Agriculture News
Ag Lenders Say Farmers Depend on Off-Farm Income
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted on February 21, 2019The chief economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation says the worst threat to farmers currently is a general economic recession. It’s because so many farmers have now become dependent on off-farm income to make ends meet and stay in operation. Farm Bureau’s Chief Economist, John Newton, spoke during a panel of ag economists’ discussion at the Crop Insurance Industry Convention. “Farm lenders say the reason why we can continue to do what we are doing is off-farm income,” Newton says. “It’s off-farm income that allows folks to continue to farm. Lenders are really concerned about a slowdown in the U.S. economy.”
Dairy farms vanish as agriculture struggles
Gazette Xtra | Posted on February 21, 2019It’s no secret agriculture is struggling, and dairies are bearing the heaviest burden. One state official said farmer stress levels are “at least as bad” as they were during the 1980s agriculture crisis.Low prices and an oversupply of milk have caused hundreds of Wisconsin dairies to close. And it’s not just dairy farms. It’s hard to find a commodity that isn’t in a rut.Some farms close because of tough financial conditions. Others have no successor. Land is absorbed by a neighbor farmer or sold for development.Whatever the reason, when a farm vanishes, it means one more person leaving agricultural production and searching for career reinvention.
Key animal ag areas facing depopulation
Meating Place (free registration required) | Posted on February 21, 2019Rural counties are experiencing long-term population loss, and the trend is particularly acute in the Great Plains where animal agriculture has played a major role for centuries, according to new research by the University of New Hampshire. Across the country, nearly 35 percent of rural counties are experiencing protracted and significant population loss, according to a release about the study from the university’s Carsey School of Public Policy. Those counties are now home to 6.2 million residents, a third fewer than lived there in 1950.A map tracking the severity of the population loss shows that the out-migration is most acute in a swath of the rural U.S. from Montana and the Dakotas south to Texas, with Iowa and Missouri just to the east also part of the trend. These not only are areas where livestock is raised, but also where many major processing facilities are located, and have been having trouble finding sufficient labor for years.
Farmland Values in 7th District
Chicago Federal Reserve | Posted on February 21, 2019For 2018, annual farmland values in the Seventh Federal Reserve District were steady overall. Yet, values for “good” agricultural land in the fourth quarter of 2018 were up 1 percent from the third quarter, according to 183 survey respondents representing agricultural banks across the District. Although 75 percent of the responding agricultural bankers expected farmland values to be stable during the January through March period of 2019, nearly all of the rest expected farmland values to move down. Deteriorating agricultural credit conditions continued to affect the District in the fourth quarter of 2018. Repayment rates on non-real-estate farm loans decreased in the October through December period of 2018 relative to the same period of 2017, and rates of loan renewals and extensions increased. Even so, about the same percentage (2.4 percent) of current agricultural borrowers were not likely to qualify for operating credit at the survey respondents’ banks in 2019 as in 2018. Non-real-estate loan demand in the fourth quarter of 2018 climbed from the previous year’s level, while funds available for lending were slightly lower than a year ago. The average loan-to-deposit ratio for the District (79.0 percent) was higher than a year earlier. Average interest rates on farm operating loans and farm real estate loans had moved up by the end of 2018 to levels not seen since 2010 and 2011, respectively.
Oregon On-farm brewery bill hits snag over hop acreage
Capital Press | Posted on February 21, 2019Breweries would enjoy agritourism privileges similar to those of wineries and cideries on Oregon farmland under legislation that’s hit a snag over on-site hop acreage requirements. Lawmakers allowed wineries in Oregon to conduct certain commercial activities and special events in “exclusive farm use” zones in 2013, then extended similar rights to cideries in 2017.Senate Bill 287 would now allow on-farm breweries to also have tasting rooms for malt beverages and hold brewer’s lunches and dinners, among other promotional activities.“We’re simply asking that you do the same for beer,” said Matthew Merritt, general counsel for Rogue Ales and Spirits. “I think there are a number of breweries that want to do this but are afraid to.”The sticking point is that SB 287 ties these privileges at on-farm breweries to the size of adjacent hop yards, which don’t evenly correspond with vineyards or orchards.
In Roundup Case, the Science Will Go on Trial First
The Wall Street Journal | Posted on February 21, 2019Judge’s novel approach is latest attempt to resolve long-running legal debate over cases that hinge on complex scientific questions.In a San Francisco courtroom this month, a jury will be asked to weigh a complicated question: Did Roundup weedkiller cause a man’s cancer? The jurors will assess the credibility of competing studies that delve into cell mutations, cancer epidemiology and genotoxicity.
Groundwater contamination devastates a New Mexico dairy – and threatens public health
New Mexico Politcal Report | Posted on February 20, 2019For months, Clovis dairy farmer Art Schaap has been watching his life go down the drain. Instead of selling milk, he is dumping 15,000 gallons a day – enough to provide a carton at lunch to 240,000 children. Instead of working 24/7 to keep his animals healthy, he’s planning to exterminate all 4,000 of his cows, one of the best herds in Curry County’s booming dairy industry. The 54-year-old second-generation dairy farmer learned last August that his water, his land, his crops – even the blood in his body – were contaminated with chemicals that migrated to his property from nearby Cannon Air Force Base.The toxins, collectively known as PFAS, have caused rampant pollution on military installations, something the Department of Defense has known about for decades but routinely failed to disclose. Now the state’s dairy industry is ground zero in an unprecedented crisis. For the first time ever, PFAS is threatening the U.S. food supply.“This has poisoned everything I’ve worked for and everything I care about,” Schaap (pronounced ‘skahp’) said. “I can’t sell the milk. I can’t sell beef. I can’t sell the cows. I can’t sell crops or my property. The Air Force knew they had contamination. What I really wonder is, why didn’t they say something?”
Missouri Court Holds Crop Dusting Not Inherently Dangerous Activity
Texas A&M | Posted on February 19, 2019A case out of Missouri, Keller Farms, Inc. v. Stewart, recently caught my attention as it addressed an interesting question, is crop dusting an “inherently dangerous activity?” This is an important question as the answer can greatly impact the potential liability of a landowner or producer hiring someone to apply pesticides. The reason is that a person is generally not liable for the acts of his or her independent contractor. An exception to that, however, is that a person may be liable for the acts of his or her independent contractor if the activity involved is deemed “inherently dangerous.” So, assume a sorghum farmer hired an aerial spray company, as an independent contractor, to spray for sugarcane aphids and drift occurred. If the activity is not inherently dangerous, the farmer is not liable. If the activity is inherently dangerous, the farmer can be liable for the pilot’s actions.
Gov. Tom Wolf proposes tax breaks, loans in new Pa. Farm Bill
Lehigh Valley Live | Posted on February 19, 2019The agriculture industry is facing a workforce shortage and Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration hopes to address it with the Pennsylvania Farm Bill, a proposal that is being described as historic. This multi-faceted $24 million package includes a variety of measures aimed at cultivating future generations of farmers and providing assistance to help new and beginning farmers. Lawmakers hailed the Farm Bill proposal as the first time in generations that agriculture was given some focused attention in a governor’s budget proposal. The package includes low-interest loans, grants, tax breaks and other measures to attract a new crop of farmers in Pennsylvania.Wolf said his administration doesn’t have all the answers to filling the nearly 75,000 job vacancies in the agriculture and food industries over the next 10 years. But he said engaging in a conversation with experts in the agricultural industry could produce some.
Conservation group buys ranch, sells it back to Montana landowners
Billings Gazette | Posted on February 19, 2019North-central Montana ranchers and an international conservation group have collaborated to acquire a neighbor’s 5,000 acres in a unique partnership.“There was a ranch next to us we wanted to buy and didn’t have the funding to do so … without becoming a financial casualty,” said Dale Veseth, a Malta-area rancher. “So we enlisted The Nature Conservancy, and we’re going to put a conservation easement on the property we bought and our home place as well.” Veseth said his family has been on their ranch since 1943, although family members have been “running around the community” since 1886.The Nature Conservancy bought 4,340 acres scattered across 10 parcels. “The land, which runs along sections of Second Creek, is a rich mix of native prairie and big sagebrush grassland as well as more than 155 acres of freshwater wetlands,” according to a Nature Conservancy press release. “It harbors several important and/or disappearing species including greater sage grouse, burrowing owl, ferruginous hawk, long-billed curlew and chestnut-collared longspur. It is also important winter and summer range for pronghorn.”