AgClips
Recent AgClips
SARL member, Cindy Hyde-Smith Gets Appointment to Mississippi Senate Seat
Roll Call | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Federal NewsMississippi’s Cindy Hyde-Smith will be going to the U.S. Senate next month. Gov. Phil Bryant formally tapped the Republican agriculture and commerce commissioner to fill the unexpired term of Senate Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran, who is poised to go out with a win on an omnibus spending bill. Currently in his seventh term, Cochran is resigning effective April 1 for health reasons.
Cheese plant expansion signals South Dakota dairy poised for growth
Tri State Neighbor | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Agriculture NewsSouth Dakota officials have been working for decades to rebuild the state’s dairy industry, and now they’re seeing results. One of the state’s biggest cheese plants is expanding, tripling its production capacity to make it not only the largest plant in South Dakota, but one of the biggest in the U.S.Government officials and company leaders were in Lake Norden late last month for an official ground breaking celebration at the Agropur cheese and whey plant where construction is already started to make the plant capable of processing more than 9 million pounds of milk per day.
Forecasters warn of fires, crop damage across US high plains
AP | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Rural NewsThe amount of moisture received across the United States’ southern high plains since October has been ridiculously low, and forecasters warned Friday that the intensifying drought has resulted in critical fire danger and some winter wheat crops being reduced to stubble across several states.
Interactive map with local data rates U.S. counties on economic distress
The Rural Blog | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in NewsThe Economic Innovation Group has created a interactive map that identifies the economic distress level of every zip code in the United States. Maps are also available that measure by zip code, congressional district or city.
‘I saw more dead birds in that one pit than hunters would poach’
High Country News | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Energy, Rural NewsWhen he drove out to inspect the half-acre pond, he found something far worse. As he expected, its banks were covered with dried oil. But it was the bottom of the abandoned pit that shocked him: It was blanketed with the bones of thousands of birds. “You see that carnage and you know there are 500 more pits with oil on them and you can’t see the bottom,” Mowad said. “It’s an ‘Oh, my God’ moment.
Examining Consolidation in U.S. Agriculture
USDA | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Federal NewsAgricultural production has shifted to larger farms over the last three decades. Technology has been the primary driver of this shift, which has been large and widespread across crop and livestock commodities. Despite the shift to larger operations, family businesses still dominate U.S. agriculture: consolidation has shifted acreage and production to larger family farms.
USDA rejects Mercy for Animals humane bird slaughter request
Fox News | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Agriculture NewsThe U.S. Department of Agriculture has rejected a petition from an animal rights group that sought more humane treatment for turkeys and chickens sent to slaughter. California-based Mercy For Animals filed a petition in November asking the USDA to include poultry in the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, a 1958 law that makes it a crime to abuse or neglect pigs and cows during slaughter.The head of the USDA's Office of Food Safety said in denying the petition that other regulations ensure humane poultry treatment.
Human influence on climate change will fuel more extreme heat waves in US
Science Daily | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Rural NewsHuman-caused climate change will drive more extreme summer heat waves in the western US, including in California and the Southwest as early as 2020, new research shows.
Where Small Town America is Thriving
The Agurban | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Rural NewsOver the last few decades, manufacturing has been shifting from densely population regions of the country to more rural areas. A recent surge in manufacturing investment -- such as Foxconn’s planned $10 billion electronics plant to open in 2020 in Mount Pleasant, Wisc., a city of 26,000 – has benefited some smaller cities and towns, where land is inexpensive, energy often cheap and the labor force is seeking higher paid, blue-collar work. Since 2010, the country has added a million industrial jobs, roughly half of what was lost in the recession. Pullman, Wash., our No.
Farmer Suicides Mark Tough Times for New York Dairy Industry
edairynews | Posted onMarch 22, 2018 in Agriculture NewsFred Morgan was already deep in debt from rebuilding his milking barn after a fire when milk prices plunged in 2015, setting off an economic drought that is now entering its fourth year — the worst in recent memory for dairy farmers in New York State. Mr. Morgan, 50, saw no way to save the dairy farm in central New York State that he took over as a teenager from his ailing father and ran with his wife, Judy, and their son, Cody.With the farm operating at a loss and facing foreclosure, Mr. Morgan believed his only solution was his $150,000 life insurance policy.