Author: The Farm Report

USDA offers $1 billion in pandemic aid to contract growers Nearly seven months after it froze a Trump-era plan, the Biden administration said on Tuesday that up to $1 billion was available to contract growers of pigs and poultry to offset revenue lost to the pandemic in 2020. With the… Continue reading

After years of shrinking, Conservation Reserve to expand this year The federal program that pays landowners to take environmentally fragile land out of crop production to prevent erosion, protect water quality, and preserve wildlife habitat will expand for the first time this year after losing ground annually since 2007. The… Continue reading

‘Murder hornet’ nest is found in Northwest for second time State wildlife officials expect to destroy a nest of the Asian giant hornets in the northwestern corner of Washington State this week, and say “there may still be more” nests of the so-called murder hornet in the area near the… Continue reading

Dairy farmers to get pandemic payments due to market volatility In an expansion of its pandemic portfolio, the Biden administration said it would pay an estimated $350 million to dairy farmers to offset lower milk prices caused by market abnormalities during the second half of 2020. The payments will benefit… Continue reading

Heartland embraces precision agriculture practices Half of the farmers in the biggest corn, soybean, and wheat states employ precision agriculture in their operations — from GPS guidance of tractors and combines to deploying drones to scout fields or monitor livestock — twice the national average, said a USDA report on… Continue reading

Biofuel, farm groups ask for a second look at ban on summertime E15 The market for corn ethanol will be stunted unreasonably if sales of gasoline containing a higher blend of the homegrown fuel are banned during the summer, said corn growers and two biofuel groups on Tuesday. They asked… Continue reading

SNAP increase of 40 cents a meal means $20 billion a year for public nutrition The government will spend an additional $20 billion a year on food stamps, a 27-percent increase in SNAP benefits from pre-pandemic levels, after updating its figures on the cost of a healthy diet, said Agriculture… Continue reading

Biden administration announces largest increase ever in SNAP benefits The Biden administration will increase SNAP benefits by an average of 25 percent on Oct. 1 — the largest increase in the history of food stamps — based on a reassessment of the cost of a nutritious diet. Analysts and anti-hunger… Continue reading

Drought scorches U.S. corn, soy, and wheat crops U.S. farmers will reap two of their largest-ever corn and soybean crops, the first step to assuring an abundant food supply, the government said on Thursday, despite drought damage in the northern Plains and upper Midwest. The wheat crop, meanwhile, will be… Continue reading

Prudent regulation, national registry sought for gene-edited products With gene-edited products nearing the marketplace, six major consumer and conservation groups called on Wednesday for “effective, science-based government regulation” of the sector, including a national registry of gene-edited plants and animals. By contrast, they said, the USDA has “substantially deregulated gene-edited… Continue reading