AgClips
Recent AgClips
Smithfield Foods Announces Partnership with Anuvia Plant Nutrients to Develop Manure Sustainable Fertilizer Products
Smithfield Foods | Posted onApril 11, 2018 in NewsSmithfield Foods, Inc. and Anuvia™ Plant Nutrients are pleased to announce a new partnership to create sustainable fertilizer from renewable biological materials collected from manure treatment systems at Smithfield's hog farms. This project is part of Smithfield Renewables, the company's new platform dedicated to unifying and accelerating its carbon reduction and renewable energy efforts. The project reuses organic matter found in hog manure to create a commercial-grade fertilizer that is higher in nutrient concentration than the original organic materials.
Citrus Greening report calls for master plan to coordinate research
National Academies of Science | Posted onApril 11, 2018 in NewsA single breakthrough discovery for managing citrus greening in Florida in the future is unlikely, says a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The committee that wrote the report called for a systems approach to prioritize research on the disease and strategically distribute resources for research to effectively manage the disease, which is the most serious threat for citrus growe
Shippers concerned about rail service problems
National Grain and Feed Association | Posted onApril 11, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) wishes to apprise the Surface Transportation Board (Board) of major concerns it has received regarding severe rail service problems and excessive charges involving Class I railroads that are being experienced by shippers and receivers of grains, oilseeds and processed grain products. There is a fundamental concern among rail customers that the underlying root cause of these service and accessorial charge-related issues is Class I railroads’ aggressive effort to reduce their operating ratios to impress Wall Street investors and shareholders.
Illinois town leases 20 acres of city owned land for solar
East Peoria Times Courier | Posted onApril 11, 2018 in Energy NewsA divided Lacon City Council tentatively agreed Monday night.to lease 20 acres of city-owned farmland for 35 years to a solar energy developer that has never addressed or met with the council. The panel voted 3-2, with one abstaining, to move forward toward finalizing an agreement with Minnesota-based Solar Energy Ventures in a contract expected to come up for a final vote next month.The company would pay the city $1,300 an acre per year for the 2 megawatt installation, for a total of about $1.3 million over the life of the contract, said Acting Mayor John Wabel,
Illinois county works on solar ordinance
Rantoul Press | Posted onApril 11, 2018 in Energy NewsWork continues on a Champaign County zoning ordinance by the Zoning Board of Appeals that would regulate solar farms. A rural Ludlow Township site is one of two that a Washington, D.C-based company hopes to turn into a community solar farm.
Farm-income losses hurting Midwestern states’ budgets; no turnaround for sector in sight
CSG Midwest | Posted onApril 11, 2018 in NewsThe U.S. Department of Commerce reported that real gross domestic product increased 2.3 percent nationally between 2016 and 2017, but agriculture subtracted from overall economic growth in every state in the Midwest — most notably Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. A turnaround doesn’t appear in sight, at least over the near term: U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy secretary Stephen Censky reports that, nationally, farm income is expected to fall 6.8 percent in 2018 (income levels have dropped nearly 50 percent since 2013).Why is the Midwest’s farm economy struggling?
USDA orders volume controls on cranberries
Capital Press | Posted onApril 10, 2018 in Federal NewsCranberry handlers were ordered by the USDA to withhold from U.S. consumers 15 percent of the 2017 crop to raise prices that farmers receive. The reduction applies to cranberries grown by approximately 1,100 farmers in 10 states, including Oregon and Washington. Growers and handlers petitioned the USDA for volume controls to chip away at a huge surplus.The USDA projects the order will divert as many as 110 million pounds of cranberries to charities, animal feed or foreign markets.
USDA offering funding to address opioid crisis in rural communities
CBS | Posted onApril 10, 2018 in Federal, Rural NewsThe U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications to a pair of grant programs that aim to address opioid misuse in rural communities. The federal agency is setting aside $5 million in the Community Facilities Grant program and is giving priority to Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grant Program applications that propose innovative projects addressing the issue."The opioid epidemic is dramatically impacting prosperity in many small towns and rural places across the country," said Anne Hazlett, the assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development.
Tom Campbell: Our rural areas are suffering. What will help?
Star News Online | Posted onApril 10, 2018 in Rural NewsEighty of North Carolina’s 100 counties are considered rural -- the population density is less than 250 people per square mile. Our state has the second-largest rural population of any, just behind Texas. When many of us think rural, we immediately think agriculture. There are some 50,000 farms in our state, most of them small.I’d ask why a company would not want to be in a region so wonderful. This produced the recitation of rural problems, as true today as it was then. Despite conscientious efforts, rural areas still don’t have major road networks.
Broadband funding is in the works for rural communities in Georgia
Times Free Press | Posted onApril 10, 2018 in Rural, SARL Members and Alumni NewsA program is now in place to bring fast internet to hard-to-reach rural communities in Georgia. Now, lawmakers just have to fight about the money. Both chambers passed state Sen. Steve Gooch's Achieving Connectivity Everywhere Act last week, creating a grant program to fund broadband expansion. But the bill, which will go to Gov. Nathan Deal's desk, does not guarantee funding.