State Sen. Gerald Dial of Lineville announced today he will run for commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries. Dial will run for the Republican nomination in hopes of succeeding Commissioner John McMillan. He said he would emphasize job creation."I have a reputation of rocking the boat, stepping on the status quo," said Dial, a retired brigadier general in the Alabama National Guard. [node:read-more:link]

Amazon Wind Farm Texas would add over 1 million megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy to the grid annually. The facility, which is located in Scurry County, has over 100 turbines, each standing more than 300-feet tall and with a rotor diameter over double the wingspan of a Boeing 787.Amazon said the wind farm was built, owned and operated by Lincoln Clean Energy, which develops wind and solar projects in the U.S. Amazon has entered into a long-term agreement to purchase 90 percent of the facility's output. [node:read-more:link]

Lending at agricultural banks appeared to stabilize in the third quarter of 2017, but risks in the sector have remained alongside a persistently weak agricultural economy. After declining in the winter months, the volume of loans used to finance non-real estate farm purchases rebounded in the third quarter to a level similar to a year ago. Despite the rebound in lending activity, however, risk ratings on new farm loans have increased somewhat, interest rates have edged higher and loan-to-deposit ratios—a key measure of bank liquidity—also have increased. [node:read-more:link]

An oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last week may be the largest in the U.S. since the 2010 blowout at BP Plc’s Macondo well that sank the Deepwater Horizon rig and killed 11 people.  LLOG Exploration Co. reported 7,950 to 9,350 barrels of oil were released Oct. 11 to Oct. 12 from subsea infrastructure about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southeast of Venice, Louisiana [node:read-more:link]

A new analysis by Farm Policy Facts reveals that the USDA’s projected Net Farm Income (NFI) increase is not exactly what it seems.In fact, according to our analysis, the major takeaway from the report should not be the increase projected for 2017, but the downward adjustment to the 2016 number.The ERS had projected 2016 NFI to be $68.3 billion, but the August 30 update reduced it by 10% to $61.5 billion. [node:read-more:link]

At least it’s one less thing for processors to worry about. Scuttling the proposed GIPSA rules that would have shifted the balance of power between livestock producers and processors simplifies the regulatory landscape a little — a very little, considering issues such as the renegotiation of NAFTA continue to roil the waters. [node:read-more:link]

In our 2017 Agribusiness Wage + Land Rent Survey, farmers expressed their top concern about the future of their businesses: the uncertainty surrounding their labor supply. This year’s survey data showed that 41% of respondents had 25 or more employees during peak employment, down from 57% in the prior year. Forty-nine percent of respondents employed seasonal workers for 12 or more weeks, down from 52% the prior year. It was a tough year for business and a tough year for finding workers.This trend is nothing new. U.S. [node:read-more:link]

In the poorest towns, where even Wal-Mart failed, the little-box player is turning a profit.The Decatur store is one of 1,000 Dollar Generals opening this year as part of the $22 billion chain’s plan to expand rapidly in poor, rural communities where it has come to represent not decline but economic resurgence, or at least survival. The company’s aggressively plain yellow-and-black logo is becoming the small-town corollary to Starbucks Corp.’s two-tailed green mermaid. [node:read-more:link]

Producing economically viable biofuels from biomass other than corn, however, is more complicated. Many biofuels researchers, including those at the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center (GLBRC) based at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, are now focused on making biofuels from low-input crops such as switchgrass and poplar. [node:read-more:link]