The U.S. government is slated to sell $375 million worth of crude oil from the country's emergency reserve this winter after Congress passed a temporary spending bill on Friday that contained a measure authorizing the sale. President Barack Obama's administration has pushed Congress to approve an up to $2 billion plan for a revamp of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, a string of heavily guarded underground salt caverns along the Gulf of Mexico filled with crude. [node:read-more:link]

After a few years of significant challenge, the outlook for U.S. milk producers is beginning to improve, according to a new report from CoBank. Despite projected supply increases, milk prices are poised for modest improvement in the years ahead thanks to new export opportunities and gains in processing and production efficiency. “We’re seeing dairy farm expansions, meaning producers are hopeful that prices will increase from today’s levels,” says Ben Laine, senior economist at CoBank. “These dairies are banking on the future and on global growth. [node:read-more:link]

Colorado company Carbon Cycle Energy will break ground Thursday on a $100 million biogas plant near Warsaw that will produce about 2.4 million dekatherms of natural-gas quality methane a year. A million dekatherms a year are contracted to Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) for use at its Buck, Dan River, H.F. Lee and Sutton combined-cycle natural gas plants. That is enough to produce about 125,000 megawatt-hours of electricity annually, the equivalent of the power needed to supply about 10,000 homes. Because the plant produces methane from waste, it is carbon-neutral. [node:read-more:link]

Miami Old World climbing fern, the monster vine packing 100-foot long tendrils that has infested huge swaths of the Everglades, with a particularly ferocious choke hold on the tree islands of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge on its northern tip, may have finally succeeded in killing the refuge. In August, the South Florida Water Management District, which owns the 144,000 acres occupied by the 65-year-old refuge, threatened to abolish a lease agreement with its caretaker, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [node:read-more:link]

A law that would have settled disputes between growers and farmworkers over lost wages could come unraveled, after two fruit growers persuaded a federal court to review whether it is constitutional. Gerawan Farming Inc. and Fowler Packing Co. contend that state legislators deliberately crafted provisions in Assembly Bill 1513, signed last year by Gov. Brown, to exclude them from protections afforded to companies that agree to compensate “piece work” laborers for their time spent on breaks, training, and other nonproductive activities. [node:read-more:link]

Poultry owners big and small in the U.K. have been ordered to keep their birds indoors, or take other appropriate steps, to keep them separate from wild birds. The measure is simply precautionary -- a response to the increased risk from avian influenza viruses circulating in several European countries.The H5N8 virus detected in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland, among others, has not spread to the U.K., but it easily could via wild birds, and the U.K., Scottish and Welsh governments are taking no chances. [node:read-more:link]

Three more trade groups representing poultry, livestock and other meat producers are criticizing USDA rules released yesterday that the agency contends will “protect the rights of farmers” in their dealings with processors. The agency’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) said its Farmer Fair Practices Rules were designed to overturn the “most harmful practices hurting farmers.” The changes also provide “common sense protections” to restore fairness for farmers and protect farmers from anticompetitive business practices, the agency said in a news release. [node:read-more:link]

Consumers have become more informed about genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in recent years, but that knowledge also has increased concerns about their safety in food products, new research from NPD Group finds. About a third of U.S. consumers now say they have little to no familiarity with GMOs, down from roughly half in 2013, according to the NPD report.Consumers increasingly recognize that GMOs have benefits in producing more resilient crops, NPD said. [node:read-more:link]

A Washington lawmaker vetting a proposal to raise the beef checkoff by $1 says he’s not sure what to do about the contentious issue.  Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, has been meeting with segments of the beef industry for seven months on whether to hike the per head tax on cattle sales to $2.50 from $1.50.He said Tuesday that the industry remains divided. “I don’t know if I’m taking a position at this time,” Dent said.The beef checkoff emerged as an issue in the 2016 Legislature. [node:read-more:link]

So farmers like Mike Wissemann in Sunderland Massachusetts are trying their hand at “second jobs” to bring in the cash. As reported on NPR, Mike’s  8-acre cornfield is now includes picture ready formed replicas of the Mona Lisa, Albert Einstein and Salvador Dali. This part of the farm is called Mike’s Maze and reportedly had almost 25,000 visitors last year at $12 a head (discounts for seniors and kids do apply). That's could amount to an extra $300,000 a year!  And it turns out this is a big business for farmers.  Mike’s daughter-in-law, Jess, has designed the maze for the past two years. [node:read-more:link]