Widely known for their military use, unmanned aerial systems are making their way into farm fields across the U.S., as growers and crop advisers seek out faster and cheaper ways to scout crops and map fields from the air or apply chemicals. What are the capabilities of this technology and the hurdles to industry‐wide adoption?

Parched farm fields across huge swaths of the U.S. are a constant reminder of the importance of water‐use efficiency at the farm level. With drought gripping much of the Great Plains and western states, and with groundwater reserves declining and water regulations increasing, growers and their CCAs are finding ways to get more crop per drop with precision irrigation.

In the Upper Midwest, hundreds of thousands of additional acres have been placed into tile drainage over the past couple of years as the Corn Belt continues to expand. Unmanaged tile systems, though, have virtually no control over when and how much water and nutrients are removed. A smarter system using drainage water management puts farmers in the driver seat with better management over their water and nutrients.

A new study from ColoradoState University (CSU) shows how combining the strategies of zone management and active remote crop sensing for variable-rate nitrogen management can increase nitrogen use efficiency in irrigated corn while potentially raising yield.

The unprecedented rate of annual bee die‐offs in recent years has made worldwide news. While the exact cause of these losses remains elusive, research suggests that modern agricultural production practices play an outsized role as a changing agricultural landscape puts pressure on both wild and domesticated bee species. What are some of the ways that farmers and CCAs can promote bee health?