The images of dead and dying cattle and calves as a result of the blizzard and flooding in Nebraska are hard for people in the livestock industry to see. As USDA Under Secretary Greg Ibach said last week at the Agri-Pulse Policy Summit, “It’s almost like losing family.” Ibach is former Nebraska Director of Agriculture who says he is, “first …
Weather Causes Early End to FPS18 Day One
There’s always something new at Farm Progress Show and this year a big storm caused something that has never happened before – an evacuation and shut down of the show before noon. Rain had been in the forecast for the day, but everyone was hoping it would either miss us or not be too bad. However, when the storm was …
Florida & Georgia Cattle Country Hit by Irma
Hurricane Irma traveled straight through Florida and Georgia cattle country. An assessment of damaged areas is still being tallied. Florida dairies are running on generators, still struggling to keep cows milked and forced to dump tons of milk for various reasons. Less impacted appears to be the beef cattle industry, as most fences remained intact and kept cattle from getting …
Ag Secretary Heads Home to Survey Irma Damage
Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue will travel to Georgia today to see first-hand the damage the Hurricane Irma caused to crops in his home state. “We’ve been in constant contact with Secretary Perdue,” said Georgia Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black in an interview this week with Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weiseman. “We swapped some texts and within minutes had confirmation that ‘yes, …
Florida Citrus Starting to Assess Irma Damage
As Floridians continue to dig out from the damage and debris caused by Hurricane Irma, the extent of damage to agriculture is starting to be assessed. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam took an aerial tour yesterday to survey areas impacted by Hurricane Irma, including citrus groves in Central and Southwest Florida. “It’s still too early to know the full …
Harvey Hits Texas Agriculture
Rescuing people trapped in flood waters continues to be the number one priority in Texas but it’s clear that Hurricane Harvey has hit agriculture hard. Texas Commissioner of Agriculture Sid Miller says cotton farmers who were looking at a bumper crop this year were especially hard hit. “Best estimate so far is about a 150 million dollar loss for the …
ZimmCast on Climate Change & Paris Accord
The decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord has generated reactions from many I am connected with via social media that border on hysteria. But the majority have expressed approval of the decision. As we reported earlier this week, agricultural interests seem to be pretty quiet on the matter. I think that’s because they are more …
Weather Outlook at #NFMS17
Weather is always the main topic of discussion whenever farmers get together, so the weather outlook from Bryce Anderson, Senior Ag Meteorologist at DTN/The Progressive Farmer, is always a big draw at the National Farm Machinery Show. Anderson says the outlook for the corn belt is good this year as the Pacific Ocean has moved from a weak La Nina …
Meteorologist Explains La Nina at #ExEx16
No matter where on the supply chain you are, members of the agriculture industry are always interested in the weather. Kyle Tamely, a senior ag meteorologist with MDA Weather Services, spoke at the Export Exchange 2016 conference last week on weather trends and the global grain market to international buyers and domestic suppliers of corn, ethanol co-products, sorghum and barley. …
CropTrak Partners with The Weather Company
CropTrak President Aaron Hutchinson doesn’t believe in just sitting still. He’s always moving his company forward, from updating the company’s name (you may remember them as iCrop Trak) to upgrading the weathers solutions provided by his company. At InfoAg this week the company announced a move to partner with The Weather Company. This IBM owned weather solution will offer Crop …