It was this week back in 1867 that Lucien B. Smith of Kent, Ohio was issued patented #66,182 for “barbed wire”. Smith’s design called for spools of four short, sharp metal spikes at right angles. The spools would revolve loosely and be set every 2 to 3 feet along the fence wire. Soon thereafter, several …
For some in the U.S. where the temperatures have been scorching hot and extremely dry, it might be hard to believe that today is just the first day of Summer… but it is! In the Northern Hemisphere, the start date of summer is based on the summer solstice, when the sun is in the most …
Ensuring crops get the optimal amount of nutrients is one of the most straightforward ways of maximizing yields. Making sure no more than what’s needed gets applied is also a surefire way for producers to control input costs. However, knowing what those ideal levels might be can be a time-consuming and pricey challenge but new …
“EnGeniousAg” Developing Low-Cost, Instant Read Nitrogen Sensors Read More »
If you live along the original Pony Express trail and see a guy on a horse thundering by with a mail pouch, it (probably) wasn’t a ghost. Some 650 riders are currently participating in the annual National Pony Express Re-Ride, which reenacts the mail delivery service by horseback that briefly ran between Sacramento, California to …
Since 2018, “Dairy Distillery” in Ontario, Canada, has been turning a waste byproduct of cheesemaking into vodka and cream liquors. Now, the company will help members of the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) turn their waste into biofuel. The MMPA is a farmer-owned cooperative of over 1,000 dairy farmers in Michigan, as well as Indiana, …
Got Milk…In Your Gas Tank? A Canadian Distillery is Turning Dairy Into Fuel Read More »
Every five years, Iowa State University conducts the “Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey,” which provides a current snapshot of the forms of ownership, tenancy, and transfer of the state’s farmland. This series of studies concerning land ownership is unique to Iowa, having been collected by Iowa State researchers since 1949 and mandated by the …
Iowa’s Aging Farmland Owners Increasingly Lease Out Their Land Read More »
As NASA gets closer to sending the first astronauts to Mars, they have a lot of critical details to work out. To help them get there, NASA, in coordination with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has enlisted the public’s assistance in developing new technologies and systems to produce one of the most important fuels of …
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its May 2023 baseline for the farm bill, which projects that total spending for the next decade will reach $1.51 trillion, the most expensive ever. This is an increase of +$31.5 billion from the February baseline and represents a nearly +74% increase from the original estimated cost of the …
According to a recent Rabobank report, adoption of gene-edited (GE) crops will increase significantly in the years ahead. Within the next 5 to 10 years, Rabobank analysts expect adoption rates could exceed 50% worldwide. Chia-Kai Kang, farm inputs analyst at Rabobank, says that GE technology has the potential to solve issues across the food supply …
Rabobank Expects Rapid Adoption of GE Crop Seed Technology Read More »
Wildfires and their related troubles in the US have typically been concentrated in Western states. This year, however, record wildfires in eastern Canada are impacting parts of the Northeast and Midwest. Smoke from the fires is blamed for New York City’s air quality recently ranking as among the worst in the world. The smoke has …
Smoke From Canadian Wildfires Poses Hazard to US Farmers…What You Need to Know Read More »
