Agriculture News
How You Can Help Texas
NASDA | Posted on August 30, 2017Want to help the farmers and ranchers recover from the disaster of Hurricane Harvey from afar? Please donate to the State of Texas Agriculture Relief Fund. The Texas Animal Health Commission has set up a Harvey Hotline: 512-719-0799 at the Animal Response Operation Coordination Center. If you or someone you know is looking to volunteer, donate, offer shelter for animals, report live or dead animals please call the Harvey Hotline.
Pruitt, EPA Should Heed Court Ruling, Boost RFS Biofuel Blending Levels
25 X 25 | Posted on August 30, 2017In a radio interview in Iowa late last week, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt made pretty clear the rational that went into his agency proposing lower levels of cellulosic biofuels, advanced biofuels, and total renewable fuels that would be required for blending under the next Renewable Fuel Standard rule: “Production levels and demand matter.” Pruitt goes on to express his concern that his agency is being “used in setting those [RFS blending targets] in a way to encourage ‘blue-sky’ thinking.” He is referring to the concept that the standard’s annual blending targets (Renewable Volume Obligations, or RVOs) were set by the 2007 law that reauthorized and strengthened the RFS to encourage oil refiners to build the infrastructure required to meet the blending levels prescribed.Pruitt’s characterization of EPA and its role in setting the RFS RVOs does not set well with renewable fuel advocates because it seems to run contrary to a federal appellate court ruling earlier this month that found that the EPA was wrong in previous years when it set lower biofuel levels.The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held that EPA exceeded its authority in previous years when the agency interpreted the law establishing the RFS as giving it the authority to reduce biofuel mandates if it determined there was insufficient infrastructure to deliver it.
Hurricane Harvey wreaks havon on Texas cattle
Agriculture.com | Posted on August 30, 2017About 1.2 million beef cows are in the 54 counties that have been declared disaster areas due to Hurricane Harvey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The total is a “conservative estimate” and encompasses 27% of the state’s herd, according to Texas A&M University livestock economist David Anderson. “Ranchers are hoping for the best right now, but there are certain areas where there are going to be some losses,” said Dennis DeLaughter, a market analyst at VantageRM.com, who also owns a farm near Edna, Texas, 50 miles from the center of the storm when it was at its strongest. “All you can do is open the gates and hope the cattle are smart enough to seek higher ground. You can’t round up all the cattle, so there will definitely be losses. How big the losses are going to be – I don’t know.”
Why States Don’t Want Trump to Make ‘Very Big Changes’ to NAFTA
Pew Charitable Trust | Posted on August 30, 2017But as the Trump administration sits down to renegotiate the 23-year-old free trade deal with Canada and Mexico, governors will be hoping for minor adjustments rather than the “very big changes” Trump has promised.Trump’s tough talk wins him applause from voters who blame trade deals for shutting down factories and reducing blue-collar jobs in their neighborhoods. But most economists say that NAFTA had a small part to play in the long-term trends of globalization and automation that changed the kinds of jobs available in the U.S.And today, trade with Canada and Mexico is important to every state’s economy. It’s boosted business for farmers in the Great Plains who export commodities such as corn, and allowed U.S. manufacturers to source parts from all over North America.Some U.S. industries have trade disagreements with the neighboring countries to the north and south. They want those addressed in the renegotiations, but they generally don’t want the deal to be scrapped.Governors tend to focus on how trade agreements such as NAFTA help — or hurt — specific industries in their state, says Matt Gold, a former U.S. trade negotiator who is now an adjunct professor at Fordham University. He said that focus on the nitty-gritty tends to moderate their stance.
U.S. farmers confused by Monsanto weed killer's complex instructions
Reuters | Posted on August 29, 2017With Monsanto Co's latest flagship weed killer, dicamba, banned in Arkansas and under review by U.S. regulators over concerns it can drift in the wind, farmers and weed scientists are also complaining that confusing directions on the label make the product hard to use safely. Dicamba, sold under different brand names by BASF and DuPont can vaporize under certain conditions and the wind can blow it into nearby crops and other plants. The herbicide can damage or even kill crops that have not been genetically engineered to resist it. To prevent that from happening, Monsanto created a 4,550-word label with detailed instructions. Its complexity is now being cited by farmers and critics of the product. It was even singled out in a lawsuit as evidence that Monsanto's product may be virtually impossible to use properly. Monsanto's label, which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reviewed and approved, instructs farmers to apply the company's XtendiMax with VaporGrip on its latest genetically engineered soybeans only when winds are blowing at least 3 miles per hour, but not more than 15 mph.Growers must also spray it from no higher than 24 inches above the crops. They must adjust spraying equipment to produce larger droplets of the herbicide when temperatures creep above 91 degrees Fahrenheit. After using the product, they must rinse out spraying equipment. Three times. A civil lawsuit filed against the companies in federal court in St. Louis last month alleged it might be impossible to properly follow the label. Restrictions on wind speed, for example, do not allow for timely sprayings over the top of growing soybeans, according to the complaint.
Please go fishing, Washington state says after farmed Atlantic salmon escape broken net
The Seattle Times | Posted on August 29, 2017Thousands of farmed Atlantic salmon were accidentally released into the waters between Anacortes and the San Juan Islands, and officials are asking people to catch as many as possible. Tribal fishers, concerned about native salmon populations, call the accident “a devastation.”
Minnesota Beats Out Wisconsin in Milk Production Growth
edairynews | Posted on August 29, 2017But the U-S-D-A says the state made 1.3% more milk in July compared to .7% in neighboring Wisconsin, which is the nation’s second largest milk producing state. Minnesota farmers made 840-million pounds of milk last month, up from 815-million in July 2016.The Gopher State’s new total is the eighth highest among the 23 major dairy states.
Why the War on Opioids Is Entering Veterinarians’ Offices
Governing | Posted on August 29, 2017Colorado and Maine recently enacted laws that allow or require veterinarians to check the prescription histories of pet owners as well as their pets. And Alaska, Connecticut and Virginia have imposed new limits on the amount of opioids a vet can prescribe. Veterinarians typically do not dispense such widely abused drugs as Vicodin, OxyContin or Percocet, but they do dispense Tramadol, a painkiller; ketamine, an anesthetic, and hydrocodone, an opiate used to treat coughing in dogs – controlled substances that humans abuse.But even as some states push for veterinarians to assess the records of human clients, many veterinarians maintain they’re unqualified to do so. And while a handful of states now require vets to check the prescription histories of pet owners, about two-thirds of the states explicitly prohibit it.
Summit peers into the future of gene editing
Agri-Pulse | Posted on August 29, 2017Over the years, researchers have found various methods of editing the genes of organisms. They involve amending the DNA within an organism’s nucleus, rather than inserting transgenic materials from other organisms into the nucleus. Since 2013, scientists have been pursuing an efficient approach of directly targeting sites in a cell’s chromosomes. The technique uses the cell’s own bits of RNA strands to guide its Cas proteins in ways that apply highly specific amendments to the DNA, thus altering the organism itself. In agriculture, scientists are now increasingly applying genome editing to vanquish diseases and enable great leaps forward: for example, to develop resistance to citrus greening for citrus trees or to bestow immunity to porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv) for pigs.
Washington state halts salmon farm permits after fish escape
The Sacramento Bee | Posted on August 29, 2017Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has directed the Department of Ecology to put on hold any new permits for net pens after thousands of Atlantic salmon escaped into Puget Sound earlier this month from a damaged salmon farm.State officials also announced Saturday the formation of a response team comprised of the departments of Natural Resources, Fish and Wildlife, and Ecology. The team also includes the Office of the Governor and state Emergency Management Division.It's not yet clear how many non-native Atlantic salmon escaped into Puget Sound from Canada-based Cooke Aquaculture's salmon farm off Cypress Island. Officials say the pens held about 305,000 fish.