Top Agriculture News

I have grown to love lantana. I never really had anything against it. It’s just the fact I haven’t had a lot of sun areas in my landscape and lantana can take up a fair amount of room if it is happy. Most of North Carolina is hot throughout the summer and we certainly have drought periods. Lantana is made to order for these conditions. Lantana is in the verbena family and is sometimes called “shrub verbena.” It comes in various sizes from 1 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide according to my friends at the Cooperative Extension Service. It loves full sun, moist, but well-drained soil to fully perform. Lantana grows particularly well in the piedmont and thrives on the coastal plain and coast of North Carolina. It is even salt tolerant.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican lawmakers and some Democrats have overridden eight of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s 14 vetoes. Tuesday’s override votes were a test for the GOP after the House lost its Republican supermajority during last year’s election. Republicans succeeded in enacting some bills targeting transgender rights and allowing guns on private school property. They accomplished the overrides with the help of some House Democrats. Democrats did block override votes on bills on permitless concealed carry and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Those bills can still be overridden at a later date.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Residents in the Southeast U.S. are no strangers to hot weather in the summertime, but the sweltering heat this week set at least one record, and forecasters urged residents to limit being outside if possible and to hydrate. The all-time high temperature record at Tampa International Airport was broken on Sunday when the thermometer hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The previous record had been 99 degrees Fahrenheit set in June 2020. The National Weather Service said Tuesday that the prolonged heat wave was expected to peak in the southeast U.S. at mid-week.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific is seeking to buy Norfolk Southern in a $85 billion deal that would create the first transcontinental railroad in the U.S, and potentially trigger a final wave of rail mergers across the country. The proposed merger, announced Tuesday, would marry Union Pacific’s rail network in the West with Norfolk’s rails that snake across Eastern states. The nation was first linked by rail in 1869, when a golden railroad spike was driven in Utah to symbolize the connection of East and West Coasts. Yet no single entity has controlled that coast-to-coast passage that so many businesses rely on.

I understand you were up in Clemson last week for the South Carolina Commissioner’s School for Agriculture. Let’s hear about it.

Following a recent discovery of tropical spiderwort in Eastern North Carolina, farmers are being asked to be on the lookout for this aggressive and invasive weed.

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. The Administration said that August 1st is the final deadline for trade deals. They promise there will not be another extension of tariff relief. And they really mean it this time. Over the weekend Trump announced a […]

(Washington, D.C., July 28, 2025) – U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins today announced additional U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assistance to help producers in the Commonwealth of Virginia recover from Hurricane Helene. Secretary Rollins signed a block grant agreement with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) that provides recovery assistance for […]

Canadian Federal Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc is doubtful that a security and economic framework agreement can be reached in time to meet Donald Trump’s August 1st deadline. Late last month, President Trump sent letters to a list of nations, including Canada, telling them that if individual trade deals were not in place by the first of […]

It’s a challenging time for the potato industry as a whole right now. Jamey Higham, Executive Director of the Idaho Potato Commission, says the U.S. economy is incredibly tough right now. American consumers are faced with housing, car, utility, and phone payments, and for many, there’s more month than money, which impacts food choices. Higham […]