In Egypt, the Agricultural Minister Counselor for the United States is Jonathan Gressel (pictured center). He met with the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team today at a late lunch and we really appreciate him taking time for the visit. John says his primary mission is market access and development for U.S. products. He says that currently Egypt is an …
Ag Secretary at NAFB
Somehow I neglected to do a post on Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack being at NAFB last week. He did a press conference and attended the NAFB Foundation luncheon where he spoke and helped to honor this year’s scholarship winners. Not a whole lot of newsy information out of the Secretary’s visit, but it was nice to have him there. He …
Harvest is Making Progress
USDA reports that farmers took advantage of a dry week to get 17 percent of the corn out and 14 percent more soybeans harvested last week. The new crop progress report has the soybean harvest nearing average for this time of year at 89 percent, while corn remains about 35 percent behind normal at just 54 percent complete. North Dakota …
Corn Down and Soybeans Up in New Crop Report
USDA lowered its forecast for 2009 corn production and yields in the latest report out today, but increased the soybean estimate. Corn production is forecast at 12.9 billion bushels, down 1 percent from last month but 7 percent higher than 2008. Based on conditions as of November 1, yields are expected to average 162.9 bushels per acre, down 1.3 bushels …
Facts About Pigs With H1N1
USDA has confirmed the presence of 2009 pandemic H1N1 influenza virus in a pig sample collected at the Minnesota State Fair. The National Pork Producers Council notes, despite this development, pork is safe to eat and handle and that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu viruses cannot be transmitted through food, including pork. Pigs, like people, …
Larry Quinn Retired
Ever since Cindy and I have been in agricultural communications we’ve known and enjoyed working with Larry Quinn, USDA Office of Communications. Well, Larry just retired and while I was in Las Vegas attending BlogWorld and New Media Expo, Cindy got to talk to Larry. Larry says that when he first arrived at USDA he started working on a manual …
Big Interest in USDA Conservation Stewardship Program
Lots of farmers are interested in USDA’s revamped Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) – formally known as the Conservation Security Program. Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Dave White announced this week that they received nearly 21,300 applications to participate in the CSP, covering more than 33 million acres nationwide. “NRCS has received enough applications to carry out conservation activities on …
Biosecurity For Birds Photo Contest
Hey bird photographers. Here’s a photo contest you may be interested in from USDA. USDA APHIS’ Biosecurity For Birds campaign is inviting you to enter your best poultry or pet bird photos in the 2009 Biosecurity For Birds calendar photo contest. We are especially interested in photos of all kinds of poultry, gamebirds, wild birds, shorebirds, and pet birds shown …
USDA Facebook Chat
The whole USDA Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative keeps growing with new tools. This time it’s a live chat session via USDA/Facebook. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan today launched a new USDA website for the ‘Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food’ initiative to continue the national conversation about developing local and regional food systems and finding ways to …
MyFood-a-pedia
For those of you who want to analyze everything that passes your lips USDA has a new web page that will give you the details on any food products. MyFood-a-pedia – The much anticipated MyFood-a-pedia is a new online tool that gives consumers quick access to nutrition information for over 1,000 foods. The MyFood-a-pedia provides calorie count information on the …