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Agriculture

Foreign-born workforce vital to local and national economy

The President said in September that undocumented immigrants are costing the U.S. more than $113 billion annually. The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) was reportedly the source of that number, and they noted that state and local governments pay the vast majority of that amount at $84 billion a year, but also reported that the actual net cost incurred by undocumented immigrants residing illegally in the U.S. is closer to $99 billion. [node:read-more:link]

With Farm Labor Getting Scarcer, Big U.S. Farms Are Preparing To Turn To Robots

Buoyed by an inexpensive migrant workforce, California has been the United States’ agricultural mainstay for nearly a century, currently producing about 60 percent of the nation’s fresh produce. But as the state’s minimum wage approaches $15 an hour and competition from a growing Mexican economy mounts, producers face unprecedented operating costs and a workforce that has dropped by 60 percent since the 1990s.  Add to this President Trump’s moves to restrict immigration, which threatens to significantly curtail the sector’s already depressed labor supply. [node:read-more:link]

Data Coalition, Growers Join to Launch National Ag Data Cooperative

A cooperative of growers and an agricultural data nonprofit have agreed to combine their technology platforms and create a vital resource for data-driven agriculture — a neutral, secure and private data storage repository controlled by growers. The combined platforms will be known as AgXchange™ and will be an independent data repository commercially available through the Growers Ag Data Cooperative (GADC) where producers can control, store, view and share their farm data assets. [node:read-more:link]

New Holland Announces Data-Sharing Agreements

New Holland has announced it has secured agreements to enable wireless data transfer capabilities between its PLM Connect precision land management system and service providers, including Decisive Farming, Encirca services, Onsite, and MapShots, Inc.  If they so choose, users of PLM Connect will have the ability to share their agronomic data from their management portal directly to and from these third-party providers.  "We are very excited to add these providers which will allow our customers to be able to seamlessly share their data through PLM Connect," said Luke Zerby, New Holland's Pre [node:read-more:link]

The Outlook for U.S. Agriculture From USDA’s Chief Economist

Dr. Johansson noted that, “Farm income has fallen dramatically since 2013, falling almost 30 percent in real terms. That is the largest 4-year drop in farm income in 40 years, when real farm income fell more than 45 percent between 1973 and 1977.  We have seen record production in major commodities over the past few years, and as a result prices are down significantly.  Baseline projections show flat farm income throughout the 10-year forecast period.” With respect to farmland values, Dr. [node:read-more:link]

Federal Circuit Court Affirms $455M Award To Bayer In Dow Patent Case

The Federal Circuit upheld a $455 million award to Bayer CropScience NV after an arbitration panel found that Dow Agrosciences LLC infringed its patents on weed control technology, finding that Dow failed to meet the high bar for overturning such an award. The appeals court ruled that Judge Raymond Jackson of the Eastern District of Virginia correctly affirmed the award last year, although it agreed with Dow that the amount of interest on the award must be modified. [node:read-more:link]

Dairy waste floods homes near Yakima

An Outlook dairy has unleashed a flood of hazardous water into and around nearby homes. According to the Department of Agriculture, a small levee broke Wednesday in a nearby field owned by Deruyter Brothers Dairy. A mix of water and dairy waste then moved across another farm's compost piles, traveling further downhill toward a cluster of homes. At least four homes were damaged, with dairy waste flooding the living space of at least one of them. The Department of Health is working to test drinking water, but is alerting residents not to drink it. [node:read-more:link]

New York Governor:Farmers have saved $36.6 million since assessment rule changed

Gov. Andrew Cuomo is noting that farmers have, since a change more than three years ago that lowered the rate at which farmland assessments can rise, saved a total of $36.6 million on property taxes. The shift lowered the maximum allowed rate of increase from 10 percent to 2 percent per year. The idea was to help keep property and school taxes bearable for the state’s farmers who may be land rich but cash poor. Here are the details along with a regional breakdown and a bushel full of happy quotes: Governor Andrew M. [node:read-more:link]

A second chance at farming

Dale McClellan rebuilt his grandfather’s bankrupt milk processing company into a leading business and became a champion for agriculture.  McClellan, who had grown up milking cows, was just 23 when the company — and his family — went broke.“I was young and just trying to survive, but I had a burning passion to get back into processing because I didn’t feel it was our fault that we got out,” McClellan recalls. “They bled him to death through pricing, but that happened to every family milk plant in the United States. National brands squished them. [node:read-more:link]

Spotlight back on California's Prop 2

Attorneys general seek Supreme Court review of ongoing lawsuit challenging Prop 2, while first egg producer charged criminally regarding welfare standards. In 2008, California voters passed the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act, also known as Proposition 2, with 63.5% support. Prop 2 requires that an egg-laying hen must be able to fully spread her wings without touching another animal or a side of the enclosure. [node:read-more:link]

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