AgCast by Purdue Commercial Agriculture

Buying more farmland is a common way to grow a farming operation. But with tight crop margins, high land values and borrowing costs, is it always the best path to profitability? On this AgCast episode, hosts Chad Fiechter and Todd Kuethe are joined by Nick Paulson of the University of Illinois Farmdoc team for a conversation with Matt and Darin Riggs, the farming brothers behind Riggs Beer Company in Urbana, Illinois. When their father told them the family’s 300-acre farm wasn’t big enough to support the next generation, they decided to find another way. Their answer was unconventional: build a brewery around the grain they grow. The brothers share how they turned that idea into a business, prepared themselves before making the investment, and built a model that creates another market for their grain. They also explain why they refused to put the family farmland up as collateral, how they learned to grow without overextending, and why they believe making their existing acres more profitable can be a better strategy than simply adding more land. In this conversation: Why buying more acres isn’t the only path to farm growth How diversification can create new opportunities for farm income Turning a commodity crop into a differentiated, value-added product Protecting the farm while financing a new business Why a strong business plan, industry experience and learning from others matter How the brothers think about risk, cash flow and sustainable growth What other farmers can learn from doing things differently When margins are tight, the standard answer isn’t always the best answer. The Riggs brothers’ experience offers a practical look at thinking beyond the usual playbook and finding ways to make the farm you have more profitable. Listen in and consider: What opportunities could help your operation capture more value without simply taking on more land and debt? AgCast is a podcast from the Purdue University Center for Commercial Agriculture, bringing commercial farmers and agribusiness professionals insights on the decisions shaping farm profitability and the agricultural economy.

What if you could give AI years of your farm’s data and ask it to challenge the decisions you’re making? Joe Dykhuis, President at Dykhuis Farms in Hamilton, Michigan, took that question seriously.  After Chad Fiechter challenged the idea that AI would change much about farm management, Joe decided to build his own farm-management AI tool using Purdue farm management materials and Dykhuis Farms' production and financial data. What happened next surprised Chad and Todd. Joe explains how AI challenged assumptions in a major capital investment decision, acted as an “adversarial checker,” and analyzed about 10 years of hog-loading data in minutes. It also identified patterns involving weather, cleanout timing, labor and logistics that would have taken far more time to uncover using traditional analysis. AI is only as useful as the data, context and management fundamentals behind it. Joe, Chad and Todd talk about what this means for farmers, where AI can actually save time, why “truth sources” matter, and whether the future of farm decision-making might be less about building the perfect spreadsheet and more about building your own tools as you need them. This isn't a conversation about replacing farm managers with AI. It’s about whether AI can become another tool that helps farmers ask better questions, examine their assumptions and make more informed decisions. In this episode: How Joe built an AI tool around real farm data Using AI to challenge a major capital investment decision What 10 years of hog-load data revealed Why good data and farm-management fundamentals still matter How AI can connect information that wasn't originally collected for analysis What farmers should think about before turning AI loose on their own data Subscribe to the Purdue Commercial AgCast for research-based conversations that help commercial farmers and agribusiness professionals make better management decisions.

How do farmers make decisions—and what can the growing amount of data generated on farms tell us about those decisions? If you've followed Purdue's Crop Basis Tool or the Center's monthly basis updates, you've probably already heard from Josh Strine. After completing his PhD at Purdue, Josh is staying with the Center for Commercial Agriculture as a postdoc, where he'll continue working on extension tools and research involving farm markets, technology and agricultural finance. In this episode, Josh talks about his path from growing up on a corn and soybean farm in central Ohio to agricultural economics and Purdue. He also explains what he hopes to explore next—including a question that connects his experience on the farm with his research interests: why do farmers make the decisions they make, and what can we learn by combining agronomic information, farm-level data and economics? Josh, Chad and Todd also discuss precision-ag data, agricultural technology, farm lending, extension and what it means to move from a PhD student into a research role. And, of course, there's a little time for Todd and Chad to get Josh off track. Subscribe to the Purdue Commercial AgCast for monthly conversations about the decisions, markets and issues shaping commercial agriculture.

Farm equipment markets are constantly changing, but what can auction data tell us about where agriculture is headed? In this episode of the Purdue Commercial AgCast, hosts Chad Fiechter and Todd Kuethe are joined by Andy Campbell, Director of Insights at Tractor Zoom, to discuss how data is reshaping equipment markets and the decisions farmers make every day. The conversation explores what drives equipment values, how auction trends reflect broader economic conditions, the growing role of artificial intelligence in agriculture, and why the next generation of farm machinery may look very different from today's fleets. Whether you're evaluating your next equipment purchase, watching machinery values, or simply interested in where agricultural technology is headed, this episode offers practical insights grounded in real-world data. In this episode: How TractorZoom collects and analyzes equipment market data What influences used equipment values What today's equipment market says about the farm economy How AI is changing agriculture and equipment businesses Why autonomous machinery could transform farming over the next 20 years Subscribe to the Purdue Commercial AgCast for research-based conversations that help commercial farmers and agribusiness professionals make better management decisions.

AgCast is back — with new vigor but the same goal: bringing farmers and agricultural leaders together for conversations about the ideas, businesses, and decisions shaping the future of agriculture. In the first episode of the new season of AgCast, Chad Fiechter and Todd Kuethe sit down with Hunter Swisher, CEO and founder of Phospholutions, to explore one of the most important — and least understood — challenges facing modern agriculture: phosphate fertilizer. Phosphorus is essential for crop production, but it’s also a finite resource controlled by a handful of countries around the world. As fertilizer prices remain a major concern for farmers, this conversation breaks down what’s happening behind the scenes — from phosphate mining and global shipping routes to fertilizer production, supply chain disruptions, and what it could mean for farmers heading into future growing seasons. Hunter explains how Phospholutions is working to improve phosphate fertilizer efficiency, why traditional MAP and DAP fertilizers lose much of their value after application, and how new technology could help farmers produce more with fewer inputs. Chad and Todd also discuss: • Why fertilizer supply chains are more complicated than most farmers realize • How global events can impact input availability and prices on the farm • Why fertilizer innovation has been slower than other areas of agriculture • What farmers should understand about phosphate availability heading into 2027 • The future of ag technology, startups, and solving problems across the food system AgCast brings farmers and agricultural leaders together for conversations about the ideas, businesses, and decisions shaping the future of agriculture. Topics: fertilizer prices, phosphate fertilizer, MAP fertilizer, DAP fertilizer, farm inputs, agriculture supply chains, crop production, ag technology, farm profitability