Additional support will be given to producers to help repair farmland damaged by natural disasters. More than $8 million in additional Emergency Conservation Program funds will be provided to farmers in ranchers in 12 states to repair existing conservation structures damaged by drought, floods and other natural disasters. Last month, $2.3 million in Emergency Conservation Program funding was provided to producers in eight states. Learn more.

Grain bin entrapment is at a record high this year, according to The Purdue University Agricultural Safety and Health Program. Based on a report, 46 entrapments have been recorded this year, the highest since 1978. Twenty-five of the 46 incidents were fatal. A late harvest last year and poor crop conditions that created moldy and caked grain in bins is partially to blame. Read more.  

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 the 2009 crop season. Congress established ACRE as part of the 2008 Farm Bill to protect farmers and ranchers from market revenue declines. Learn more.

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. Pennycress benefits farmers because it can be grown in the winter and harvested in the late spring, allowing producers to maintain their usual summer soybean production without reducing crop yields. Read more.

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.

Continue reading →

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 using a bait station that lures the deer into a feeding apparatus and then applies insecticide to the deer’s head, ears and neck, scientists have been able to control the tick population. The treatment was tested on the island of St. Croix against the tropical bont tick, with positive results. Read more.

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 soybeans had been harvested this time last year. Generally dry conditions have contributed to an amicable harvest season. (Brownfield Ag) Read more or view the crop progress report.

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 marketing assistance loans dispersed during November is 1.250, unchanged from last month. Interest rates for Farm Storage Facility Loans and discount rates for the Tobacco Transition Payment Program also are available. Read more.