A $38.9 million Lilly Endowment grant will help a 10-county region become a global hub for agriculture and advanced manufacturing. The hope is that by having globally recognized infrastructure, more global companies will be interested in coming to the region by using sensor and digital-based networks. Faculty and staff from Agricultural & Biological Engineering will be leading or participating in several of the projects.

Up to a quarter of Indiana's 115 farm fatalities over the past four years have been on small operations that include so-called hobby or lifestyle farms, which are often run by people who entered farming from other lines of work, according to research by Purdue University farm-safety expert Bill Field, who has tracked farm fatalities for nearly four decades.

Running a farm operation is a constant numbers game, with farmers constantly evaluating the costs of replacing equipment, fertilizer, feed, and labor against market prices.