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Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. layer flock will need to be housed in cage-free system by 2025 to meet anticipated demand, according to figures published by United Egg Producers. On October 7, the egg farmer cooperative published an updated report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Analytics Division estimating 213.8 million cage-free hens, about 74 percent of the 276 million layers in the U.S., will need to be cage free by 2026.  Currently, there are 16.6 million non-organic, cage-free layers in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

Approximately 1,100 acres of crops were impacted by the damaging winds and rainfall in the county, Wells reports. “We had more than 10 inches of rain in the Hastings area with very strong winds,” she says.  On average, St. Johns County farmers have reported 30% to 60% losses of their planted acreage, while several have experienced a 100% or total loss for the crops they had in the ground before the storm, Wells states. [node:read-more:link]

Floods from Hurricane Matthew have taken a heavy toll on poultry in North Carolina, with as many as 5 million birds lost.  The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) confirmed with Reuters that 1.8 million head of poultry died, and most of those birds were broilers. However, Donald van der Vaart, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, said the number of losses could be around 5 million birds. [node:read-more:link]

The flood waters haven’t receded yet, but initial reports show that North Carolina’s agriculture industries took a beating from Hurricane Matthew. State agriculture officials do not have damage estimates, but the 48 counties affected by the storm are some of North Carolina’s largest agricultural counties.  “The eastern counties represent 71% of the state’s total farm cash receipts,” agriculture commissioner Steve Troxler said. [node:read-more:link]

A heavy burden – the potential future of the state’s dairy industry – now rests on the shoulders of the New Hampshire Legislature.  The Milk Producers Emergency Relief Fund Board met for the second time in as many weeks Tuesday and recommended that legislators approve a $3.6 million one-time payment to the state’s dairy farmers in response to this year’s drought.  The recommendation, one of three included in the board’s annual report, will be passed along to Gov. Maggie Hassan and House Speaker Shawn Jasper on Wednesday. [node:read-more:link]

One of the nation’s most popular travel booking sites is taking a stand on animal welfare by halting the sale of tickets to attractions that let tourists ride or touch wild or endangered animals. TripAdvisor announced plans to adopt the changes by early 2017, partly in response to pressure from animal rights groups to stop selling tickets to attractions that they feel exploit animals without offering any educational value. [node:read-more:link]

Gary Baise found this ruling on the impact if flooding on animal agriculture that is very pertinent to what our some of our coastal regions are facing.   The Clean Water Act prohibits the discharge of a pollutant into the navigable waters of the United States without a permit, specifically an NPDES permit. Under the Clean Water Act, discharges from certain animal feeding operations that occur under certain rainfall conditions are subject to a narrow exemption from the NPDES regulations for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). [node:read-more:link]

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has launched an attack on a Northern Indiana poultry operation. [node:read-more:link]

Electric cooperatives offer a promising way for small cities and rural areas in North Carolina to build access to high-capacity broadband. But state laws hamper those efforts, and large commercial providers are in no hurry to fill the gap, according to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  Commercial internet providers are making progress with fiber-to-the-home and other high-capacity services in major urban parts of North Carolina, the report says. But in rural areas, fiber and higher-capacity build outs are few and far between, the report says. [node:read-more:link]

Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding talks about the looming shortage of agriculture workers and his push to the next generation to consider jobs in agriculture.Brett Sholtis. [node:read-more:link]