Ag News

Increasing global demand for US beef and pork continues to play a huge role in profitability for the livestock sector.  Monty Brown with the US Meat Export Federation says Ghana is a market that is [Read More…]

Klint Bissel, who farms near Bedford in southwest Iowa, says they’ve cut their soybean seed costs in half by reducing their soybean populations into the 70,000 to 80,000 plants per acre range–with no decrease in [Read More…]

  The USDA says dairy farmers can expect a program payment for at least three months of this year if they sign up for the Dairy Margin Protection Program by the end of Friday. USDA [Read More…]

What’s left of Tropical Storm Alberto continues to produce rain as it moves northward.  Some of it’s beneficial in the Midwest, but USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey says not so much in the Southeast where it’s [Read More…]

  A Michigan farmer near the Ohio border is frustrated by this year’s planting season “It’s been a major, major challenge this year.  We finally got in the field and started planting Memorial Day.” Lenawee [Read More…]

  The week of June 11th could be the earliest the Senate Ag Committee releases a draft farm bill. Agri-Pulse reports several key issues are still being worked out by the committee including commodity and [Read More…]

Commentary. Several years ago, the National AgriMarketing Association (NAMA) recognized Leon Westbrock, an executive at CHS, as Agribusiness Leader of the Year.  Upon receiving the award, Mr. Westbrock – who has since retired – told [Read More…]

The White House has called off the tariff truce with China.  Tuesday, the White House issued a statement saying it would go ahead with 50-billion in new tariffs in late June as punishment for intellectual [Read More…]

The USDA reports producers made and paid less in April than in March. The department’s index of prices received lost 2.2% as a 4% decrease in the livestock index canceled out a 0.6% increase for [Read More…]

A Missouri grower says his early planted corn is now four to five feet tall. Kyle Kirby has 80% of his soybeans planted and says all his crops, including wheat, are looking good, telling Brownfield [Read More…]

Dairy farmers have until Friday to begin the process of enrolling in the updated Margin Protection Program. Minnesota Farm Service Agency executive director Joe Martin tells Brownfield producers who can’t make it into their local [Read More…]

One region of the Midwest where crop development probably varies the most is north-central Iowa. Phil Long, an agronomist with Latham Hi-Tech Seeds, says rain has severely limited planting north of Ames towards southern Minnesota. [Read More…]

The public spat over farm payment limitations continues between Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley and House Ag Committee chair Mike Conaway. Grassley and Conaway traded verbal jabs last week over the lack of farm payment reforms in the [Read More…]

Animal science professor Mike Hutjens at the University of Illinois says benchmarking tools are available as dairy producers look at forage and their bottom line.       Continue reading Feeding dairy cattle in a [Read More…]

Iowa is celebrating the 5th anniversary of the state’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. At a celebration event near Boone on Tuesday, Iowa ag secretary Mike Naig said he’s been very encouraged by the engagement across the [Read More…]

Nebraska’s corn crop is off to a great start. The first official rating of the season puts the crop at 83 percent good to excellent, 16 percent fair and only one percent poor. Eighty-one percent [Read More…]

The latest crop progress report for Iowa shows the corn and soybean crops are, on average, slightly ahead of normal–despite planting challenges in northern areas of the state. Statewide, as of Sunday, 96 percent of [Read More…]

Iowa-based Sukup Manufacturing has announced a partnership with grain management technology developer OPIsystems. Sukup electrical engineer Matt Koch says the company embraces the use of technology in agriculture, and that OPI creates the best grain [Read More…]

Late planting could result in lower yields for spring wheat farmers in the Upper Midwest. Jochum Wiersma, an extension small grains agronomist with the University of Minnesota, says mid-April was a pivotal time for this [Read More…]

The National Pork Producer Council is asking the administration to quickly resolve the US-China trade dispute. Iowa State University Economist Dermot Hayes, pork producers have lost $2.2 billion since March because of Chinese tariff retaliation. [Read More…]