Caterpillar is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines, and diesel-electric locomotives. The company was officially founded in 1925 but its roots date back to the late 1800s when one of the brothers behind a successful wagon wheel company began experimenting with tractor …
Ukraine’s grain exports in 2024/25 are forecast to be significantly lower than last season as production of corn and wheat continue the slow decline kicked off by Russia’s invasion. In its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), USDA also made cuts to Ukraine’s projected 2024/25 grain exports, on top of previous forecasts already …
Ukraine’s Status as a Global Grains Powerhouse Continues to Sink Read More »
California’s almond tree groves are one of the first major crops every year that U.S. honey bee keepers are called on to help with pollination. This year, however, bee keepers will struggle to meet those calls and others this season following a sudden die-off of more than half their colonies this winter. That’s according to …
Severe, Widespread, and Unexplained Honey Bee Losses This Winter Read More »
Edacious, a Massachusetts-based startup, has developed a rapid testing and data insights platform to measure and map nutrient density in whole foods, including grains and other commodity crops. This platform has the potential to help farmers in the commodity crop space differentiate their products and increase profitability by providing actionable data on nutritional quality. The …
“Edacious” Seeking to Break the Cycle of Crop Commoditization Read More »
In its first estimates for farm sector income in 2025, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is forecasting an increase in net farm income of almost +30% over 2024 while net cash farm income is seen climbing nearly +22%. However, a more than +355% rise in government farm payments, mostly in the form of disaster …
Net Farm Income to Rise in 2025 Thanks Largely to $31 Billion Disaster Aid Infusion Read More »
Texas and Mexico share not only a land border but also a shrinking supply of water that farmers and communities on both sides depend on for survival. Prolonged drought, excessive heat, and population growth are all blamed for the growing water crisis that already decimated the South Texas sugar industry and is now coming for …
I Had No Idea… Battle Over “Border Water” Adds to US-Mexico Tensions Read More »
Google works on a lot of seemingly random projects in its “X” division, which is the so-called “moonshot factory” tasked with developing breakthrough technologies to solve some of the world’s hardest problems. While many never see the light of day, several have been spun off into independent startups. The latest is “Heritable Agriculture,” a biotechnology …
Google’s “Moonshot Factory” Spins Out New AI-Driven Startup“ Heritable Agriculture” Read More »
Americans are expected to eat 1.3 billion chicken wings and drumsticks during Super Bowl LIX this Sunday, according to the National Chicken Council (NCC). To provide some reference, 1.3 billion wings is enough for every man, woman, and child in the United States to eat four wings each, or enough to put 693 wings on …
The decimation of U.S. poultry flocks from the ongoing HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) outbreak continues to push egg prices to new heights, with no end in sight. Over 20 million egg-laying hens were lost to the disease in Q4 2024, including over 13 million in December alone. In January, another 14 million birds were …
What Are the Odds of a Bird Flu Vaccine for U.S. Poultry? Read More »
Across the U.S. Midwest lies an unseen network of cylindrical tiles that solved one of the biggest problems early settlers faced – drainage. In fact, a surprising swath of America’s most fertile farmland was once useless swampland, now transformed by drainage tile first introduced by European settlers back in the 1800s. At the time of …
