How do you make a profit in 2026 amid spiraling input costs and volatile corn and soybean markets?
Your best bet is to do many small things right.
“I don’t ever look at trying to hit a home run,” said Dave Walton, a Wilton, Iowa, farmer who serves as vice president of the American Soybean Association. “I’m trying to hit a lot of singles to increase return on investment.”
There are myriad agronomic base hits — and errors to avoid — that can create a game-winning agronomic strategy for 2026. Try these steps:
1. Think value, not cost. The next time your jaw tightens and stomach churns while paying a $40-per-acre herbicide bill, chill. Think of the alternative.
“With no weed control at all, some farmers tell me the yield loss would be 40%,” said Gail Stratman, FMC regional technical manager. “Then I’ll say, ‘OK, take 200-bushel corn, subtract 40%, and multiply that by $4 per bushel.’”
This 80-bushel-per-acre yield decline tallies into a $320-per-acre loss. Needless to say, this dwarfs the $40-per-acre herbicide investment.
“I always say we could drop the price of every herbicide on the market by $5 an acre, and we’d still be having this argument that they’re too expensive,” Stratman said. “But you need to put bushels in the bin. To do that, you have to use inputs that add value and maximize ROI.”
2. Focus on preemergence first. You have to admit it’s fun to watch waterhemp wither after slaying it with a postemergence herbicide.
Still, nix that sadistic pleasure. Waterhemp and other weeds are much easier to snuff before emergence with an effective residual preemergence herbicide with effective multiple sites of action.
“Weeds are more resilient once they’re out of the ground,” Stratman said. “You’re then trying to kill them with a much lower rate of herbicide than is used with a preemergence application that kills them belowground at their most vulnerable stage.
“They aren’t sexy,” Stratman added, referring to preemergence residual herbicides, “but they’re effective. I always tell growers that I’ll take 80% control with a preemergence herbicide to reduce the [weed] herd, and have the postemergence herbicide clean up the remaining 20%.”
It’s also a way to extend the effectiveness of current postemergence herbicides.
“When you think of all the big postemergence chemistry that’s come along — the glyphosates, 2,4-Ds, dicambas, glufosinates, all of the ALS chemistries — resistance has followed,” Stratman said. “We have overused them and over-relied on them as a replacement for other weed management tools.”
3. Follow up with timely postemergence herbicide applications. Preemergence residual herbicides aren’t foolproof, for they require rainfall for activation. Even when activated, control fades after several weeks. That’s where timely postemergence residual herbicide applications come into play.
“You do not want to allow that pre to dissipate before making the post-application,” said Matt Geiger, a Syngenta agronomist.
A postemergence herbicide with residual activity that tag-teams with a preemergence residual herbicide can take the crop to canopy, he added. After canopy, a uniform stand can stifle emerging weeds.
4. Ace adjuvant application. Myriad products fall within the adjuvant category, including surfactants, crop oil concentrates, ammonia fertilizers, drift-reduction agents and pH modifiers. All aim to make herbicides more effective and ensure optimum weed kill.
“A lot of my customers get overwhelmed by all the choices,” said Annette Puvaloski, a Wilbur-Ellis sales manager.
She advises checking the herbicide label for recommended adjuvants and working with a trusted crop adviser to determine what best fits your herbicide mix.
Add them in the recommended order, Puvaloski said. An out-of-order sequence can result in a mix akin to creamy cottage cheese, she added.
Applying generic herbicides rather than branded ones can save money. Still, one advantage to applying branded products is that they may already contain appropriate and effective adjuvants.
“Branded Roundup products contain some of the best adjuvants on the market,” said Wes Everman, weeds specialist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. “You probably get just as much out of those adjuvants as you do with the glyphosate [Roundup’s active ingredient] for weed control.”
5. Monitor glyphosate-resistant grasses. You can’t swing a dead cat in Iowa, and some other Midwestern states, without hitting glyphosate-resistant waterhemp.
Grasses, though, are a different story. This Group 9 herbicide still does an excellent job of controlling grasses, such as foxtails.
Still, glyphosate-resistant grasses that include barnyard grass and jungle rice have emerged in mid-South states. As early as 2018 and 2019, University of Tennessee weed scientists estimated 15% of their jungle rice populations resisted glyphosate. It’s likely numbers have risen since that level.
So far, no glyphosate-resistant grasses have been confirmed in Iowa.
“I’ve had a couple calls where grasses have survived glyphosate,” Everman said. “Whether it was a partial dose or if there was rain [impacting control], we don’t know, but we did collect samples to grow out in the greenhouse. Other states have confirmed glyphosate-resistant grasses. So, it may be just a matter of time.”
6. Plan for early-planted soybeans. Seeding soybeans in mid- to late April vs. May has plenty of perks. The sunlight that early-planted soybeans glean churns photosynthesis that spurs bin-busting yields.
Still, think ahead.
“All those beans maturing at once can create a logjam at harvest,” said Dave Hoy, AgriGold agronomy division manager.
Spreading maturities among early-planted soybeans can ease these bottlenecks.
“You don’t necessarily have to plant the longest-season [maturity] bean early,” Hoy said. “You could plant shorter-season beans early and sell in some of those early markets [when preharvest demand is high], and take advantage of a longer harvest window.”
7. Slice soybean seeding rates. Boosting ROI doesn’t always mean applying more inputs.
“We’re cutting back some of our soybean seeding rates,” Walton said. “We’ve cut back on seeding rates already, and we’ll probably peel them back another 5% or 10% this year.”
Optimum seeding rates vary depending on planting time. Early-planted soybeans can benefit by increasing populations 10% to 20% in order to maintain yield potential, said Mark Licht, ISU Extension agronomist. In any case, aim to have a harvest population of about 100,000 plants per acre, he added.
8. Scrutinize soil fertility. Garrett Asmus and his family, who farm near Rake, Iowa, sample every four years for nitrogen and apply ISU’s recommended rate.
“With P [phosphorus] and K [potassium], we do a crop-removal rate plus a build rate,” Asmus said. “In the good years, we build up our fertilizer levels. In lean years, like this one, we go back to adding just our removal rate. If our soil tests are strong enough, we may even add a bit less than the removal rate.”
9. Know how hybrids use nitrogen. Many modern hybrids guzzle nitrogen later into the growing season, even up to R5 (dent) stage.
Then again, some don’t.
“Some hybrids still front-load nitrogen,” said Robert Cossar, Winfield United seed innovation experience manager. “They are more efficient using nitrogen early in the season and are done by R2 (blister stage).”
He said Winfield’s Answer Plot network can predict hybrid N use. This knowledge can enable a farmer to apply more N upfront for hybrids that use N early. It also can help predict which hybrids use N deep into the growing season and could benefit from later N applications.
10. Make a fungicide plan. Fungicide application decision time is still weeks away, but plan now by lining up a broad-spectrum fungicide if later conditions dictate application.
Although southern rust was the belle of the corn disease ball last year, it may be absent in 2026. It doesn’t overwinter in Iowa and other Midwestern states, but diseases such tar spot and gray leaf spot do.
“You need a fungicide with a broad spectrum of disease control,” Geiger said. “Plan on one or more of those diseases being present.”