Author: staff

One North Carolina farm is encouraging its visitors to linger over a good book while they enjoy freshly picked strawberries, blueberries, and other farm products. My boys and I visited Smith’s Nursery in Benson to pick strawberries. While watching them pick three boxes of berries, I found a spot in the shade. Settling in a rocking chair on the back porch of the ice cream shack with a few scoops of chocolate, I noticed a Little Free Library.  I looked through the books in the library box at Smith’s Nursery and found a novel to read while my boys were busy picking…

By Jason Franken The June 1 inventory of all hogs and pigs, at 75.1 million head, is up 0.52% from last quarter and 0.33% higher than a year ago, and just above the upper range of pre-report estimates (0.2% lower to 0.3% higher). Likewise, market hog inventories are up 0.57% from last quarter and 0.40% from a year ago, again landing just above the upper range of expectations (0.5% lower to 0.3% higher). Meanwhile the breeding herd is the smallest in a decade, down 0.02% from last quarter and 0.47% from last year, just within the bottom range of pre-report…

Hurricanes can often be forecast days, or even weeks in advance, thanks to global weather models and international cooperation among meteorologists. But for one farmer on a small island in Northern Germany, even a few centimeters of tide change in the span of hours can mean the difference between safety and disaster. Nommen Kruse lives on the Halligen — low-lying, mound-based islands off the coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where land barely rises above sea level and is shielded from regular tides by manmade seawalls. On the Hallig of Noordstrandischmoor, 18 people live in four homesteads. The island has a schoolhouse…

By Ryan Hanrahan ABC News’ Allison Pecorin reported that “Senate Republicans announced Sunday that they planned a brief pause on the precession of events toward a final vote on the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ Senators will begin their vote-a-rama at 9 a.m. Monday, instead of the original early morning start time that was anticipated. In the meantime, debate of the bill will continue on the Senate floor until senators finish or their time expires.” “Once the vote-a-rama kicks off, senators will be allowed to offer an unlimited number amendments to the bill,” Pecorin reported. “When this ends, they’ll take a…

In junior high, Tyler Worthey discovered “Hot Ones,” a YouTube show where guests are challenged to eat spicy chicken wings. Although Worthey thought the show’s concept was hilarious, he found himself connecting to host Sean Evans, a fellow Illinois native. Evans’s ability to connect to his guests through his hot sauce inspired Worthey to create his own sauces to share, noting he doesn’t like “almost all condiments besides the ones I make.”  At the same time, in a biology class, he was learning about capsaicin, a chemical compound found in chili peppers that influences heat level. Worthey’s family didn’t farm,…

It has been said that the only constant is change. This is true except if you’re hoping for change from a $20 bill after filling your car’s gas tank. Tremendous changes have taken place on the farm where I launched my dairy farming career 46 years ago. When I first rented that bedraggled little farm, the city of Brookings was a mile and a half away. The city has since, in an amoeba-like fashion, gradually engulfed the entire farm. The day I lost my lease on the farm, my elderly landlord’s son informed me that the entire half-section would soon…

Do you ever feel frustrated when you look at the ingredient list on a loaf of bread because you don’t know what most of the ingredients are? What if a bread product contained fewer ingredients? A new trio of Oklahoma State University wheat varieties might just be the food solution for consumers interested in fewer additives — the substances added to food products during processing to help improve color, texture, flavor, or, in the case of bread, dough quality. The use of the food additive called vital wheat gluten has increased over the past 20 years, making up 2-20 percent…

The latest Crop Protection Network map shows positive cases of tar spot have been reported in five Indiana counties so far this growing season. First reported in the U.S. in 2015, there is a history of the disease in all 92 Indiana counties. Tar spot has also been confirmed in Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, and Illinois this year. What Should Farmers Do? “This extremely hot weather is lowering the risk in the model. I would still wait to see what happens the next few weeks before pulling the fungicide trigger,” advised Associate Professor of Botany and Plant Pathology Darcy Telenko…

Image by Nokwan007, Shutterstock Top Third Ag Marketing helps farmers become better agricultural marketers with the goal of marketing crops and livestock in the top third of prices. Mark Gold and his team provide AGDAILY.com with the latest information and a look ahead in their audio commentary. Listen here! https://www.agdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ag-daily-2025-06-30.mp3

Today, USDA published the 13th Crop Progress report of the 2025 growing season. Here’s a look at the latest corn, soybean, wheat, and oat numbers. Corn As of June 29, 8% of the corn crop across 14 of the country’s top 18 corn-growing states had reached the silking stage. That’s ahead of the five-year average of 6%. USDA reported the condition of the nation’s corn crop as follows: Good/excellent: 73%Fair: 22%Poor/very poor: 5% That’s the highest good/excellent percentage of the season. Soybeans The USDA said that as of June 29, 94% of the soybean crop across the top 18 soybean-growing states had…