Agriculture

A swine veterinarian says modern pork production lends itself to disease variation. Dr. John Waddell with Boehringer Ingelheim says Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus, or PRRS, continues to cause problems for pork producers because it easily evolves. “The way we raise pigs today has probably exacerbated (the problem) given PRRS’ ability to evolve more rapidly. If you think about it, larger groups of pigs, larger populations, we’re trucking pigs […]

China’s hog industry continues to send mixed signals as the country tries to recover from African swine fever.  Livestock economist Steve Meyer with Partners for Production Agriculture suggests its almost impossible to know how successful China has been at controlling ASF and rebuilding domestic hog inventories. “On the one hand we think, ‘well they lost all those pigs and are still rebuilding.’ But their prices have been extremely low for […]

The USDA is reporting another generally down week for export sales. U.S. exports continue to face a few different headwinds, including relative strength in the dollar against some other major currencies, high prices, and competition from other exporters. Old crop corn and soybean sales for the week ending June 2nd were above average, but the overall pace for both has slowed down quite a bit over the past couple of […]

In this Best of Voice of Soy, brought to you by Ohio soybean farmers and their checkoff dollars, Tom Fontana, director of programs and development for the Ohio Soybean Council Foundation says one of the most important investments they make is in their scholarship program. ...

Newly weaned pigs often struggle taking to water. Callabria Petrino with swine nutrition company Tonisity says they’ve released a water medicator called PxW that is flavored in a way that “pigs lap it up.” “In our studies we’ve seen that the pigs can start on early as 30 minutes when they get in the barn, which if you work with baby pigs, getting them to drink anything is almost impossible […]

Several ag economists told members of a House Ag Subcommittee the safety net in the next farm bill needs to address the rising cost of production.  During a hearing Thursday, Dr. Joe Outlaw, co-director with the Agricultural Food and Policy Center with Texas A&M University says farmers and ranchers are facing high input costs and inflation and current crop insurance isn’t enough. “Prices are going to decline, but input prices […]

USDA’s recently announced $700 million to biofuels producers could help lower the price at the pump. Congresswoman Cheri Bustos of Illinois tells Brownfield the recent USDA aid will support more fuel options for drivers. “It actually brings down the cost per gallon by somewhere between 50 and 60 cents a gallon,” Bustos said. “And it’s even more if you have and E85 station.” She says biofuels producers took a big […]

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Data-driven technologies can provide growers and their trusted advisors with information that increases their efficiency from the field to the bin. In this episode, Jason Tatge, senior vice president of AGI Digital details how AGI’s suite of digital technologies helps growers get the most out of their crop. ...