Agriculture

Brownfield Anchor/Reporter Kellan Heavican will serve as emcee a the American International Charolais Association Junior National in Grand Island, Nebraska Sunday, June 19, 2022. ...

The world’s largest biofuel producer says it has reached an agreement to transport carbon from 18 of its Midwestern plants starting in 2025. POET President Jeff Lautt tells Brownfield capturing and storing carbon dioxide accelerates the company’s path to net-zero emissions. “This is just going to further reduce the carbon intensity of bioethanol, therefore, making us that much more viable well into the future and that much more sought after.  […]

The Illinois Department of Agriculture is ready to hire four new veterinarians after a $750,000 increase in funding. Currently the state has a Chief Veterinarian and one state field veterinarian. State Vet Dr. Mark Ernst said the increase in staff will help the IDOA be ready to react to a foreign animal disease outbreak. “This will enable us to have better coverage throughout the state to respond to foreign animal […]

Pork producers are feeling the effects of inflation.  National Pork Producers Council president Terry Wolters, a pork producer from Pipestone in southwest Minnesota, says inflation causes many challenges. “We’ve had increased input costs, fuel, transportation, all of those costs have continued to rise. And without question is it impacting our profitability.” He tells Brownfield the futures market is not allowing pork producers an opportunity to offset inflated input costs. ...

Argentina is proposing a new tax on companies that they say are generating ‘extrodinary income’ because of the conflict in Ukraine. Ag economist Ben Brown with the University of Missouri says the tax would heavily impact the country’s crop farmers. He tells Brownfield the move could benefit U.S. growers. “This really plays into not having the grain to the export terminals to be able to export,” he said. “And so, […]

A young farmer says out-of-the-box thinking is a requirement for any beginning farmer because of the high costs of entry.  “The price of commodities is up, the price of the equipment is extremely high, the price of land is extremely high.”   Robyn Fogarasi tells Brownfield it’s taken her and her husband a decade to grow their business which today includes 1,200 acres of corn, soybeans, wheat, and more than […]

U.S. ethanol production moved lower last week as stocks grew. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says production averaged 1.039 million barrels a day, down 32,000 from the previous week’s near-six month high and 28,000 barrels lower than a year ago. The Renewable Fuels Association says net inputs by refiners and blenders were a five-week low, falling 2.7% from the prior week, while the volume of gasoline supply rose 2.5% to […]

The National Sheriff’s Association says high prices and record inflation are behind a recent uptick in rural thefts. Kiernan Donahue, a leader with the association, tells Brownfield as a result they are increasing patrols in rural areas. “A lot of these folks are hitting the rural areas because there’s not the presence of law enforcement that we have in our urban areas,” Donahue said. “They take advantage of that.” Donahue […]