Agriculture

Mississippi’s $7.3 billion agriculture economy continues to see growth from the poultry industry which saw an increase of 13% in 2017, reaching $2.8 billion in value. Agricultural economists with the Mississippi State University Extension Service released year-end estimates for the value of crops in the Magnolia State. Government payments accounted for $227 million in commodity value, so when added to the total crop value the overall monetary value jumps to $7.53 billion. [node:read-more:link]

After more than a decade in the Virginia Department of Forestry, Bettina Ring will be the commonwealth’s next secretary of agriculture and forestry. She will replace Basil I. Gooden in the role that oversees the state’s largest private industry, agriculture, which combined with forestry provides more than 442,000 jobs, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.“We have sustainable farmland and forestland across the state, and we want to make sure it stays healthy and the families stay healthy” managing it, Ring said. [node:read-more:link]

Now, Mericka is, in a way, paying it forward.He’s hosting an aspiring farmer through the Dairy Grazing Apprenticeship, or DGA. It acts like a matchmaking service, partnering master farmers with beginning farmers or experienced farmers who want to transition to grazing.It’s his friend, Matt Nielsen, who like Mericka, did not grow up in a farming family. Nielsen has toyed with the idea of becoming a farmer since he was a kid. [node:read-more:link]

“Nearly 1 million people are employed in the United States directly because of dairy,” said former USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. That job total includes those employed on dairy farms, those working with dairy farmers, dairy processing, trucking, and other associated sectors.“That employment has a $206 billion economic impact on the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

xperts were told to consider how to improve the Scottish public’s understanding of science after ministers raised concerns about “medieval” debates on genetically modified crops. [node:read-more:link]

We often take our farmers and the economic impact of local agriculture for granted. But combined, Ohio’s agricultural and food production cluster employed one out of every eight Ohioans in 2015 and contributed $33 billion (5.3 percent) to Ohio’s gross state product, according to a report produced by a team of agricultural economists from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University. [node:read-more:link]

Some Wisconsin dairy experts say farmers should take a closer look at their contracts as an oversupply of milk is straining the market. Agriculture attorney Troy Schneider told Wisconsin Public Radio that contracts between dairy farmers and milk buyers are usually informal. He says farmers have not had to worry about producing too much milk because buyers were easy to find.However, an oversupply of milk has changed the market and local producers don’t have flexibility. [node:read-more:link]

A future with only antibiotic-free and slow-growing broilers would be harder on the environment and the economy. In a presentation at the 2017 Chicken Marketing Summit, Dr. Matt Salois, director of global scientific affairs and policy for Elanco, outlined the consequences of farmers moving from conventional practices to no antibiotics ever or slower growing broiler production. If standardized, the practices would raise the number of birds needed to feed the same number of people, and lead to the consumption of more natural resources and creation of more pollution. [node:read-more:link]

Crop prices will remain below the high levels seen in the early part of this decade due to large global inventories. Global economic growth continues to build on the momentum seen over the last year. Growth in China and emerging market in Asia is projected to remain strong throughout 2018. The prospects of improved growth support commodity demand, but the significant changes to trade policy could mitigate some of this demand growth in export markets. [node:read-more:link]

The public often hears in the media and from special interest groups that animals are housed in poor conditions, treated poorly and forced to perform at high levels. But what do consumers think after they’ve toured a modern, and in some cases, very large modern dairy farm? Not what the media sometimes presents or what some special interest groups want people to believe. [node:read-more:link]