The state of New York has taken notice of its role in the regional food supply chain and in August allocated $15 million of the $20 million needed to build Greenmarket’s new 20,000-square-foot distribution center, commonly known as a food hub. [node:read-more:link]
A lawsuit in Montana is grabbing the attention of checkoff boards across the country. The Rancher-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund sued the Montana state beef checkoff council in May, asking a federal court to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting the council from spending federal checkoff dollars on advertising unless the state cattle producers paying the fees agree to it. This past fall, a magistrate heard arguments from both sides, and in December he made an official recommendation to the federal judge to stop the council's advertising spending without cattlemen approval. [node:read-more:link]
Ranchers in northern Utah are consolidating their grazing permits and livestock to implement rest rotational grazing across 10 allotments and 136,000 acres. The project aimed to demonstrate good stewardship, switching to rest rotational grazing across 136,000 acres, consolidating 3,200 cows into two herds of 1,600 and facilitating three summer bands and four winter bands of sheep. The allotments allow 17,218 AUMS, and the plan is to rest about 20 percent of range annually. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. [node:read-more:link]
Ireland’s agriculture department confirmed Wednesday the discovery of a case of atypical bovine spongiform encephalopathy in an 18-year-old cow. The finding derived from the department’s surveillance of rendering facilities processing animals that died on farm, officials said. The animal tested positive on a screening test and follow-up tests confirmed the result. [node:read-more:link]
Got “lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows”?Doesn’t quite have the same marketing zing as the traditional four-letter word for moo juice, but according to the Food and Drug Administration rule 21 CFR 131.110, that is the legal definition of milk.But the definition should be upheld, according to 32 members of Congress — including six from Wisconsin — who recently sent a letter to U.S. Food and Drugs Administration Commissioner Robert Califf to crack down on almond-, coconut- and other plant-based fluids. [node:read-more:link]
Earlier this month, Ross Barnhardt and I, along with first-time attendee Senator Bill Rabon, attended the State Agriculture and Rural Leaders (SARL) conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. SARL is a group of state legislators and agriculture industry representatives from across the United States and Canada that get together every year to discuss and study issues and policies affecting the agriculture industry and rural communities. I have had the privilege to attend the conference the past 4 years and have served as a SARL board member for the past several years.
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Welcome to our 2017 Agricultural Outlook. It’s a new year that will bring opportunities and challenges for agricultural industries. While no one can accurately predict the future, it is our mission to help you understand the major economic drivers of the agricultural economy in 2017. That begins with a new administration in D.C., which is expected to immediately pass an economic stimulus package to accelerate economic growth. That should have some positive impacts for U.S. agriculture but what about the strength of the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
Activists groups are pushing slower-growing broilers as a higher welfare alternative to modern breeds, but they don't seem to be willing to let consumers demonstrate that they want them at the cash register. When questioned about what consumers want, Super said, “What the majority of consumers actually want is choice. Slow-grow, conventional, raised without antibiotics – each of these production practices dictate choices about how chickens’ living conditions are managed. [node:read-more:link]
Perdue Farms announced it has expanded its $68 million investment in nutrient recycling on Delmarva with the addition of a $12 million capital investment in a composting operation. The AgriSoil composting facility, which started operation next to Perdue AgriRecycle’s organic fertilizer plant in Blades, Del., increases the company’s capacity to handle surplus poultry litter from Delmarva chicken farms and adds the capability to recycle other agricultural by-products that were previously land-applied. [node:read-more:link]
The Fort Steuben Mall in this former steel town on the edge of the Ohio River is battling a double whammy of store closures that have thrust it into a fight for survival. On one side of the mall is an empty space that housed a Sears department store and automotive center until the struggling retailer closed the location last June. On the opposite side sits a Macy’s set to close in early spring, the retail chain said early this month, as part of 100 closures announced last summer. Fort Steuben Mall is being swept up in a wave of store closings that is buffeting landlords across the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
