After battling two brain tumors and breast cancer, Tina Hinchley still milks 130 cows twice a day. Not many people have jobs that are as physically demanding as Tina Hinchley’s. With her husband and four children, Hinchley, 51, milks 130 cows twice a day and works the corn and soybean fields on her family’s 2,500-acre farm in southeastern Wisconsin. To keep things running smoothly, Hinchley says the whole family needs to be healthy and strong. [node:read-more:link]

Crop insurance adjusters will be among the busiest workers in Montana this year; that’s not good news for anybody.As Tom Lutey reported in Sunday’s Billings Gazette, the nation’s worst drought is in northeastern Montana and adjoining areas of North Dakota. The states’ winter durum wheat harvest is expected to be 45 percent less than last year. More than 60 percent of Montana’s spring wheat is rated poor to very poor, as is 51 percent of the lentil crop. [node:read-more:link]

Attorneys general from 15 states filed a legal challenge on Tuesday over the Trump administration’s delay of Obama-era rules reducing emissions of smog-causing air pollutants. The states petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s extension of deadlines to comply with the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards.Pruitt announced in June he was extending the deadlines by at least one year while his agency studies and reconsiders the requirements. [node:read-more:link]

A U.S. glut of fuel-grade ethanol has major producers, including Green Plains Inc. and industry pioneer Archer Daniels Midland Co., pursuing other markets and idling excess capacity in an effort to rebuild sagging margins. ADM and Green Plains both said on Tuesday they are converting fuel-ethanol capacity into beverage and industrial alcohol production, as well as idling some mills. The announcements follow Pacific Ethanol's decision in June to buy a beverage-grade facility in Illinois, a diversification away from fuel ethanol. [node:read-more:link]

After months of negotiations and surviving a contentious budget battle in the state legislature, the hard work of enacting Illinois’ comprehensive energy bill is underway.The Future Energy Jobs Act calls for the installation of about 2,700 MW of solar in Illinois by 2030, a dramatic increase from the state’s current 75 MW. “It’s going to be crazy, and it’s going to be really exciting,”said Lesley McCain, executive director of the Illinois Solar Energy Association. [node:read-more:link]

The link between the use of antibiotics in humans and food-producing animals and subsequent antibiotic resistance has been confirmed, according to a new study by three European food and medical agencies.The European Food Safety Authority, the European Medicines Agency and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said the results of the study reflect improved surveillance across Europe when it comes to antibiotics consumption.The study indicates that overall antibiotic use is higher in food-producing animals than in humans, but the situation varies across countries and accordin [node:read-more:link]

North Country Growers LLC has been awarded a $25 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agricultural Rural Development for its hydroponic greenhouse project and expects to finalize purchase of the property this week.The state’s Congressional delegation announced Tuesday that the loan had been approved for construction of two 10-acre high tech greenhouses that will produce eight million pounds of tomatoes and 15 million heads of lettuce annually. It is also expected to create 80 full-time jobs.Berlin Mayor Paul Grenier called the announcement great news for the city and region. [node:read-more:link]

Shane Shifflett reported that, “For American producers who rely on the nation’s waterways to export and distribute billions of tons of grains, coal and chemicals each year, aging locks systems on rivers and the frequent delays they cause cost more than just time.“‘If we have a barge stopped on the Upper Mississippi…commodities sit there until the problem is fixed,’ says Rick Calhoun, president of Cargill Carriers, the Minnetonka, Minn.-based barge operator for the largest U.S. agricultural company by sales. [node:read-more:link]

Farmers and producers in the western states see the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as providing benefits to both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, says Canada’s minister of agriculture and agri-food. Cardigan MP Lawrence MacAulay was in Portland and Oregon recently to promote the importance of the bilateral trade relationship between the Canadian and the U.S. agriculture sectors.
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