Agriculture

Despite a regain in consumer interest for imported pork, ostensibly because of bird flu, South Korea's pork imports slightly decreased over the past year, both overall and from the U.S.  Contrastingly, beef imports volumes have surged, with the U.S. product the main beneficiary.  Korea Customs Service figures provided by Meat Export Federation South Korea director Ji-Hae Yang show South Korea's January-November overall pork imports very slightly dipped from 422,766 to 421,123 metric tons. During the same period, imports from the U.S. went down 4% from 129,224 to 124,093 tons. [node:read-more:link]

Dairy farmers are officially on the 2017 legislative docket.  Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley presented a relief funding bill to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.  “It’s hard to imagine drought after all the moisture we’ve had over the last couple months,” Bradley said. [node:read-more:link]

DuPont Co. said it can address antitrust regulators’ concerns that its $72 billion merger with Dow Chemical Co. could limit discovery of new agricultural pesticides, boosting confidence that the deal will be approved. Shares of both companies rose the most in almost a year. Regulators are mostly concerned that the combination could hurt innovation in crop-protection chemicals, DuPont Chief Executive Officer Ed Breen said Tuesday on a conference call to discuss fourth-quarter results. The remedy will involve products as well as related research and development resources. [node:read-more:link]

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The animal rights movement celebrated a victory recently, when Feld Entertainment, owner of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, announced that the circus was no longer financially viable to operate, and would soon cease to exist.  The timing of it all just really struck me. Just a few weeks ago, my wife and I got to talking about how much fun we had when we took our oldest kids to the circus, back before our youngest was born. I also told her (again) about how much I loved it when my parents took my sister and I to see the circus when we were little. [node:read-more:link]

It appears that 2017 could be an important year for a number of agricultural law issues.  From the Clean Water Act, to “Ag Gag” legislation, to the Endangered Species Act, there are a number of pending cases that could have major impacts on the agricultural industry in the coming year.  Here is a brief look at four of the biggest cases to watch this year. [node:read-more:link]

When people think about working animals, what often comes to mind are dogs that herd sheep, horses that work on farms and animals that perform in movies. But there are lots of other jobs animals have had over the years.  Dogs are much more sensitive to smell than humans. This made dogs the traditional hunting companion, enabling their owners to track foxes and other game. Police departments have taken advantage of this skill to help find missing people and escaped convicts. [node:read-more:link]

The American Feed Industry Association released the results of its annual “Community Involvement and Charitable Giving Survey” today, revealing the animal food industry’s volunteer hours in 2016 to be significantly higher than 2015.  The informal poll, conducted at the close of each year, tallies community service hours and funds donated by participating companies. Results show more than 41,000 hours of community service donated by AFIA member companies’ employees in 2016—a 28 percent increase from 2015. Nearly $2.2 million was also contributed to an expansive list of community causes.  [node:read-more:link]

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his is a time of tremendous opportunity in farming and ranching. Commodity production (undifferentiated crops and livestock [node:read-more:link]