President Trump’s relentless crusade against the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is already creating trouble for a community the White House has long purported to champion: U.S. farmers. exclusive report from Reuters published on Thursday indicates that Mexican buyers are following through on their threats to shift away from U.S. suppliers. [node:read-more:link]
Washington lawmakers appear willing to throw a lifeline to the state Department of Agriculture’s hemp program. House and Senate budget proposals released this week allocated funds to resume issuing and renewing licenses to grow and process hemp. WSDA suspended processing applications late last year because it ran out of money. [node:read-more:link]
Strong overseas demand for milk powder, whey and cheese led the way for a 14 percent jump in U.S. dairy exports last year. [node:read-more:link]
roundwater pumpers have until April 1 to have an approved flow meter installed on their wells. Dairies were required to comply by Jan. 1. Those qualifying for a variance must have an approved variance on record. [node:read-more:link]
Dairy farmers have always dealt with big swings in milk prices. But now that that swing is hovering at some of the lowest prices per hundredweight since 2006. The USDA’s mid-January report predicted prices to fall to under $16 per hundredweight in February and beyond, a far cry from 2014 milk prices which exceeded $24 per 100 lbs. The underlying facts behind the price decline include an oversupply of milk in the United States and the closing or shrinking of what were reliable export markets a year ago. [node:read-more:link]
Norwegian company plans to build one of the world’s largest land-based salmon farms in Belfast, a project that would create 60 jobs within two years and up to 140 once it is completed, according to the company’s chief executive officer. Nordic Aquafarms, an international developer of land-based aquaculture, has signed agreements to purchase 40 acres on the outskirts of the city and plans an initial investment of $150 million in the project. [node:read-more:link]
You remember the old ad campaign “Pork. The Other White Meat,” right?A lot of people do. For the pork industry, that’s a problem.The best-tasting pork chops, it turns out, aren’t the really pale, lean ones. [node:read-more:link]
Craig Myhre, a farmer in western Wisconsin, is trying to make a living off 600 acres of crops and a small herd of beef cattle. He also hires himself out to harvest other farmers’ fields, earning money to make payments on his combine. It’s still tough to make ends meet, despite putting in 12- to 16-hour days. In 2015, he added yet another job, as a mail carrier.“We’re constantly doing something around here to keep things moving,” said Mr. Myhre, who is 50 years old. [node:read-more:link]
Last week, our federal government made a sobering statement: It proposed to eliminate the nation’s largest working lands conservation program, the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). This was done as part of the president’s larger budget, an annual, lengthy set of proposals to Congress; the latest was released last week. Although the decision to preserve CSP ultimately lies at the feet of Congress, it is deeply troubling that the agency tasked with administering the program has publicly proposed to eliminate it. [node:read-more:link]
The Oklahoma-based Noble Research Institute announced Wednesday that the group will work to create a new environmental services trading platform for agriculture to bring together both carbon-sequestration and water trading goals. Noble has brought together a small cadre of conservationists that have been working on carbon trading or water-quality trading concepts over the last several years. [node:read-more:link]
