Top Agriculture News

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina farmers and agricultural producers are set to receive more than $400 million in federal assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), as part of a series of initiatives aimed at helping the state recover from natural disasters and strengthen its agricultural economy. In a keynote address at the Ag […]

One commodity market analyst said there are signs this government shutdown may last longer than previous ones. Arlan Suderman, the chief commodities analyst for StoneX, talked about the potential economic impact. The longest one in my memory is December 2018 into January 2019, and it went 35 days. That cost our U.S. economy $3 billion, […]

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. Last week we had a lot of new info to trade and at least something to talk about. This week, not so much. The government shutdown enters the sixth day. We did not get the CFTC commitment […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Representative Don Davis is calling on top federal officials to take swift action to support North Carolina’s flue-cured tobacco farmers, who are facing significant financial hardship after the abrupt halt of exports to China. In a letter sent this week to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins, […]

A lot has been said about California’s Prop 12 and the impact it’s having on the nation’s pork producers. Joe Maxwell, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Farm Action, says independent hog farmers are being excluded from the ongoing Prop 12 debate in Congress. “I think what’s unfortunate in this country is that if you’ve […]

A connection between irrigation surface water and potential microbial contaminants could create a foodborne illness. Cases of such bacteria on leafy vegetables almost 50 years ago found irrigation water providing pathways for microbes. But as USDA researcher Yakov Pachepsky recalls, congressional and federal establishment of standards for microbes from a food safety perspective led to […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making plans for a significant aid package for U.S. soybean farmers. The move aims to help them survive China’s boycott of American beans, which was sparked by Trump’s trade war. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says substantial support for farmers is expected to be announced Tuesday. The aid comes amid a tariff war between the U.S. and China, where China has stopped buying U.S. soybeans. Trump plans to discuss soybeans with Chinese President Xi Jinping in four weeks. Farmers are struggling as China orders soybeans from Brazil and Argentina. They prefer trade over aid, hoping for a deal soon.

The calendar has flipped to October, but that doesn’t mean we’re just going to stop looking at what happened in September. Weather-wise, we got state assistant climatologist Corey Davis here. Corey, what did September look like? Weather-wise, we know we had a lack of rain in the area. Did any of that rain over the […]

A news story recently sent confusion and concern throughout the ag community when it was reported that Northwest Farm Management was permanently laying off nearly 300 workers. That’s when CEO and Co-Founder Keith Veselka says he was alerted. “Oh yeah, it was quite a shock. I think I got a notification from my business partner. […]

On Monday’s stocks report, the big surprise was on corn stocks. USDA reported corn ending stocks at 1.532 billion bushels, which was 207 million bushels higher than their last estimate of carryout and 195 million bushels higher than the average trade guess. That counts as the second-biggest bearish surprise on the September stocks report since […]