Tucked into the Senate budget bill are a host of provisions that help a broad array of industries and sectors, including energy, health care and education, through increased spending and tax credits. The Senate deal would raise strict spending caps on domestic and military spending in this fiscal year and the next by about $300 billion. [node:read-more:link]
Almost two thirds of commercial farmers say the cost of health insurance poses the biggest threat to their livelihoods — bigger even than land costs or market pressures, according to a new study. Most farmers viewed insurance as a must-have in a dangerous occupation where a single accident could be catastrophic. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. farmers are gearing up for another tough year. Farm incomes are expected to hit their lowest since 2006 and borrowing costs are rising, federal data show, as a deepening slump in the agricultural economy enters its fifth year.A string of bumper corn and soybean harvests has added to a glut of grain worldwide, eroding prices for U.S. farmers. Foreign rivals like Russia and Brazil are also chipping away at U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Holstein Association USA pays tribute to dairy farmers from coast to coast during the premiere episode of Holstein America. The hour-long program, sponsored by Merck Animal Health, shines a spotlight on the nation’s Holstein producers — from California’s lush central valley to the fall treetops of Vermont. [node:read-more:link]
But those speeds are not readily available in rural areas. The FCC is actually considering reducing the standard, which critics say may make the rural digital divide disappear on paper, but not in real life. Rural residents have few choices of internet service providers – or none at all. They pay higher prices for lower quality service, despite earning less than urban dwellers.A related issue is that fewer rural Americans are online: 39 percent of rural Americanslack home broadband access – in contrast to only 4 percent of urban Americans. [node:read-more:link]
Lackluster crop prices and signs of stress for agriculture have continued in 2018, as the United States Department of Agriculture predicts net U.S. farm profits to hit a 12-year low, according to a new report. The first USDA Farm Income Forecast of 2018, released on Wednesday, predicts a 6.7 percent decline in net farm income, in addition to the lowest average of net cash farm income since 2011. The 2018 net farm income is predicted to reach $59.5 billion, a $4.3 billion decrease from 2017. [node:read-more:link]
For dairy farms in New England, the outlook for milk prices is not good this year. The stress has been tied to suicides among dairy farmers. One effort to get them help is sparking some criticism.Will Rogers and his girlfriend, Heather, run a 75-cow dairy farm in Warren, Massachusetts. It's just the two of them, and sometimes, short-term, part-time workers."Other than that, it's seven days, 365, 14, 16 hours a day that we're at it," Rogers said."Financially, mentally, physically -- [it's] very very draining," he said. [node:read-more:link]
Next month, hundreds of corporate representatives will sit down at their computers, log into something called Energynet, and bid, eBay style, for more than 300,000 acres of federal land spread across five Western states. They will pay as little as $2 per acre for control of parcels in southeastern Utah’s canyon country, Wyoming sage grouse territory and Native American ancestral homelands in New Mexico. Even as public land advocates scoff at the idea of broad transfers of federal land to states and private interests, this less-noticed conveyance continues unabated. [node:read-more:link]
There wasn't really a last straw that made Billy Euerle walk away from his Garfield dairy farm last year.Things had been bad for several years.He trudged through his days, milking Hot Chocolate and Caroline and Brooke and all the others, barely sleeping. Facing terrible milk prices and crushing debt, he struggled to find motivation. Every chore seemed to take twice as long, and his whole family was feeling the stress. To top it off, severe storms in 2017 ravaged several farm buildings."You just had to fool yourself every day that you were going to make it," said Euerle, a father of four. [node:read-more:link]
But this isn’t a column about rural neglect and decay. It’s about the new — the surprisingly vibrant business community in this tiny town of 230 people whose downtown anchor is a 154-year-old retail store. [node:read-more:link]
