Miles Brothers Farms of Idaho utilized Farm Service Agency’s Farm Storage Facility Loan program to build an upgraded spud cellar. 

By Chad Bybee, County Executive Director and Dana Rogge, FSA Public Affairs Specialist

Mashed, baked, scalloped or fried, the potato is one of America’s favorite side items. This hearty dish has delicate beginnings and it is the job of Miles Brothers’ farm of Grace, Idaho, to ensure the proper storage of their seed potatoes so these baby spuds can flourish into healthy plants.

David and Everett Miles are a part of a multi-generational seed potato farm located in the Gem Valley of southeastern Idaho. The Miles Brothers raise three varieties of seed potatoes – Sheopody, Russett Burbank and Ranger Russett –which are shipped to commercial growers in Washington, Oregon, and across southern Idaho. Continue reading →

Larry Black is a fifth-generation citrus grower and general manager of Peace River Packing Company in Polk County, Fla.

By Lauren Moore, FSA Public Affairs Specialist

Adversity isn’t a stranger to Florida citrus growers. Throughout Florida’s history of citrus production, producers have dealt with damages left in the wake of multiple hurricanes and freezes.

Larry Black is a fifth-generation citrus grower and general manager of Peace River Packing Company in Polk County, Fla. His family has been a part of the citrus industry for over a century, planting citrus trees when they settled in Fort Meade in 1852. Continue reading →

Bill Landreth, owner of Berries by Bill, delivers fresh seasonal fruit to a local school in Newport, Arkansas as part of the Farm to School program. 

By Jason Floriani, Arkansas FSA Farm Loan Officer

Bill Landreth, owner of Berries by Bill, Inc., has a u-pick strawberry patch and grows a variety of fresh produce sold on his farm and at local farmer’s markets. He can also be found making deliveries of his seasonal fruits to local schools in Arkansas.

Landreth said this is a “win-win” for him and the students. He is able to reduce waste by moving more of his product, while the students obtain nutritional, locally-grown, fresh fruit that might not always be available to them outside of school.  Since strawberries are normally harvested from early April through the end of May, his strawberries add variety to the school menu before school is out for summer. Continue reading →

Beth Hubbard (right), owner of Corey Lake Orchards, worked with Sharon Hoch (left) and Grant Drallette (center) from Michigan’s St. Joseph County FSA office to insure crops on her farm through FSA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program.

by Savannah Halleaux, Public Affairs & Outreach Coordinator, Michigan FSA 

At Corey Lake Orchards in Three Rivers, Michigan, (South of Kalamazoo) springtime means the strawberry beds are prepped, trees in the orchard are budding, grape pruning is done and tomatoes are thriving in the greenhouse. Manager Beth Hubbard waits for her asparagus crop to be harvest-ready, kicking off another season at the farm’s retail market.

In 2008, Hubbard left corporate America to manage her family’s farm and discovered the importance of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) safety net programs for diversified fruit and vegetable producers.

“You would think that with all this crop diversity we’d be financially covered,” explained Hubbard. “For example, if we had a bad year on strawberries, we’d have a good year on plums and it would be a wash. It doesn’t work that way. You can have a couple crop failures and the others still don’t tide you over.” Continue reading →

Lizzi Neal of Perry, Georgia, has used four Farm Service Agency (FSA) youth loans to purchase, raise and exhibit livestock.

by Lauren Moore, FSA Public Affairs Specialist

Elizabeth “Lizzi” Neal’s passion for farming can be credited to her middle school agriculture teacher and a pig named Marmaduke.

Neal purchased Marmaduke, a crossbred market barrow, as her first show animal when she was in sixth grade at Perry Middle School in Perry, Georgia. Soon after, she became involved in various events and competitions. Continue reading →

Bailed stover ready for shipment to a cellulosic ethanol plant. Photo courtesy of Jay Gunderson.

By Kelly Novak, FSA Energy Programs Manager

There’s an old saying that when a farmer raises a hog the only part that isn’t used is the squeal.

In Ringsted, Iowa, Jay and Roslyn Gunderson raise hogs, along with soybeans and corn, on their 1,500 acre farm. The hogs eat the corn and produce plenty of nutrient-rich manure as a byproduct. This effluent is used to nourish the soil, but that leaves another by-product to be handled: corn stover, stalks left after the corn harvest. Recently, the Gunderson’s came to a feedstocks logistics conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to discuss the importance of corn stover and operations like theirs to renewable energy production.  Continue reading →

FSA Farm Loan Programs Deputy Administrator Jim Radintz addresses an audience at USDA’s 93rd Annual Agricultural Outlook Forum in Arlington, Virginia. He stressed that FSA’s $23 billion portfolio is vital to the economic health of farms and rural communities. Photo: Lance Cheung, USDA

By Wayne Maloney, Farm Service Agency

Credit is the lifeblood of agriculture, and a top USDA loan official talked about the importance of the Farm Service Agency to a large audience of lenders, crop insurance professionals, journalists and producers at the 2017 Agricultural Outlook Forum.  FSA Farm Loan Programs Deputy Administrator Jim Radintz discussed FSA’s role as part of a distinguished panel at the recent USDA Ag Outlook Forum in Crystal City, Virginia.  Continue reading →

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plant physiologist Franck Dayan observes wild-type and herbicide-resistant biotypes of Palmer Amaranth (pigweed) as Mississippi State University graduate student, Daniela Ribeiro collects samples for DNA analysis at the ARS Natural Products Utilization Research Unit in Oxford, Miss. USDA photo by Stephen Ausmus.

By Chris Beyerhelm, Acting Administrator, Farm Service Agency and Leonard Jordan, Acting Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service

USDA has learned that Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri), an invasive weed, may have infested some newly-seeded (2016) conservation plantings across the upper Midwest. Palmer amaranth is highly competitive, and in fact, is the most competitive of the pigweed species. It grows rapidly and one plant can produce a quarter-million seeds.

We are concerned that this weed may cause conservation planting stand failure and spread from conservation plantings into crop fields. It can greatly inhibit crop growth. Yield losses have been reported at up to 91 percent for corn and 79 percent for soybeans. It can also be toxic to livestock because there is nitrate in the leaves. Continue reading →

Joe Dunn (left) talks to USDA Deputy Under Secretary Lanon Baccam and his son-in-law, Aaron White. Baccam visited the Dunn farm in central Iowa to announce changes to the CRP.

By Gene Lucht, Missouri Farmer Today

Link to article in Missouri Farmer Today: http://www.missourifarmertoday.com/news/crop/crp-change-could-help-new-farmers/article_da9d79cc-d29a-11e6-b1f0-9b4d6432a9f8.html

CARLISLE, Iowa — Beginning farmers will see increased opportunities to buy or rent farmland through a change in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) rules announced last week.

USDA officials came to the Joe Dunn farm near Carlisle, Iowa, to announce the change, saying that, as of Jan. 9, some landowners with property in existing CRP contracts would be able to terminate those contracts early without a penalty as long as they are transferring the property to a new or beginning farmer.

Continue reading →