Mapping rural broadband (Daily Yonder): Three nonprofit groups are sponsoring a smartphone app to measure rural internet service, hoping to produce a more reliable picture than what’s offered by federal agencies or internet companies.
Quack like a duck, bark like a drone (Radio New Zealand): Cattle and sheep farmers in New Zealand are adopting drones as an ally to dogs in herding livestock now that there are drones that can record sounds, such as a dog bark, and broadcast them via a speaker.
Dems do rural (AP): Rural America was key in President Trump’s election in 2016, but now some Democratic presidential candidates are heading to small towns in the early stages of the 2020 campaign.
China buys soy (USDA): Exporters reported the sale of 926,000 tonnes of U.S. soybeans to China, raising the sales tally to 1.59 million tonnes since last Friday. The administration says China committed to 10 million tonnes on Feb 22.
The Big Four and a Brazil road (Reuters): The four largest commodity exporters in the world joined the Brazilian company Amaggi in considering whether to bid on a concession to improve and operate a 600-mile stretch of the BR-163 highway, key to moving soy and corn from farms to northern ports.