AgClips
Recent AgClips
New program in New York to help veterans become farmers
New York Daily News | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsNew York is working to help veterans interested in becoming farmers. The state announced a new grant program that provides financial assistance to former military service members turned farmers. The money can be used to purchase new farm equipment, machinery or supplies or pay for the cost of building or upgrading farm structures.The initiative is related to a broader $1 million grant program for new and early-stage farmers.
Monsanto sues Arkansas board for banning disputed herbicide
KATV | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Agriculture NewsA major agribusiness company is suing Arkansas regulators over their decision to ban its version of an herbicide.Monsanto asked a state judge on Friday to block the Arkansas Plant Board from enforcing regulations that prevent the company's dicamba weed killer from being used from April 15 through September 15 each year.The herbicide has drawn complaints from farmers in several states who say the weed killer has drifted onto their crops and caused widespread damage.Monsanto says the board's decision is arbitrary and deprives farmers of a needed tool to combat weeds.
‘Landmark’ decision casts youth as official intervenors in pipeline case
Midwest Energy News | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Energy NewsIn what is regarded as an unusual step, a group of 13 young people have joined together to become court sanctioned intervenors as they fight a proposed Enbridge Energy pipeline through northern Minnesota. Intervenors are sanctioned by the state Public Utilities Commission to represent parties in contested cases. They are generally lawyers and experts hired by energy firms, clean energy organizations, environmental groups, governmental agencies and an occasional citizen or two.
Indiana's largest solar project moving forward on 800 acres
Perry County News | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Energy, Rural NewsWhile not set in stone, the odds of Spencer County becoming home to the state’s largest solar project are about as good as they can be following a productive meeting between the county council and representatives from Orion Renewable Energy Group. The project, operating under the name Troy Solar LLC, would see a massive investment in solar panels on 800 acres of leased farmland between the communities of Troy and New Boston along Indiana 545. At a Sept.
UI economist sees greater profits in pasture than wheat
Capital Press | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Agriculture NewsLocal farmer and rancher Boyd Foster has confirmed he’s better off financially to convert some pivots from wheat to grass. Foster explained that good irrigated pasture is in extremely short supply, but there’s a glut of wheat weighing down the market, forcing grain prices well below production costs.University of Idaho Extension economist Ben Eborn has reached the same conclusion, recently publishing an enterprise budget showing Eastern Idaho producers who raise irrigated pasture rather than wheat should stay in the black.
The Influence of Food Store Access on Grocery Shopping and Food Spending
USDA | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Food, Rural NewsSix percent of U.S. households are access-burdened: they do not use their own vehicle to travel to the store for groceries and live more than 0.5 mile from the nearest SNAP-authorized supermarket or superstore (SM/SS), which we use to proxy the nearest source of healthy and affordable food. Further analysis showed that: • Seventy-seven percent of access-burdened households reported a shopping event at a supermarket, superstore, large grocery store, or warehouse store during the survey week compared to 87 percent for households with sufficient access.
Insurance claims denied as companies grapple with dicamba injury
The Progressive Farmer | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Agriculture NewsThere was no question what was to blame for the curled soybeans on the central Illinois farm in late June. The farmer, the neighbor who made the application, even the investigator from the neighbor's insurance company, all agreed.
Iowa farmers face fourth year of possible losses heading into harvest
Des Moines Register | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Agriculture NewsHere are some numbers worrying Nodaway farmer Bill Shipley: He could get $8.96 for each bushel of soybeans he brings to his southeast Iowa elevator. But the statewide average cost is over $9 a bushel.Corn prices are even more grim: Iowa farmers could potentially lose 30 to 40 cents per bushel, with prices around $3 at Iowa elevators, based on estimates from Chad Hart, an Iowa State University economist."It's getting tighter and tighter out here," Shipley said.
Thousands of jobs depend on the wine industry’s uncertain recovery from fires
The Atlantic | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in Agriculture, Rural NewsWhen the winemaker Jean Hoefliger arrived at his small Napa Valley winery at 3:30 a.m. on October 9, the morning the Northern California fires broke out, he had a multimillion-dollar business decision to make. Two fires on opposite sides of the valley tore down the hillsides toward nearly $14 million worth of unpicked, almost-ripe Cabernet Sauvignon grapes at some of the vineyards scattered across the valley that supply or are owned by Alpha Omega Winery, where Hoefliger is the head winemaker.
Farm loan foreclosures expected for next five years, bankers say
Agriculture.com | Posted onOctober 23, 2017 in News“As a result of weak farm income and low agriculture commodity prices, approximately 9.5% of bank CEOs expect farm loan foreclosures to pose the greatest threat to banking operations over the next five years,” said Ernie Goss, Jack A. MacAllister chair in regional economics at Creighton University’s Heider college of business, according to a press release. The farmland and ranchland-price index for October slipped to 39.3 from 39.6 in September.