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Agriculture News

Maryland weighs delay, changes in farm pollution regulation

Bay Journal | Posted on July 7, 2016

Maryland agriculture officials are weighing the delay or easing a 4-year-old regulation aimed at curbing farm pollution of the Chesapeake Bay after farmers and municipal sewage treatment plant operators said they need more time to comply – or want out from under it altogether. Under the regulation, neither animal manure nor treated sewage sludge, known as biosolids, may be spread on farm fields during the winter.  The ban was adopted because crops don’t grow in cold weather and wouldn’t take up the fertilizer then, making it more likely to wash off into nearby water ways and ultimately the Bay. The rule was adopted in 2012, but its effective date was delayed until July 1 to give farmers and wastewater utilities more time to build facilities to store the manure or sludge until it could be applied to fields in spring. Small farmers and small community sewage plants still have another four years – until 2020 – to comply.


Soybeans on Upswing as Corn Slips After USDA Acreage Report

Ag Web | Posted on July 7, 2016

Analysts were expecting soybeans and corn futures to keep heading in opposite directions, even though USDA raised acreage and ending stocks for both grains and soybeans in Thursday’s Acreage and Grain Stocks reports.  “Corn was the most bearish surprise,” observed Brian Basting of Advance Trading, Bloomington, Ill., and the commentator on a post-report MGEX press call. The soybean rally “underscores the export demand,” he explained. Even the stronger dollar and Brexit situation are not expected to exert any downward pull on the bullish market for soybeans, he said.  What was that bearish surprise? USDA placed corn acres at 94.1 million, above the average trade estimate of 92.896 million acres. USDA also said it was the third highest planted corn acreage since 1944. Soybean acres were reported at a record-high 83.7 million acres just slightly less than the trade estimate of 83.834 million acres. Wheat was reported at 50.8 million acres, which is more than the trade estimate of 49.869 million acres. The biggest increase in wheat production came in North Dakota, with 600,000 more wheat acres


Farm labor shortage vexes farmers

Delta Farm Press | Posted on July 7, 2016

A new video produced by the American Farm Bureau shines a spotlight on the frustrations of the nation’s farmers in finding workers to harvest their crops. While the video highlights peach production in Georgia, it also outlines the scope of the farm labor problem across the United States.

Hiring a seasonal skilled workforce to bring crops in from the fields to America’s tables has proved to be difficult if not impossible for farmers. That’s why many farmers rely heavily on a program called H-2A, through which the federal government grants foreign nationals short-term visas to help harvest crops.


High Hopes for Costco Poultry

DTN | Posted on July 7, 2016

Experts on poultry contracts have spent the last week in eastern Nebraska talking to farmers about issues to consider and the possible pitfalls of a bad contract as farmers consider the income potential of a new broiler operation in the region.  Costco Wholesale Corp. has been working all spring to get approval for a $180 million poultry processing plant near Fremont, Nebraska, that would process roughly 1.6 million birds a week. The facility would cater to Costco stores, which sell rotisserie chickens that are popular with customers.


U.S. 'Ham Capital' Proves Chinese Investment Can Be a Good Thing

Bloomberg | Posted on July 7, 2016

When Chinese suitors took over the pork producer in Smithfield, Virginia, it sent tremors through the tiny town that calls itself the Ham Capital of the World.  Three years on, residents and union leaders who represent workers at Smithfield Foods Inc. say the initial fears about the buyer from a Communist-ruled nation proved unfounded. The happy marriage so far belies the rhetoric on the U.S presidential campaign trail that depicts China as an untrustworthy business partner, and serves as an example of Chinese investment that can benefit both countries.

At the time, the $4.7 billion acquisition of Smithfield Foods in 2013 by Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. marked the biggest purchase of an American firm by a Chinese company. It was also controversial. U.S. senators expressed concern the deal would jeopardize the security of America’s food supply, and residents of the town of 8,300 people worried Shuanghui would cut jobs or move the company from Smithfield, where it was founded in 1936. Instead, the U.S. workforce under the Chinese owners now known as WH Group Ltd. has expanded by more than 1,000 people, to almost 39,000, and rather than cutting back investment, capital spending by the Chinese-owned unit has climbed -- rising 24 percent last year, to $313 million.


California marijuana legalization measure on November ballot

Sacramento Bee | Posted on July 7, 2016

Californians’ November ballot will include an initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, with the coming campaign likely to reverberate nationwide given the state’s size and implications for similar efforts elsewhere.

 


June hogs and pigs report shows slight expansion, low prices

Farm and Dairy | Posted on July 7, 2016

n the June hogs and pigs survey, pork producers told USDA they had increased the size of the breeding herd by one percent relative to year-ago levels. The breeding herd began to increase in the fall of 2014 after producers had record profitability due to reduced production due to the PED virus.  Basically, the industry has been in a slow expansion since that time. Declining feed prices were also a stimulus to expansion until this spring when feed prices began to rise once more.

The latest inventory report also found somewhat more young pigs than had been expected. The spring pig crop was 2.5 percent larger as a result of 1.5 percent more farrowings and one percent more pigs per litter. This means a bit higher pork supplies later this year than had been anticipated. Several states had a large increase in their breeding herd numbers over the last year. These included Illinois, with an increase of 40,000 animals, Oklahoma, up 30,000, and South Dakota, up 20,000.


Homeopathy can kill pets and should be banned, say vets

telegraph.co.uk | Posted on July 6, 2016

Vets are calling for a ban on homeopathy for pets claiming animals cannot benefit from the placebo effect because they are unaware they are being treated.


The Next Phase For Agriculture Technology

http://www.forbes.com/sites/robleclerc/2016/07/05/the-next-phase-for-agriculture-technology/#502138484dc9 | Posted on July 6, 2016

Agriculture technology is no longer a niche that no one’s heard about. Agriculture has confirmed its place as an industry of interest for the venture capital community after investment in agtech broke records for the past three years in a row, reaching $4.6 billion in 2015. the opportunity to bring agriculture, a $7.8 trillion industry representing 10% of global GDP, into the modern age has caught the attention of a growing number of investors globally. In our 2015 annual report, we recorded 503 individual companies raising funding. This increasing interest in the sector coincides with a more general “Third Wave” in technological innovation, where all companies are internet-powered tech companies, and startups are challenging the biggest incumbent industries like hospitality, transport, and now agriculture.


HSUS says some aviary systems not good enough to be labeled cage-free

HSUS | Posted on July 4, 2016

HSUS has ruled out a cage-free system they consider unacceptable.  Big Dutchman's Natura 60 cage-free system is not acceptable says HSUS.  While the Humane Society of the United States generally recognizes this as one possible cage-free system, that hinges on the system actually being used properly—something that may be hard for a producer or retailer to guarantee. Some producers may want to confine birds for longer lay periods in the morning; some may extend “training times” beyond what is actually needed. Other producers (or even barn managers) may choose to never allow the birds free access to the entire barn—which would certainly disqualify the system from being considered cage-free. Even with written guarantees in place, it may be hard to account for all of these variables at the individual barn level. (On the other hand, floor-based cage-free and standard aviary cage-free systems offer no possibility for cage confinement of any kind.)


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