Tariffs: Where they’re hitting farmers, and what could come next. 7
Farmer invests in next generation of ag leaders. 8
Experts urge grain bin safety. 11
State pork producers launch apprenticeship12
Aerial applicator crashes draw attention to safety. 13
Plant ecologists fight to restore Midwest biodiversity..................14
Top Illinois crop adviser is chosen.........15
How AI is helping some small-scale farmers........................15
Research finds birds in light-polluted areas stay up late. 16
Beef prices up; beef herds, not so much
By Angela Bauer STAFF WRITER
Anyone who’s in charge of their family’s grocery shopping likely is aware of the rising cost of beef, whether the cheapest ground beef or priciest steak.
While higher prices can be an incentive for cattle farmerstoincreasethesize of their herd, according to theU.S.DepartmentofAgriculture, west-central Illinoiscattlefarmerssaycurrentpricesaren’tenoughto overcome other obstacles to herd growth.
“It can be (incentive) if you have the resources,” said Gary Hadden of Hadden Farms. “In central Illinois, not really.”
The complications are layered but start with the most basic, according to Clint Bland of Bland Family Farm.
“We are out of land,” Bland said. “The Illinois area has seen basically everything that can be farmed is being farmed.”
There also are labor costs, transportation costs andthecostofcattlefeedto figure into the mix.
“There’s so much more that goes into it than the price of the food,” Hadden said. “Feed costs, nutrition costs, medicine for vaccinations.Forexample,ifthe cowgetspinkeye.Ifyouget pinkeye, you definitely wantsometypeofantibiotic. It’s painful and you can lose your vision.
“It’stheexactsamething with cattle. Or they can get an infection in their foot from stepping on a wire, a bruised heel, they can pull a muscle. There are a lot of similarities (between cows and people) from a health standpoint. We want them to be healthy and lead a good life.”
Figuring out whether the business of increasing a herd makes sense — and dollars — is crucial, he said.
“It comes down to cost analysis,” Hadden said. “Do you have the labor (to care for more cattle)? La-
bor’s a huge part. Right now, we’re very, very dry. Do you have to purchase water? Haul water? You don’t want to be feeding them for nothing.”
Complicating matters further, decisions about cattle farming tend to be madeasmuchastwoyears inadvance,Blandsaid.Today’s high beef prices are, in part, the result of drought conditions a few years ago that led farmers to sell off much of their herds,leadingtoashortage of beef today, he said.
Thenthere’sthatlandissue.
Afterseveralyearsofincreasing prices, land values are down this year by 7% to 10% compared to 2024, according to Allen Worrell of Worrell Land Services. While it wasn’t uncommon in recent years to see prices Class A land to sell for $20,000-plus an acre, that price now is down to around $17,000 to $18,000 an acre, Worrell said.
Angela Bauer/Journal-Courier
Owner Clint Bland (left) and operations director Serena Basham check on the beef cattle herd at Bland Family Farm.
Angela Bauer/Journal-Courier
A red bull known as Robert Redford and Bland Family Farm owner Clint Bland keep an eye on each other during a recent visit by Bland to the bull's pasture.
From page A2
“It’s still expensive — it hasn’t dropped that much at all,” Hadden said.
Simply finding land to buy also is only getting harder, Bland and Hadden agreed.
Some land that could be farmed is being sold as hunting property,Blandsaid,addingthat foreign buyers also see Illinois farmland as an investment and solar companies are offering “very lucrative amounts per acre to lease land” for solar farms.
HaddenFarms,whichhashad a cattle operation for more than 60 years, has around 300 head of beef cows, Hadden said, noting thatthenumberofcattlefarmers intheregionandthesizeofthose farmers’ herds have shrunk over the past five to10 years.
“With that, you lose the pasture, lose the fencing,” he said. “To produce the hay (cows eat), you have to have the ground.”
Certainly not enough for Bland to take full advantage when a large piece of land does become available. As a first-generation farmer, he didn’t inherit any land and has to figure land paymentsintohisbusinessmodel, he said.
“To even buy land right now, the cattle market does not make enoughmoneytopayfortheland prices,” he said. “Land prices are
too cost-prohibitive. Interest rates are too high. We couldn’t make the land payment.”
West-central Illinois cattle farmers are creative when it comes to finding any available land, Hadden and Bland agreed.
“You have to be opportunistic when the time is right,” Bland said.
Along with owning two pieces of land, he rents some pasture
land. At 65 head of cattle, his space is maxed out, he said.
“We have multiple small patches of hay,” he said. “There arefolkswhowillletusbaletheir haysotheydon’thavetomowit.”
That could be a patch as small asaroadsideditch,Haddensaid.
“We have lots of little farms,” he said. “Everything that is able to be row-cropped now is rowcropped.Everythingwithasteep slope, we’ll fence it off and have cattle on it.”
Complicating matters further, decisions about cattle farming tend to be made as much as two years in advance, Bland said. Today’shighbeefpricesarepartially the result of drought conditions from a few years ago that led farmers to sell off much of their herds, which has led to a shortage today, he said.
Bland farms “on the fringes,” he said, adding that it’s made his operation “scrappy.”
Tomakethenumberswork,he began selling their products — from eggs and chicken to beef
and produce — directly to consumers.Thatsincehasexpanded to The Farms of Illinois, through which several small farms sell their products directly to consumers. The business also sells wholesale to restaurants and school districts. Items are orderedonlineanddeliveredweekly or can be picked up.
“We started working with The Corner Deli, too,” Bland said of the specialty grocer and deli on South Diamond Street. “We sell stuff to them and distribute their pasta.”
Bulk fat from processed cattle alsoisturnedovertoTheCorner Deli to be rendered into beef tallow, which The Farms of Illinois sells.
“When we started out, we triedtobethiscow-calfoperation that sold off at livestock markets,” Bland said. “Then we had that first idea, to process it to sell asretailcutsandseewhatitdoes. It’s the only way we were able to makeasmallcattleoperation(viable).”
Angela Bauer/Journal-Courier
Beef cattle graze at Bland Family Farm. A shortage of land and high prices for what little land is available mean farm owner Clint Bland can't increase the size of his herd.
Biochar shows promise in boosting soil health
By Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree STAFF WRITER
For farmers growing crops,therightnutrients are needed to ensure proper soil health.
Greg Simmons of RohrerSeedSolutionsin Waverly said one way that he is encouraging farmers to increase their soil health is by using biochar on their fields.
“It adds carbon to the soil, which in turn increasesorganicmatterin thesoil,whichinturnincreases the cation exchange capacity,” Simmons said. “this means there are more bonding sites, which means the soil holds more nutrients.”
With the growing cost of inputs for farmers, Simmons said there needs to be more focus on increasing the health of the soil to help improve the retention of nutrients.
Simmons said there are several versions of biochar, some using wastefromlivestockmanure, municipal waste treatmentplantsorother organic materials.
The program uses byproducts from the lumber industry, including saw dust, bark or other byproducts.
The waste or bypro-
ducts are then burned at a high temperatures through a process called pyrolysistomakeacharcoal that can then be spread across their field.
Once applied, Simmons said it works within the field to help create more bonding sites that holdthenutrientswithin the soil, as well as improve water retention, which will also help lower runoff.
“It gives the biology more room to grow,” Simmons said. “This is something that we have been trying to accomplish with cover crops.”
Having healthy soil alsoallowsforbetterwater retention and helps decrease erosion.
“Itallowswatertoflow deeper in compaction areas, or if there is clay soil,” Simmons said. He said that can help during periods where there is lesswater,aswellaswith keeping the nutrients bonded to the soil insteadofleechingwithexcess water.
Aaron Dufelmeier, director of the University of Illinois Extension Office that serves Calhoun, Cass, Greene, Morgan and Scott counties, said theextensiondidastudy ontheuseofbiocharseveralyearsagoandsawan increase in the yields where the biochar was
used.
“The yield averages were higher in the applied plots than where no biochar was added,” Dufelmeier said.
The study found that organicmattersawanincrease of 0.4% to 0.7% in plots where 20 tons per acre of biochar was added, while plots with 20 tons of biochar saw increasesof0.3%to0.4%of organic matter.
Dufelmeier said the history of biochar came
from South America where farmers were using it to make non-productivelandintoproductive land in order to increase the land available for farming.
“It is ideal for lower productive soils,” Dufelmeier said. “It lasts longer and doesn’t degrade as quickly. Some of those fields in South America are still producing and supporting crops when they were once unproductive.”
a revenue stream.”
Simmons said he has heardalotofgoodthings from the farmers that have signed up and used it. Though he hasn’t received full numbers as harvest hasn’t taken place yet, research prior indicated farmers would see increased yields.
“I’ve had a couple that have reached out after the first application and saidtheycantelladifference, but the combines haven’t rolled it yet,” Simmons said.
While the process of using biochar has been around for a few years, Simmons said many farmers don’t know abouttheEnvironmental Quality Incentives Program available to them.
The program is available through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, but Simmons saidhehasanagreement in place that will allow him to directly enroll farmers as well.
Farmers who enroll in the program will receive $200 per acre for up to 300 acres to apply the biochar to their fields.
“It is newer and not many know about it,” Simmons said. “Our goal is to work with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to get as much money and resources into the farmer’s handsaswecan.It’sbeneficial to the soil, beneficial to the grower and it’s
For him, he said he hopesfarmerswilltakea step back and look as some of the more traditionalaspectsoffarming. While they are able to add nutrients when needed, he said part of the process is making sure those nutrients stay and potentially getting some of those nutrients naturally.
“The biggest hurdle is getting the farmers to thinkaboutit,”Simmons said.
Dufelmeier said the practice of using biochar isn’t unheard of, but he said it is a lesser-used practiceforthearea,partially because there is a lot of productive soil in the region.
He said adding biochar to soils that are more dense and therefore hold less nutrients really benefit from the addition.
“When you have soils that have high clay with low organic matter, you have to spoon feed that crop,” Simmons said. “If you apply too much you see leeching. This can help allow that soil to hold more. One the flip side, you’re not just losing money, but also the ability to hold on to more.”
Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree/Journal-Courier
Greg Simmons of Rohrer Seed Solutions examines soybeans in one of his test plots.
Brewed chicken protein tested in pet food
By Sharita Forrest UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU
In a groundbreaking new project, scientists used precision fermentation to produce brewed chicken protein and evaluateditforuseinpetfood. Dogs that consumed the protein in their kibble during a six-month study hadbeneficialdigestiveeffects, the researchers found.
ScientistsattheUniversity of Illinois UrbanaChampaign and Bond Pet Foods in Boulder, Colorado, partnered on the project. The study is believed to be the first to use precision fermentation to produce a protein composed of both yeast and chicken protein and assess its safety in pet food. Precision fermentation has beenusedfornearlyhalfa century to produce ingredients like enzymes for manufacturing cheese, vanilla and vitamin B12.
Bond’sresearchanddevelopment team began by identifying proteins that were highly abundant in themuscletissueofchickens and then cross-referencing to their DNA sequence. The DNA was inserted into a specific site in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast) genome to express the chicken protein, which was cultivated in large stainless-steel tanks similar to those used in breweries or other industrial fermentation operations.
After the culture medium was removed, the biomass was harvested, heat treated and spray dried to produce the inactivated S. cerevisiae-containing chicken protein, which was formulated into the dog kibble. Healthy adult dogs that consumed the
brewed chicken protein during the six-month feeding study had beneficial changes in their fecal metabolites and gut microbiota, with no allergic reactions or adverse changes in blood chemistry or other markers, said Kelly Swanson, a professor and the director of the Division of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Illinois.
Thefindings,published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, indicated that the brewed chicken protein was safe and nutritious at proportions of up to 40% of the dogs’ food. Dogs that consumed it showed no differences in body weight, physical condition, blood chemistry or other markers compared with those in the control group.
“It was highly digestible and there were some beneficial changes to the dogs’ gut microbes and metabolites,” said Swanson, who was a corresponding author of the
study along with Tomas Belloso,thevicepresident of regulatory affairs at Bond Pet Foods, which funded the work.
“The main goal was to provide foundational protein for pet health, but it looks like there could be a secondary benefit from the soluble, fermentable fibers in the whole cell productforthedogs’large intestines as well,” Belloso said.
S.cerevisiaeyeastproducts have long been used in commercial pet food, oftentimes serving as palatants — ingredients that enhance the aroma and tasteofthefood,makingit more appetizing for pets. In addition to being a rich source of protein, brewer’s dried yeast also providescomplexBvitamins, aminoacidsandminerals, Swanson said.
Yeast products in pet foods have other positive effectsaswell,suchaselevating concentrations of beneficial fecal bacteria and immunoglobulin A,
an antibody in the mucosal secretions of the intestines that plays a crucial role in immune functions byneutralizingpathogens and other substances, Swanson and his colleagues found in prior research.
All four groups’ diets containedsimilarlevelsof organic matter, ash, crude protein and fat, the team wrote. Throughout the study, all four groups were fed amounts intended to maintain their body weight in order to avoid any potential physiological effects that might be associated with weight gain.
The team analyzed blood, fecal and urine samples and monitored the dogs’ food consumption, body weight and condition at four and 26 weeks and found no sta-
Protein continues on A9
Dogfoodcontainingthe brewed chicken protein was tested with a study population of 32 healthy adult dogs. During the two-week acclimation phase, all of the dogs ate a control diet, which was based on chicken byproduct meal and brewer’s rice, ingredients often used in commercial dog food. Then the dogs were divided into four dietary groups, three of which were randomly assigned to eat a diet containing 15%, 30% or 40% brewed chicken protein while those in the fourth group remained on the control diet.
Fred Zwicky/University of Illinois
A team led by professor Kelly Swanson (right) tested the safety, digestibility and nutritional value of dog food that included protein from yeast that was genetically modified with peptides from chicken DNA. Their results indicate that the ingredient is an effective source of protein. The team included Julio Mioto (from left), professor Patricia Oba and Meredith Smola.
Heat, humidity worsening corn fungal diseases
By Ben Singson STAFF WRITER
It’s been a sweltering summer—notjustforhumans, but for the crops, too.
According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, the average temperature in the contiguous U.S. for June was 71.2 degrees, about 2.8 degrees higher than the 20th century average and the seventhwarmest June in 131 years. Much of the country east of the Rocky Mountains, including parts of central and southern Illinois, went through record levels of humidity in June and July, with dew points risingtowhatTheAssociated Press called “near tropical levels.”
That heat and humidity is doing more than just straining air conditioning units,however.It’salsoallowing fungal diseases that infect corn to blossom, potentially affecting yield in this year’s harvest.
Matt Montgomery, agronomy education lead for Beck’s Hybrids, said corn in central Illinois
tends to be affected by four main full-year fungal diseases: gray leaf spot, northern corn leaf blight, tar spot, and southern rust. Gray leaf spot used to be the main disease of concern for growers, he said, but over the past 30 years,theotherthreehave become more prevalent thanks to disease introduction and modern farming practices.
These fungal diseases thrive in humid environments, Montgomery said, making this summer a “very conducive environment” for them to flourish. While the region mostly is afflicted by gray leaf spot, the rise of other diseases means that this muggy weather increases the chances of any kind of fungus to infect crops, he said.
“Any time you have a really humid environment, that’s really conducive for these fungal diseases,” he said.
West-central Illinois farmers have been directly experiencing those increasesindiseaseratesfor themselves. Dale Hadden, co-owner of Hadden Farms in Jacksonville,
Dale
of Hadden Farms examines corn leaves in his fields for signs of fungal disease. The above-average heat and humidity during this past growing season has caused problems for corn at a higher rate than years before.
said that fungal diseases have his his corn crops harder than in past growing seasons, particularly gray leaf spot, southern rust and northern corn leaf blight. He echoed Montgomery in attributing the rise in the disease to the summer weather
While the ears of corn themselves are unaffected, these diseases hit corn plants in their ability to photosynthesize — more
the crop into the combine head and you lose yield that way or create a lot of headache for yourself tryingtoactuallygetthecrop into the combine.”
Hadden estimated that fungal diseases has already cost Hadden Farms as much as 10-15% of its corn yield for this season, though he would not know for certain until the harvest concludes. He noted that the farm was “down considerably” fromlastyear’syields;Illinois farms brought in an average of 217 corn bushels per acre in 2024, up 11 bushels from 2023, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture.
specifically, their leaves, Montgomery said. Fungal diseasescausedeadspots, necrotic spots and lesions to appear on corn ear leaves, where they draw most of their photosynthetic power. As a result, anythingthataffectsthose leaves also is likely to affect yield, he said.
As a side effect of that infection, the corn plant will want to fill out any part of its leaf lost to the fungus no matter the cost, Montgomery said. To do so, the plant will “cannibalize” its own stalk to heal the leaf, he said. Weakening the stalk meansthecornwillhavea more difficult time physically getting inside the head of the combine harvester, thereby causing more loss, he said.
“You have the possibilityforadoublewhammy,” Montgomery said. “You can have out-and-out direct yield reduction from the loss of all those little leaves, those little solar panels, and then you can have this other thing whereit’sjusthardtofeed
in his area’s farms applying them.
“If you think about about past growing seasons, there were days you constantly heard planes flying over fields,” Montgomery said. “That really wasn’t the case in a lot of areas in central and westcentral Illinois this year. You just didn’t hear that constantbuzzofaerialapplications applying fungicide like you usually do.”
“Between the heat, lack of rainfall and those diseases, it’s been a perfect scenario for reducing the yields,” he said.
Tocombatthesediseases, farmers can plant hybrid corn seeds that have been bred to be more resistanttofungalinfection, Montgomerysaid.Henoted, though, that these hybrid variants are not able to be resistant to all the diseases at the same time, so farmers often use fungicides in conjunction with them because they “have seen how severe yield losses can be,” he said.
Hadden uses both hybrid plants and fungicide sprayed from airplanes and drones to prevent fungal diseases from infecting their crops. But those implements have beengrowingincost—up roughly 3-5% from where they were last year, he said. Montgomery said that fungal disease preventionmethodshavegotten expensive enough that, thanks to tight margins from low commodity prices, there has been “a very noticeable decrease”
While Hadden said he would like to think that commodity prices will risebackuptowherethey can afford to keep using fungicidal prevention methods, they might be “one of the things Neither Montgomery nor Hadden could say for certain if the issue of fungaldiseaseswouldgetbetter or worse in future growing seasons. While Montgomerysaidfarmers would most likely get goodatcombatingsomeof the current roster of diseases, he also expected newdiseasestocropupin the future
“I would imagine that we get good at maybe knocking down (or) holding back one or two of thosediseasesinthespectrumratherwellandkind of minimize our pressure from those,” he said, “but then we’ll probably replacethatwithsomeother full-ear disease that finds itswayintoourpartofthe world at some point.”
Hadden, meanwhile, said that the outlook for diseaseswoulddependon what kind of growing environment farmers have for that year.
“It has to have the right environment and every year, Mother Nature gives you a different environment,” he said. “You can’t really predict it, you just react to it.”
Ben Singson/Journal-Courier
Hadden
Tariffs: Where they’re hitting farmers, and what could come next
By Bridgette Fox STAFF WRITER
President Donald Trump made an effort earlierthisyeartoimplementaslewoftariffsthat peopleintheagricultural field are cautiously watching.
Tim Thompson, a farmer in Franklin, said he’s prepared to weather out the market fluctuations, though he’s thinks they’ll be beneficial in the long run.
For the shorter term though, Thompson, who chairs the Illinois Corn Marketing Board and works as a regional sales manager for Valent BioSciences Corp., said he’s had to change some things up this growing season.
“I made some major reductionsintheamount of fertilizer I applied, particularly to my soybeans,” Thompson said. “Ipulledsomethingsout ofthebank,andI’mtalkingaboutthesoilbankof mynutrientlevels,justto make some cost cutting opportunities, hopefully improve my ROI (return on investment) over the year, knowing that soybean prices are lower this year.”
He also had to change his buying schedule for nitrogen as well.
“A year ago, we bought nitrogen and hydrogen for around $560 a ton, and I just paid $775, fallapplied,” Thompson said. “Now, that’s continuallywentupeversinceI committed and made an early season purchase. Sofromamarketingper-
spective,Imadetheright decision at the time I did that, but that means I had to prepay take money out of my bank today, and go ahead and pay that crop.”
Thompson said he isn’t buying much new machinery either, insteadhe’slookingatbuying used equipment while updating what he has.UniversityofIllinois agricultural economist Joe Janzen said input costs, like fertilizer and equipment, are where most people can see someofthereal-timetariff effects.
“They don’t seem to be coming down,” Janzen said. “Having tariffs that impose costs on equipment manufacturers like Deere, Caterpillar and these other companies, that comes with a cost to the farmer too.”
China,thebiggestbuyer of U.S. soybeans, isn’t buyingnearlyasmuchas it was last year in retaliation against U.S. tariffs. Instead, the country been buying from Brazil, which makes U.S. soybean prices go down.
Janzen said people are stuckwatchingandwaiting to see how farmers willbeeffectedbyChina. He said the current trade policy is “unprecedented.”
“There’s kind of even more moving pieces to what’s going to happen to international markets, or how are governments going to intervene in international markets, now than maybe there has been in decades, if not longer,” Janzen said
earlier this month.
Beyondsoybeans,China cancelled more than 12,000 tons of pork shipments from the U.S. because of tariffs.
“Tosustaintheirlivelihoods and remain competitive, pork producers need certainty and stability – now as much as ever,” according to the National Pork Producers Council.
“[Recently], more than 100 pork producers converged on the HillinWashington,D.C., tounderscoretheimportance of trade for U.S.
Tariffs continues on A18
Tim Thompson, a Franklin farmer and chair of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, counts kernels on an ear of corn. Thompson pulled the corn from his field so he could explain what his harvest looked like this year.
Bridgette Fox/Journal-Courier
Farmer invests in next generation of ag leaders
By Hannah Spangler FARMWEEK
With one of his final gifts, the late Gene Daiber is planting seeds for the nextgenerationofagricultureleadersintheSt.Louis metro area.
As part of Gene Daiber’sestateplan,agenerous gifttotheIAAFoundation will be awarded over the next 10 years, supporting scholarships for graduating high school seniors and current college students from Madison, St. Clair and Bond counties who are pursuing an agriculture degree in a wide variety of career fields, fromtradestopostdoctoral work. It’s the first time the IAA Foundation has been asked to distribute such a substantial estate gift within a decade.
“Thiswillhavealasting impact for generations,” said Eric DeMange, presi-
dentoftheMadisonCounty Farm Bureau. “These kids are going to get started on the right track.”
Gene Daiber, a lifelong farmer and 25-year member of the Madison County Farm Bureau board,
wasborninHighlandand grew up on his family’s farm near Marine. After graduating from Triad
High School in 1961, he farmed alongside his motherforadecadebefore takingoverfullownership and operation of the farm until his retirement in 2014.
“He never stopped learning and never stopped bettering himself,” DeMange said, addingthatDaiberalsoserved on the county’s soil and water board, was active in his church and community,andwasgiventheMadison County member loyalty award in 2022.
His wife, Lillian, whom he married in 1984, described him as a quiet leader known for his meticulous recordkeeping and deep commitment to lifelong learning. He also served as a mentor for young farmers as well as other kids in the neighborhood.
That passion for mentoringandinvestinginthe next generation is at the heart of the scholarship’s mission. Lillian said she hopes the scholarship in-
spires students to value hard work and recognize itspotentialtohelpothers. She added that the gift. of an undisclosed amount, also reflects Gene’s commitmenttostewardship,a value the couple lived by every day on the farm.
“We had a shared value ofstewardshipandtaking care of everything,” she said.
In addition to honoring Gene Daiber’s values, the scholarship is designed to helpremovefinancialbarriers to education. According to the Education DataInitiative,theaverage totalcostofanin-statedegree at a public institution in 2025 is $108,584 for a four-year degree and $34,878 for a two-year degree, not including transportation costs and daily living expenses.
Claire Geiger, who teaches at Highland High School in Madison County, said her students often share how finances have a major influence on their
Courtesy of IAA Foundation
Gene Daiber included a donation to the IAA Foundation in his estate plan to ensure he could help future generations, but left the timing of the donation up to his wife, Lillian.
Courtesy the Daiber family
Gene Daiber farmed alongside his mother for a decade before taking over full ownership and operation of the farm until his retirement in 2014.
PROTEIN
From page A5
tistical differences among the dogs in the dietary and control groups. All factors remained within healthy ranges and no detrimental effects were observed throughout the study, Swanson said.
Analysesindicatedthat inclusion of the brewed chicken protein in the dogs’ diets decreased the digestibility of fats somewhat, although they remained highly digestible overall. The brewed protein also shifted some of thedogs’fecalmetabolites and microbiota. Fecal concentrations of the short-chain fatty acids butyrate, propionate and valerate — which reduce inflammation and have other beneficial effects — rose in proportion to the amount of brewed chicken protein in the dogs’ food, the team found.
Whiletheamountoffeces and fecal dry matter produced by the dogs in the three treatment groups decreased in inverse proportion to the amount of brewed chicken protein in their diet, their feces were still soft, moist and of acceptable quality, according to the study.
“Whenwewereformulating these diets, we knew there was a lot of soluble fiber in them, and thatwasonethingIwasa little nervous about — if it would cause loose stools or constipation, which is not a nice outcome for pets or their owners. And Iwashappytoseethatthe stool quality was not affected,” Swanson said. Interest in alternative protein sources for pets and humans has been increasing in recent years. Withhumanandpetpopulations continuing to grow, so are the needs for sustainable, high-quality
sources of protein, Swanson said.
“We’re thrilled to see such positive results from the University of Illinois study. It reinforces the promise of brewed chicken protein as a safe, effective and sustainable option for pet nutrition,” Belloso said.
The paper was co-written by animal sciences professor Patricia M. Oba, and alumni Julio Moto and Meredith Smola, who was also the first author. Pernilla Audibert, the co-founder and chief technical operations officer at Bond Pet Foods, also was a co-author.
LEADERS
From page A8
career decisions. When that factor is eliminated, new opportunities become possible. Any amount of financial assistance can make a meaningful difference in helping students reach their goals.
The IAA Foundation scholarship program has continued to grow and evolve, expanding its reach and impact across Illinois. With each new gift, like Gene Daiber’s, the program strengthens itsmissiontoinvestinthe future of agriculture through education.
“The simple fact of the matter is, education is expensive and helping to remove that piece is lifechanging,” Geiger said.
Gene Daiber included
the scholarship in his estate plan to ensure he could help future generations, though he left the timing of the donation up to his wife. Lillian Daiber said he “didn’t want any accolades while he was living,” but wanted the gift to make a difference after he was gone. When faced with the choice to wait until after her death or donate now, and considering the uncertain future of farmland in the area, she decided, “Why wait?”
“Whentheopportunity cameup(todonate),itjust seemed like the right thing to do,” she said.
Susan Moore, director of the IAA Foundation, said Gene Daiber’s gift reflects a deeper commitment than just financial support. His carefully crafted plans outlined a clear vision while allow-
ing the flexibility needed toawardscholarshipsina way that honors both his intentions and timing.
Gene Daiber’s name will soon be added to the Farming Legacy wall in the IAA building, joining others who have made lasting contributions, including Jean Stubblefield, Jacqueline Thomas, and Herman and Cecilia Wiedle. Daiber’s FFA jacket wasalsoacceptedintothe Foundation’s permanent archives, where his story will continue to inspire future generations.
“Each year, over the next decade, we will be able to celebrate the generosity of Mr. Daiber,” Moore said about the donation. “His gift is already reshaping how we think about scholarships, and how quickly we can make a difference. That’s the Daiber effect.”
Fred Zwicky/University of Illinois
A tray of modified yeast and dog food kibble.
‘It can be like quicksand’: Experts urge grain bin safety
By Phyllis Coulter FARMWEEK
A pair of researchers at the University of Illinois are urging farmers to prioritize safety while working in grain bins during harvest.
Some of the most frequent accidents happen when flowing grain gets stuck. Unfortunately, some farmers go inside the bin to unclog it, and the grain pulls them in. Of people pulled under the grain, approximately 90% don’t survive, said Salah Issa, University of Illinois assistant professor of agricultural engineering.
“Never go into a grain bin without a safety device to prevent being sucked in,” said Doug Gucker, University of Illinoiscommercialeducator. “Never enter when the grain is moving. It can be like quicksand.
“It takes more effort, but you are going to come home that evening,” he said of taking precautions.
In the U.S. there are between 20 and 40 grain entrapment incidents annually. Historically, 70% of grain entrapments resulted in fatalities, but in the past decade as more firefighters have been trained to help, that percentage has fallen, Issa said.
One of the most recent grain bin accidents in Illinois Aug. 20 took the life of Tom Ritter, a 73year-old farmer from Blue Mound, while he was preparing for his 51st harvest, as previously reported in FarmWeek. Elsewhere, a man trapped in a grain bin was successfully rescued near Nokomis and flown to a hospital Sept.
2
Illinois grain entrapment incidents fluctuate between zero and10 documented entrapments annually, but Issa says since this number reflectsonlyaccidentsdocumented in news clippings, the actual number is higher.
Issa has studied thousands of cases of grain bin accidents to try to understand why people were trapped, why some don’t survive and what precautions can be taken. His research focuses on injury prevention through predictive algorithms, evaluating new technologies, and implementing those that can reduce or remove hazards.
No matter how well a farmer manages a grain bin, there will be times when the bin gets clogged. The first step in safety is to plan ahead, he said. That might include installing a plug buster or even simple bars to break up any clogs. If one has a bin that gets clogged and has not taken any precautions, there are inexpensive options, he said.
Issa is studying the
replacing it with a oneinch steel pipe to insert high-pressure compressed air to break clumps.
“It’s not a perfect solution. You may have to do it multiple times, but it will break the clumps that block your auger. We tried it with a farmer at his grain bin,” Issa said, noting it took nearly twice as long but was effective.
get hot, so users should wear gloves.
use of compressed air to break up grain clumps. To use that tool, he suggests removing the auger from the flighting and
“It is a quick and easy – in relative terms – option for farmers.” However, he cautions that compressed air can also be dangerous. Wear safety equipment, including an N95 or higher mask, keep the nozzle away from the handler and be aware of any sparks. The pipe could
Using a grain vacuum is another solution, but again, farmers must be careful and do it from outside the bin. It takes two people to do it safely. It’s more doable when a person can open the side door. Gucker, a non-voting member of the Illinois Farm Bureau board of directors and president of the Illinois Extension Agricultural Association who reports on Extension activities across the state and new research at the University of Illinois, cautions farmerstorememberthe grain vac is much more powerful than a shop or home vacuum and is more difficult to handle.
“Treat it like a savings account — check on it,” Gucker said.
Check grain temperatures monthly. Some people have warning systems to alert them to declining grain quality, he said.
Monitoring is essential as poorer grain clogs more frequently. If it’s really bad, hire an external company to safely unload it, Issa said.
“Grain will get clogged; it will happen even if you are taking care of the grain very well,” Issa said.
Having a method to break grain clumps is crucial for every farmer to consider, he added.
Another important part of prevention is monitoring grain quality.
Michael Zecher/FarmWeek
First responders and farmers practice grain bin entrapment rescue techniques.
State pork producers launch apprenticeship
By Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree STAFF WRITER
The Illinois Pork ProducersAssociationhasestablished a new livestock apprenticeship program through the United States Department of Labor and Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for those interested in raising swine.
The apprenticeship would increase skills and help the apprentice gain necessary certifications to become a Swine Animal CareTechnician.Theprogram will work with Illinois Central College in East Peoria, John Wood Community College in Quincy, Kaskaskia College in Centralia, Lake
Land Community College in Mattoon and Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield to help provide a debt-free education and livestock certification.
Jennifer Tirey, executive director of the Illinois Pork Producers Association, said each of the selectedschoolshasastrong agricultural tie.
“These five community colleges were initially selected to participate becausetheyhavestrongagriculturally based programs and geographically represent a large portion oftheswineproductionin the state,” Tirey said.
“WhenIcontactedeachof thecommunitycollegesto gauge interest they were all very excited to partici-
IltonRogerio/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Illinois Pork Producers Association has established an apprenticeship.
pate and work alongside our association to increase job creation within the pork industry.”
The association is currently looking for pork
producers that would be willing to host an apprentice through the program. Those interested would sign an agreement with the student to offset their
tuition costs in exchange for workforce training.
The Apprenticeship Illinois Tax Credit will help offset the cost of the tuition for the producers for
up to $5,000 per apprentice per year.
The program should take roughly two years.
Those interested in the program should contact Tiery at jennifer@ilpork.com.
“Trade apprenticeships are very common in the state of Illinois,” Tirey said. “After connecting with Apprenticeship Illinois, they assisted us through the entire registration process. We worked with the five community colleges to ensure they had the high-quality curriculumourproducers were looking for, and less than six months later we areproudtoberollingout the first livestock focused apprenticeship program in Illinois.”
Aerial applicator crashes draw attention to safety
By Phyllis Coulter FARMWEEK
Skiesfillwithplanesand helicopters in rural Illinois every summer as corn and soybean fields need crop protection. However, the risk to aerial applicators was magnified in July with four crashes within eight days in Illinois.
An applicator plane crashed near the Ogle County Airport in Mount Morris along Illinois Route 64inmid-July.The23-yearold pilot, who was the sole occupantoftheplane,died.
Elsewhere, no one was injured when a plane crashed near Hartsburg on IllinoisRoute121closetothe Logan County Airport. Minor injuries were reported in a plane crash in Wyoming, and no injuries resultedfromahelicopteraccident near Bloomington, according to the National Traffic Safety Board.
Everyyear,thereisacrucial time in June and July when planes and helicopters weave low above the fields.
“There’s a lot of acres that must be sprayed very quickly. So that’s when we have accidents,” said Dennis Bowman, digital agriculture specialist with the University of Illinois Extension.
“With the windmill and cellphone towers, we have made the environment more dangerous,” he told FarmWeek.
For corn, most of the products are applied shortly after tasseling time. The soybean season is a little longer. So, July and early August are prime time.
“Already facing razorthin margins due to low crop prices and high input and land costs, farmers strive to set their crop up for success and reduce the negative impacts from
Catrina Rawson/FarmWeek
Meanwhile, farmers need chemicals applied quickly in a small, specific window.
stressors like weather and pests,” said Kathryn Seebruck, commercial agricultureeducator,UofIExtension.Thismightincludeaerialapplicationofcropprotection products such as fungicides and insecticides to prevent diseases and insects, respectively, from damaging the crop during this sensitive period, she said.
One advantage of helicopters over planes is that some can land on a platform on the back of a truck andtakeoffagain.Theability to hover and land in smallareasisanadvantage. However,statisticsshowfatalitiesareamixofbothhelicopters and airplanes, Bowman said.
Sofarin2025intheU.S., there have been four aerial
application fatalities, two with planes and two with helicopters. In Illinois, five aerial ag application accidents have been reported this year; three airplanes, one helicopter and a drone.
“Pilots are skilled, but they have to be alert every second,”Bowmansaid.“Pilots need to take time, not befatigued,andnotletconcentration slip.”
“The key thing for farmers is to be patient with the pilots,” Bowman said of farmers’ role in safety.
Foryears,planesandhelicopters ruled the skies over Illinois farmland, carrying out these tasks. Drones in ag were initially used for mapping and scouting. But the vehicles started taking off about three years ago when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) changed its rulestomakeiteasiertoap-
ply products using drones.
“I got mine three years ago,whenitwasfairlyrare, but they started showing up.Lastyear,thenumberof drones really increased, and we started to see them on a major commercial basis. It continues to grow,” Bowman said.
Spray drones were designed specifically for agricultural applications, and their size increased so they can cover more area.
As far as safety is concerned, drones stay in the field boundaries and don’t need to zoom up and
An aerial applicator applies pesticide during a steamy afternoon. Aerial application in agriculture is one of the most dangerous jobs in the U.S.
Courtesy of Illinois Farm Bureau Aerial application accidents this year in Illinois.
Safety continues on A18
Plant ecologists fight to restore Midwest biodiversity
By Rami Jameel UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS NEWS BUREAU
Imagine a prairie. How manyplantspeciesdoyou see?
Maybe you’re picturing yellow coneflowers, some little bluestem, perhaps a few asters. But plant ecologists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign say these ecosystems are much more diverse than many people realize.
Midwest plant ecology specialists Jeffrey Matthews,assistantprofessor in natural resources and environmental sciences, andJackZinnenoftheIllinois Natural History Surveyhavepublishedadatabaseofthousandsofplant species found in historic prairies — and that’s just one part of their comprehensive investigation of Midwest plant biodiversity.
Native plants, past and present
Prairies are one of the most endangered native ecosystems in the region only 1% of tallgrass prairie across Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin has
survived.
To build their database, called Relix, the team gathered and centralized existing data from studies of remnants. Remnants are small patches of ecosystems that survive otherwise widespread destruction. In this case, the researchers studied prairie remnants that have stayed relatively undisturbed since the arrival of Europeans to the continent.
Like prairies, most native wetlands, savannahs, andforestshavealsobeen degraded or destroyed. Their future depends on intentional plantings, whether that’s in nature preserves, gardens, or nature strips along roads and highways. You might even see prairie nestled betweenfieldsofcornand soy, as farmers cultivate native plants for the Conservation Reserve Program.
Whether you’re a landscaper, conservation manager, or farmer, you need to buy these plants from somewhere. This means the future of Midwestern plant ecosystems depends on seed and plant vendors. By analyz-
ing the gaps between the plants you can get and the plants we used to have, Matthews and Zinnen hope to bring biodiversity back to the Midwest.
“Seed mixes are enormously valuable, even if they’re flawed or not very diverse,” Zinnen said. “But progress can be made by getting some more of these species in.”
In addition to uncovering the biodiversity of a bygone era, the project is helping ecologists understand whether restored
ecosystems fill the same roles as remnants, especially whether they providesufficienthabitatand food for key species.
Surveying native plant landscape
Matthews and Zinnen began by creating databases of commercially sold seeds and plants. In 2022, the team documented plants sold by over 500 plant vendors, as well as all the species in over 1,000seedmixescommerciallyavailableintheMidwest. The databases revealedasignificantlackof biodiversity:lessthanhalf of regional native plants were commercially available, and many seed mixes overemphasized certain plants at the expense of others.
With a better understanding of who was selling what, the researchers could now dive deeper. In a 2024 paper published in Ecological Applications, they studied the influence of plants’ ecological characteristics on their commercial availability. They foundthatlong-lived,hardy species were more available than their more
mercial restraints Matthews and Zinnen described, restored ecosystems are markedly less diverse than remnants. It’s a feedback loop, Matthews said. “Most people’s experience of prairie ecosystems are restorations, not remnants. So when these low-diversity standard seed mixes are used, that reinforces the typicalideaofwhataprairie looks like.”
Why restore biodiversity?
ecologically sensitive counterparts, and certain plant groups and families were heavily over- or underrepresented.
“There’s a typological mindset: ‘A prairie is supposed to look like this,’” Matthews explained. “What we’re finding in all the remnants is that it’s not just typical prairie species. There are forest species, wetland species creeping in at the edges fromtheadjacentforestor marsh—notjustthestandard species that were overrepresented in the commercial landscape.”
Informed by his previous career in the native plant industry, Zinnen also believes that commercial viability is a key factor. During his doctoral studies, Zinnen researched “conservative” plant species. These plants are sensitive to environmental degradation and need high-quality ecosystems to grow. They might be difficult to cultivate and collect seeds from, so they’re less likely tobefoundinnativeplant nurseries or seed mixes.
Asaresultofthe“typologicalmindset”andcom-
Matthews and Zinnen’s love for native Midwest ecosystems is clear, and they believe in the intrinsic worth of high-quality, diverse restoration projects. However, they also emphasized the practical benefits of improved restoration: plant diversity is the basis for overall biodiversity, they said.
The team revealed the potential implications of less-diverse restorations in another 2024 paper, published in Restoration Ecology, in which they compared pollinator seed mixes to prairie remnants across the Midwest. They foundacriticallackofearly-blooming species, meaning pollinators that become active in the spring might not find enoughfoodtoeatinplots planted with these seed mixes.
Diverse, high-quality prairies and wetlands can supportadazzlingvariety of insects, including pollinators that are vital for maintainingourfoodsupply. More plant species mean more diverse and numerous insect populations — a vital ecological need as insects decline worldwide. These insects arealsofoodforotheranimals,suchasbirds,mammals, amphibians, and
University of Illinois News Bureau
Butterfly milkweed grows at Prospect Prairie, a remnant in Ford County.
Top Illinois crop adviser is chosen
By Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree STAFF WRITER
Illinois Farm Bureau and the Certified Crop Adviser Board have named Dennis Bowman as the Illinois Certified Crop Adviser of the year for his role in educating about cutting-edge agricultural technology.
Bowman, of Urbana, has played a large role in theCertifiedCropAdviser program and has servedontheboardfor14 years.Heservesasapermanent, ex officio representative of the University of Illinois Extension.
He is serving as digital agriculture specialist for the Extension and combinestraditionalcropadvising with new technologies such as drones, artificial intelligence and geographic information systems.
During his time on the board he has suggested various speakers and programs to help benefit farmers.
“HavingtheCCA(designation) means that you meet a certain standard ofknowledgeandexperience in education,” Bowman said. “The farmer knows the person they’re dealing with has agreed to an ethics standard and is staying current with the knowledge because of the continuing education units required to keep certification.”
He has been providing information to farmers
How AI is helping some small-scale farmers
By Gregory Gondwe ASSOCIATED PRESS
Alex Maere survived the destructionofCycloneFreddywhenit tore through southern Malawi in 2023. His farm didn’t.
The 59-year-old saw decades of work disappear with the precious soil that the floods stripped from his small-scale farm in the foothills of Mount Mulanje.
He was used to producing a healthy 1,870 pounds of corn each season to support his three daughters and two sons. He salvaged just 17 pounds from the wreckage of Freddy.
“This is not a joke,” he said, rememberinghowhisfarminthevillage of Sazola became a wasteland of sand and rocks.
Freddy jolted Maere into action. Hedecidedheneededtochangehis age-old tactics if he was to survive.
He is now one of thousands of small-scalefarmersinthesouthern
African country using a generative AI chatbot designed by the nonprofit Opportunity International for farming advice.
AI suggests potatoes
Board.
for 50 years to help them makeinformeddecisions about issues from nutrient, soil and water management, pest management and crop production.
Talon Becker, a colleagueatUniversityofIllinoisExtension,saidthe award is much deserved.
“From a programming and leadership aspect, Dennis has exhibited excellence during his 40plus years with Extension,” Becker said. “It is impossible to know how many acres Dennis’ advice impacts annually, but with the statewide and regional nature of his outreach, it is likely many thousands.”
The Malawi government is backing the project, having seen the agriculture-dependent nation hit recentlybyaseriesofcyclonesandan El Niño-induced drought. Malawi’s
Farmers continues on A17
Courtesy of the Illinois Farm Bureau Dennis Bowman of Urbana was named the 2025 Illinois Certified Crop Adviser by the Illinois Farm Bureau and Certified Crop Adviser
Thoko Chikondi/Associated Press
Alex Maere (right) uses the Ulangizi AI chatbot with a fellow farmer in Mulanje, southern Malawi.
Research finds birds in light-polluted areas stay up late
By Kim Rendfeld
Birds that are active during thedaysinglaterintothenight in places with significant light pollution, according to research by a Southern Illinois University Carbondale professor and his colleague.
Brent Pease, an assistant professor in SIU’s School of ForestryandHorticulture,and Neil Gilbert, an assistant professorintheDepartmentofBiology at Oklahoma State University,analyzeddatagathered from around the world, comparing more than 180 million bird vocalizations in a single year with global satellite imagery.
“We were shocked by our findings: Under the brightest night skies, a bird’s day is extended by nearly an hour,” Pease said.
Pease and Gilbert’s paper, “Light pollution prolongs avian activity,” was published in Science magazine.
The project came about in hisefforttoexciteundergraduates about birds. Two years ago,Peaseinstalledacomputer with an attached microphone at Touch of Nature Outdoor Education Center to broadcast birdsong in the main campus’ Agriculture Building 8 miles north, where his department and others are housed.
What resulted was a basic data dashboard on the Ag Buildings’ monitors.
Then, Pease employed BirdWeather, which makes sophisticated recording devices with WiFi, GPS and sensors connected to the BirdNET database and its machine learning from the Cornell Lab of OrnithologyandtheChemnitzUniversity of Technology. BirdWeather’sdashboardprovided a better visualization of what bird species were in the area.
“We started seeing — in real time — which birds were at Touch of Nature, right in our AgricultureBuilding,”hesaid. “I realized that I stumbled up-
on something really important for wildlife research. All of a sudden, we not only know where species are but how they are behaving 24/7.
“For decades, we have been steadily improving our ability to predict where species are and how many individuals thereare.ButBirdWeatherunlocked behavioral research at large geographic and time scales. We could start to learn at a scale never before — howbirdswererespondingbehaviorally to human forces.”
As trail cameras had revealedaround-the-clockmammal behavior about 25 years ago, BirdWeather, along with BirdNET, could now do for birds.
“We are just now entering the golden age of avian conser-
vation, all through machine learning and participatory science,” said Pease, who has led severalcitizen-scienceprojects to assess wildlife on the SIU campus and to record sounds of nature during the April 8, 2024, eclipse.
With BirdNET, Pease and Gilbert used machine learning toconvertbirdvocalizationsto visualizations called spectrograms, with a distinct visual pattern for each bird species. BirdNET then cross-checked the pattern with spectrograms of more than 6,000 species in its database.
“Themachinelearningalgorithm makes it possible to analyze 24/7 audio recordings, which would otherwise take lifetimes to listen to,” Pease said.“NeilandIarethefirst,to
our knowledge, to apply and analyze the BirdWeather data in this way. We have many research options, but first we focused on how birds are responding to global light pollution, which is a growing concern for humans and wildlife alike.”
Pease noted that birds staying up an hour past their normal bedtimes was an average. Actualtimesvariedbyspecies.
“The next question was: why?” Pease said. “What is drivingthisresponsebybirds? We had the idea that maybe it was a species’ photoreceptor sensitivity – their eyesight. Andthisturnedouttobeakey factor. Species with large eyes relativetotheirbodysizehada disproportionately stronger response to artificial light at
night. They were more sensitive to light at night than species with small eyes.”
The final question – is the impact positive, negative or neutral – will require further study. Birds might have more time to forage for food and to mate, but an hour less sleep could be detrimental to their health.
“This is citizen-science at its best,” Pease said. “A technologydesignedforpeopletocheck out the species in their own backyardshasacquiredanunprecedented amount of data since 2021 – over 1.4 billion vocalizations from more than 11,000 locations across the globe. Neil and I are determined to continue to apply the technology for wildlife conservation.”
Rusty Bailey/SIUC Media & Communication Resources
Brent Pease is an assistant professor in forestry and horticulture.
FARMERS
From page A15
food crisis, which is largely down to the struggles of smallscale farmers, is a central issue for its national elections next week.
More than 80% of Malawi’s population of 21 million rely on agriculture for their livelihoods and the country has one of the highest poverty rates in the world, according to the World Bank.
The AI chatbot suggested Maere grow potatoes last year alongside his staple corn and cassavatoadjusttohischanged soil. He followed the instructions to the letter, he said, and cultivated half a soccer field’s worth of potatoes and made more than $800 in sales, turning around his and his children’s fortunes.
“I managed to pay for their school fees without worries,” he beamed.
AI, agriculture and Africa
Artificial intelligence has the potentialtoupliftagriculturein sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 33-50 million smallholder farms like Maere’s pro-
duce up to 70-80% of the food supply, according to the U.N.’s InternationalFundforAgricultural Development.
Yet productivity in Africa — with the world’s fast-growing population to feed — is lagging behind despite vast tracts of arable land.
As AI’s use surges across the globe, so it is helping African farmers access new information to identify crop diseases, forecast drought, design fertilizers to boost yields, and even locateanaffordabletractor.Private investment in agriculturerelated tech in sub-Saharan Africa went from $10 million in 2014 to $600 million in 2022, ac-
cording to the World Bank.
But not without challenges. Africa has hundreds of languages for AI tools to learn. Even then, few farmers have smartphones and many can’t read. Electricity and internet service are patchy at best in rural areas, and often non-existent.
“One of the biggest challengestosustainableAIuseinAfricanagricultureisaccessibility,” said Daniel Mvalo, a Malawian technology specialist. “Many tools fail to account for language diversity, low literacy and poor digital infrastructure.”
Man with the smartphone
TheAItoolinMalawitriesto do that. The app is called Ulangizi, which means advisor in the country’s Chichewa language. It is WhatsApp-based andworksinChichewaandEnglish. You can type or speak your question, and it replies with an audio or text response, saidRichardChongo,Opportunity International’s country director for Malawi.
“If you can’t read or write, you can take a picture of your crop disease and ask, ‘What is this?’ And the app will re-
spond,” he said.
But to work in Malawi, AI still needs a human touch. For Maere’s area, that is the job of 33-year-old Patrick Napanja, a farmer support agent who brings a smartphone with the app for those who have no devices. Chongo calls him the “human in the loop.”
“I used to struggle to provide answers to some farming challenges, now I use the app,” said Napanja.
Farmer support agents like Napanja generally have around 150-200 farmers to help and try to visit them in village groups once a week. But sometimes, mostofanhour-longmeetingis taken up waiting for responses to load because of the area’s poor connectivity, he said. Other times, they have to trudge up nearby hills to get a signal.
Theyarethesimplebutstubborn obstacles millions face taking advantage of technology that others have at their fingertips.
Trust critical, scaling up difficult
ForAfricanfarmerslivingon the edge of poverty, the impact of bad advice or AI “hallucinations”canbefarmoredevastat-
ing than for those using it to organize their emails or put together a work presentation.
Mvalo, the tech specialist, warned that inaccurate AI advice like a chatbot misidentifying crop diseases could lead to action that ruins the crop as well as a struggling farmer’s livelihood.
“Trust in AI is fragile,” he said. “If it fails even once, many farmersmaynevertryitagain.”
The Malawian government has invested in Ulangizi and it is programmed to align with the agriculture ministry’s own official farming advice, making it more relevant for Malawians, said Webster Jassi, the agriculture extension methodologies officer at the ministry.
But he said Malawi faces challenges in getting the tool to enough communities to make an extensive difference. Those communities don’t just need smartphones, but also to be able to afford internet access.
For Malawi, the potential may be in combining AI with traditional collaboration among communities.
“Farmers who have access to theapparehelpingfellowfarmers,” Jassi said, and that is improving productivity.
Thoko Chikondi/Associated Press
A farmer uses the Ulangizi AI chatbot in Mulanje, southern Malawi.
FIGHT
From page A14
reptiles. Less diverse ecosystems, by contrast, support fewer animals. “As we say in ecology, diversity begets diversity,” Zinnen explained.
Andasweloseplantdiversity, we lose much more than animal habitat. For example, most plant matter in prairies is underground,indeep,dense root networks. These roots are important food sources for insect larvae, but they also store carbon underground, prevent soil erosion, and are involved in a staggering number of interactions with fungi, bacteria, and other soil creatures. Therefore, preserving prairie plant diversity is critical to the overall health of our ecosystems and climate.
Matthews and Zinnen hopetocontinuestudying the commercial availability of native plants and related restoration outcomes. Relix will be fundamental to their work going forward, as they start to survey restored prairies and compare them to remnants.
They’ve also narrowed down roughly 2000 observed plant species to a list of the 900 most common ones — so prairie plant vendors and restoration practitioners can translate the team’s research into results on the ground.
The more we know about Midwestern plant speciesandthecommunities they form, the better we will be able to bring them back to Illinois. Understanding the makeup of historic ecosystems is critical to inform restoration practices; vendors and planters can choose species that are resilient, easy to plant, and fill necessary ecological roles. For example, Zinnen suggests rounding out pollinator mixes by adding hardy spring bloomers, like wild strawberry, wild garlic, golden alexander, spiderwort, and wild indigo.
Want help implementing this cutting-edge research in your garden or farm? Contact your local Illinois Extension office for expert advice. For training in working with native plants, see Extension’s Master Naturalist Program.
University of Illinois News Bureau Midwest plant ecology specialists Jeffrey Matthews, assistant professor in natural resources and environmental sciences, and Jack Zinnen of the Illinois Natural History Survey have published a database of thousands of plant species found in historic prairies — and that’s just one part of their comprehensive investigation of Midwest plant biodiversity.
SAFETY
From page A13
around for the next pass. If something does go wrong, there’s no pilot on board. Spray drones also minimize the risks associated with carrying large volumes of hazardous materials and aviation fuel, as they typically carry much smaller payloads, Bowman
said.
While drones offer a higher degree of safety, manned crop dusters still have several key advantages,especiallyforlarge-scale agricultural operations. Manned aircraft can carry much larger payloads and cover hundreds to thousands of acres per day at significantly faster speeds, making them more efficient. Their longer operat-
ing times also make them well-suited for continuous, high-output applications. Although drones are advancingquickly,theirlimited battery life, smaller coverage capacity, and regulatory restrictions currently make them less cost-effective for large operations.
“Astechnologyandregulations evolve, swarms of drones working in coordination will likely overcome
many of today’s limitations,” Bowman said.
“One of the paramount advantages of advancing agriculturaltechnologylike dronesisthattheymakeag work easier and, more importantly, safer. As their benefits are realized, they mayjustbecomeasmuchof a familiar sight in the summer as crop dusting airplanes and helicopters,” he added.
TARIFFS
From page A7
pork producers with their congressionalleadersandasktheU.S. trade representative to continue negotiations for meaningful market access.”
Thompsonsaidherecommends farmerslikehimtosaveupmoney now in preparation for the future andbuildrelationshipswithlegislators.
“Save for a rainy day because I think,rightnow,we’reinprobably a third year of a downside, and I don’t foresee the next two years to improve much better,” Thompson said.
caused by the weather.
Photos by Bridgette Fox/Journal-Courier
Franklin farmer Tim Thompson (left) shakes hands with Tyler Angenendt. Angenendt was delivering fuel to Thompson's farm.
Tim Thompson, a Franklin farmer and chair of the Illinois Corn Marketing Board, looks at two ears of corn from his field. Thompson said the blemish at the top of the corn was
