Agriculture News
Judge sets timetable for hog farm nuisance lawsuits in N.C.
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on December 7, 2017Litigation against alleged pollution by the hog industry in eastern North Carolina will move forward with two test cases in April 2018, a federal judge ruled this week. U.S. District Judge W. Earl Britt said the initial trial would involve up to 10 plaintiffs with similar accusations against the hog farms, which are accused of releasing noxious fumes, making disruptive noise and expelling liquid excrement into the surrounding areas, according to U.S. News and World Report. The original lawsuits involved more than 500 neighbors of hog farms and those accused include a subsidiary of Virginia-based Smithfield Foods, now a division of China’s WH Group. North Carolina contributed an estimated $2.3 billion to the nation’s hog industry in 2015, according to USDA figures.
Fewer Veterinarians Available in Rural Areas
WNAX | Posted on December 7, 2017Farmers and public health officials are growing increasingly concerned with a shortage of food animal veterinarians in Iowa and across the country. The number of farm animal vets is shrinking at a time when worries over potential disease outbreaks are on the rise. In response to the vet shortage, the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program provides selected food animal and public health veterinarians up to $75,000 in loan repayment in exchange for serving at least three years in designated shortage areas. Thomson says the program is working, but doesn’t receive enough funding to fill the demand. This challenge results in part from the fact that each award from the program is subject to a 39 percent withholding tax.
Supreme Court rejects Dow's $455m appeal against Bayer
Life Sciences Intellectual Property Review | Posted on December 7, 2017The US Supreme Court has refused to rule on a patent dispute between agricultural companies Dow AgroSciences and Bayer CropScience. Yesterday, December 4, the court denied Dow’s petition for certiorari, leaving a decision made by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in March untouched.Dow had asked the Supreme Court to review the decision, which affirmed a $455 million award in damages for Bayer for Dow’s infringement of patents related to genetically engineered soybeans.
The Next 30 Years of Sustainable Agriculture
Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education | Posted on December 7, 2017The Our Farms, Our Future Conference, hosted by the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program and the National Center for Appropriate Technology ATTRA program will be held on April 3-5, 2018 in St. Louis, Missouri. This national event will bring together our diverse agricultural community including farmers and ranchers, agribusiness stakeholders, students, researchers, scientists, agency representatives and nonprofit leaders. Every decade SARE hosts a conference to look at the progress of sustainability in agriculture and to understand our trajectory for the future.
Will Puerto Rico's dairy industry survive after Hurricane Maria?
Marketplace | Posted on December 7, 2017Seventy-two days after Hurricane Maria, much of the island of Puerto Rico still has issues with power. Lack of electricity is a huge problem for residents and business owners. You move away from San Juan, and the issue is clear. Hatillo, a northern coastal town, is a major producer of the island's milk. The hurricane’s destruction on the streets of Hatillo is obvious. Power lines are hanging down from the poles that once held them up, debris is piled on the sides of the road, businesses are boarded up and cows are walking the streets, disrupting traffic.Vaqueria Ceiba del Mar made it through this year's hurricanes. The dairy farm sits on 220 acres of lush, green land. As you pull off the road and into the farm, you see a whole lot of cows, bales of hay, farm equipment and just two workers. Like most places on the island, the farm is powered by generators.
AVMA November 2017 State Legislative Update
AVMA | Posted on December 7, 2017In Massachusetts, a bill has been put forth to allow veterinarians to dispense compounded medication from a pharmacy under certain conditions. This bill would also allow a veterinarian to compound medication, for individual patients within a VCPR, as long as the veterinarian does not compound from bulk supplies, does not duplicate proprietary products, does not wholesale cliniccompounded medications, and does not compound federally controlled substances for dispensing. Mississippi has proposed a regulation that continues to exempt veterinary dispensing from the state’s prescription monitoring program; however, prescriptions written by a veterinarian and filled by a pharmacy must be reported by the pharmacy.
Washington State Department of Agriculture puts hemp on hiatus due to money shortage
Capital Press | Posted on December 5, 2017Washington’s hemp program, not yet a year old, has stopped issuing licenses because of a budget deficit. Restarting the program for a second growing season may depend on whether state lawmakers are willing to invest $287,000 into nurturing a hemp industry that faces high regulatory costs.“Without the additional appropriations, we would need to shut down the program,” state Department of Agriculture spokesman Hector Castro said. “Without the funding, it’s not a sustainable program.”The program’s costs are largely driven by the fact that hemp, according to federal law, is a federally controlled substance and can be legally grown and processed only under state supervision. Oversight varies from state to state. Washington chose a high level of control, intended to build a sturdy hemp industry not vulnerable to federal intervention.The cost of closely regulating hemp, however, has far surpassed the fees collected from growers and processors. While some other states, including Oregon, have registered hundreds of hemp businesses, Washington has issued only seven licenses, collecting $8,139 in fees and spending $146,000 in oversight. The licenses must be renewed annually.
Michigan State University hosts Beginning Farmer Webinar Series
Michigan State University | Posted on December 5, 2017Michigan residents interested in engaging in new agricultural enterprises sometimes lack knowledge, experience and technical support to get started. MSU Extension educators and specialists receive numerous inquiries seeking basic, startup information for beginning farmers. Since 2012, they have filled this need through the Beginning Farmer Webinar Series. New farm businesses provide jobs, income and increased economic activity and social stability with increased food security to communities. Providing basic, practical information to people interested in, or already engaging in, new farm enterprises helps these small businesses develop sound production and marketing plans. These informative webinars are intended to help you get started. Feel free to contact the presenters for more information. The Beginning Farmer Webinar Series provides an information boost to new farm businesses. A new series will begin Jan. 17, 2018.
Generation Z expresses different attitudes toward ag, farm succession
Delta Farm Press | Posted on December 5, 2017Members of Generation Z (young men and women aged 18 to 22) with strong ties to agriculture exhibit significantly different attitudes toward government involvement in agriculture, farm succession, ag technology, and brand loyalty than do previous generations, including Baby Boomers and Generations X and Y (representing an age range of 28 to 74). Generation Z members, for instance, have a more positive attitude toward government involvement, less brand loyalty, and more interest in technology, but are much less likely to choose farming as an occupation. For instance, 71 percent of BoomXY parents expect at least one of their children will take over the farm. Only 54 percent of Generation Z respondents indicate a desire to take up farming or ranching as a career. They do plan for careers in agriculture, however.One respondent summed it up: “The reason I do not choose farming as a career is because I need a more steady option and also want a career that does not have such big risk and startup costs.”
Missouri sets strict internal policies for sale, use of dicamba
High Plains Journal | Posted on December 5, 2017MFA will launch an intensive scouting protocol this spring to track soybean growth and provide timely information to applicators about crop progress. A network of “sentinel plots” will be established, representing the average planting dates and maturity ranges of soybeans in different regions of MFA’s service territory. These plots will be scouted every Monday and reports sent to all MFA employees on Tuesday mornings with notes about maturity and potential cutoff dates for spraying dicamba. Applicators will be alerted when the majority of soybeans in their area have reached the reproductive stage, when dicamba injury can do the most harm to non-target plants.While Missouri has mandated that the cutoff date will be June 1 for 10 counties in the Bootheel and July 15 statewide, MFA’s policies are based on plant maturity rather than calendar dates, Weirich explained. However, he stressed, no dicamba applications will be made after government-mandated deadlines.“Once soybeans hit the R1 growth stage, we’re done spraying dicamba due to the inherent risk of off-target movement,” he said. “We feel like it’s important to base our decisions on actual growth stages, and R1 is at the beginning of flowering. If we wait until too late in the season, we’re afraid that we will put too many soybeans in our territory at risk.”Dicamba is a selective herbicide that controls broadleaf weeds. Plants with dicamba-tolerant traits can be sprayed with these herbicides to control weeds without damaging the crop. The technology helps growers control weeds that have developed resistance to other herbicides.When dicamba-tolerant soybeans and cotton were approved for use in 2016 by the federal government, no dicamba herbicides were approved for the new crop system. For the 2017 season, new dicamba formulations were authorized for use with dicamba-tolerant crops, including Monsanto’s XtendiMax, BASF’s Engenia and DuPont’s FeXapan.As part of its new guidelines, MFA Incorporated will not custom apply or sell over the counter any old formulation of straight dicamba products such as Banvel, Clarity and Detonate. This does not include blended products such as Range Star, DiFlexx and Status.