Called VRPETERS (Vehicle Rollover Prevention Education Training Emergency Reporting System), the app is a simple download to a smart phone or tablet. The app uses the sensors and GPS capability built into these mobile devices to detect a rollover, and then send an automatic emergency email and phone message with accident location coordinates.

“The Ogallala Aquifer covers over 80 percent of Nebraska and is a huge water source for agriculture. A lot of our state’s infrastructure relies on agriculture, which makes the aquifer and conservation of it even more important,” Curtis Scheele, NRCS water management specialist, said.

Corn ethanol demand has also hit a wall. Over the past decade, diverting grains from food and feed to fuel has increased feed prices for livestock producers, Taheripour said, but the ethanol industry in the U.S. has now reached the Renewable Fuel Standard mandated level.

Fertilizer continued on its nearly six-month-old path of extremely steady prices, according to retailers tracked by DTN for the third week of April 2013. But the explosion at a Texas fertilizer outlet is renewing safety concerns about the storage of certain fertilizer products.

An interesting new ant has been found near Smith Harvester’s at Champion. It is the western Thatch ant (WTA). Last week, phone calls came into the University of Nebraska- Lincoln Chase County Extension office about several mounds along a tree line and red ants.

There seems to be a chill on cattle markets…both literally and figuratively. Cattle markets remain hunkered down due to weather and other impacts. The unrelenting cold, wet spring continues to have a variety of impacts on both the supply and demand sides of cattle and beef markets.

The importance of the U.S.-Japanese economic relationship, particularly as it relates to U.S. agriculture and red meat exports, was highlighted by U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) President and CEO Philip Seng in an address before a packed media audience in Tokyo on April 19.

The grassroots organization CommonGround recently released the results of their “Gate-to-Plate” survey. The online survey looked at the buying motivations of over 1,000 moms of school-aged children at the grocery store.

The Agriculture Workforce Coalition (AWC) was put together to serve as a unified voice for agriculture to ensure that America’s farmers, ranchers and growers have access to a stable and secure workforce, something the group says is in jeopardy under the current immigration laws.

Cash cattle trade was a slow continuous drip of toolight-to-tell sales throughout the first half of the week. By Wednesday at the close of trade, almost 4,000 head had been confirmed sold with tiny volumes sold each day. Early sales were mostly regional and to the tune of $125 live and $200 dressed, $2 lower than the prior week.