Ernst, Smith Honor Women in Agriculture

Mar 23, 2026

U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.), members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, led a bipartisan resolution to designate March 21, 2026, as “National Women in Agriculture Day” to honor the critical contributions of women in agriculture.

The Senate unanimously passed the resolution, which highlights the more than 1.2 million women producers across the United States and recognizes their essential roles as farmers, educators, innovators, and leaders throughout the agriculture industry.

“Women have always been at the heart of American agriculture,” said Senator Ernst. “Growing up on a family farm, I saw firsthand the vital role women like my mother played, and today my sister continues that legacy. From family farms to cutting-edge agribusiness, women are leading, innovating, and helping feed and fuel the world. I’m proud to lead this resolution to recognize and support the women who are breaking barriers and shaping the future of agriculture.”

“Agriculture is the backbone of Minnesota’s economy, and women have always played an essential role in this sector,” said Senator Smith. “I’m proud we have introduced this bipartisan resolution to designate a day during Women’s History Month and National Agriculture Week to recognize the achievements of the women across the country who have been the key to our agricultural success.”

Source : senate.gov

Video: Seeing the Whole Season: How Continuous Crop Modeling Is Changing Breeding

Plant breeding has long been shaped by snapshots. A walk through a plot. A single set of notes. A yield check at the end of the season. But crops do not grow in moments. They change every day.

In this conversation, Gary Nijak of AerialPLOT explains how continuous crop modeling is changing the way breeders see, measure, and select plants by capturing growth, stress, and recovery across the entire season, not just at isolated points in time.

Nijak breaks down why point-in-time observations can miss critical performance signals, how repeated, season-long data collection removes the human bottleneck in breeding, and what becomes possible when every plot is treated as a living data set. He also explores how continuous modeling allows breeding programs to move beyond vague descriptors and toward measurable, repeatable insights that connect directly to on-farm outcomes.

This conversation explores:

• What continuous crop modeling is and how it works

• Why traditional field observations fall short over a full growing season

• How scale and repeated measurement change breeding decisions

• What “digital twins” of plots mean for selection and performance

• Why data, not hardware, is driving the next shift in breeding innovation As data-driven breeding moves from research into real-world programs, this discussion offers a clear look at how seeing the whole season is reshaping value for breeders, seed companies, and farmers, and why this may be only the beginning.