We drove through central and southern Illinois on the way to and from the joint American Association of Bovine Practitioners and National Mastitis Council meeting in St. Louis, Mo
Severe drought and record high corn prices have made 2011 a nightmare for beef producers in Texas and surrounding states. One result, though, is the value of cull dairy cows has soared to levels milk producers...
The Daily Beast (www.thedailybeast.com), an online news site which merged with Newsweek this year, printed their list of the "20 Most Useless College Majors." Let's just say, we don't think they nailed...
USDA expects ethanol to use the biggest share of 2011 crop. For the first time ever, ethanol plants are expected to use more of the nation's corn crop in 2011 than livestock producers do. If that happens,...
Guess which costs more: far away by ship or close by truck? Milk-cow-quality alfalfa hay is already over $300 per ton in California which isn't making this a fun summer for dairy producers there. An article...
Agri-Mark cooperative is taking heat for claims in its Cabot brand.The Methuen, Mass., cooperative, owner of the popular Cabot and McCadam brands in the Northeast, has resolved a complaint with the Vermont...
What is a food desert? (desert, not dessert) It is a relatively new term that originated in the early 1990s but has become more mainstream in recent years. According to the USDA, a food desert is a Census...
We've talked about it before (see our blog, Wars we wage in dairy and agriculture and our editorial from the June 2011 issue, Keep chocolate milk in schools), but, like heat in the summer, the issue of...
Paul Dyk, who recently left University of Wisconsin Extension for a job in the private sector, wrote a good article in a recent UWEX newsletter titled Higher Speed Internet Options for Fond du Lac County....
American farmers have an incredible ability to plant corn once favorable weather conditions exist. In Iowa, corn planting progressed from 8 to 69 percent in just seven days. That represented by far the...
Only 13 percent of the nation's corn crop has been planted according to USDA's most recent Crop Progress released May 2. This year's cool, wet spring weather has limited farmers' ability to work fields...
As we've said before, farmers, industry professionals, and educators need to continue lobbying for dairy as much as we can. School teachers, supermarkets, and senators alike need to be reminded of just...
Have you ever been in the middle of a huge mess or fight with no exit door? But when you think about it, you're not exactly sure what got you into the chaos in the first place? For those of us in agriculture,...
The value of dairy products exported during January and February totaled nearly $675 million, up 52 percent from the same two months a year ago. Mexico was the largest buyer, by far, importing $143 million...
Whole Foods Market is phasing in a new five-step animal welfare rating program for all chicken, beef, and pork products (Click here for their animal welfare page). At the least, all animal products must...
Want to know what the administrator of the EPA is up to today? In the past few months, it has become evident that many farmers, agricultural organizations, and agribusinesses have become suspect of the...
The financial divide stands at nearly $3.8 billion. That is a substantial pay gap when it comes to milk checks for the nation's dairy producers during 2009. In a study released in late January, Informa...
TV newscasts and city newspaper articles dote on the idyllic image of small farms while deriding commercial agriculture, all the while blissfully ignorant about which group actually feeds America. But...
We understand that in our roles at a magazine, the good news and the bad news is going to come our way. Unfortunately, it seems that in recent years the people who bring us much of the good news are facing...
The trend has been up for a long time, and yesterday's much-awaited Crop Production and Grain Stocks reports did nothing to cool the feed-cost fire. According to USDA, 2010 corn production totaled 12.4...
