Agriculture

The Pennsylvania state Senate has passed three legislative measures to help combat the dairy crisis.The Senate passed Senate Bill 819 to allow for agritourism activities such at farm tours, hayrides and corn mazes on farms that are part of the state's farmland preservation program."This bill provides consistency for farmers throughout the state while protecting their farmland preservation status as they host these educational and entertaining events," said Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman. HARRISBURG, Pa. [node:read-more:link]

Threats of Chinese tariffs on U.S. agricultural imports shook the U.S. agricultural sector. Attention focused on the potential loss of farm income, with a surge of short articles published in the popular media. To help provide a deeper analysis on the trade policy impact, we organize this China theme issue with five articles: Zheng et al. and Taheripour and Tyner estimate the loss on multiple relevant crops using a partial equilibrium model and a general equilibrium model, respectively. Both studies focus on soybeans, while wheat, pork, and a few other commodities are also considered. [node:read-more:link]

The Kentucky Department of Education and Department of Agriculture is partnering to give high school students the chance to become certified agricultural pesticide applicators. The partnership plans to offer pesticide applicator certifications in agriculture, forest, ornamental and lawn care, golf course turf care, interior plantscape care and sports turf care. [node:read-more:link]

For almost 25 years, we have been working to eradicate bovine tuberculosis (TB) from Michigan’s northeastern Lower Peninsula (LP). While bovine TB remains a worldwide issue, the U.S. has seen very little bovine TB since the late 1970s, apart from Michigan’s northeastern LP. It has infected more than 60 cattle herds in this area, where the disease has a natural reservoir in free-ranging white-tailed deer. Unfortunately, the disease still exists, despite much work by agency staff, farmers, hunters, and others. [node:read-more:link]

An overhaul of the agricultural guest-worker program will be part of the immigration packages that the U.S. House of Representatives will likely debate on Thursday, but basically has little chance of passing.The House will vote on a pair of immigration bills, but lawmakers and observers expect both bills will go down in defeat. One of the bills, the so-called "compromise bill," HR 6136, focuses on spending $25 billion for a wall along the southern border and making it harder to immigrate to the U.S. by ending the visa lottery program. [node:read-more:link]

In reaction to weak farm income, the percentage of banks increasing farm loan rejection rates expanded from 23.9 percent to 42.9 percent over the past year. Almost two-thirds of bankers indicated their banks had increased collateral requirements on farm loans in reaction to weak farm income. On average, bankers expect farmland prices to decline by 2.1 percent over the next 12 months. This is less than the 3.1 percent projected fall recorded last year at this time.
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The Missouri Dept. of Natural Resources recently issued a permit for Valley Oaks Steak Co. to increase the number of cattle it can maintain to 6,999 in its Missouri animal feedlot operation. Currently, the facility outside of Lone Jack, Missouri, has a limit of 999 head of cattle.   Missouri DNR granted a Class IB NPDES permit to Valley Oaks Steak at the Lone Jack facility, which makes it subject to concentrated animal feeding operations regulations and permit requirements. [node:read-more:link]

Should a federal agency issue a regulation that will impose up to $3.5 billion in costs next year, and billions more in the coming decade — while delivering essentially no benefits? That sounds crazy. But a few weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed to do exactly that. The proposal is the outgrowth of the long-standing national battle over whether to require labels for bioengineered (or genetically modified) foods. [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. is imposing a 25 percent tariff on up to $50 billion in Chinese goods. The Trump administration claims theft of intellectual property and unfair trading practices is the reasoning behind the tariffs. China is responding to the U.S. by hitting Trump’s base in the agriculture and automobile industries.“Trade is complex. A good trade deal for one sector can pose risk for the other,” said Brandon Willis, a professor of applied economics at Utah State University and senior advisor to the former secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack.“If you take a step back," he said, "the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

While the U.S. has a very vigorous inspection system and some of the best sanitary and phytosanitary restrictions in the world, we have seen over and over that it is impossible to keep insects, weeds, and diseases out. According to the National Beef Association, we currently do not have the resources to deal with a large outbreak of FMD. The current FMD vaccine bank in the United States is located at Plum Island, NY, and only contains enough vaccine to meet the need of a small, confined FMD outbreak. [node:read-more:link]