Saturday, February 04, 2012
RED BLUFF, Calif. - The new head of the California Dried Plum Board says he hopes for a rebound in plum acreage in the next decade even as plantings dipped again in the last year. Only 55,000 acres of trees were bearing during the 2010-2011 season, down from the 61,000 acres that bore fruit in ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 4:28 PM
The head of United Potato Growers of America said his decision not to promote specific planting guidelines for the 2012 crop is unrelated to a federal lawsuit challenging his organization's supply management efforts. Rather, Jerry Wright, UPGA president and chief executive officer, said he made ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 4:18 PM
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Pennsylvania State Police are searching for a 62-year-old man after a woman was shot in the parking lot of the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg. Police are asking the public for help finding Beau Gaylord Robinson, calling him a suspect in the Friday morning shooting. ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 2:27 PM
Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced Friday that USDA has selected 298 recipients in 44 states and Puerto Rico to receive business development assistance through the Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) program. The grants total more than $40.2 million. According to a USDA new ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 1:27 PM
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) -- A federal judge on Thursday rejected a challenge from environmental groups seeking to force the federal government to take immediate action to increase protections for the sage grouse. Had their request been granted, it could have curtailed new energy production on publi ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 1:17 PM
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) -- A Minnesota company is recalling cooked eggs distributed in 34 states because of possible listeria contamination. Michael Foods, of Minnetonka, is recalling eggs in brine sold in 10- and 25-pound pails for institutional use under the brand names: Columbia Valley ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 8:26 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- An outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast illustrates the popularity of raw, unpasteurized milk despite strong warnings from public health officials about the potential danger. Even presidential candidate Ron Paul has joined the cause of consumers looking to buy ...
Friday, February 03, 2012 1:17 PM
Business is booming at the Farwest Hatchery near Canby, Ore. Owner Terry Cain expects his company to sell a half-million chicks in 2012, up fivefold from 2011, the hatchery's first year. "We have more customers than we have eggs," he said. "We're trying to build as fast as we can to cover the ma ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 9:00 AM
The federal government has temporarily backed off from stricter enforcement of labor rules that agricultural groups feared would prevent children from working on family farms. The U.S. Labor Department announced Feb. 1 that revisions to the "parental exemption" from restrictions on agricultural c ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 9:00 AM
PASCO, Wash. -- While the two-year labor battle at a Washington state dairy remains on hold pending the union's legal appeals, the farmer vows to see that justice is served. Dick Bengen, who owns the Ruby Ridge Dairy with his wife, Ruby, said his workers have rallied behind him. He has approximat ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
The U.S. potato industry is looking for a better french fry. Researchers hope to find potato varieties that form less acrylamide, a naturally occurring chemical compound, when cooked. Acrylamide is created when starchy foods are cooked at a high temperature, said Chris Voigt, executive director ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
Potato farmers have a success story to tell when it comes to sustainability, a McCain Foods representative says. Potato farms have a small carbon footprint, with the bulk of potential impacts to the environment coming after harvest, said Leigh Morrow of McCain Foods, an international processing c ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
While the number of meat chickens produced by smaller farms has been shrinking, the number of organic broilers sold each year has surged. Organic production of meat chickens more than quadrupled between 2000 and 2008, to more than 9 million broilers, according to the latest data from USDA's Econo ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 11:00 AM
Frozen blueberry supplies have increased significantly in the past year, which experts say could dampen prices during the next harvest. Warehouses entered 2012 with nearly 20 percent more blueberries in cold storage than a year earlier, according to USDA statistics. Cold storage stock increases ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
Since Mexican officials asked Idaho bean growers last month to help them get through a dire situation, Gem State companies have sent several train carloads of dry beans to that country. Because of severe weather conditions and a drought, Mexico's growers are facing an emergency situation and need ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:00 PM
OREGON CITY, Ore. -- USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development Dallas Tonsager says the agency is scaling back grants but maintaining its loan and loan guarantee programs in an effort to keep delivering services to rural America. Tonsager's comments Jan. 26 come a little more than two weeks afte ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 10:00 AM
BOISE -- Idaho farmers and ag-related businesses are rallying around a tractor raffle program that is financing scholarships and other programs for FFA members. The tractor raffle raised $23,000 for FFA scholarships last year but supporters hope to raise $50,000 this year, which would be enough m ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:00 PM
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Hormel Foods Corp.'s company-owned farms are phasing out the use of small metal crates for confining pregnant hogs by the end of 2017 -- a move welcomed Thursday by the Humane Society of the United States, which had pushed for the change. The Humane Society has been ca ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 4:46 PM
On the back of increased production and higher prices, Idaho's record for total cash receipts from wheat sales was blown away in 2011. The outlook for this year's crop is a little less stellar but still pretty good. "Idaho wheat ... growers really had a good year (in 2011) and are in a ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:45 PM
Several companies would like to commercialize the fish feed additive the University of Idaho's Aquaculture Research Institute developed to protect trout in the early stages of their life from cold water disease. Ken Cain, who oversees U of I's trout research, explained his team isolated and cul ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:35 PM
MIDDLEBURGH, N.Y. (AP) -- After being battered by flooding last year, farmers across the Northeast and Midwest can at least be thankful that a relatively warm and largely snowless winter has made it easier to get started healing their rutted and debris-strewn lands. In the Midwest it was ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:36 AM
GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) -- The union representing locked-out employees at American Crystal Sugar. Co. plans to lobby against the federal sugar program in Congress, breaking a tradition of fighting for the program alongside farmers and the company. John Riskey, president of the local affi ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 8:35 AM
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration says it has found low levels of an illegal fungicide in orange juice samples taken from Florida manufacturers. The FDA says the fungicide is far below dangerous levels, the juice is safe to drink and the orange juice won't be recalled from s ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:15 PM
Prices for nitrogen on the world market have tumbled more steeply than expected this winter as major buyers avoided stocking up on fertilizer, experts say. "We expected the pace of buying would ease, although the seas were more still than we predicted," said Bill Doyle, president and CEO of Potas ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 2:00 PM
A federal judge has upheld a requirement that California almonds be treated with heat or chemicals, which some growers claim unfairly favors foreign producers. The USDA did not exceed its authority by imposing regulations that effectively banned the sale of domestically produced raw almonds, said ...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 1:00 PM
Leaders of the Pacific Northwest potato industry are tackling challenges that range from research to nutrition standards and politics. Here is a roundup of issues industry leaders discussed during the recent Washington-Oregon Potato Conference: Research: The Washington, Oregon and Idaho commissi ...
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