Category Archives: News

USDA began issuing nearly $420 million in payments today to producers enrolled in the Average Crop Revenue Election program. Producers of wheat, corn, barley, dry peas, grain sorghum, lentils, oats, peanuts, soybeans and upland cotton will receive ACRE payments for … Continue reading →

A nuisance weed may have the potential of becoming a new source of biofuel. USDA scientists have found that oil produced from the seeds of field pennycress can create biodiesel and glycerol when used with methanol and pretreated with acid. … Continue reading →

Voting opens tomorrow for the 2010 Farm Service Agency County Committee elections and producers are being encouraged to get involved by turning in their ballots before the December deadline.

Scientists at USDA have developed ways to ward off ticks that can kill cattle. Generally brought over to the United States by deer along the Texas-Mexico border, the ticks transmit bovine babesiosis, which is known as Texas cattle fever. By … Continue reading →

The corn and soybean harvest is coming to a close. Nearly 91 percent of corn and 96 percent of soybeans have been harvested, according to a crop report by the USDA. Only 24 percent of corn and 50 percent of … Continue reading →

The USDA Commodity Credit Corporation, which helps stabilize, support and protect farm income and prices, released interest rates for November. The borrowing rate-based charge is 0.250, which is unchanged from October, while the 1996 and subsequent crop year commodity and … Continue reading →

The federal government is operating in real-time. Upgrades to USA.gov now allow users to sign up for notifications and perform real-time searches to get the most current government information.

California farmers have reduced a key component of smog by 1,349 tons by replacing old diesel tractors with cleaner-running farm equipment. Within the past two years, a program through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has helped replace 814 aging … Continue reading →

USDA has issued final 2009-crop counter-cyclical payments to farmers enrolled in the direct and counter-cyclical program for upland cotton and peanuts. The final payment rate for upland cotton is 1.68 cents per pound while the final payment for peanuts is … Continue reading →

Final payments under the Dairy Economic Loss Assistance Payment program are underway, according to a USDA press release. The program helps offset financial losses experienced by dairy farmers due to declining milk prices. Of the $290 million budgeted for the … Continue reading →