USDA News
-
Cotton and Peanut Plantings Jump Above Expectations
Implications While growers intend to substantially increase acreage of cotton and peanuts this year uncertainty remains. For cotton, the pace of plantings, crop conditions, the pace of exports, and global (i.e. China) inventory levels are key fundamentals to monitor. For peanuts, higher acreage does not mean substantially higher production as crop yields and acreage abandonment may reduce the ...
-
Independent GAO Report Confirms Trump Administration Payments for Trade Damages Favored Certain Farmers
Today, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade, announced a new report from the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), which found the Trump Administration’s payments to farmers ...
-
Applications for NRCS Organic Initiative Due March 30
California agricultural producers who are certified organic or transitioning to organic production may qualify for technical and financial assistance through a national organic initiative administered by USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Applications for the second ranking period of 2012 are due at NRCS offices by March 30, for funding consideration during fiscal year 2012. ...
-
Corn Yield Forecast: October Freeze Damage Estimate on US Corn
The 2019 growing season came to an abrupt end across large parts of the U.S. Plains and Upper Midwest between October 11 and October 14, 2019, as a dramatic early-season blizzard developed across North Dakota and unusual cold spread across many states. Snow accumulations of up to 36” occurred in North Dakota in tandem with very strong winds, and about half of the state was covered with at ...
By CropProphet
-
Satellites help keep Chesapeake Bay clean
Space-age technologies to help Maryland implement and monitor an expanded winter cover crop program that is vital to the Chesapeake Bay's health are being developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Beltsville, Md. Soil scientist Gregory McCarty and colleagues Dean Hively, Ali Sadeghi and Megan Lang with the ARS Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory in Beltsville are ...
-
New Focused Conservation Opportunities for Water and Habitat in Central Valley
The USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California announces four new focus areas where $8.5 million will be made available through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to help producers undertake water quality and water conservation projects. Applications are due April 20, 2012. "All of these new project areas are being made possible through an NRCS national ...
-
Using genetic mapping to save wheat production
Stem rust disease has the potential to devastate wheat production worldwide. In the 1950s, large epidemics spread across North America and through other parts of the world. Developing a stem rust resistant gene stopped the spread of the disease. In 1999, a new race of stem rust was discovered in Uganda and identified as Ug99. Previously developed stem rust resistant genes are no longer effective ...
-
Crop performance matters when evaluating GHGs
Measuring the emission of greenhouse gases from croplands should take into account the crops themselves. That’s the conclusion of a study in the September-October issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality, which examined the impact of farm practices such as tillage on the greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide (N2O). Expressing emissions per unit of crop yield rather than on a more conventional ...
-
The future of cover crops
Winter cover crops are an important component of nutrient cycling, soil cover and organic matter content. Although its benefits are well documented, cover crop use in farming systems is relatively low. Research has shown that time and money are the two primary reasons why farmers are hesitant to adopt the technique. Developing innovative and cost-effective crop cover systems could increase the ...
-
Genetics not enough to increase wheat production
The deep gene pool that has allowed wheat to achieve ever increasing gains in yield may be draining. Crop scientists estimate that 50% of the gain in wheat production over the past century has been due to breeding. According to a new study, however, that improvement has been slowing since the late 1980s, with little chance that future increases in yield can be met by breeding efforts alone. The ...
-
Where is your soil water? Crop yield has the answer
Crop yield is highly dependent on soil plant-available water, the portion of soil water that can be taken up by plant roots. Quantitative determination of the maximum amount of plant-available water in soil using traditional methods on soil samples remains challenging, especially at the scale of an entire field. However, a map of plant-available water capacity for a field would be instrumental in ...
-
Dairy industry receives $1.1 million from USDA to help farmers measure and communicate stewardship
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a $1.1 million Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) to the Dairy Research Institute™ (formerly known as Dairy Science Institute, Inc.), an affiliate of the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy®. The funding will support the development of a Dairy Farm Stewardship Toolkit for dairy farmers to evaluate their production techniques and identify ...
-
EPA approves two insecticides for control of invasive stink bug
On June 24, 2011 EPA approved, for emergency use, the insecticide dinotefuran (trade names Venom and Scorpion) on tree fruit to help manage populations of the brown marmorated stink bug, an invasive insect that has caused extensive yield losses in tree fruit production in the mid-Atlantic region. The approval, known as an emergency exemption, applies to Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, ...
-
Crop Science Society of America announces the 2010 class of fellows
The CropScience Society of America(CSSA) will continue a time-honored tradition this year with the presentation of the following individuals as 2010 CSSA Fellows at a special Awards Ceremony during their Annual Meeting on Oct. 31-Nov. 3 in Long Beach, CA, www.acsmeetings.org. Members of the Society nominate worthy colleagues based on their professional achievements and meritorious service. Only ...
-
Soil moisture for crop health topic of symposium
Soil moisture sensing through either contact or remote technology captures soil-plant-water information that relates closely with plant water availability and use. Innovations in remote sensing technologies can inform plant health assessments and more. The “Soil Moisture Sensing for Crop Health Assessment and Management” symposium planned at the Resilience Emerging from Scarcity ...
-
Urban and Agriculture Leaders to Kick Off Soil and Water Conservation Society 2019 International Annual Conference
The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) 74th International Annual Conference, to be held July 28-31, 2019, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, will feature conservation leaders whose work emphasizes the importance of engaging both urban and rural communities in efforts to protect natural resources. Registration is open through July 17, 2019. The theme of this year’s conference is ...
-
EPA Issues Pesticide Tolerance Crop Grouping Program Amendment IV
On May 3, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule that amends current pesticide tolerance crop grouping (Crop Group) regulations. Crop groupings allow petitioners to request a tolerance for multiple related commodities based on research data for one or more representative crops. This final rule is the fourth amendment in a series of planned Crop Group updates ...
-
Growing crops in the city
A case study published in the 2010 Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education by professors at Washington State University studies the challenges one organization faced in maintaining an urban market garden. The journal is published by the American Society of Agronomy. Since 1995, Seattle Youth Garden Works (SYGW) has employed young homeless individuals or those involved in the ...
-
Nitrogen applied
Combating soil erosion is a primary concern for agricultural producers in the United States, and many have incorporated conservation tillage systems in their effort to maintain a profitable crop output. Cover crops are an important tool in this cycle, and while it is known that using nitrogen fertilizers can increase these crops biomass, the resulting levels of nitrogen for the following cash ...
-
A model to measure soil health in the era of bioenergy
One of the biggest threats to today’s farmlands is the loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil organic matter (SOM) from poor land-management practices. The presence of these materials is essential as they do everything from providing plants with proper nutrients to filtering harmful chemical compounds to the prevention of soil erosion. Sustainable management practices for crop residues are ...
Need help finding the right suppliers? Try XPRT Sourcing. Let the XPRTs do the work for you