AgClips
Recent AgClips
Farmers Reap New Tools From Their Own High-Tech Tinkering
Wall Street Journal | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in Agriculture NewsThe green tractor trundling across a Manitoba field with an empty cab looks like it’s on a collision course with Matt Reimer’s combine—until it neatly turns to pull alongside so he can pour freshly harvested wheat into its trailer. The robot tractor isn’t a prototype or top-of-the-line showpiece. It’s an eight-year-old John Deere that the 30-year-old Mr. Reimer modified with drone parts, open-source software and a Microsoft Corp. tablet. All told, those items cost him around $8,000.
Water quality bills likely dead at Statehouse
Des Moines Register | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in NewsHope is fading that the Iowa Legislature can agree on funding statewide water quality programs in the final days before the 2016 session adjourns. An Iowa Senate subcommittee approved a bill raising the state sales tax by three-eighths of 1 cent, which would generate about $180 million starting next year. About 60 percent of that revenue would be directed to cleaning up Iowa's polluted waters. But Democratic and Republican Senate leaders soon after said that a tax hike has virtually no chance of winning approval this year.
S. Kidman and Co enters deal for a foreign takeover of the majority of the iconic Australian cattle company
ABC | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in Agriculture NewsS. Kidman and Co has named a new Chinese-Australian consortium as the preferred buyer for most of its iconic cattle station holdings. The sale cannot proceed without the approval of the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) and the Treasurer Scott Morrison, who has extended the time available for his consideration of the sale beyond the expected July election. South Australia's Anna Creek Station, which is adjacent to the rocket testing range at Woomera, is not included in the sale. The value of the deal is $370.7 million.
Ranch Diaries: The risks of ranching on a wild landscape
High Country News | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in NewsI had plenty of material to mull on during my two-hour drive home. The intersection between domestic and wild lives isn’t always harmonious. In the years that I’ve been ranching, I’ve seen depredations by wolves, bears and coyotes. Raising domestic livestock has given me a picture of what happens in the wild. I don’t want to see the picked-clean, nose-less skull of a calf still wedged in a cow’s birth canal, her vulva eaten away as she struggled to give birth. Yet I can image a cow elk or moose in the same situation.
N.Y. companies partner to build new meat plant
Democrat and Chronicle | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in Agriculture NewsHeadwater Food Hub and McCann's Local Meats are teaming up to establish a new United States Department of Agriculture-inspected butchering facility, which they expect to open at Headwater's headquarters in Ontario, Wayne County, early next year. It is expected to create five to eight new jobs.
Dietary guidelines battle reignited by conference panel snub
Meatingplace | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in NewsWhen the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were issued in January, bitter debates over the role of meat in a healthy diet were expected to take a break, at least until drafting the 2020 guidelines begins.
FDA posts answers on new livestock antibiotics policies
FDA | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in Federal NewsThe Food and Drug Administration has posted a document answering key questions that had been posed to the agency regarding the new policies and requirements concerning the use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food animals. The questions were asked during a series of workshops conducted last year by Farm Foundation at 12 locations nationwide. At the workshops, producers, veterinarians and feed suppliers had the chance to discuss the new Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) and two related guidance documents with FDA and USDA officials.
Expert Panel Examines Broiler Farm Video
Center for Food Integrity | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in NewsThe Center for Food Integrity’s (CFI) Animal Care Review Panel has examined video released this week from West Virginia broiler farms. It is contained in a report produced by the group Compassion in World Farming (CWF). CFI created the Animal Care Review Panel program to engage recognized animal care specialists to examine video and provide expert perspectives for food retailers, the poultry industry and the media. The expert panel in this case was comprised of Dr. Patricia Hester, Purdue University; Dr. Sacit Bilgili, Auburn University; and Dr. Bruce Webster, University of Georgia.
Animal feedlots causing division in South Dakota
Hastings Tribune | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in NewsOpponents of large animal feeding operations in Bon Homme County have submitted petitions seeking a moratorium on further permits. Opponents want the county zoning board to review ordinances and consider more restrictions for feedlots to safeguard the health and property of others, and also the environment. Proposed new hog operations in the county have created sharply-divided opinions among many residents, prompting the zoning board to hold an informational meeting
What Illinois Farmers are Doing
Illinois Council on Best Management Practices | Posted onApril 21, 2016 in NewsThe goal of Illinois' Conservation Story Map is to show how farmers in Illinois work to keep nutrients in the field for their crops, and not lose them to our streams and waterways. It will help Illinois farmers – and the government agencies and conservation organizations that work with them – to share the best management practices they use on extremely diverse conditions across Illinois.