After reports last week that the White House was delaying additional payments to farmers to mitigate lost trade due to retaliatory tariffs, USDA announced on Monday a second and final round of assistance. [node:read-more:link]
Federal lawmakers have lightened up on hemp, but the non-intoxicating plant still needs an assist from Washington's marijuana-embracing legislators. The new Farm Bill takes hemp off the federal list of illicit drugs, but it does not change state hemp laws.In Washington, hemp can't be grown within 4 miles of marijuana. That regulation helps explain why Washington has lagged behind other states in growing and processing hemp.Washington has more than 1,200 licensed marijuana growers, according to the State Liquor and Cannabis Board. A large portion of the state is closed to hemp. [node:read-more:link]
A pesky bug is wreaking havoc on Christmas trees across the Northeast — and it could soon hitch a ride to the Big Apple.The spotted lanternfly, an invasive insect native to China and Southeast Asia, has been destroying maples and pines across Pennsylvania — and it could ravage New York’s forests if the federal government doesn't act fast, Sen. Chuck Schumer warned Sunday. [node:read-more:link]
The Humane Society of the United States has filed an 81-page complaint alleging that Pilgrim’s Pride claims of “100 percent natural” and “raised as humanely as possible” are false and misleading. The issues raised relate to stocking density, growth rate, electrical stunning and mechanical slaughter. We have seen this movie previously and the document regurgitates the same set of allegations against almost all U.S. companies involved in intensive chicken production. [node:read-more:link]
Wisconsin's Dairy Task Force recently passed two proposals aimed at shoring up the state's dairy industry, which is losing hundreds of farms each year. We talk to the director of the task force about why loans to farmers and more funding for education and research are considered so important. Nine subcommittees presented their findings at the meeting, and two brought forward proposals to boost farmers and stimulate innovation in the industry. On a vote, both proposals passed. [node:read-more:link]
Dairy farmers across the United States are dealing with financial stress from several consecutive years of low farm milk prices. Farm stress has been exacerbated in traditional dairy-producing regions in the Midwest and Northeast by a relative lack of dairy-processing capacity, which has led to disappearing farm premiums, increased milk hauling and marketing costs, and—in some periods—dumping milk that has no better marketing outlet.Michigan, part of the Mideast order, has been averaging farm milk prices of $1–$1.50/cwt below their historic relationship to U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Dairy farmers are well acquainted with managing volatile input and output prices. In the past 5 years, dairy farms experienced record high milk prices in 2014 followed by devastatingly low milk prices. In Minnesota, farms that contribute financial information to the FINBIN farm financial database reported the lowest average accrual net farm income, $407, in 2009, while the same sample reported an all-time average high of $236,544 just 5 years later in 2014. [node:read-more:link]
Two trends: One is diverging trajectories for different dairy herd scale categories in the three Great Lakes states. Data in Table 2 presage the eventual exit of most operations with smaller herd sizes, stasis among most operations in the middle, and future expansion concentrated among larger operations. Those middle-tier farms may not be safe, however. [node:read-more:link]
Where then will the future take the dairy sector structure? The crux of structural change is that a sector’s prospects are not strongly tied to those of its participants. Hard science is likely remain in the driver’s seat, with economic considerations defining the terrain and policy interventions seeking to level the bumps. Change will continue and it may continue to be wrenching, favoring consumers on the whole and some producers. This Choices theme deals with all of the above, although with emphasis on producers. But other forces, new and old, are coalescing. [node:read-more:link]
Just like the former Margin Insurance Program (which we always referred to as being ill-fated and poorly conceived), the new program, if it does what it is supposed to do, it will leave over 50 per cent of the cost of production unaddressed. However, we want to thank Congressman Collin Peterson and others for giving the average dairy farmer much consideration.Right now you have two choices. [node:read-more:link]
