When charting a course for long-term sustainability in agriculture, farmers face the challenges of doubling world food production while coming to grips with the environmental framework needed to address climate change, a key executive from Deere Co.

Nebraska is predicted to harvest the states largest corn crop in history this year, with a total production of nearly 1.6 billion bushels on a record yield of 178 bushels per acre. Yet, getting that crop in the bin is proving to be a challenge, according to a news release from the Nebraska Corn Board (NCB).

Rancher Polly Rex characterized the exemption as a loophole that could ultimately rob her of the means to grow hay and water her livestock. Rex said a subdivision of more than 60 homes going up next to her Absarokee, MT, ranch could eventually draw down the natural springs she uses on an adjacent 1,250-acre field.

If the $1-per-gallon blenders tax credit for biodiesel is allowed to expire at the end of December, the biodiesel industry could be expected to collapse, a new study released last week said.

Lawmakers divided largely along party lines last Wednesday at a House hearing on agriculture and climate change while USDAs chief economist tried to emphasize that while climate legislation would increase costs to producers, those expenses would be gradual over several decades.

A coalition of 50 farm and agriculture groups is asking the Obama administration to almost double the USDA budget for competitive research grants to $500 million in its fiscal year 2011 budget request to Congress.

In a normal El Ni o event, the combination of warmer than normal equatorial Pacific temperatures and a west-to-east subtropical jet stream component results in more generous wintertime precipitation in the southern third of the U.S.from south-central Kansas south through Texas, and east to Georgia and Florida.

Grim financials for dairy and pork producers were casting a pall over proceedings of the National Agricultural Bankers Conference in San Antonio, TX, last week. For the first time in 25 years, sessions were concentrating on topics such as organizing loan workouts, handling bankruptcies, and stresstesting loan portfolios.

The unseasonably wet and cool fall may leave dairy producers scrambling to find their supplies of dairy-quality hay for winter.Just as farmers have struggled to get row crops out of the field because of the rain and snow this fall, alfalfa growers also have found it difficult to get their last cuttings of alfalfa dried and put up, especially with the quality needed for dairy cattle, according to Dr.

A recall of more than 500,000 pounds of ground beef, for E. coli 0157:H7, has now been linked to two deaths, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control. More than 28 people have also been sickened by the tainted product. The first fatality was reported in