Alternative lenders can often provide capital for expansion and growth opportunities that traditional banks can’t or won’t. Here are six points to keep in mind if you’re ready to meet with an alternative lender.

“Since the first of the year, there haven’t been many highs made in the land market in the Midwest,” says Doug Hensley, president of Hertz Farm Management. “Whether you’re in Illinois, Iowa, southern Minnesota or Nebraska, it’s all the same story — strong land values but no new highs.”

As Jennifer Shike, editor of Farm Journal's Pork, approached the site of her first animal activist rally, she kept her distance. She watched two people beside a small megaphone and a bag, checking their phones constantly. She leaned in anticipating what would happen next.

Two weather systems will be bringing a lot of rain to key growing areas. Meteorologist Matt Engelbrecht has the latest.