Top Agriculture News

USDA’s December 2023 Grain Stocks report shows higher corn and wheat stocks in all positions, while soybean stocks dropped from 2022. Corn in all positions totaled 12.2 billion bushels, 13 percent above December 2022. Soybeans were estimated at three billion bushels, one percent lower than a year ago. All wheat on December 1, 2023, totaled […]

The South Carolina Watermelon Association holds its annual convention this week, which means it’s time to talk watermelon. The meeting is January 19–21, 2024 at Hilton Head. This is always an action-packed meeting, with educational sessions; networking with retailers, growers, and allied industry representatives; an auction to raise funds for research and promotion; and the […]

The N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services Marketing Division is offering risk-management workshops to discuss tools to help farmers market grain crops and cotton. The classes are being held January through March in different locations in Eastern NC.  Find out more on dates, locations and times at https://www.ncagr.gov

USDA released its final 2023 Crop Production Report showing a rise in corn production and a drop in soybean production. 2023 corn production hit a record 15.3 billion bushels, 12 percent above 2022. The average yield was a record-high 177.3 bushels per acre, 3.9 bushels above 2022. Soybean production in 2023 reached 4.16 billion bushels, […]

Farmland values continue to increase nationwide creating a barrier to entry for new and young farmers at the 2024 land investment Expo in Des Moines, Iowa, Robert Bonnie, the USDA Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation, spoke on the importance of the next generation. He says there’s a land access program worth $300 million to […]

A longtime member of the NC State University poultry science faculty will be hanging up his lab coat in just a few months. But to hear him tell it it’s a wonder Dr. Frank Edens became a poultry professor at all. I did not particularly like chickens as I was growing up. Most of the […]

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman David Rouzer (NC-07) joined 74 of his colleagues on a bipartisan letter encouraging House and Senate appropriations leaders to include an H-2A visa guestworker wage freeze in upcoming government funding legislation. In a letter to House and Senate Appropriations Committee Leadership, the Members wrote, “We write with shared concerns regarding the annual adjustment […]

As the agency already prepares for the 2027 Census of Agriculture, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will conduct a farmer query on January 24. The National Agricultural Classification Survey, an important step in determining who should receive a 2027 Census of Agriculture questionnaire, will go to approximately 250,000 recipients to ask if they conduct agricultural […]

Fueled by record performances in Mexico, Central America, and Colombia, November pork exports reached their highest value since November 2021. USDA data compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation says November pork exports reached 258,600 metric tons, up five percent from last year and the highest in six months. Export value rose two percent to […]

The blast of arctic air coming across the nation should have beef cattle producers on edge. University of Illinois Extension Beef Cattle Educator Teresa Steckler says there are a few thing that should be done to protect animals from the cold. “There are a couple of different things going on here. One is that we […]