Milk prices for farmers have plunged to their lowest point since October 2009 as cheese stockpiles swell.Dairy farmers drowning in cheap milk begged agricultural officials on Friday to buy up tens of thousands of tons of cheese to help bail them out. Jim Mulhern, chief executive of the National Milk Producers Federation, asked U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to buy $150 million worth of cheese to protect struggling dairy farmers and provide 90 million pounds of food to needy Americans. “Dairy producers here in the United States need assistance,” Mr. Mulhern wrote to Mr. Vilsack. [node:read-more:link]

Sometimes ag publications are the industry’s worst enemy. Bloomberg News published an article August 5, 2016, about vaccines becoming a bigger player in animal health, helping to lower the use of antibiotics used in animals raised for food. Beef Producer copied it word for word in its August 9, 2016, edition. It does not exactly state the truth, and implies that deaths from antibiotic resistant bacteria stem from animal ag use of the products. Some quotes follow from the article. “Farm animals are fed about 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

A senior director of food policy for the Humane Society of the United States last week sent a letter to the CEOs of major broiler processing companies, asking for an audience, saying the organization’s focus is “likely to shift toward broiler welfare issues.” [node:read-more:link]

Those who forget the lessons of history are potentially destined to repeat the mistakes of the past. About 90 years ago, the U.S. economy was operating at full speed and labeled the “Roaring Twenties” in the post-World War I era. At this same time, Europe's economy was recovering from the wartime devastation and started producing again. Global overproduction emerged. This was particularly true for those in agriculture. Back then, agriculture and the rural economy was a larger part of the general economy. [node:read-more:link]

"The Cooperative is doing it again, but now the light buld is the internet."  said Mr. Creason, 82.  Mr. Creason's experience with the electric co-op puts him at the leading edge of a trend unfolding in hard-to-reach rural spots natinwide. 
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Record-high meat prices over the last several years pushed more than a few consumers away from grocery store meat counters. That trend is beginning to reverse now, as falling prices bring buyers back and build per capita protein consumption.  A new report from Rabobank Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory group, "Chickens, Cows, and Pigs ... Oh My!", described 2015 as a "momentous" year for the livestock industry, with the largest increase in U.S. meat consumption seen since the 1970s, at 5% per capita. [node:read-more:link]

Cow dung and cow stomach gas: not just smelly, but also politically loaded. [node:read-more:link]

Cargill says it has stopped using an antibiotic for disease prevention in its turkeys that is also used in human medicine. The company says as of August first, the use of gentamicin was stopped for turkeys harvested for its two largest brands. However, the company says turkeys will still be treated with antibiotics for control and treatment of disease. Cargill says it’s making good on its promise to reduce its overall use of antibiotics in its turkey business and that products covered by this decision will be available starting next year. [node:read-more:link]

The use of food scraps as animal feed has been a common practice worldwide for centuries.  The vision of a classic agrarian homestead often features the farmer’s children bringing dinner scraps out to “slop the pigs” and feed the chickens. Yet the practice of feeding food scraps to animals has declined precipitously since the 1980s, when several disease outbreaks were linked to animal feed (specifically, animal products in livestock feed), including foot-and-mouth disease in swine and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly referred to as mad cow disease, in cattle. [node:read-more:link]

A group of Illinois mayors and community leaders encouraged state lawmakers in a letter Tuesday to follow the lead of the state of New York, which has adopted a new energy program that will help preserve several of that state's struggling nuclear plants. The letter to Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative leaders was sent on the same day as Exelon Generation announced an agreement to assume ownership and management of Entergy Corp.'s James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Scriba, New York. [node:read-more:link]