Lawyers have failed to reach a settlement in a federal lawsuit claiming a soybean seed company purposely sold faulty seeds to black farmers in Mississippi. A court filing by attorneys for Stine Seed Co. says mediation talks did not lead to an agreement to settle the suit. U.S. District Judge John Fowlkes had set a Friday mediation deadline.
When it’s safe, most tractor drivers pull over and let traffic pass. The problem is that Texas law does not currently include farm equipment in the legal definition of vehicles that may drive on the road shoulder. Bills in the Texas Legislature this session could fix that. Everyone is busy and often impatient these days. It can certainly be annoying to be stuck behind a slow-moving vehicle. However, a collision with a tractor could change our perception of busy schedules. [node:read-more:link]
All farmers and livestock producers are important. All the crops and animals they raise are important. That said, there's something special about the dairy industry, especially the people who operate dairy farms. Their skill and dedication reflect what's best and noblest in production agriculture.So the ongoing slump in the U.S. dairy industry is distressing. Beset with a multi-year stretch of poor milk prices and limited profitability, far too many dairy producers have shut down or are in imminent danger of doing so. From 2017 to 2018 alone, 6.5 percent of U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Farmer Greg Willison and his son grew hemp for the first time last year near Coos Bay, Ore., and made money despite the many risks of raising a new crop. [node:read-more:link]
As farmers in the affected areas plan to build back and farmers elsewhere have building plans in place, elevation is an important concept. Identifying high spots for the placement of grain storage facilities and making them even higher may be a wise investment as we enter an era of more extreme weather events. It may be easy to think that a 500-year flood event is a remote possibility in your area, but such an event is likely to take place somewhere in the next decade or two. A bit of caution now could prevent a disastrous situation in the future. [node:read-more:link]
The Inspector of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has imposed an order imposing conditions in relation to secondary control zones to guard against African swine fever (ASF). ASF has not been detected in North America, but has been spreading across Asia and Europe since last summer. Although ASF does not affect humans, it is highly contagious and deadly among pigs, cannot be cured and has no vaccine. [node:read-more:link]
The biological opinion is a guiding document that Bureau of Reclamation’s Klamath Basin Area Office uses to ensure the Endangered Species Act is followed, as is required by law. Along with that, the bureau is tasked with delivering water to irrigators in the Klamath Project in accordance with this document. The document will also allow it to issue a concrete water allocation and operations plan for the year.Paul Crawford spoke up about his concerns about the new biological opinion — known to some in the Basin as ‘BiOp’ — at a March 22 meeting hosted by Reclamation, and attended by U.S. [node:read-more:link]
A newly released report shows how U.S. farmers — facing a surge of weather events and disease outbreaks — can increase production and revenues with innovations produced by federally funded agricultural research but warns that more investment in agricultural research is needed to prevent falling further behind China. [node:read-more:link]
Both May spring wheat and December spring wheat futures reached fresh contract lows Thursday's session. A look at the action in the May/July and December/March futures spreads shows a sudden change in commercial sentiment since March 25, with the old-crop spread moving from a 3 1/2 cent inverse on March 25 to a 9 1/4 cent carry as of the April 4 close. [node:read-more:link]
Nebraska farmers affected by the devastating effects of recent floods and blizzards can use USDA Farm Service Agency cost-sharing programs to help recover financially. However, there are several rules and regulations producers must follow to receive aid. The majority of the meeting was dedicated to discussing the Emergency Conservation Program. [node:read-more:link]
