Spring flooding in the northern Plains and western Corn Belt will have a marginal impact on corn and soybean plantings, according to a USDA survey of growers and initial tallies of flooded land. With normal weather and yields, there would be limited impact on production of the two most widely grown U.S. crops, thanks to the huge amount of cropland nationwide.Farmers intend to plant a combined 177 million acres of corn and soybeans this spring, said USDA in its annual Prospective Plantings report on Friday. [node:read-more:link]

A newly released report shows how U.S. farmers — facing a surge of weather events and disease outbreaks — can increase production and revenues with innovations produced by federally funded agricultural research but warns that more investment in agricultural research is needed to prevent falling further behind China. [node:read-more:link]

90 percent of the total value of U.S. agricultural production; thus, the biggest effects of the TCJA on farmers are from changes to the Federal individual income tax code. We estimate that had the TCJA been in effect in 2016, family farm households would have faced an average effective tax rate of 13 .9 percent that year versus 17 .2 percent after factoring in several tax credits (Child Tax Credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, and Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit) but excluding self-employment taxes. [node:read-more:link]

airy farmers continue to face longstanding challenges that are squeezing many out of business. But this year, dairy provisions in the new Farm Bill promise a better safety net. Second, with more farmers having been forced out of business, milk production is expected to decline, boosting prices for those who remain. As a result, policymakers in Washington and Madison should avoid knee-jerk reactions to the farmers’ dilemma. Rather, they should focus on solutions to the long-term economics of dairying.Dairy farmers are important to Wisconsin’s economy and its identity. [node:read-more:link]

Moving defiantly to kick-start the long-stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Trump on Friday issued a new presidential permit for the project – two years after he first approved it and more than a decade after it was first proposed. Trump said the permit issued Friday replaces one granted in March 2017. The order is intended to speed up development of the controversial pipeline, which would ship crude oil from tar sands in western Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast. [node:read-more:link]

Surface mining on steep slopes overlooking two historic coal towns in Eastern Kentucky could damage their water sources and hurt the potential to boost their economies though tourism, residents said at a hearing Friday.Residents from Benham and Lynch, in Harlan County, urged the state to bar surface mining around the towns.“It’s literally going to destroy the water coming off the mountain,” Carl Shoupe, a former underground miner from Benham, said of proposed mining near the town.

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Meat companies are using the deli counter to showcase new and higher-priced products, as customers eschew prepackaged cold cuts in favor of healthier and more natural foods. Hormel Food Corps, Kraft Heinz,Tyson and other companies are buying smaller deli brand and reformulating their recipes to meet rising demand for fresher cuts. [node:read-more:link]

With mismanagement and aging infrastructure, the Army Corps’ flood-control strategy on the Missouri amounts to yelling “look out below” to the folks downstream. For farmers in the path of the record-setting wall of water, the results are predictable – and catastrophic.But apparently, even with all the combined knowledge of the National Weather Service and Army Corps of Engineers, and with all the lakes and dams and levees built in the last 70 to 90 years, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can’t prevent floods from happening again. [node:read-more:link]

Rural America has 4% fewer jobs today than it did before the 2007 recession. Meanwhile, the bigger the city, the higher the rate of employment growth. Rural America has yet to recover the jobs it lost in the recession that began in 2007, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.The nation’s cities, suburbs and exurbs all had more jobs in 2018 than they did in 2007, before the economic collapse that sent the world economy into depression. The nation’s rural counties, however, had 780,000 fewer jobs in 2018 than they did in 2007. [node:read-more:link]

Communities worried about opioid and other substance abuse received two significant pieces of great news this month: one involves free money and the other involves free telehealth technology. The Distance Learning and Telemedicine program, initiated several years ago, is comprised of two funding steams – traditional DLT projects and opioid-specific projects.The traditional DLT fund helps rural communities use telecommunications to connect to each other and to the world. Projects may address opioid treatment but are not required to. [node:read-more:link]