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New Mississippi River Basin Conservation Projects

Chuck Zimmerman

Today Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that $8.4 million in financial assistance is available to support 23 new partnership projects in several Mississippi River Basin states under USDA’s Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative (MRBI). On the phone with reporters to talk about it this morning was NRCS Chief David White, seen here talking with participants in the recent Conservation …

Ag Groups, Audio, Conservation, CTIC, USDA

NRCS Chief Dave White on CTIC Tour

Chuck Zimmerman

The Chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is Dave White. Dave was our lunch speaker during the 2012 Conservation in Action Tour. He also participated in the tour and talked about NRCS’ voluntary, incentive-based conservation work with private landowners. I recorded Dave’s remarks for you and also interviewed him at the end of our lunch. He said there are …

Ag Groups, Audio, Conservation, CTIC, USDA, Video

USDA Ponders Future of Crop Report Release Times

Cindy Zimmerman

USDA is pondering the future of crop report release times in light of movement toward 24-hour trading. USDA is reviewing release times for several major statistical reports due to recent changes in market hours by major commodity exchanges. The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB), the USDA entities responsible for the reports, will seek …

Corn, USDA

USDA Invests in Mississippi River Basin Water Quality

Melissa Sandfort

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and its partners will invest nearly $32 million this year in financial and technical assistance for five water quality and wetlands improvement projects in seven Mississippi River Basin states. When fully implemented, the projects will prevent sediment and nutrients from entering waterways, decrease flooding and improve bird and …

Conservation, Farming, USDA

USDA Celebrates 150 Years Live

Chuck Zimmerman

I’m a little late to the live webcast but right now USDA is celebrating 150 years of service. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, is commemorating the event with a variety of people on stage. When President Abraham Lincoln founded the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1862, he called it “the People’s Department,” a sentiment that still rings true today as …

USDA

Top 5 Largest Agriculture Cooperatives in 2010

Melissa Sandfort

The nation’s 100 largest agriculture cooperatives reported near-record revenue of $118 billion in 2010, announced USDA Rural Development Under Secretary Dallas Tonsager. This was an increase of 4 percent over 2009 figures. Net income for the 100 top agriculture co-ops was also up more than 10 percent in 2010, reaching $2.39 billion, up from $2.16 billion in 2009. Here are …

Agribusiness, Cooperatives, Dairy, USDA

USDA Confirms BSE Case

Cindy Zimmerman

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today confirmed the nation’s fourth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow from central California. “The carcass of the animal is being held under State authority at a rendering facility in California and will be destroyed. It was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk …

Animal Health, Beef, Dairy, USDA

First USDA Twitter Chat

Chuck Zimmerman

Tomorrow at 1:30pm EDT, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack will hold the first “USDA Virtual Office Hours on Twitter.” Most of you probably know how this works, especially if you’ve been a participant in AgChat. I’d recommend using TweetChat, Twubs or an app like TweetDeck or HootSuite to follow along. It looks like these planned monthly sessions will focus on different …

Biodiesel, Biofuels, Energy, Ethanol, Social Networking, USDA

National Ag Day Morning Coffee Break

Chuck Zimmerman

The start to today’s National Ag Day Activities was coffee in the USDA Atrium. We’ll be back here for dinner this evening and to hear from U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. The Secretary has become a regular on AgWired lately. This morning our program was moderated by Orion Samuelson and our speaker was Krysta Harden, USDA Chief of Staff. …

Ag Day, Ag Groups, Audio, USDA

Ag Secretary Hits Right Notes at Classic in Nashville

Cindy Zimmerman

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was interrupted by applause several times during his address at the 2012 Commodity Classic in Nashville Friday as he hit the right notes for corn, soybean, wheat and sorghum producers. Someone in the crowd shouted “Amen” when Vilsack said, “This country also needs a new generation of farmers,” noting that something needs to be done about …

Audio, Commodity Classic, USDA