A Michigan poultry producer says the industry is focused on what it can control as more cases of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza are reported. Rick Sietsema tells Brownfield in 2015 H5N1 hit the Indiana/Kentucky region pretty heavily and producers have adapted to deal with outbreaks. “It’s a part of the environment that we work in,” he says. He says his farm is dedicated to the controllables including maintaining the highest […]
The drought in parts of the Western Corn Belt is intensifying and a climatologist says the 90-day outlook doesn’t look promising. Brian Fuchs is with the National Drought Mitigation Center. “We start getting into April and May, we see our precipitation numbers really start jumping and we would hope normal precipitation would be enough to change that drought status but those outlooks that are going through the end of […]
Senate Ag Committee Ranking Member John Boozman tells Brownfield the U.S. needs to work with allies to punish Russia for its attack on Ukraine and agriculture is likely to take some hits. He expects possible sanctions on Russian oil to have a ripple effect across the globe. “This could very well make oil prices remain at a very high rate which affects fertilizers, it affects the input costs of the […]
The American Soybean Association has named a new executive director of its World Initiative for Soy in Human Health program. Gena Perry is currently the global strategy project director of WISHH and will be promoted as director on February 28th. ASA director and WISHH Chair Gerry Hayden, a Kentucky soybean grower, says Perry is uniquely qualified to grow WISHH’s role in connecting global trade and development and is already growing […]
Writer and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott and her husband have made a $50-Million donation to the national 4-H Council. Council president and CEO Jennifer Sirangelo says the historic investment will allow the council to “make even greater progress toward (its) shared vision” of providing all young people with access to opportunity. Scott was previously involved with Amazon with her former husband Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and executive chairman. ...
Milk futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange saw strong support Thursday supported by cash trade and volatile market activity following Russia’s attack on Ukraine. February Class III milk was up six cents at $20.95. March 49 cents higher at $22.51. April up 75 cents at $23.23. May 75 cents higher at $22.91. June through August 50 to 63 cents higher. Dry whey down $0.03 at $0.78. Four sales were made […]
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues to shake up the markets and the chief economist for the USDA says the disruption is far from over. “There are probably issues beyond just the initial response in grain prices that we’ll want to consider.” USDA’s Seth Meyer told attendees of the Ag Outlook Forum it’s still too early to fully understand how global trade will be impacted. During an interview with Brownfield, Meyer […]
Commercial red meat production during January was 4.56.1 billion pounds, falling 5% on the year. Processing slowdowns were an issue in some areas and the January 2021 numbers were still slightly skewed by processors clearing up backlogs of animals caused by the pandemic. Beef production was 2.266 billion pounds, 2% lower, with processing also 2% lower at 2.703 million head, and the average live weight down a pound at 1,398 […]
Bayer says it will begin distributing Enlist E3 soybean varieties starting next year. Corteva Agriscience is the primary distributor of Enlist crops now but Bayer says it wants to offer its customers more choices and additional tools for integrated weed management. Bayer has reached a distribution agreement with M.S. Technologies and says it has long been an advocate for “the co-existence of multiple sites of action in crop systems” to […]
