Agriculture

Animal biotechnology is a rapidly growing field due to the vast benefits it can bring to both human and animal health. For example, by carefully modifying the genome of livestock to provide disease resistance, we simultaneously improve animal health, welfare and food safety.  This practice reduces the use of antibiotics in livestock, helping to preserve an antibiotic’s clinical efficacy in humans. By using biotechnology to reduce disease in livestock, we lessen the likelihood of microbes infecting humans. [node:read-more:link]

Several agricultural groups and farmers have written comments to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) urging that a proposed rule change for the taxable value of assets be amended to consider family farmers and ranchers.  The IRS plan for more restrictive rules for using valuation discounts would make it more difficult for farmers and ranchers who operate family-owned partnerships, LLCs or corporations to transfer their farms and ranches to the next generation.  Reportedly, of the nearly 9,500 comments on the proposed rule, 16% cite the potential negative impact on farmers as reason for oppos [node:read-more:link]

The Purdue/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer settled lower in October. Based on a survey of 400 agricultural producers across the U.S., the monthly measure of U.S. agricultural producers’ sentiment was measured at 92, the lowest reading since March 2016 and the second-lowest Ag Economy Barometer value since data collection began in October 2015 [node:read-more:link]

Although the sale of marijuana is a federal crime, the number of U.S. banks working with pot businesses, now sanctioned in many states, is growing, up 45 percent in the last year alone. Still, marijuana merchants say there are not nearly enough banks willing to take their cash. So many dispensaries resort to stashing cash in storage units, back offices and armored vans. Proponents believe the Nov. 8 election could tip the balance in favor of liberalizing federal marijuana laws, a move seen as key to getting risk-averse banks off the sidelines. [node:read-more:link]

s Ohio’s small dairies continue to battle slim to negative margins, mounting regulations and rising input costs, there is growing concern about increasingly limited markets because of a growing trend from milk processors.  The typical milk transport trailer carries 7,000 to 8,000 gallons of milk per load. Small dairies are worried about what seems to be a heavy preference from milk processors that the entire load should be filled from one single farm rather than multiple dairies. [node:read-more:link]

China’s imports of corn and feed grains are set to slump after the government increased the amount auctioned from state reserves and domestic prices dropped to a decade low, according to analysts.  The government is offering about 7.9 million metric tons of corn from its stockpiles for a third week. That compares with 6 million tons offered in auctions held July 21 and 22 and about 2 million tons offered July 12-13, which included poor quality grain. [node:read-more:link]

The industry that supplies farmers with the tools to raise crops is on the brink of a watershed moment. High-profile deals are in the works that would combine the largest agri-chemical companies, sending ripples through farm fields and dinner tables.  In some ways, the growth and consolidation of the agriculture industry is a common story of American business:  growth snowballed until small companies become part of larger conglomerates. But farming only transitioned from a self-contained enterprise to big business in the 20th century. [node:read-more:link]

It started with a bull named Pawnee Farm Arlinda Chief, who had a whopping 16,000 daughters. And 500,000 granddaughters and more than 2 million great-granddaughters. Today, in fact, his genes account for 14 percent of all DNA in Holstein cows, the most popular breed in the dairy industry. Chief—let’s call him Chief for brevity’s sake—was so popular because his daughters were fantastic milk producers. He had great genes for milk. But, geneticists now know, he also had a single copy of a deadly mutation that spread undetected through the Holstein cow population. [node:read-more:link]

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food (UDAF) is cautioning commercial and backyard rabbit producers to refrain from feeding their animals feed manufactured by Cache Commodities of Ogden, sold under the brand name “Commercial Rabbit”, until sampling and testing is complete. If tainted feed is found, contaminated lot numbers will be confirmed and published by the department. More than 500 commercially grown rabbits in Utah which consumed the product have died since May. [node:read-more:link]

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has written to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about possible regulations on milk that Cuomo says could devastate the state's dairy export industry.  The Democratic governor said Monday that if the rules proposed in Canada take effect it could amount to a $50 million market loss for New York's dairy industry. Cuomo's office says the proposal would restrict imports of ultra-filtered milk from New York state. [node:read-more:link]