Cooler days and scattered showers are lining up a prime post-harvest prep window.
🌱 Cover Crop Survival: It’s past prime seeding, but if you got them in early, monitor stand success. Snow cover will help root survival—especially rye, triticale, and hardy blends.
CBOT NUMBERS
CORN
DEC ’25: 4.40 ⅜ | MAR ’26: 4.48 0
Summary: Corn futures strengthened this week—Dec. and March contracts posting solid gains. Improved export demand and tightening global supply helped support the market.
Outlook: Basis remains the key profit driver. If your local bids are holding firm, this is a smart window to lock in margins on a portion of 2025 production. Charts look steady, but don’t assume a post-holiday rally.
SOYBEANS
JAN ’26: 10.87 ⅛ | MAR ’26: 10.98 ⅛
Summary: Soybeans slipped across contracts, reflecting ongoing weakness in export demand and no major shifts in USDA projections. Brazil’s planting delays haven’t created enough concern to lift prices yet.
Outlook: With limited upside and global demand still soft, now’s the time to manage risk rather than hope for a rally. If your basis is strong, consider scaling in sales.
WHEAT
DEC ’25: 5.36 ⅛ | MAR ’26: 5.34 ¼
Summary: Wheat stayed essentially flat, with heavy global stocks continuing to cap any upward momentum. Weather concerns abroad haven’t been strong enough to move the market.
Outlook: If storage costs are rising and your basis is reasonable, this may be your cleanest exit before January pressure sets in.
Source: AgWeb Futures (as of Dec 9, 2025)
EVENTS
Minnesota Organic Conference
Jan 9–10, 2026 | 📍River’s Edge Convention Center, St. Cloud, MN
A cornerstone winter event for organic, regenerative, and transitioning growers. Sessions include fertility strategies with compost and litter, soil biology, market outlooks, and systems for reducing synthetic inputs.
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Ag Expo 2026 (MN Corn & Soybean Growers)
Jan 28–29, 2026 | 📍Mayo Clinic Event Center, Mankato, MN
One of Minnesota’s premier winter agriculture events, featuring market outlooks, policy discussions, agronomy sessions, and a full exhibitor floor covering fertility, equipment, and soil-health technologies.
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Small Grains Winter Workshop Series (UMN Extension)
Jan–Feb 2026 | 📍Multiple Locations Across Minnesota (Rochester Feb 18)
A winter workshop series focused on wheat, oats, barley, and integrated rotations. Expect updates on disease management, fertility planning, winter survival, and the economics of adding small grains to corn/soy rotations.
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Ground Work—A Soil Health Event Series
Feb 12, 2026 | 📍Stewartville, MN
Join Return for our inaugural soil health gathering. We'll be hosting Mitchell Hora, and other local producers to explore the bottom line on soil health. Learn more about the role of poultry litters as part of an ongoing soil-building, margin-growing system.
Strip Till Makes Dollars and Sense
Feb 18–19, 2026 | 📍Lamberton & Lake Benton, MN
A two-day, two-location workshop series focused on the economics and management of strip-till systems. Sessions cover soil-health impacts, input savings, nutrient placement, and yield/ROI comparisons — with farmer case studies and technical guidance. Hosted by the Minnesota Soil Health Coalition.
More Info
Let’s Talk Soil, Live.
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