Ag News

  The USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service has terminated the process to create an organic checkoff. The agency says uncertain industry support and outstanding issues with the program led to terminating the rule making process. Organic [Read More…]

Debate on the House version of the farm bill might start today. House Ag Committee Chairman Michael Conaway says he is pleased the bill has the support of President Trump for its proposed reforms to [Read More…]

Trade talks between U.S. and Chinese officials are set to resume in Washington today. It’s the second round to talks between the two countries. The first meeting in China in early May ended without any [Read More…]

  While overall U.S. corn planting progress is close to normal, parts of the Upper Midwest are more than two weeks behind because of late April snow and frequent rains the first half of May. [Read More…]

Across the Corn Belt, a broken line of showers stretches from Michigan to Missouri. The rain is slowing a previously rapid fieldwork pace, but is benefiting recently emerged corn and soybeans. In Illinois, soybeans were [Read More…]

Rental rates for Iowa farmland increased this year for the first time since 2013, according to an Iowa State University Extension survey. Rental rates increased by an average of 1.4 percent to 222 dollars per [Read More…]

The Missouri Soybean Association has started its Foundation for Soy Innovation.  Missouri Soybean CEO Gary Wheeler says priorities for the Foundation are research, business development and marketing, and to educate current and future generations working [Read More…]

An Illinois farmer says he got lucky with some much-needed rain last week, “We were very, very dry going into last week and we got some rain and hail about a week or 10 days [Read More…]

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, cattle futures closed sharply lower for the second consecutive day pressured by fundamentals.  The lack of direction from the cash trade, mixed wholesale markets, and a stronger US dollar all [Read More…]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has sent its 2019 ethanol volume mandates and 2020 biodiesel volume mandates to the White House.  The news service Platts reports the notice, from the Office of Management and Budget, [Read More…]

An extension soybean agronomist anticipates a chaotic stretch for farmers trying to catch up on planting. Seth Naeve with the University of Minnesota says soils throughout the Upper Midwest are warm and wet, and fieldwork [Read More…]

  A dairy specialist recommends farmers search for alternative management ideas to help overcome a year in the red. “Try not to get pessimistic with what’s going on, we’ve been here before.” Vita Plus dairy [Read More…]

Dairy farmers, like others, want to see a good NAFTA agreement to help bolster markets but not everyone sees Canada’s Class 7 powder prices as a problem. Continue reading Dairy leaders on what NAFTA, Canada’s [Read More…]

If a dairy cow eats GMO feed grains does that mean you are drinking GMOs in your milk?  The answer is, NO, it does not. Continue reading There’s no such thing as GMO milk at Brownfield [Read More…]

A frustratingly small window for fieldwork has some farmers in southern Minnesota preparing for crop failures. Lawrence Sukalski grows corn and soybeans in south-central Minnesota near the Iowa border. He says in four decades of [Read More…]

In its latest crop progress report, the USDA says corn farmers worked around scattered thunderstorms late last week to bring planting to 40 percent complete. However, Lawrence Sukalski says his farm in Martin County has [Read More…]

A north-central Iowa farmer behind on planting says conditions resemble early April rather than mid-May. Wayne Fredericks of Osage is a strip and no-till corn and soybean grower who uses cover crops. He tells Brownfield [Read More…]

As of Sunday, 72 percent of Nebraska’s corn crop was planted, slight ahead of the five-year average, with 41 percent of soybeans in the ground, also ahead of normal. Winter wheat condition rated 64 percent [Read More…]

The pace of corn planting in Iowa varies widely, from 91 percent complete in the southeast to 26 percent in north-central Iowa. Overall, the state’s corn crop is 65 percent planted, up from 40 percent [Read More…]

Milk futures were higher and the cash dairy markets were mixed Monday at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Class Three May milk was up $.01 at $15.24 a hundredweight. June was up $.23 to $16.09. July [Read More…]