UT developing heifers on contract for beef farmers
A drastic upswing in feed grain prices nationwide, as well as drought in some regions, forced U.S. beef farmers to scale back their herds in recent years. With this year’s lower prices for corn, soybeans and wheat, and other market signals inviting beef back to the dinner table, those producers are looking to build up depleted herds again.
USDA preparing to survey U.S. cattle, sheep, goat operations
In January, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will survey more than 40,000 cattle operations nationwide to provide an up-to-date measure of U.S. cattle inventories.
One fast-growing trend for 2015 is online food sales
My mother went to the grocery store once a week and bought most of the food items we would consume for the next week. My family would visit a grocery store several times a week and purchase food we would consumer during the next few days.
The email got the point as quickly as a working hammer gets to a nail: “Alan – You have got to be kidding me – production agriculture ‘embrace’ the EPA clean water regulations?” it asked not really seeking an answer.
It’s holiday season, so it’s time for Indiana’s revenue forecast
It’s the holiday season, and in the Indiana Statehouse that means one thing: time for the state revenue forecast. Legislators gathered in Room 404 on Dec. 18 to learn how much money they’ll have to work with for the 2016 and 2017 budgets.
Bringing tools, gardening and chickens to new level
Antique tractor collectors, take note of this beautiful place to visit: A trip to P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm in Roland, Ark., is a step into a gentler time – a time where details were important and sitting on the front porch was primary.
Sorghum may fill some feed void as China prohibits GMOs
U.S. sorghum exports to China may be filling some of the void left as Chinese officials continue to ban shipments of corn with the MIR 162 trait, according to a grains analyst with the USDA.
Spending bill provision blocks federal interference on hemp
The journey to renewed legal industrial hemp production has been slow. The farm bill paved the way to get research plots, but Kentucky’s first planting was held up when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stepped in and kept approximately 250 pounds of hemp seeds imported from Italy from being delivered, citing a lack of the proper permit from the state. It took court action to resolve the matter.
Iowa farmland value plummeted 8.9 percent, or $773 in value, now estimated to be $7,943 per acre in the past year – the biggest drop in 28 years, according to the 2014 Iowa Land Value Survey, released Dec. 18 by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
