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 …
New H-2A Labor Wages Effective Dec. 29
A recent issue of the Florida Citrus Mutual Triangle newsletter provided information about the wage that growers must pay H-2A labor, effective Dec. 29. H-2A workers are foreign agricultural workers who are allowed to work in the United States temporarily. In recent years, the vast majority of Florida citrus has been harvested by H-2A workers. The Employment and Training Administration …
USDA Expands Partnerships for Conservation Through CREP
(WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2021)?— The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is leveraging its authorities under the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) to bring in new types of partners and ultimately expand opportunities in voluntary conservation for the country’s agricultural producers and private landowners. USDA has updated CREP’s rule regarding matching fund requirements and invested in additional staff to work directly with partners for streamlined, partner-driven conservation …
Seven Alabama Counties as Primary Natural Disaster Areas by USDA
(WASHINGTON/USDA-FSA/Dec 14, 2021) — This Secretarial natural disaster designation allows the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to extend much-needed emergency credit to producers recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. Emergency loans can be used to meet various recovery needs including the replacement of essential items such as equipment or livestock, reorganization of a farming operation …