After speaking to 4-H members for breakfast, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined North American Agricultural Journalists for lunch on Monday, covering a variety of important issues, including immigration and getting a new food, farm and jobs bill. “I believe we will have a bill this year because we have to have a bill this year,” Vilsack said, noting the need …
AgFanatics Talk About the Markets
In the newest AgFanatics podcast, our friends Cory and Nick give some explanation as to what has caused the significant retreat in grain prices, after last Thursday’s USDA report. What does the future hold and what could we see in next Wednesday’s WASDE report? Tune in to find out! The AgriVisor AgFanatics podcast is updated twice weekly and can be …
Report Reveals Improper Payments at USDA
A guest post by Agri-Pulse Editor Sara Wyant When lawmakers talk about reducing “waste, fraud and abuse” in federal programs, they usually target the food stamp program, more recently called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). In fact, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., introduced legislation recently that he said would “restore integrity” to the SNAP program, while saving $36 billion in …
Support for Repeal of Catfish Inspection Program
There’s a whole boatload of folks who think something is fishy about the USDA catfish inspection program that was included in the 2008 Farm Bill and they’d like to see it thrown back. An effort to repeal the program apparently has widespread support in Congress and with a variety of agricultural companies and organizations. National Fisheries Institute spokesperson Gavin Gibbons …
MGEX Commentary on Plantings Report
A little more corn, a little less soybeans, more wheat and a lot less cotton – that summarizes the USDA 2013 Prospective Plantings report out today. Corn growers intend to plant 97.3 million acres of corn for all purposes in 2013, up slightly from last year and 6 percent higher than in 2011. If realized, this will represent the highest …
BASF Promotes Comprehensive Pest Management
Behind every successful grower is science and strategy – both of which come together in a comprehensive pest management program, as BASF Technical Crop Production Specialist AJ Woodyard helped explain during the recent BASF Science Behind event. The program also featured farmers Randy Dowdy of Georgia and Kip Cullers of Missouri. AJ emphasized that each farmers challenges are different, leading …
Fuel Quality Management for Spring
One of the biggest investments in any farm system can be the fuel. And as gas and diesel prices continue what seems to be a steady climb upwards, making sure that investment is protected just makes sense. That’s where our friends at GROWMARK come in. Marketing manager of refined and renewable fuels for GROWMARK, Mark Dehner, explains that sometimes that …
BASF Shows How Priaxor Performs
Spring is officially here, at least by the calendar, and Midwest farmers are preparing for a new year with the 2012 drought in the rearview mirror and a new BASF Crop Protection fungicide that combines two powerful active ingredients into the most advanced chemistry ever developed for a range of products, including soybeans. During the 2013 Commodity Classic, BASF was …
Soybean Registration for BASF Zidua Herbicide
There’s a new class of chemistry available now for soybean growers to help fight resistant weeds, including Palmer amaranth and waterhemp. BASF’s Crop Protection division is pleased to announce federal registration of Zidua® herbicide in soybeans. According to 10 years of research and field trials, the residual weed control provided by Zidua herbicide lasts up to two weeks longer than …
Senate Spending Bill Saves Meat Inspectors
The U.S. Senate yesterday passed a continuing budget resolution that would keep the federal government operating through the end of the fiscal year on September 30th and keep meat inspectors off the chopping block. The Senate unanimously passed an amendment introduced by Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Mark Pryor (D-AR) to the Continuing Resolution (CR) solves a funding gap for …