Everett Griner talks about how transporting crops has changed in today’s Agri View. Growing food and fiber on our farms is one thing. Getting it to consumers is another. It is a system that is nothing like it was one hundred years ago. In its early days, the railroad moved almost everything that was produced in volume. It was the …
EPA Administrator Visits Southeast Agriculture
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt is visiting the Southeast this week, bringing his Back-to-Basics positive environmental agenda with him. He visited Alabama and Georgia, where he was joined by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue. Pruitt discusses his trip and Back-to-Basics initiative. “It’s been a wonderful two days,” Pruitt says. He started his trip on July 6 …
Legislature Seeks Spring Trial in Conservation Funding Fight
News Service of Florida Attorneys for the Florida House and Senate have asked a judge to schedule a trial during the last week of March and the first week of April in a long-running battle about whether lawmakers have properly carried out a 2014 constitutional amendment that required setting aside money for land-conservation efforts. The request, filed Monday in Leon …
Demonstrating Careful Antibiotic Stewardship
by Jim Mulhern, President, and CEO National Milk Producers Federation The rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria seen in the United States and elsewhere in the world is frequently and unfairly blamed on antibiotic use in agriculture. This is unfortunate because it tends to mask the real problem: misuse of antibiotics in human medicine. The reality is that the vast majority of …
USDA Options for Livestock Producers Dealing With Drought
Dry and or drought conditions are nothing new to livestock producers in the Southeast. But this year, some of the areas suffering the most have been in the Northern Plains. And in a story from Rod Bain, we learn more about some of the tools in the USDA tool shed that can assist livestock producers facing drought conditions, particularly from …
Peanut Farmers Debate Provisions for 2018 Farm Bill
By Jaci Schreckengost Provisions from the 2014 farm bill had lasting effects on peanut farmers in the Southeast. However, farmers are debating whether those effects were positive or negative. On June 24, a listening session was hosted in Gainesville, Florida, by the House Agriculture Committee to discuss the creation of the 2018 farm bill. “You hit a homerun. You wrote …
Growing Veggies by Vertical Gardening
If you enjoy growing your own veggies, Cathy Isom tells you why vertical gardening is the way to grow. She also clues you in on how to do it without putting a dent in your pocketbook. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours. To grow your own fresh fruits and veggies in a garden at home you don’t …
Rabobank Issues Report on Declining Wheat Acres
Rabobank issued a report this week saying U.S. wheat acres have been on the decline for 35 years. This growing season, wheat acres are at their lowest point in 100 years. Those lower acres over a long period of time are going to have some ripple effects. RaboResearch Grains and Oilseed Analyst Stephen Nicholson found that the decreasing number of …
Brazil Delays Decision on Ethanol Import Tariff
Brazil’s Chamber of Foreign Trade announced this week it would delay a decision to put an import tariff of 17 percent on U.S. ethanol. U.S. Grains Council President and CEO Tom Sleight, Renewable Fuels President and CEO Bob Dineen, and Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor put out a joint statement on the decision this week. The groups were encouraged by …
Optimism Returning to the Ag Producers Barometer
The Purdue/CME Group’s June survey shows producers are a little more optimistic about their financial position than they were last year. The shift is why the June index reading of 131 was unchanged from the May survey. The index has held steady for three straight months and remains well above the low levels of last November. The shift in producer …