2025 Purdue Top Farmer Conference

Photos by Morgan French

JANUARY 10th, 2025

The Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture welcomed over 270 farmers and agribusiness professionals to the 2025 Purdue Top Farmer Conference on Friday, January 10th. The annual farm management conference provided a great networking opportunity for top producers and industry professionals. The 2025 conference was offered in a hybrid format, and attendance was split with approximately half of the participants attending in person at Purdue's Beck Agricultural Center while remaining attendees from 28 different states/provinces joined remotely via Zoom. This year's agenda featured sessions focused on navigating economic and policy changes; land acquisition and machinery management; using AI and extracting value from new technologies; insight into the farmland market; and strategies to reduce cost per bushel.

Matt Erickson, ag economic & policy advisor for Farm Credit Services of America and former chief economist at the United States Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, kicked off the morning as he shared insights into how the 2024 election results will shape economic and agricultural policy when the new administration takes office in 2025. "Matt did a great job of explaining  the current political landscape while providing producers with insights for 2025 decisions," Michael Langemeier, director of the Center for Commercial Agriculture said.

Next Gary Schnitkey, professor of agricultural & consumer economics and Soybean Industry Chair in Agricultural Strategies from the University of Illinois, discussed what's ahead for crop producers in the upcoming decade and helped identify strategies for success in what could be a challenging economic environment.

Conference attendees also had the opportunity to hear Chad Fiechter, the Center's research director and assistant professor at Purdue University introduce an app that demonstrates how AI tools can be used to simplify farm management tasks and seamlessly improves financial management. An alternative to a spreadsheet – the app prompts users to create a balance sheet and upload an anonymized Form 1040 Schedule F for the computation of various farm management financial ratios and metrics.

Following lunch, Todd Kuethe, who holds the Schrader Endowed Chair in Farmland Economics at Purdue University, focused on data-driven farmland markets and was joined by Aaron Shew and Colson Tester from Acres, a land value data analytics company, to discuss how data analytics are changing farmland markets. Farmland is the largest asset on most farm balance sheets. Farmland markets are evolving rapidly with widespread availability of tract specific information about land use, productivity, and weather. Purdue University, the Center for Commercial Agriculture'snew partnershipwith Acres.com, aims to enrich the availability of transaction-based farmland market in information, offering valuable insights to farmland owners, farmers, and agricultural stakeholders across Indiana. By combining Acres’ transaction data with CCA’s research expertise, this partnership will further strengthen CCA’s commitment to providing high-quality, timely information for agricultural producers across the state. 

Chad Fiechter returned to the stage to look back at farm level returns to precision ag technologies, demonstrates a tool to extract value from current precision agricultural technologies, and looked forward to explore the potential returns to autonomy. One conference attendee's evaluation summed it up well "Chad is very enthusiastic and his talk was very applicable!"

The conference concluded with a wide-open Q&A panel discussion featuring Purdue's soybean agronomic expert, Shaun Casteel, Purdue weed scientist Bill Johnson, and Michael Langemeier taking questions from the audience after sharing key tips on strategies to reduce cost per bushel in 2025.

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If you missed the Conference, you can find additional photos, key takeaways, and more on X/Twitter at #PTFC25.

Stay tuned for the 2026 Purdue Top Farmer Conference which will take place on January 9, 2026!

Thank you to Farm Credit Mid-America for sponsoring the Purdue Top Farmer Conference January 10, 2025.
Chad Fiechter talking at the Purdue Top Farmer Conference January 10, 2025.
Shaun Casteel, Bill Johnson, and Michael Langemeier taking questions for the audience at the Purdue Top Farmer Conference January 10, 2025.
Todd Kuethe, Aaron Shew, and Colson Tester speaking at the Purdue Top Farmer Conference January 10, 2025.