Author: staff

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is accepting applications for the USDA 1890 National Scholars Program, which aims to encourage students at 1890 land-grant universities to pursue career paths in food, agriculture, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines. The application deadline is March 1, 2025. Young people around the country are invited to complete and submit their applications online through an e-application. Administered through USDA’s Office of Partnerships and Public Engagement, the USDA 1890 National Scholars Program is available to eligible high school seniors entering their freshman year of college as well as rising college sophomores and juniors. “The USDA…

By John Cole Standing inside the Maclay Street Lobby entrance of the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex on a frigid Saturday morning, leaders in the state’s agriculture community cut the ceremonial ribbon signaling the opening of the 109th Pennsylvania Farm Show. “This is a show that showcases Pennsylvania, really America’s number one industry,” said U.S. Rep. Glenn ‘GT’ Thompson (R-15th District), chair of the U.S. House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee. “The industry that provides us most of the things that are essential in our lives. Food and fiber, building materials, energy resources.” “And what an exciting time,” he added. The…

John Deere is revealing several new autonomous machines during a news conference at CES 2025 related to the agriculture, construction, and commercial landscaping industries. The company’s second-generation autonomy kit combines advanced computer vision, AI, and cameras to help the machines navigate their environments. While each of these industries experiences its own challenges, skilled labor availability is common across all. Agriculture: The American Farm Bureau Federation estimates roughly 2.4 million farm jobs need to be filled annually. Construction: Eighty-eight percent of contractors struggle to find skilled labor. Commercial Landscaping: Eighty-six percent of landscaping business owners can’t find labor to fill open positions.…

By Ryan Hanrahan Bloomberg’s Ramsey Al-Rikabi and Maria Luiza Rabello reported Monday that “President-elect Donald Trump denied a Washington Post report that his aides are considering narrowing his tariff plan so that it would only apply to limited specific critical imports.” “‘The story in the Washington Post, quoting so-called anonymous sources, which don’t exist, incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong,’ Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday,” according to Al-Rikabi and Rabello’s reporting. “The Washington Post reported that Trump’s aides were discussing applying tariffs to some goods from all countries, but…

March corn is down 4¢ this morning. Earlier this morning, USDA announced Colombia is buying 110,000 metric tons of corn for the 2024/2025 marketing year. March soybeans are down 10¢. March wheat contracts are higher this morning. CBOT wheat is up less than a penny. KC wheat is up 3¾¢. Minneapolis wheat is up 3¼¢. “Corn and soybean futures came under renewed pressure in early trading, with soybean futures weakest, under pressure from forecasts for needed rain in Argentina, large Brazilian crop prospects, and technically-driven selling,” said The Brock Report this morning about the overnight trade. “Corn futures losses have…

You don’t have to spend a ton of money or invest weeks of time to make a difference in the way your farm shop looks and feels. Here are some smaller shop projects that can make a big impact. 1. Clean Up Dingy Walls A combination of engine exhaust and smoke generated from welders (particularly plasma cutters) can coat metal shops walls to the point that they become dingy and reflect less light. Although the job will take a lot of elbow grease, that dinge can be removed. Jim Deardorff of Superior Coatings recommended applying a good multisurface degreasing cleanser…

Farmers have been customizing machinery to better fit their needs since the first piece of equipment rolled off the assembly line. Here are a few top ideas from All Around the Farm. Better Tie-Down Anchors Reed Smith in Dripping Springs, Texas told us about his Silverado pickup truck. The truck has four built-in tie-down anchors in the four corners of the bed. The tie-downs never seem to be in the right place to effectively secure what I am tying down. I decided to attach a small chain between the front and rear anchor on each side of the truck. Now…

By Maximilian Heath BUENOS AIRES, Jan 3 (Reuters) – A hot, dry austral summer is beginning to cause damage to Argentina’s 2024/25 soybean and corn crops, the country’s two main grains exchanges said on Friday, after abundant spring rains had until recently provided excellent growing conditions. Argentina is the world’s largest exporter of soybean oil and meal and the third largest exporter of corn, as well as a major wheat supplier. Until a few weeks ago, the Buenos Aires grains exchange (BdeC) had reported virtually no signs of crop damage thanks to wet spring weather. As summer began in late…

By Michael Langemeier The continued increase in size of tractors, combines, and other machinery has enabled farms to operate more acres and reduce labor use per acre. However, this increase in machinery size also makes it increasingly important to evaluate the efficient use of machinery. A recent Farmdoc article examined trends in machinery costs and its key components for Illinois grain farms (Paulson, Schnitkey, and Zulauf). This article illustrates the computation of crop machinery cost and investment for a case farm in west central Indiana, and uses FINBIN data (University of Minnesota) to examine machinery cost and investment benchmarks. Key Machinery Benchmarks Crop…

A relatively recent (labeled as an emerging threat) red blood cell parasite has now been diagnosed in calves in Kansas. The parasite, Theileria orientalis ikeda, was originally detected in 2017 in Virginia but has been making a steady march across the United States and is now identified in at least 16 U.S. states.  In one Kansas case, the calves were purchased on the East Coast and imported into Kansas for feeding. The disease is spread through multi-use needles and insect vectors. The primary vector is the Asian long-horned tick, a relatively new tick in the U.S. The tick has not yet…