During an event held Monday in East Point, Ga., Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joined the Executive Director of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, Cornelius Blanding, to sign an agreement signifying a continued partnership between USDA and the nonprofit organization. The partnership aims to increase the number of minority landowners in the South and support them in sustainable forestry and …
Florida Natural Resource Meeting Web Conference is January 26
USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Florida will conduct a State Technical Committee meeting January 26, from 10:00 am-12:00 pm Eastern time. The meeting is available to the public and NRCS will provide a report for natural resource and program priority decisions and seek recommendations. Materials for the meeting can be found on the NRCS State Technical Committee website. Here are the …
Restoring Longleaf Pine Forests through USDA-NRCS Program
While longleaf pine forests once encompassed more than 90 million acres across the Southeast, the past couple of centuries has seen development, timbering and fire suppression reduce the ecosystem’s range. These forests represent some of the world’s most biologically diverse ecosystems and are home to nearly 600 plant and animal species. That is why USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) …
GCC Annual Meeting Returning to In-Person Format on Jan. 26
By Clint Thompson The Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) reminds producers and industry leaders that its annual meeting will return to an in-person format on Wednesday, Jan. 26. Taylor Sills, executive director of the GCC, discusses the importance of this year’s event. “A lot of growers have questions and sometimes they don’t want to ask them on the virtual format. They …
Signup Continues for 2022 Dairy Margin Coverage Program
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) wants to remind producers that signup for the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program continues until Feb. 18, 2022. DMC enables producers to get coverage through this important safety-net program for another year as well as get additional assistance through the new Supplemental DMC. Supplemental DMC will provide $580 million to better help small- and …
2022 Soils Planner is Now Available
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) wants landowners to know the 2022 Soils Planner is now available. USDA’s Soil and Plant Science Division notes it is a highly educational, calendar-style planner and is provided free to the public while supplies last. Individual copies can be ordered from the NRCS Distribution Center website at nrcspad.sc.egov.usda.gov. Enter the keyword “planner” …
Expert Speakers Scheduled for GCC Meeting
By Clint Thompson The Georgia Cotton Commission (GCC) is excited to announce the slate of expert speakers scheduled to present at the commission’s annual meeting on Jan. 26, 2022, at the University of Georgia Tifton Campus Conference Center in Tifton, Georgia. Taylor Sills, executive director of the GCC, talked about each of the presenters. “We’ve got three fantastic speakers. Kent …
Conservation Effort Completed at Florida’s Big Bend
According to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Florida (NRCS-FL) and The Conservation Fund, a multi-year effort to conserve working forestlands and habitat along Florida’s Big Bend coast, has been completed. The “Gulf of Mexico – Forest to Sea” project will provide a vast buffer of conservation lands for wildlife habitat, water quality and quantity, and resilience against extreme weather and climate change. The effort was …
USDA?Continues to Invest in Wetland Mitigation Banks
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) continues to award grant funding for the Wetland Mitigation Banking Program (WMBP). The latest one announced this week is nearly $5 million and will support development of mitigation banks for the restoration, creation or enhancement of wetlands to compensate for unavoidable impacts to wetlands at another location. This latest announcement adds to the more than $12.4 …
A Cowboy’s Christmas Prayer
As we celebrate Christmas this year, Southeast AgNet’s Randall Weiseman brings back an old favorite, “A Cowboy’s Christmas Prayer” written by S. Omar Barker. A COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS PRAYERby S. Omar Barker (1895-1985) I ain’t much good at prayin’,and You may not know me, Lord —For I ain’t much seen in churches,where they preach Thy Holy Word.But you may have observed …