In a year in agriculture with this many ups and downs, good information becomes an even bigger commodity. That’s why the USDA is sending out its end-of-year surveys soon. Cindy caught up with Bob Bass, the Director of National Operations for the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) during Trade Talk at the National Association of Farm Broadcasting convention, and …
USAID Issues Progress Report at WFP
U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Rajiv Shah released the first progress report and scorecard for Feed the Future at an address to the World Food Prize on Thursday. The progress report highlights how Feed the Future is already making a difference in people’s lives in the developing world and the scorecard tracks how well we are changing our development …
The School Lunch Parodies
Who has seen The Hunger Games – or read the books? You’ll get a laugh out of the comparisons drawn in this video. Kids these days may have some “out there” ideas (at least that’s what some of us ‘old’ folks think) but one thing they have right is that they stand up for what they believe, and speak out …
Soybeans Up, Corn Crop Down a Bit
The October USDA crop production report out this morning took a little bit more off the corn crop but increased the soybean crop by nine percent. Corn production is forecast at 10.7 billion bushels, down slightly from the September forecast and down 13 percent from 2011. This represents the lowest production in the United States since 2006. Based on conditions …
Corn Harvest More than Double Time Ahead
Farmers are more than double-timing it on the corn harvest this season. As of this past weekend, USDA reports that 69 percent of the crop was harvested, compared to 28 average for this time of year. Several corn belt states are running way, way ahead of normal, like Minnesota and Iowa, which normally have around 11-17% of the corn harvest …
Farm Co-ops Set Records in 2011
October is National Cooperative Month and 2012 is the the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives, so it is extra special to celebrate record farm cooperative income in 2011. USDA released the latest statistics today, showing that farmer, rancher and fishery cooperatives posted record sales of $213 billion and $5.4 billion in net income, surpassing the previous record sales year …
Ag Secretary Vilsack at World Dairy Expo
It’s opening day at World Dairy Expo. We’ve got beautiful weather and we’ve got a special visitor. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is holding an open town hall meeting. Here he is being welcomed by Wisconsin Secretary of Agriculture, Ben Brancel. I’ll update this post with audio from the session here as soon as I can after the meeting …
USDA Lowers Grain Stocks
USDA’s Quarterly Grain Stocks report out this morning shows declines in stocks of corn, soybeans and wheat compared to this time last year. The report shows corn stocks down 12% from September 2011, soybean stocks down 21% and all wheat stocks down 2%. Old crop corn stocks in all positions on September 1, 2012 totaled 988 million bushels, soybeans totaled …
Fuel Prices Are Impacting Farms and Businesses
Our latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Have high fuel prices had an impact on your farm/business?” Our poll results: Sixty-four percent said Yes, big impact on our budget; fourteen percent said Yes, minimal impact on our budget; twelve percent said No, not yet; and ten percent said No, don’t expect any. Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the …
Push Back on New School Lunches
Healthier school lunches, required for the first time this year, are getting some push back from students and teachers across the USA who say they are still hungry after eating the noon meal. A new YouTube video parody, created by two teachers and some high school students in Kansas, has students singing We Are Hungry as they try to make …