Agriculture

The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility officially opened Wednesday after nearly two decades of planning by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Homeland Security. The $1.25 billion facility located in Manhattan, Kansas will replace the DHS’ Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York. Secretary Tom Vilsack says its research will be critically important to protect the agricultural industry and it has the highest level of biocontainment laboratories and safety […]

Beef is a bright spot in the latest round of cold storage numbers. The USDA says beef stocks at the end of April were 447.984 million pounds, 16% below last year, with solid demand and tighter ready numbers contributing to the decline. Pork came out at 565.479 million pounds, up 6% on the year, partially due to less consistent demand. That drop in beef canceled out the rise in pork, […]

An agronomist says farmers should be monitoring soybeans for symptoms of nitrogen deficiency. Kevin Keller with Pioneer says examine nodules on the plant at the V2 to V3 stage. “We want to see probably somewhere around 7 to 15 good nodules, good, healthy nodules. So, they’ll be pink or reddish inside, meaning that they’re active and going.” He tells Brownfield an in-season nitrogen application may help jump start the crop. […]

USDA has launched an assistance program to help organic dairy producers. The Organic Dairy Marketing Assistance Act was established to help mitigate market volatility, higher input and transportation costs, and unstable feed supply and prices that have created what the agency calls “unique hardships in the organic dairy industry.” USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is making $104 million available to organic dairy operations to assist with projected marketing costs in […]

Ethanol stocks have tightened for five weeks in a row. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the domestic supply is the tightest since last November at 22.041 million barrels, a decrease of 1.15 million on the week and 1.671 million on the year. That’s due to improving demand as the retailers prepare for summer driving season and the ethanol industry gets ready for expanded E15 access. The drawdown included a […]

Commentary. Much needed rain fell on our farm a couple of weeks ago, bringing us out of the “extreme drought” category and back to “severe drought.” The earth was thirsty, and the hay crop we are cutting this week will be half of what it was last year. Last year produced less tonnage than the previous year. Part of that is due to drought and part due to a late […]

Animal health company Medgene is studying the Asian long-horned tick and the possibility of developing vaccines for the diseases it can carry. Medgene founder and researcher Dr. Alan Young tells Brownfield they received a grant from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture to study this tick because of its impact on livestock including cattle. “It directly has an impact on cattle health and productivity, but it also has the […]

A southwest Minnesota farmer has finished putting his 2023 crop in. Bob Worth grows corn and soybeans in Lincoln County and tells Brownfield the planting season started late. “In some ways it’s late, but I guess the norm now the last couple three years has been May. We started May 5th, it was dry. The ground really dried out in a hurry even with all the snow that we had, […]