Brownfield

The USDA has announced $2.7 billion in funding for school meal programs and emergency food networks to purchase American-grown commodities. The Commodity Credit Corporation funds will give states $1.3 billion for school meals, and an additional $1 billion to purchase USDA vendor-supplied commodities for emergency food programs.  The Agriculture Marketing Services solicits for vendors on an ongoing basis for over 200 different foods for schools, food banks, and families. Products […]

An Illinois row crop farmer says it’s dry, but he’s still optimistic about getting a good crop of soybeans and corn. Bryan Severs raises soybeans and corn in east central Illinois near Potomac. He tells Brownfield, “Things look surprisingly well for the lack of rainfall that we’ve had this year. Basically, in our area since the beginning of April, we’ve had a little over an inch of rainfall since planting.” […]

Nearly an inch of rain has made all the difference for Michigan Thumb-area farmers. Neil French, ADM edible bean grower relations manager, tells Brownfield he can’t remember a growing season that had more than a month of no rain at the beginning. “We had cool nights, we had no insect pressure, we had no chemical damage,” he shares.  “The crop was amazing to everyone that was involved—how good it looked […]

An ag economist says consumers are leaning into the good vibes as they navigate some of the inflationary pressures, like food.Lance Zimmerman, chief protein analyst at Rabobank says the pandemic forced a lot of consumers to eat at home and learn how to cook good meals at home.  In today’s post-pandemic world – that’s something consumers are still doing.  AUDIO: Healthy Living on weathering the inflation storm ...

A weed extension specialist says control efforts have been hindered by dry conditions. Michigan State University’s Christy Sprague tells Brownfield soil-applied herbicides need moisture to activate and that’s been in short supply. “A lot of those soil-applied products really did not get moved into the soil and are not showing a lot of good performance,” she shares. Sprague says weeds have also stopped actively growing which has created some limitations […]

Beck’s Agronomist Travis Coleman says although timely rains are needed, many crops in southern Indiana are in good shape. “In talking with growers every day, that is definitely the first topic of conversation—how dry it is or how dry it has been,” he says. “As I walk a lot of acres, I don’t see that drought stress or heat stress really showing itself today. I’m not as concerned. I do […]

U.S. poultry production was up sharply in May. The USDA says production of 4.585 billion pounds was up 8% on the year, with a 7% increase for chicken to 4.085 billion pounds and an 18% jump in turkey to 487.532 million pounds. The chicken slaughter was up 5% from last year at 829.837 million head and the turkey slaughter was 15% higher at 19.104 million head, with average live weights […]

An Eastern Iowa farmer says he’s losing hope in his hay crops unless there’s a significant change in the weather soon. “There’s cracks in the hay ground that I can stick my hand into  go past my wrist.” Dave Walton tells Brownfield his alfalfa crop is struggling, and that’s not good news for the fall and winter months.  “Our first cutting was short about 30 percent. Our second cutting was […]

Mexico has placed a 50 percent tariff imports of white corn. a move that could aggravate trade tensions with the United States.   In a call with reporters on Monday, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said the US will continue to follow the trade dispute settlement process under the Unites States-Mexico-Canada Agreement that was filed because of a ban on biotech corn. “We expect and anticipate that our response to any […]