Top Agriculture News

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. First the good news. Exports this week were at the center of the range of expectations for everything reported after being very disappointing last week. So it does not look like they have come to a screeching […]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — American farmers and small business owners are among those who will suffer if Congress cannot agree on a new spending bill after President-elect Donald Trump abruptly rejected a bipartisan plan that included more than $100 billion in disaster aid. The money is urgently needed after Hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed the southeastern United States one after the other this fall. In North Carolina, small business owner Jessie Dean is still waiting for a U.S. Small Business Administration loan after her building was completely destroyed three months ago. She says she is determined to build back, but she speaks to friends every day who are weighing whether they can go on.

Regenerative agriculture continues to gain momentum as more practices and offerings become available for both growers looking for additional revenue streams and companies looking to reduce their Scope 3 carbon emissions. Dustin Madison, who manages the agronomic, conservation, and fertility operations of the Engle Family Farms in Virginia and North Carolina, is part of the […]

NEW YORK (AP) — A person in Louisiana has the first severe illness caused by bird flu in the U.S., health officials said Wednesday. The patient had been in contact with sick and dead birds in backyard flocks, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Agency officials didn’t immediately detail the person’s symptoms. Previous […]

Bayer’s Deltapine cotton brand has just released its new varieties for the class of 2025. Eric Best is the Deltpine Product Manager and says this group has shown a lot of promise. “So the class of ’25, we knew we had some strong things coming last year. Class of ’24 we only launched two things, […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders have unveiled legislation that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton and other natural disasters. The stopgap measure will prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight Friday. It kicks final decisions on this budget year’s spending levels to a new Republican-led Congress and President-elect Donald Trump. Passage of the measure is one of the final must-pass bills that lawmakers will consider this week before adjourning for the holidays and making way for the next Congress.

Estimated impacts to agriculture in 2024 topped $4 billion, including $4.23 billion from Hurricane Helene and $696 million from the summer drought and then heavy rains. A total of 93 counties received either a primary Presidential or Secretarial Disaster Declaration for 2024. Commissioner Troxler and representatives from a dozen commodity groups met recently with the […]

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. The volume in the grain and oilseed markets has still not recovered to what we were seeing before Thanksgiving. There is just nothing new to push the markets out of the ranges we have been trading for […]

I hear South Carolina now leads the nation in collard green acreage. Tell me more, Commissioner. Commissioner: In the 2017 Census of Agriculture, we only topped the list for one crop: turnip greens. South Carolina now leads the nation in collard green, turnip green, and Southern pea acreage, according to the 2022 Census of Agriculture. […]

Solar panels are showing up on more farm fields throughout rural America. Kelly Wilfert is the farm management outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin Extension Service. She says there are a lot of solar panels in Wisconsin, and farmers who might be looking into the topic should do their homework first. “The Solar Energy […]