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Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is authorizing the use of additional Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) lands for emergency grazing and haying in and around portions of Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota affected by severe drought. USDA is adding the ability for farmers and ranchers in these areas to hay and graze CRP wetland and buffer practices. “We are working to immediately address the dire straits facing drought-stricken farmers and ranchers,” said Perdue. [node:read-more:link]

Japanese trading house Marubeni announced today it will acquire Creekstone Farms from private-equity firm Sun Capital Partners. Terms were not disclosed in either of the parties’ news releases, although Japanese news outlet Nikkei Asian Review reported the deal is worth about $170 million.The move gives Marubeni, which already owns Australian beef interest Rangers Valley, a foothold in two of the world’s largest beef-producing and exporting countries and follows China’s recent announcement that it would lift a ban on beef from the United States. [node:read-more:link]

Senate Appropriations ranking member Patrick Leahy secured provisions in the fiscal 2018 agriculture spending bill aimed at encouraging more dairy farmers to sign up for an insurance program and to select greater levels of coverage under it. The provisions are part of an agreement brokered with Appropriations Chairman Thad Cochran that helps both dairy and cotton farmers, who are struggling financially amid a sustained period of depressed prices. [node:read-more:link]

Missouri Director of Agriculture Chris Chinn on Thursday issued a notice of release from the statewide stop sale, use or removal order for Engenia, XtendiMax with VaporGrip Technology and FeXapan Herbicide Plus VaporGrip Technology. New rules put additional rules and regulations on who can spray the products and the hours of day they can be sprayed. The move follows similar rules announced for use of dicamba products in Tennessee. [node:read-more:link]

President Donald Trump nominated state Sen. Mark Norris and three other attorneys Thursday to serve as federal judges in Tennessee. Norris and Thomas L. Parker were nominated for judgeships in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, which includes Memphis. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue today gave the go-ahead to conduct emergency haying on Conservation Reserve Program lands to help provide feed for livestock in drought-stricken areas of Montana and North and South Dakota. “Because of the rapidly worsening drought and increasing degradation of existing forage, the Secretary is authorizing emergency haying beginning July 16,” the Farm Service Agency said in a notice. Farmers typically would be allowed to start haying on Aug. 1. [node:read-more:link]

The states of Arkansas and Missouri both took action Friday to ban the use of dicamba-mix herbicide applications in their respective states after waves of complaints from farmers who were not using the technology. [node:read-more:link]

In 2013, the Chinese firm Shuanghui received wide public attention when it purchased U.S. pork producer Smithfield Foods for a record $4.7 billion.In an overlooked part of the deal, Shuanghui also acquired more than 146,000 acres of farmland across the United States, worth more than $500 million, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. The deal made Shuanghui, now the WH Group Limited, into one of the biggest foreign owners of U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Proponents of food sovereignty in Maine hope a new law, based on exchanging locally produced and grown food, will bring back some of that community-based commerce. On June 16 Gov. Paul LePage signed LD 725, An Act to Recognize Local Control Regarding Food Systems, June 16, legitimizing the authority of towns and communities to enact ordinances regulating local food distribution free from state regulatory control.“This is huge,” said Heather Retberg, who has helped craft ordinance language. [node:read-more:link]

Over the last weekend of June, some of the already drought-stricken areas in north-central South Dakota saw a damaging frost on their corn. The frost didn't hit the winter or spring wheat, but that could be partially due to the fact that there isn't much winter wheat left in the fields. At least 75% of the winter wheat in the drought-stricken areas of South Dakota has been baled or sprayed out. Some authorities have declared that at least $20 million of crops in South Dakota have already been destroyed by drought or the June 24 frost, with more losses expected. [node:read-more:link]