Sat.Oct 07, 2023 - Fri.Oct 13, 2023

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Somerset farmers hit back at Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘hormone’ comments

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly A group of 11 Somerset farmers, who operate in the same constituency as Jacob Rees-Mogg, has written to the former minister lambasting his understanding of agriculture and accusing him of undermining British farming values.

Farming 343
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Consultation underway on final hurdle to approving gene edited crops in Canada

Real Agriculture

It’s been a long process, but Canada is nearing a final decision on the use of gene editing in crop development. Krista Thomas, vice president of seed innovation and trade policy with the Canada Grains Council, explains the final assessment — that of feed for livestock — is nearing completion, as the consultation wraps up. Read More It’s been a long process, but Canada is nearing a final decision on the use of gene editing in crop development.

Crop 316
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Weekend thinking: How much of your income do you spend for food?

Food Politics

The answer: it depends on how much money you have. USDA’s Economic Research Service has just issued a chart on how much countries throughot the world spend on food on average as a percent of their total expenditures. As a general rule: As incomes rise with economic development and urbanization, the share of income spent on food tends to fall while discretionary spending on household goods, education, medical services, and recreation tends to increase.

Food 242
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Professor Caroline Dean awarded McClintock Prize  

Agri-tech

The ground-breaking career of Professor Dame Caroline Dean FRS has been recognised with the prestigious Barbara McClintock Prize for Plant Genetics and Genome Studies. The international award is made to outstanding plant scientists working on genetics and genomics. “I am thrilled and honoured to receive this award in recognition of the work of my group at the John Innes Centre over many years,”.

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Court awards farm to son in inheritance promise dispute

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly Michael Spencer won his claim against the estate of his late father, John Spencer, on the basis that he had been promised he would inherit the family’s Lincolnshire farm. The claim in Spencer v Spencer followed the father’s death in October 2018.

Farming 325
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Beef Market Update: Cattle markets steady, but with a sustained wide basis on decent supplies

Real Agriculture

There’s always something to cover in the beef and cattle markets, but this week marks a decidedly non-volatile week in trading. Anne Wasko, with the Gateway Livestock Exchange, brings an update from the south to the north and from beef prices to live weights in this episode of the Beef Market Update. The theme of. Read More There’s always something to cover in the beef and cattle markets, but this week marks a decidedly non-volatile week in trading.

Marketing 312
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International Day of Rural Women Spotlight: Indiana Soccer Moms Score Big as Global Entrepreneurs with USDA Assist

USDA Blog

For a women-owned business in rural Indiana, working with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) became a life-changing experience. Soccer moms Carol Podolak and Joy Thompkins sold homemade peanut butter as their kids’ team fundraiser to travel from Portage, Indiana to Dallas, Texas for a tournament in 2016. Customers wanted the pretzel, blueberry, and toffee peanut butter more than once a year, so Podolak and Thompkins started taking custom orders.

Ruralism 142

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Early sugar beet yields promising for Cambridgeshire grower

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly Sugar beet growers have made an unusually early start to this year’s beet harvest as British Sugar offers a premium for early-lifted crops in an attempt to make up for last season’s 250,000t sugar shortage.

Yield 306
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RealAg Markets: Blips to the high side should be viewed as selling opportunities in downward trending markets

Real Agriculture

Short-term bounces in grain prices should be viewed as selling opportunities in an overall bearish market, according to the president of grain marketing advisory firm IntelliFarm. The lack of bullish news on both the supply and demand sides of the balance sheets for most major crops has resulted in prices sliding over the last few. Read More Short-term bounces in grain prices should be viewed as selling opportunities in an overall bearish market, according to the president of grain marketing adv

Marketing 310
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South Carolina Air National Guard Veteran Topeka Ham Finds New Calling with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service

USDA Blog

Georgia native Topeka Ham found a new calling serving the American public through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS) after 26 years in the South Carolina Air National Guard.

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Space biology and the out-of-this-world exploration of plant stress

AgriLife Today

Texas A&M AgriLife plant scientist joins a NASA-funded project to help understand how plants grow away from Earth A Texas A&M AgriLife plant scientist is joining the space race, of a sort, by helping to understand how plants can survive in space to support human space exploration. As a Texas A&M AgriLife Research crop physiologist/agroecologist and professor in.

Crop 135
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Riverford ‘fair deal’ farming petition tops 60,000 signatures

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly A petition urging supermarkets and their suppliers to give fairer treatment to farmers has received more than 60,000 signatures, but the “big six” retailers remain silent on the issue. If the #GetFairAboutFarming petition receives 100,000 signatures, it will be debated in parliament.

Farming 301
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CCIA set to deliver tracking for CRSB’s Certified Sustainable Beef Framework

Real Agriculture

After a two-year review, the the Canadian Roundtable for Sustainable Beef (CRSB) has chosen the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency (CCIA) to provide live cattle chain of custody tracking for the CRSB’s Certified Sustainable Beef Framework. CRSB says it is confident working with the CCIA will enable consistent implementation of its Chain of Custody Requirements and.

Cattle 298
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USDA Makes Available More Than $60 Million in School Meals, Launches New Partnership

USDA Blog

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11, 2023 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today visited Annandale Terrace Elementary School in Annandale, Virginia, where he unveiled two new grant opportunities plus a training and technical assistance partnership to help schools continue to invest in nutritious school meals.

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Amir Ibrahim named Texas A&M AgriLife Research associate director, chief scientific officer

AgriLife Today

Role includes leadership position in Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Amir Ibrahim, Ph.D., has been selected as the new associate director and chief scientific officer of Texas A&M AgriLife Research, and associate dean for research in the Texas A&M University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, effective Dec. 1. Ibrahim is a.

Science 126
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Farmer Focus: Battling slugs as crops take a pounding

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly It feels like the main focus for the past couple of weeks has been battling slugs. Any spare time was used for planting crops. We have already lost a few early skirmishes, with a couple of oilseed rape fields succumbing to a combination of slugs and flea beetle.

Crop 278
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Mind Your Farm Business — Ep. 90: Facing fear in business and in life

Real Agriculture

What would you try if you knew you couldn’t fail? Fear can be very motivating (ever been chased by a bull in a pasture?) but fear — of failure, of success, of the unknown — can also be paralyzing. Each person’s experience with fear is different, but it’s the very real stories of overcoming fear. Read More What would you try if you knew you couldn’t fail?

Pasture 290
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Plant pathology award for Professor Diane Saunders

Agri-tech

The innovative and inspiring research of Professor Diane Saunders has been recognised with a major award by a leading society in the field of plant pathology. Diane is a group leader at the John Innes Centre and becomes the latest recipient of the British Society for Plant Pathology (BSPP) RKS Wood Prize The award celebrates excellence in the study of plant disease biology and its application in.

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Op-ed: Farmers Want Climate Resilience, but GOP Lawmakers Want to Redirect Billions in Conservation Funds

Civil Eats

As Congress let the last farm bill expire at the end of September, I was navigating an ongoing drought on my Iowa farm for the third year in a row. Iowa is known for its lush, green summers and abundant rivers and streams. Today, most of those streams are dried up and the rivers are at all-time lows. The soft rains we used to see from April to October are gone and now we’re facing longer bouts of drought, high heat events, torrential downpours, and polar vortexes.

Farming 128
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Red Tractor’s new environmental ‘bolt-on’ plan criticised

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly Plans by Red Tractor to introduce a new environmental “bolt-on” to its existing farm assurance schemes have been heavily criticised by farmers and their representatives, who fear the organisation is overstepping its remit and object to the way it has been developed.

Tractor 266
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Wheat Pete’s Word, Oct 11: Brown layer corn, road safety, broadcast wheat, and the difference a day makes

Real Agriculture

If you’re waiting for a sign to pick up the phone and check in with a friend, this is it. Yesterday was Mental Health Day and host Peter Johnson wants you to take the Wheat Pete 15 challenge and call up someone just to chat. That’s just one tidbit from this episode of Wheat Pete’s. Read More If you’re waiting for a sign to pick up the phone and check in with a friend, this is it.

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Cover crop incentives push practices, but results keep them

Western FarmPress

SARE, the Conservation Technology Information Center and the American Seed Trade Association surveyed about 800 farmers in 49 states to get their thoughts on cover crop incentives.

Crop 119
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AI Is Writing Books About Foraging. What Could Go Wrong?

Civil Eats

Like mushrooms after an autumn rain, a new flush of books have popped up on Amazon that claim to provide everything you need to forage your next meal from local parks and woodlands—an increasingly popular hobby in the wake of the pandemic. The books appear to part of a large new wave of books that are being assembled and “published” using artificial intelligence (AI).

Forage 127
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Harvest 2023: Potato yields hit by dry early summer

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly Andrew Wilson at Brickyard Farm near Slingsby, North Yorkshire, has just made a start on his 60ha of potatoes for McCain. “In digs, yields look pleasing, although quality is a little variable in places, but nothing I’m majorly concerned about,” says Andrew.

Yield 264
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RealAg Politics: Farmer reaction to grain company consolidation, gene editing, and the politics of groceries

Real Agriculture

What’s top of mind on the policy front this week? Well, there are some fireworks over grocery store prices and what’s really driving food costs, a plant breeding technique is edging ever-closer to the finish line, and farmers are weighing in on a proposed grain company acquisition. On this episode of RealAg Politics, host Shaun. Read More What’s top of mind on the policy front this week?

Grain 276
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Low Mississippi River Levels Hit Soybean Exports, Freight Rates and Basis Levels: Corn Moving by Rail

AgWeb Farm Journal

The historically low water levels on the Mississippi River have caused a trifecta in the soybean market. Its increased freight weights, slammed basis levels and taken a real toll on exports.

Marketing 121
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Planting Seeds for Sustainable Future Food Systems

Farming First

The global seed sector is working to advance sustainable food systems — creating coalitions, delivering innovative seed to farmers and more. The post Planting Seeds for Sustainable Future Food Systems appeared first on Farming First.

Seeding 119
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James Herrick: Farmers should sense-check their social media

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly Like many farmers, I’m a frequent user of social media. But like many, I also struggle to work out exactly how I feel about it. For a while my platform of choice was Instagram.

Farming 264
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20 Sustainable Sips to Cheer For

Food Tank

According to data from the World Health Organization (WHO), the average person over the age of 15 consumes the equivalent of 53 bottles of wine per year. These consumption trends matter to the environment. According to a study published in the Journal of Cleaner Production and Beverages , the production of alcoholic beverages can contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, land degradation, and water depletion.

Beverage 120
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Manage price risk in cattle

Western FarmPress

Livestock Risk Protection was first offered in 2003. Changes made in 2018 offer opportunities for ranchers to set a price floor. LRP-Feeder Cattle insurance is available in all counties in all states.

Cattle 119
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Opinion: It’s Time to Stop Underestimating the Scope of Food Fraud

Modern Farmer

Food fraud has been happening since humans first began to buy and sell food, thousands of years ago. Early Romans faked premium wines and added lead salts to sweeten their drinks, while medieval bakers added chalk and dust to their loaves because it was cheaper than flour. Modern food systems are built on regulations born of the need to prevent deceptive practices like these.

Food 118
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Advice on getting extra help for autumn block-calving

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly An intense workload at calving, combined with a winter routine, often creates a temporary labour gap in an autumn block-calving herd. One extra person – sometimes only a half – is required, but for just 12 weeks.

Livestock 264
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Clayton Moore: Seventh generation farmer sees future in hemp

AgriLife Today

Department of Soil and Crop Sciences senior aims to aid rural farms A student choosing to attend Texas A&M University when they come from generations of Aggies is probably no surprise. As a seventh-generation farmer, senior Clayton Moore’s choice of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Soil and Crop Sciences was also. Read More → The post Clayton Moore: Seventh generation farmer sees future in hemp first appeared on AgriLife Today.

Science 115
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From the Ground Up: Grassroots Movement Transforms Public Food Supply Chains, Paving the Way for Justice and Equity

Food Tank

Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA) and HEAL Food Alliance recently released the report Procuring Food Justice: Grassroots Solutions for Reclaiming Our Public Supply Chains. The authors challenge corporate control of institutional procurement markets and advocate for a value-based food purchasing strategy. FCWA and HEAL are working to implement this strategy through the Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP).

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Nexat next up for ag equipment innovation

Western FarmPress

The Nexat system — one tractor with interchangeable implements, autonomous capabilities and fuel flexibility — is being tested in Illinois and South Dakota.

Tractor 122
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New Holland introduces its highest capacity combine yet

Farmers Weekly

Farmers Weekly The battle to build the highest output combine harvester is hotting up, with New Holland set to launch its biggest machine yet. Details are still thin on the ground, but we understand the new model has been some 10 years in development and shares few components with the current CR10.90 flagship.

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House Nominates Scalise for Speaker, the Farm Bill Needs an Extension

AgWeb Farm Journal

Work by the House or Senate Agriculture Committee on a new farm bill is essentially stalled, Randy Russell tells AgriTalk's Chip Flory. Russell says that could be the case until government funding issues are resolved.

Farming 114