For Sheridan Skala, Owatonna, Minnesota (Steele County, family farm heritage) Friday, July 3, 2026. Filed by The Mi Farm AI Desk. Weather, Owatonna, MN
What this means for today: A chance of showers and thunderstorms before 7am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between 7am and 3pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 83. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. Source: NOAA National Weather Service point forecast for Owatonna, MN, pulled this morning. Hour by Hour, the day ahead
Source: NOAA National Weather Service hourly forecast and station observations, pulled this morning. Grain and Livestock, corn, soybeans, wheat, cattle
Source: Chicago Board of Trade. Cal's Market ReadOvernight, corn added about 4 cents; beans added about 6 cents; and wheat slipped about 2 cents. Recent trend, over the last 5 sessions, corn has firmed and beans have firmed. That is the backdrop your cash bid is moving against. Here is our read on why the grains firmed overnight, and honestly the facts do not point to one clean cause. On corn, the confirmed spread of tar spot across six corn belt states, per Hoosier Ag Today, likely lent some support on crop worry. Beans gained even as Tri-State Neighbor showed soybean exports at 9 million below expectations and year to date commitments down 18 percent, so we lean toward bargain buying more than fresh demand. Wheat slipped with no headline of its own to hang it on. Stocks are steady going into the open, S&P futures close to flat. A calm Wall Street is what your banker likes to see, it keeps the rate and input-cost backdrop behind your operating note quiet for another day. Cal Wall Street, yesterday's close
Wall Street, today's futures (where the market is at going into the day)
WHY IT MATTERS FOR YOUR FIELDS Decision DeliveredYour decisions for today and the week ahead:
What to Watch Today
From Cal's News DeskThe 10 stories that moved across the wires since yesterday's Brief, sourced, dated, and verifiable. Each one carries Cal's review, the same one the news page shows, with a link to read it straight from the source. 1. European Union lifts tariffs on nuts, fruits, vegetables and lobstersThe European Union has scrapped tariffs on American nuts, fruits, vegetables and lobsters while opening a 500,000 metric ton quota for tree nuts, a change the Council approved on June 25 that took effect July 1. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins called it a MAJOR win, saying the deal delivers billions in new market access and helps shrink an EU farm trade deficit that once threatened to reach nearly 50 billion dollars but is now forecast to fall to 29 billion. California, which grows more than 99 percent of U.S. walnuts and roughly half the world supply, stands to gain since the EU is the walnut industry's biggest export market, and lobster exporters win too, with a 0 percent tariff applied retroactively to August 2025. The bigger story is the horse trading behind it, as the U.S. capped tariffs on EU goods at 15 percent, the Supreme Court struck down Trump's reciprocal tariffs, and he reimposed a 10 percent global tariff under a 1974 trade law, so plenty of sectoral levies still remain in play. Read the full article. Agri-Pulse, Thu Jul 2, 2026 9:48 PM CT 2. Ranchers Should Weigh Options for Supplemental Forage During DroughtNorth Dakota ranchers are staring down a serious feed crunch this year, with drought and a cold spring cutting tame grass and hay production by at least 25 percent statewide and as much as 50 percent in the southwest, southeast and west-central regions. NDSU Extension specialists Miranda Meehan and Kevin Sedivec warn that native pastures will run 70 to 80 percent of normal in most areas but only about half in the hardest hit zones, which will force grazing to end by mid to late summer unless herds are destocked. For emergency forage, they recommend warm-season annuals like foxtail millet, with Siberian millet out west and German millet farther east, while cautioning that sudangrass and drought-stressed crops carry real risks of prussic acid and nitrate poisoning that call for testing before feeding. It matters because producers will likely have to stack several tactics at once, planting diverse cover crop mixes, salvaging failed crops as hay, and culling or early weaning to stretch what little feed the pastures can offer. Read the full article. Morning Ag Clips, Thu Jul 2, 2026 8:59 PM CT 3. The Early Days of Organic Ag & Farming with Data to be Covered at Organic Field DayOrganic farmer Blake Burggraff is opening his 465 Farmstead near Hartford, South Dakota on July 7, 2026, to show fellow producers exactly how he made the leap to organic and what data taught him along the way. The free field day, called "The Early Days of Transition and Farming with Data," runs from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., includes a free lunch for those who pre-register, and is hosted by the Northern Plains Sustainable Ag Society with backing from a USDA organic transition program. Attendees will walk through practical topics like crop rotations, cover crops, hemp and small grain production, custom equipment, record keeping, and using on-farm numbers to guide management and certification. NPSAS director Krysti Mikkonen says hands-on days like this help farmers cut risk and build resilient operations, and with real successes and honest lessons on display, it could be a worthwhile stop for anyone curious about what organic transition really takes. Read the full article. Morning Ag Clips, Thu Jul 2, 2026 8:54 PM CT 4. SoybeansSoybean exports came in at 9 million, below expectations, and old crop sales dropped under 2 million bushels for a marketing year low, though year to date commitments of 1.509 billion are down 18% from a year ago, a touch better than the USDA forecast of down 20%. China has taken 11.9 million metric tons of old crop shipments but made no new crop purchases, while new crop commitments at 89 million bushels, though still historically low, mark a 3 year high and a jump of 52% from last year. On the products side, meal sales of 414,000 tons met expectations with old crop commitments up 17% year over year, but soybean oil commitments slipped to 826 million pounds, down a steep 65%. The analyst Soderberg notes crush margins got pounded, falling another 34 cents to $2.87 for a 3 month low, and bean oil PV dropped to a two month low at 52.3%, all of which points to a market losing steam that farmers will want the full details on. Read the full article. Tri-State Neighbor, Thu Jul 2, 2026 5:23 PM CT 5. CattleAugust live cattle bumped up against a key technical ceiling, the 100 day moving average, and settled almost exactly on that line, according to The Hightower Report. Prices have poked through this same barrier several times since January, and each attempt has fizzled, leaving the market stuck in a broad sideways drift for the past three months. On Wednesday, live cattle futures still managed to close 52 cents to $1.32 higher, though open interest slipped by 1,801 contracts, a sign some traders are stepping to the sidelines. For anyone watching where beef prices head next, this stalled market could be coiling for a bigger move, so it pays to know which way it finally breaks. Read the full article. Tri-State Neighbor, Thu Jul 2, 2026 5:22 PM CT 6. Conditions Could Lead to Heavy Tar Spot PressureTar spot has already been confirmed in six corn belt states since it first showed up in an Indiana county on June 10th, and BASF technical rep Mike Probst says the only holdouts so far are Wisconsin and Michigan. He blames the fast spread on a cool, wet June with below average temperatures and well above average rainfall, exactly the conditions this aggressive corn disease loves. Probst warns that given the weather and today's tight economics he does not think growers can afford to leave a single acre untreated, though most corn near tassel still has time for a well timed fungicide pass. For anyone using BASF's Veltyma, he urges bumping the rate from the base seven ounces up to ten, nearly a 50 percent boost in active ingredient that his yield data shows pays off and may let one pass do the job even in a high pressure year. Read the full article. Hoosier Ag Today, Thu Jul 2, 2026 5:20 PM CT 7. Meet the 5 New Leaders Joining the Indiana FFA Foundation Board of DirectorsThe Indiana FFA Foundation added five new board members effective July 1, bringing expertise from agriculture, education, finance, utilities and municipal government to steer fundraising and long term investments. The timing matters because the foundation is racing to raise $1 million to renovate the Main Lodge at the Indiana FFA Leadership Center, half of which is a matching grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. that only unlocks if an equal amount comes from private donors. The new directors carry deep resumes, including Wickard, a former USDA Farm Service Agency leader in Indiana who runs a century Angus and Boer goat farm, Merritt, who directs communications for Indiana Pork and its 2,200 producers, Rekeweg, CEO of the AgriBusiness Council of Indiana, plus Trafalgar town manager Gregg and power engineer House. For any farm family that has watched a kid grow through FFA, this is the behind the scenes crew now working to keep that leadership pipeline funded and the center's doors open. Read the full article. Hoosier Ag Today, Thu Jul 2, 2026 5:15 PM CT 8. Ohio Ag Weather and Forecast, July 3, 2026A shifting high pressure dome is opening the door for an active rain track across Ohio starting this evening, with showers and thunderstorms building in the northwest and west central parts of the state before spreading east overnight. The heaviest action runs tonight, Saturday afternoon into overnight, and again Sunday, with combined totals of .25 to 1.25 inches at a high 90% coverage through Sunday. Rain chances dial back to about 25% Monday and Tuesday, then a drier, still warm stretch settles in Wednesday through Friday, with only a small batch of storms possible next Friday night into Saturday. Looking further out, forecasters are watching a cool front sagging out of Canada that could reshape the pattern across the northern US, though whether it reaches the eastern corn belt is still uncertain, so it is worth catching the full outlook. Read the full article. Ohio Country Journal, Thu Jul 2, 2026 4:03 PM CT 9. US beef prices stay red-hot for summer cookoutsU.S. cattle herds have shrunk to their lowest levels in 75 years after drought, wildfires, and pricey feed pushed ranchers to slash their herds, and rebuilding takes at least two years once heifers are held back for breeding. Retail lean ground beef hit a record $8.62 per pound in May, up more than 12% from a year ago, and Wells Fargo's Michael Swanson says there is no short-term lever to boost domestic supply. President Trump has pushed low-tariff Argentine beef imports and ordered a Justice Department probe into whether meatpackers are colluding, while a screwworm ban on Mexican cattle since last year tightens supply even further, angering groups like R-CALF USA. For the July 4 cookout, Wells Fargo pegs a barbecue for 10 at $161, up 2.4% with hamburger beef up 14%, so economists suggest grilling cheaper chicken or pork to keep more cash in your pocket. Read the full article. AgWeek, Thu Jul 2, 2026 3:46 PM CT 10. Millions expected at delayed Khamenei funeral as Iran seeks to project strengthIran is staging a days long funeral for former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed along with family members on Feb. 28 in the opening U.S. and Israeli strikes on Tehran, and Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani says as many as 20 million mourners could turn out. Only once before, at the 1989 burial of Islamic Republic founder Ayatollah Khomeini, has Iran laid a supreme leader to rest, and the regime is using coffin viewings at the Grand Mosalla, a Monday street procession, events in Qom and Iraq, and a Thursday burial in Mashhad to project resilience against outside pressure. The timing is unusual because the ceremony comes four months after his death, right as a shaky peace deal and a U.S. Iran memorandum of understanding try to close out more than a month of war. His 56-year-old son Mojtaba was named the new supreme leader in March but has not been seen since, so hardline Revolutionary Guard figures like parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who keeps taunting President Trump on X, are the ones now steering the country. Read the full article. NBC News, Fri Jul 3, 2026 2:36 AM CT Cal's ReceiptCal's Receipt is the public ledger of every call this desk made for your farm, what was at stake, whether you followed it, and what it actually saved (or cost). HILT-Transparent. Append-only. Every dollar cites its source.
Today in Farm SafetyFalls from bins, wagons, and equipment are among the most common serious farm injuries. Keep three points of contact climbing on and off the tractor, face the steps, and clean mud off your boots first. Most of these falls happen on the way down, in a hurry. Source: National Ag Safety Database; NIOSH agricultural injury surveillance. Cal The Coffee ShopToday in Farm History, Hybrid corn adoption complete 1939By 1939, 76% of Iowa corn acres were planted to hybrid seed, up from less than 1% in 1933. The state average yield rose from 36 bu/ac in 1933 to 50 bu/ac in 1939, the fastest six-year yield gain in U.S. corn history to that point. Henry Wallace's Pioneer hybrids led the adoption curve. Source: USDA NASS Iowa corn historical series; Iowa State University Extension archives. [CAL'S QUIZ]
Iowa's average corn yield in 1933 was about ___ bushels per acre. What's the closest number?
(a) 18
(b) 36
(c) 72
(d) 144
Answer at the bottom of the Brief. [CAL'S JOKE]
An old farmer told his grandson, "Never take seed advice from a guy in a tie. And never trust a guy in a tie who farms."
The Mi Farm AI Desk
Cal Halvorsen
Cal "Corn-Bread" Halvorsen, your AI Agronomist and Editor in Chief Quiz Answer(b) 36 bushels per acre. The 2024 Iowa average was 205 to 5.7 times more on the same dirt. Hybrid corn (rolled out 1933 through 1955) is the single biggest reason. Source: USDA NASS Iowa corn yield historical series.
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The Mi Farm Brief is the independent daily farm intelligence brief that earns zero when you buy inputs. Cal "Corn-Bread" Halvorsen is the editorial persona of the Mi Farm AI desk, the AI-orchestrated production team that produces this Brief every working morning. The Monthly Receipt is signed by the Founder, Mi Farm AI. Honest. Independent. Loyal. Transparent. The HILT Covenant.
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Signed by Cal "Corn-Bread" Halvorsen, Editor in Chief, The Mi Farm AI Desk.