Wheat Variety Performance Recommendations Now Available

NC State’s Small Grain Specialist Dr. Randy Weisz has released a more comprehensive Wheat Variety Performance and Recommendations paper for the upcoming 2012 growing season.
 

For a link to the Variety Performance paper, click here

or visit  http://www.smallgrains.ncsu.edu

House Version of Farm Bill Addresses Southern Concerns

When the Senate passed their version of the 2012 farm bill a couple of weeks ago, not all commodities were happy with the risk management formulas, especially peanuts and rice. Todd Davis – Senior Economist for the American Farm Bureau Federation says the House version, released late last week addresses those concerns:
 

“The House farm bill proposal has a program called the Price Laws Coverage. It’s a reference price program where if five month marketing average price falls below the reference price there will be a payment made. There was nothing similar to this in the Senate version. The Peanut and Rice producers felt that the shallow loss program in the Senate just didn’t provide adequate coverage for their risks.”
 

Southern lawmakers in particular were concerned with the lack recognition for these two southern crops in particular.

Ag Secretary Highlights Concerns with House Ag’s Farm Bill
 

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack says the bill approved by the House Agriculture Committee makes deep cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program going on to say the proposed cuts will deny 280-thousand children in low-income families access to school meals and reduce farm income across rural America. The Secretary adds that the bill makes misguided reductions to critical energy and conservation program efforts.
 

The New Ecologically Friendly Vegetation Control: Goats
 

Ever let the lawn go to the point that a goat would be easier than mowing? Professional forester Brian Knox explains how some localities are becoming more interested in using goats for ecological weed and vegetation control:
 

“A goat is a browser that prefers woody vegetation. They will eat grass but prefer things that give us problems, like vines and poison ivy.”
 

And unlike many other vegetation consuming animals, vegetation that passes through a goat doesn’t’ come back somewhere else:
 

“The way their mouths and teeth are, the way they chew and their digestive system mean you get virtually no seed viability through a goat.”

South Carolina AgriBiz and Farm Expo
 

South Carolina has been left on the curb for many years now when it comes to major ag expos what with the Sunbelt Ag Expo in Moultrie, Georgia, and Raleigh’s Southern Farm Show. Well, no more, the SC Agribiz and Farm Expo has been scheduled for January 16th through the 18th at the Florence Civic Center. The Expo will cover all aspects of agriculture, focusing on agricultural equipment, education, commodity spotlights, feedstocks, value-added enterprise, youth development and more.