Agriculture News
Grandin to poultry industry: 'Avoid BS welfare standards'
Watt Ag Net | Posted on October 18, 2016Dr. Temple Grandin said that when it comes to setting welfare guidelines on things like outdoor access, poultry producers should make sure they are set in a way that consumers will recognize and accept.Whether the guideline addresses what constitutes outdoor access or cage free, the discussion can’t just focus on what is the most efficient arrangement. The system needs to look like it delivers what it promises. Let’s be honest, when a “porch” attached to a layer or broiler house has a roof and a wood floor, it isn’t what most people would think of as “outdoors.” In fact, I know of a lot of turkey finishing houses that are more like “outdoors” than these porches are.I think outdoor access for poultry introduces unnecessary cost and disease risk. But, if enough people want to pay a high enough premium for eggs and meat raised this way and someone wants to raise them, then the market will take care of it. But, the industry does itself no favors by adopting guidelines that consumers won’t recognize.
Florida faces worst orange harvest crisis in a century
The Guardian | Posted on October 18, 2016The state’s orange trees, which are mostly used to produce juice, have been devastated by disease and hurricanes, causing harvest totals to fall for five successive seasons. The US Department of Agriculture this week predicted that the 2016 harvest would amount to just 70m boxes of oranges, a 14% drop on last year and a huge decline from bountiful days at the turn of this century when more than 23m boxes, each containing 90lb of fruit, were produced each year. The steep drop in production has led orange juice futures prices to nearly double in 13 months, pushing producers to reduce the size of cartons and make more drinks that blend orange with other juices, in order to avoid shocking consumers with too big a price increase at the checkout. Orange juice futures traded on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) rose from $1.03 a pound in September 2015 to $2.05 last week. Some analysts predict that the price could reach $2.20 by the end of the year.
NH dairy farm demise widely misunderstood
Union Leader | Posted on October 18, 2016As lawmakers prepare to rush a $3.6 million bailout of the state's dairy industry through the Legislature, they have frequently been told that 19 of the state's 120 dairy farms have "gone out of business" in the past year.
Well, that's not entirely correct. As it turns out, the 19 farms at issue have not gone out of business. They've just gone out of the wholesale milk business. That means they are no longer commercial-scale dairy operations, but most if not all are still functioning farms. "There are lots of variables in these situations," said Merrill. "When we say a dairy farm has been lost or gone out of business, we mean it has gone out of the dairy farm business. The farmers might retire from farming completely and sell the farm - or keep the farm and rent the land to another farmer." The farmer could change to another kind of farming, say raise a few head of beef cattle, raise hay for sale or grow Christmas trees. "But they are no longer a dairy farm," said Merrill. "So we are talking about farms going out of the dairy business."
Damage Assessments, Recovery Begin In Wake Of Matthew
Growing Produce | Posted on October 18, 2016Approximately 1,100 acres of crops were impacted by the damaging winds and rainfall in the county, Wells reports. “We had more than 10 inches of rain in the Hastings area with very strong winds,” she says. On average, St. Johns County farmers have reported 30% to 60% losses of their planted acreage, while several have experienced a 100% or total loss for the crops they had in the ground before the storm, Wells states. “The Asian vegetables in the area were hit really hard, and so were the snap beans,” she says. “Other crops lost include mustard greens, radishes, cabbage, cauliflower, squash, beets, and more. But, a few fields of cabbage and cauliflower look like they might bounce back. We will have to see in a week or so. And then, the crops that do make it, I am expecting worse than usual disease pressure.” According to Wells, losses are estimated at least $1.6 million for Asian vegetables and snap beans alone. In addition, she notes structural damage to greenhouses and other farm structures resulted from the storm, and the soggy grounds have delayed planting of much of the area’s fall crops. Scanning southward, Volusia County also took a wallop from Matthew’s wrath. As the coastal areas took a beating, the county’s diverse agriculture industry wasn’t spared either, says Sharon Fox Gamble, UF/IFAS Extension Agent, whose office is located in DeLand. “Citrus losses are estimated anywhere from 10% to 50% depending on location, tree, and fruit size,” she says. “The fern/cut foliage industry had extreme damage to the shade structures and, from what I understand, the saran cloth is unavailable. These crops easily sunburn and will be ruined if growers are not able to figure something out in a hurry. And of course, there are lots of trees on fences and several reports of barns missing roofs.”
PDF VersionPrint this Article Off-farm Income: Managing Risk in Young and Beginning Farmer Households
Choices magazine | Posted on October 17, 2016University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s corn, soybean, and wheat crop budgets for 2016 include highly productive cropland in northern and central Illinois—land that may yield 20% or more above the national average (Schnitkey, 2016). Considering the current costs of production, budgets show revenues will be high enough to provide a return to land; however, profits will not fully cover the costs of average cash rent. This shortfall affects young farmers in particular since they tend to rent a larger proportion of the acres they farm compared to other age groups due not only to the high cost of good cropland, but also to the lack of availability and competitiveness in certain land markets (USDA-NASS, 2012). Although cash rents will likely fall given sustained low prices, these adjustments will occur slowly. The trend of increasing off-farm income and its growing role in farm household finances has enabled many young and beginning farmers the means to enter agriculture. It will play an even larger part in allowing these groups to maintain viable operations during this current period of adjustment. This is true not only in the cash grains sector, but also in other agricultural sectors in which income is moderating. Compared to earlier generations of farm households, off-farm income has shifted from a supplementary income source to an important risk management tool for young and beginning farm households, and the implications of this trend are only positive.
Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program – Accomplishments in the Making
Choices magazine | Posted on October 17, 2016Since 2009, the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program (BFRDP), run by NIFA, provides grants to organizations for education, mentoring, and technical assistance initiatives for beginning farmers or ranchers. Its primary goal is to increase the number, success and sustainability of beginning farmers and ranchers in the United States by providing them knowledge, skills, and tools needed to make informed decisions. This goal is achieved through competitive grants to collaborative State, tribal, local, or regionally-based networks or partnerships of public or private entities, who carry out three kinds of projects: standard grants, educational enhancement teams, and a national clearinghouse. Since its inception in 2009, BFRDP has made 256 awards totaling more than $126 million, at least one in every state (Figures 1 and 2). Current funding is $20 million per year (less “sequestration”) for the years 2014-2018, provided in the 2014 Agriculture Act.
Addressing the Challenges of Entry into Farming
Choices magazine | Posted on October 17, 2016As the 2012 Census of Agriculture data has shown us, to the extent that returns have been high relative to other sectors of the economy, they have not reversed the decline in the number of beginning farms. However, there is some evidence of success by young beginning farmers, including through their expansion in farm size, relative to older beginning farmers (Ahearn, 2013; Katchova and Ahearn, 2015). Older beginning farmers enter at a farm size that subsequently changes little with time, likely because many of these older beginning farmers are entering farming for the lifestyle and investment opportunities after engaging in a successful nonfarm career. This underscores the importance of measuring success relative to goals. There is also some evidence that beginning farmers may find a successful niche in the direct marketing of agricultural products, for example, through farmers markets (Thilmany McFadden and Ahearn, 2013). Key (2016) reported that beginning farmers that had positive sales of agricultural products in 2007 and sold in direct markets were more likely to report positive sales in 2012 than other beginning farmers without direct market sales in 2007. This finding was true, regardless of farm size. Perhaps, the interest in urban agriculture will become a growth opportunity for beginning farmers in the future. A bill was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate to support urban agriculture entitled the "Urban Agricultural Act of 2016." The bill has received widespread support from diverse groups including the major general farm groups—that is, the National Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation, as well as the Food Action Policy Network, and the National Young Farmers Coalition, among others. The bill proposes an important research component to better understand appropriate risk management tools, food safety, and environmental and economic factors affecting success of urban agriculture.
Five animal welfare musts
Meat + Poultry | Posted on October 17, 2016The meat and poultry industry agrees that animal care and handling is a complex issue, however according to Jason McAlister, animal welfare manager at Triumph Foods, St. Joseph, Mo., there are five steps any company can follow that will make the process a little more simple. McAlister shared his ideas at a session during the North American Meat Institute’s Animal Care & Handling Conference being held in Kansas City. The basic question McAlister tried to answer in his pork track breakout session was, “How do we get more pigs from the farm to harvest?” McAlister said it was as simple as following five guidelines: “Learning. Educating. Training. Auditing. Keeping records.”
Rural Mainstreet Index Below Growth-Neutral for September: Four of Five Bank CEOs Report Loan Restructuring
Creighton University Economic Outlook | Posted on October 17, 2016Survey Results at a Glance: • For a 13th straight month, the Rural Mainstreet Index fell below growth neutral. Almost 4 of 5 bank CEOs indicated restructuring farm loans due to weak farm income. Farmland prices remained below growth neutral for the 34th consecutive month. Almost one-fifth of bankers reported increasing rejection rates on agricultural loans due to weak farm income.
Hurricane Matthew claims estimated 5 million birds
Watt Ag Net | Posted on October 17, 2016Floods from Hurricane Matthew have taken a heavy toll on poultry in North Carolina, with as many as 5 million birds lost. The North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (NCDA&CS) confirmed with Reuters that 1.8 million head of poultry died, and most of those birds were broilers. However, Donald van der Vaart, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, said the number of losses could be around 5 million birds.