Agriculture is constantly evolving and staying ahead of change can feel challenging. My team and I at Nutrien Ag Solutions are focused on the major drivers bringing the most impact to US growers now and into the future. With these drivers in mind, our team strives to create whole-acre solutions that help growers manage risks to their operation, increase yield and create environmental resilience at the farm gate.
Dealing with increasingly volatile weather
Weather volatility, including frequent tornadoes and derechos in the Mississippi Valley and prolonged heat and drought in the West, poses the most unpredictable variable for US farmers. Extreme weather events exceeding two inches of rainfall in 24 hours have doubled across much of the Corn Belt in states like Iowa, Illinois and Kansas.
In the Midwest and Mid-South areas, such as Ohio, Tennessee and Arkansas, increased spring rainfall variability has shortened the average planting season by five days. Flash droughts are rising due to hotter, drier stretches between heavy rainfall events, forcing farmers to prioritize weather risk management more than ever.
Navigating a changing regulatory landscape
Growers today face mounting pressures—not just on production decisions and risk management but also on staying compliant with an increasingly complex regulatory environment. New or evolving policies often require extra steps to adapt operations, sometimes with short timelines.
Recent changes to requirements under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) are a case in point. To stay compliant, growers may be required to modify practices or adjust product use, often incurring more time, cost and planning effort than initially anticipated. Regulatory scenarios like this are becoming common, underscoring the need for early planning and reliable support.
Growers are not facing these changes alone. At Nutrien Ag Solutions, our Crop Consultants and Pest Control Advisors stay updated with the latest policy developments, working alongside growers to navigate regulatory requirements, adjust operational plans and preserve inseason potential.
New machine platforms, such as drones, enable agronomic insights from imagery that can be used for scouting, while the development of larger payloads is now allowing drone applications to be a viable solution for both specialty and row crops
Technologies that change how we farm
An argument can be made that we are now seeing new technology enter farming in a way that has the potential to shift production agriculture practices more significantly than anything since the introduction of genetically modified crops for herbicide and insect resistance in the late 1990s. The evolution of innovative farm equipment now executes agronomic recommendations and determines agronomic action.
Artificial intelligence-powered vision-based spraying is an excellent example of this new paradigm of agronomy coming to US farming. New machine platforms, such as drones, enable agronomic insights from imagery that can be used for scouting, while the development of larger payloads is now allowing drone applications to be a viable solution for both specialty and row crops. Even established technologies, like RTK, are finding new value through nozzle-by-nozzle control and innovative tillage equipment that maximizes the yield potential across the entire acre, even turn rows.
Lastly, investment from R&D seed companies in shortstature corn reduces yield loss from lodging and greensnap, helping to mitigate damage from severe weather and also offers the opportunity to change how we manage the crop throughout the growing season to deliver the promise of genetic potential.
Agronomic priorities
Nutrien Ag Solutions is investing its agronomic resources in three priority areas, given the systematic drivers for change in farming:
1.Weed Management - Weed management is on the cusp of significant disruption due to the convergence of regulatory influences, increasing herbicide resistance, introducing complex multi-stack trait solutions (particularly in soybeans) and emerging vision-based spraying technologies.
2.Soil Health - Advances in the analytical capabilities applied to soil biology, alongside growing interest in biological products and downstream demand for regenerative ag practices, are positioning soil health as the next frontier of agronomy.
3.Technological Advancements - The maturation of technologies such as remote sensing, artificial intelligence and equipment electrification, combined with new and evolving business models, will usher in a new era of "machine-enabled agronomy.”
We project that these three areas will be top of mind not only for growers but also for the broader agriculture industry. Our team at Nutrien Ag Solutions is here to navigate this evolution alongside our customers, delivering whole-acre solutions through our integrated agronomy and proprietary technologies.
