Curt Arens

3 days ago | farmprogress.com | Curt Arens

Curt Arens, senior editor of Nebraska FarmerTOO EARLY TO TREAT: With tar spot confirmed earlier than ever in Nebraska, farmers want to do something about it — including adding fungicide to herbicide treatments right now. But Nebraska Extension plant pathologist Tamra Jackson-Ziems says it is best to wait for VT to R3 for optimal results, even when the disease is confirmed this early in the field. Curt ArensIt’s back, and it’s confirmed in Nebraska earlier than ever before.

4 days ago | farmprogress.com | Curt Arens

For farmers along the Missouri River Basin in eastern Nebraska, the year 2011 sticks out. This was a year of massive summer river flooding of farmland and farms. According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the summer of 2025 will not be a repeat performance and will actually see less river flow than average. That’s also the forecast from the North Platte River Basin, which feeds irrigation districts in Nebraska’s Panhandle each summer, depending heavily on snowmelt from the mountains.

1 week ago | farmprogress.com | Curt Arens

Hilary Maricle has been preparing her entire life for her new role. The former deputy director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture farms with her husband, Brian, as the sixth generation in the family on their land near Albion. But Maricle was recently appointed by the Trump administration as the new state executive director of USDA Farm Service Agency. She brings a farmer-centric perspective to this post.

1 week ago | farmprogress.com | Curt Arens

It’s the key to everything in agriculture and, ultimately, to international food security. That’s why, in the face of long-standing drought in regions across the country, groundwater depletion is such an unparalleled concern. Nebraska is among the most irrigated states in the country, with the ability to irrigate crops and pastures on nearly 9 million acres.

1 week ago | farmprogress.com | Sarah McNaughton-Peterson |Curt Arens

On this Farm Files episode of FP Next, Curt and Sarah visit with Emma, the agriculturalist behind popular social media channels “Ag with Emma,” who shares tours of farms around the world, her work with a custom harvest crew and the driving force behind sharing her story with the agriculture industry and beyond. "I think as agriculturists, it's really easy to get flustered because we're surrounded by information we're constantly using, so we just think everyone thinks that way," says Emma.