AgClips
Recent AgClips
New Iowa law changes process for partitioning estates; goal is to help ‘save family farms’
CSG Midwest | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsIt is too common a story line in farm country: The parents pass away, and the entire farm has to be sold to resolve inheritance disputes. In many states, when heirs can’t agree on how to split the property, one common option for a judge is to order a “partition by sale,” with the money then proportionally divided among them.
Why General Mills Is Turning to 'Throwback' Farming to Fight Climate Change
Fortune | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Food NewsTo fight climate change, General Mills is looking to its past. The 152-year-old food company is turning to “a throwback of classic, old farming practices” combined with new methods to contribute to a more sustainable future for the food industry, according to Carla Vernón, president of its natural and organic operating unit. That means expanding its organic acreage and implementing regenerative farming practices with perennial grains, cover crops, and pollinator habitats.
Tornadoes are spinning up farther east in US, study finds
ABC | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Rural NewsOver the past few decades tornadoes have been shifting — decreasing in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas but spinning up more in states along the Mississippi River and farther east, a new study shows. Scientists aren't quite certain why. Tornado activity is increasing most in Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa and parts of Ohio and Michigan, according to a study in Wednesday's journal Climate and Atmospheric Science. There has been a slight decrease in the Great Plains, with the biggest drop in central and eastern Texas.
Chinese cutbacks cause nitrogen price surge
Capital Press | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Agriculture NewsA sharp cutback in Chinese fertilizer exports is responsible for the steep increase in prices for urea and other forms of nitrogen over the past year. Nitrogen is a major expense for farmers, with the price of such products as anhydrous ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate, or UAN, generally tracking the price of urea, a globally traded commodity.A ton of urea is now trading in the range of $310-$325 along the Gulf Mexico wholesale market, up from a low point of roughly $160 in mid-2017.
Northwest farmers, ranchers endure intense 2018 fire season
Capital Press | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Rural NewsThe gusty winds of October howled across fire-scarred Gordon Ridge overlooking the Deschutes River, prompting Molly Belshe to shield her face from swirling dirt and debris. It was here last July that the 78,425-acre Substation Fire raced out of control across north-central Oregon through tinder dry grass and standing wheat. Farmers like Molly Belshe and her husband, Marty, lost an estimated 2 million bushels of what was expected to be a bumper crop of wheat in Wasco and Sherman counties.
Dairies Continue To Close At A Rapid Pace Throughout United States
Dairy Herd Management | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Agriculture NewsAccording to the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection, 497 dairy farms have called it quits year-to-date. That number is 630 year-over-year. While Wisconsin is a big dairy state, operations are closing throughout the United States.
Scientists still aren't sure why Americans mususe their opioids.
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Rural NewsGetting accurate information about individual drug abuse is a difficult proposition. It's even harder when people don't understand terms on a survey or, worse yet, don't even read the question. A researcher shares some of the pitfalls of tracking the misuse of opioids in the U.S. Drug surveys are reseachers’ main method of collecting data on opioid misuse. I’ve been in drug survey research for almost two decades, but in recent years I’ve learned that collecting accurate data on opioid misuse in particular is difficult. Why?
Job growth falters in rural counties
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Rural NewsFrom August 2017-2018, the number of jobs in nonmetropolitan counties grew by less than 0.2 percent, compared to a growth rate of 1.1 percent nationwide. Rural counties that are located farthest from cities lost jobs over the year. Job growth in rural America continues to lag the rest of the nation, according to the latest data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the 12 months ending this past August, the U.S. added over 1.7 million jobs. But only 38,000 of those new jobs found their way to rural counties, according to a Daily Yonder analysis.
News Deserts: Counties without newspapers
Daily Yonder | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Rural NewsThe loss of more than 1,800 newspapers since 2004 has reduced citizens’ access to information about local issues and government, a new study finds. In rural areas, where communication can already be difficult, the impact could be even greater, the study says.Nearly a third of the U.S. newspapers that ceased publication in the last 15 years were based in rural communities, a new study finds. Most of the papers that closed were weeklies. In some cases, they were the only nongovernmental link between local government and residents, researchers say.
Chinese and Brazilian companies qualify for anti-China tariff bailout from USDA
Washington Post | Posted onOctober 25, 2018 in Agriculture, Federal NewsA Chinese-owned pork producer is eligible for federal payments under President Trump’s $12 billion farm bailout, a program that was established to help U.S. farmers hurt by Trump’s trade war with China. Smithfield Foods, a Virginia-based pork producer acquired in 2013 by a Chinese conglomerate now named WH Group, can apply for federal money under the bailout program created this summer, said Agriculture Department spokesman Carl E. Purvis. JBS, a subsidiary of a Brazilian company by the same name, is also eligible to apply for the federal money.