Damian Mason’s Business of Agriculture podcast has 10 great predictions for agriculture in 2026. I highly encourage everyone to check out the full episode on YouTube (link below). Here are some of the best predictions:

1) Michael Di Sabato predicts Tyson will divest its beef business from the rest of its portfolio. Tyson’s beef business has gone from a cash cow (sorry) to a $20 billion money losing boat anchor and a big drag on profitability with a $1.1 billion loss in 2025.

2) Chris Rawley predicts we will see humanoid robots in the fields in the next 5-10 years based in part on continued progress from emerging solutions like Tesla Optimus and 15 or more different companies globally making humanoid robots.

3) Ryan Moe had a two part China prediction: (1) China is not going to fulfill their commitment on soybean purchases, and the deal should have never been made. They will continue to buy from Brazil, and the only way to regain share from Brazil is with lower prices; (2) China is going to kill as many hogs as the US hog herd has in total to avoid paying for feed for hogs that do not have any margin.

4) David Mlostek Jr. predicts that management and operations win over agtech. He had a great equation: yield = genetics x environment x management. His prediction is that Management will look to new tools like regenerative practices and growing efficiencies because agtech is expensive and doesn’t always work.

5) Krista Swanson predicts corn-based ethanol can create two new 5% opportunities: (1) maritime fuels – we need 70-80B gallons per year and if US ethanol captured 5% of that it’s 4-5 billion gallons of annual ethanol demand and can go straight into the product (SAF requires extra steps); (2) plastics – if ethanol captures 5% of the plastics market that equates to 10 billion gallons of annual ethanol demand.

6) Martin Peterson predicts that rural real estate land values are not going to drop, they are going to hold up and maybe even increase in spite of the numerous challenges agriculture faces in all segments.

7) Walt Duflock predicts that Peru will have more ag exports than California in 2034, with a particular focus on specialty crops like avocadoes, blueberries and table grapes.

You can listen to the podcast here.