UnderstandingAg

DECEMBER 31, 2024

The Cheapest Hay Is the Hay You Never Buy *Additional management considerations for this article were provided by Kent Solberg, Understanding Ag, LLC Stockpiled Pasture Regenerative agriculture and adaptive grazing often focus on reducing inputs in an agriculture production system. What class of livestock are they?

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Pasture Forage Livestock Manure 105

Sustainable Food Trust

NOVEMBER 5, 2024

Grasslands – and the grazing livestock they support – have been fundamentally important to Scotland’s people for millennia. Look at the OS map for the area surrounding our farm in Highland Perthshire, and it is littered with Gaelic placenames related to the keeping of cattle and goats.

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Livestock Pasture Cattle Arable Land 81

Modern Farmer

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

Given the challenges in an industry dominated by factory farms, such as slim profit margins and little control over pricing and markets, between 52 percent and 79 percent of small family farms are at high financial risk. We only have 45 acres, which is a really small farm around here,” says Larson.

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Farming Farming Acre Marketing 122

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 28, 2023

“We started with that largely because we want to get out of commodity agriculture,” Payne said. Payne operates a 300-acre regenerative farm in Concordia, Missouri, an hour outside of Kansas City, where he raises sheep and cattle. It also provides much-needed natural shade for livestock.

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Food Tank

MAY 3, 2024

Iowa is the number-one pork producer in the United States, but it has relatively few hog farms. Large factory farm facilities have replaced smaller family farms. The state lost nearly 90 percent of its hog farms from 1982 to 2017, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Census data.

Ruralism 115

Ruralism Farming Farming Ranching 115

Trimble Agriculture

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

Before joining AgAmerica, her main financial experience involved what she had learned through her family’s relationship with their long-time agricultural lender. Her real passion is in agriculture, an industry she’s grown up in and developed a deep respect for. Erin Smith didn’t always want to work in finance.

Finance 59

Finance Agriculture Agriculture Ranching 59

Civil Eats

DECEMBER 10, 2024

In the months before Patrick Brown was born in November 1982, his father, Arthur, lay down on a road near the familys farm to prevent a caravan of yellow dump trucks from depositing toxic soil in his community. Patrick currently operates Brown Family Farms on the land that Byron worked as a sharecropper once he was freed.

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Plantation Farming Farming Acre 144

Civil Eats

APRIL 10, 2025

Marker bills are small bills that senators and representatives attempt to insert into the larger legislative package during farm bill negotiations. Its a priority of the National Family Farm Coalition. Save Our Small (SOS) Farms Act, introduced by Jahana Hayes (D-Connecticut) et al. Link to this post.)

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Farming Farming Poultry Food 52

Food Tank

MAY 29, 2024

Record rainfall in May 2024 in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil’s southernmost state, has caused destructive flooding that is wreaking havoc on the country’s agricultural and livestock sectors. Destroyed or obstructed infrastructure is also limiting food transportation and farm operations. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports.

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Agriculture Agriculture Livestock Poultry 68

Food Tank

OCTOBER 4, 2024

“Pig farmers, they’re there 365 days a year taking care of those animals,” says McCleary, a fourth-generation farmer at McCleary Farms in West-Central Illinois. Going to Florida on vacation isn’t always an option for a livestock farmer. Today, the majority (75 percent) of U.S. Most people wake up, eat, and eat.

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Farming Farming Ranching Family Farming 105

UnderstandingAg

APRIL 3, 2025

By: Kyle Richardville, Understanding Ag, LLC About the Understanding series Agriculture isnt rocket science. Farming and ranching involve the fields of biology, ecology, chemistry, botany, physics, geology, meteorology, politics, economics, psychology and mechanics, just to name a few. Its much more complex than that. in some spots.

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Acre Fertilizer Pasture Crop 97

Agwired

JANUARY 29, 2025

Recognizing the vital role that four-legged friends often play on family farms and ranches, Farm Bureau launched the Farm Dog of the Year contest several years ago now a popular feature of the American Farm Bureau Federations Convention. Grotegut Dairy Farm of Newton, Wisc.

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Supply Chain Livestock Farming Farming 45

Caff

JUNE 29, 2021

Caiti attended a town hall where the discussion focused on relief for farmers who raise livestock or grow perennial crops not annual crops. The funds being offered are to encourage farmers to adopt water conservation practices that she already uses on her farm. One year without income can shut down a farm.

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Family Farming Farming Farming Water Rights 52

Food Tank

JULY 19, 2024

When his agriculture professors taught about conventional hog production, he would ask questions like, “What about letting these animals get outside a little bit?” These big universities, the agricultural departments are pretty much paid off by Big Agriculture,” says Roberts. According to the U.S.

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Ranching Farming Farming Family Farming 105

Modern Farmer

SEPTEMBER 29, 2023

Upon leaving her family farm to study agriculture at Stanford, she took up a work-study program investigating the economic viability of grass-fed beef. “It The same year that Carman returned to her family farm, a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, was detected in the US.

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Cattle Ranching Supply Chain Forage 136

Food Tank

NOVEMBER 3, 2023

By his senior year, Williams was trying to figure out how to return home and take over the family farm. Williams, his wife Hannah, and their toddler Lyle now live on Williams Family Farms, sustainably and humanely raising pigs and farming about 400 acres of cropland. Luckily, his father was just about to retire. “To

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Ranching Family Farming Farming Farming 105

Food Tank

JANUARY 24, 2024

agriculture, food systems, and rural communities.” That is the opening line of the recently released Fifth National Climate Assessment’s section on agriculture. Whether our crops come to harvest or our livestock make it to market is directly tied to the cycles of nature that we try our best to work within. Each year, we lose 4.6

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Ruralism Agriculture Agriculture Food 128

Modern Farmer

DECEMBER 20, 2024

Moving from daytime to overnight work is often presented as the most practical solution for agricultural laborers struggling with rising temperatures as a result of climate change. full_link LEARN MORE Opinion: As the heat rises, we must do better at protecting agricultural workers. Its a massive lose-lose situation.

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Agriculture Agriculture Food Harvesting 75

NASDA

SEPTEMBER 10, 2024

Given the enormous challenges facing production agriculture – including a farm economy that has taken a downward spiral – it is imperative Congress act before year’s end to strengthen farm policy for America’s farmers. Farmers are struggling, and the decline in the farm economy is real. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

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Farming Farming Grain Supply Chain 130

Food Politics

AUGUST 15, 2023

Add to the mix a profoundly divided Congress and big challenges around addressing the climate crisis and hunger facing the country, and it becomes clear why this year’s farm bill process has faced additional stumbling blocks. The National Family Farm Coalition and Rural Advancement Foundation International support this bill.

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Farming Farming Food Agriculture 189

Modern Farmer

JUNE 28, 2024

I named my business Diamond B Show Stock, a nod to my family farm, Diamond B farms. The family business started in the 1970s and is still running strong today. I’m proud to be the next link in the chain for my family’s agricultural business, and I hope to keep it going for the generations that come after me.

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Farming Farming Agriculture Agriculture 113

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

Editor’s Note: This post is the fifth post in a multi-part series exploring some of the key sustainable agriculture and food systems challenges that the farm bill can address. Other posts explore how the next farm bill can tackle issues in regional market development, crop insurance access, and more.

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Farming Farming Agriculture Agriculture 109

Food Tank

OCTOBER 6, 2023

Instead, Wahl took any agriculture-related class he could—soil science, crop growing, feed—and tapped into his family’s network of farmers to learn everything he needed to know about animal health. Despite his father’s advice, Wahl started farming after graduation and now raises about 1,000 sheep with his family in western Oregon.

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Ranching Science Soil Science Marketing 118

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 24, 2023

Since the resurgence of regenerative agriculture, farming has never been sexier. But what does regenerative agriculture mean? It’s official: Regenerative agriculture has been hijacked. This distinction,” says Newton, “raises interesting implications about how you define regenerative agriculture.”

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Food Ranching Ecology Fertilizer 98

Civil Eats

OCTOBER 12, 2023

Meanwhile, it may be months before lawmakers can agree on a new farm bill. And as their negotiations set the stage for the next five years of American agriculture, it can feel to farmers like our future is in their hands. Seth Watkins, a farmer from Clarinda, Iowa, was able to save his family farm with the help of conservation funding.

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Farming Farming Family Farming Cattle 145

National Young Farmers Coalition

APRIL 1, 2025

Department of Agricultures (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA). To keep Minnesotas agriculture economy thriving, we need to invest in the next generation of farmers, said Senator Tina Smith. ” In Iowa, agriculture is the backbone of our state, and our farmers are the backbone of agriculture, said Congressman Zach Nunn.

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Farmland Ruralism Family Farming Marketing 74

Caff

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Kendra Altnow shares the history of the LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyards. On December 5th, the Community Alliance with Family Farms (CAFF) held a field day at the LangeTwins Family Winery & Vineyard in Acampo, CA.

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Livestock Crop Farming Farming 52

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 26, 2024

French farmers, for instance, managed to persuade their nation’s leaders to ban food imports treated with the insecticide thiacloprid, dedicate €150 million (US$163 million) annually to support livestock producers and provide European-wide definitions for what constitutes lab-grown meat. Matters are much the same in the US.

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Manure Farming Farming Production 108

Modern Farmer

FEBRUARY 12, 2024

As director of demonstration and on-farm education for the Savanna Institute (SI) , she knows that agroforestry can be a game-changer in fighting climate change and creating healthier food systems. Transitioning from traditional agricultural methods to agroforestry often requires a shift in mindset and education. and Champaign, Ill.

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Farming Farming Crop Production 108

Modern Farmer

JULY 4, 2024

We asked each of them to tell us what makes their farm special, why they each chose farming, and what advice they would give to any future farmers out there. This story is part of our Future Farmers series , highlighting the joys and hurdles of a career in agriculture today. Why farming?

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Cultivation Meadow Farming Farming 108

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

MAY 10, 2024

On May 1, 2024 – after months of stalled farm bill negotiations on both sides of Capitol Hill – Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released a detailed section-by-section summary of her farm bill proposal. NSAC will reserve final assessment until the full legislative text becomes available.

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Ruralism Food Farming Farming 110

Civil Eats

JULY 2, 2024

The PCC DBII is one of four such initiatives across the country, funded by the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. With $165 million in total funding to date, regional DBIIs address the specific needs of four individual markets—northeast, southeast, midwest, and west coast.

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Pasture Production Marketing Supply Chain 142

National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Last week’s post highlighted the stories of farmers who have used practices from the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry practice list to build climate resilience and mitigation solutions. This week’s post adds stories created and gathered by National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) members around the country.

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Pasture Crop Orchard Farming 100

Food Tank

JULY 14, 2023

While her family has been farming for at least four generations, there isn’t enough land for all of Alaina’s siblings to return to the family farm. Young folks’ passion for agriculture and work advocating for it brings Alaina hope.

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Farming Farming Ranching Farmland 97

Modern Farmer

AUGUST 23, 2024

Photo courtesy of Farm Hounds As shoppers seek more wholesome foods for pets, some also try to make eco-friendly choices , which seems to contradict a diet of human-grade foods, especially meat. Agriculture contributes at least 11 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions , and meat is the biggest contributor among foods.

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Food Farming Farming Compost 112

Food Tank

AUGUST 23, 2023

Wild Kid Acres in Edgewater, Maryland is a farm dedicated to responsible livestock and land stewardship. The farm is becoming a hub for agricultural education, local farm products, and shared technological resources. The barn will house animals, host an aggregate farm stand, and offer a production kitchen.

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Acre Farming Farming Construction 98

Agwired

DECEMBER 26, 2023

This December through July 2024, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) are partnering to conduct a national study focusing on sheep and lamb health and management in the United States. Charles, Illinois, area.

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Poultry Family Farming Livestock Distribution 45