The U.S. Department of Agriculture unveiled a geospatial product called Crop Sequence Boundaries (CSB) that offers public access to national-scale visual crop rotation data for the first time. The new tool was developed by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) and Economic Research Service (ERS), two of the department’s statistical scientific research agencies.
Read MoreThis report contains the results from the Crop Progress and Condition weekly survey. The survey is completed by parish extension agents’ visual observations and contact with producers in their parish.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced today an investment of more than $33 million to support capacity-building efforts at 1890 Land-grant Universities. This investment, administered through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), will support 82 research, Extension, and education projects across the nation’s 19 Historically Black Colleges and Universities designated as 1890 Land-grant Universities.
Read MoreThe average American consumes 17 teaspoons of sugar per day, about half from sugarcane. It takes a lot of raw material to create all that sweetness, but there is a downside – what do you do with all the leftover sugarcane processing waste?
Scientists with the Agricultural Research Service’s (ARS) Southern Regional Research Center (SRRC), in New Orleans, LA, are working with the sugar industry to improve processing methods and develop new products that will benefit the environment and increase profits.
Read MoreThis report contains the results from the 2023 July Milk Production Report
Read MoreThere were 95.9 million head of cattle and calves on U.S. farms as of July 1, 2023, according to the Cattle report published today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is accepting offers for nearly 2.7 million acres from agricultural producers and private landowners through this year’s Grassland Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) signup, which received a record setting sign-up of 4.6 million acres in offers. This working lands program allows producers and landowners to continue grazing and haying practices while protecting grasslands and further the CRP’s impacts.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $7.4 million in 25 selected grants that support urban agriculture and innovative production. Selected grant recipients, including community gardens and nonprofit farms, will increase food production and access in economically distressed communities, provide job training and education, and allow partners to develop business plans and zoning proposals.
Read MoreThe United States Department of Agriculture’s Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma hosted a June 1, 2023 sugarcane field day at its Schriever farm to highlight its centennial of cane research activities in Louisiana.
Read MoreNot long after President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act last Aug. 16, USDA announced it was providing $800 million of IRA funding to make about 11,000 direct and guaranteed loan borrowers current in their payments.
Those funds were made available through Section 22006 of the Act, which allocated $3.1 billion for USDA to expeditiously provide relief for “distressed USDA borrowers whose agricultural operations are at risk.”
Read MoreUSDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said tackling climate change can boost farm revenue through the adoption of climate-smart practices. During a recent event, he highlighted the potential of sustainable aviation fuel which could consequently double the biofuel industry size. Vilsack expressed confidence in the agriculture industry reaching net-zero emissions before many other major industries.
Read MoreUSDA initiated an aid program last week for victims who have faced discrimination in farm lending programs. The program targets those who were discriminated against before Jan. 1, 2021, or those still in debt from discriminatory USDA farm loans.
Read MoreThis report contains the results from the Crop Progress and Condition weekly survey. The survey is completed by parish extension agents’ visual observations and contact with producers in their parish.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced the opening of the financial assistance application process for eligible farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners who experienced discrimination in USDA farm lending programs prior to January 2021. Section 22007 of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) directs USDA to provide this assistance. Since the law’s passage, USDA has worked diligently to design the program in accordance with significant stakeholder input.
Read MoreThe U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) reminds producers of the July 14 deadline to apply for both the Emergency Relief Program (ERP) Phase Two and the Pandemic Assistance Revenue Program (PARP). These revenue-based programs help offset revenue losses from 2020 and 2021 natural disasters or the COVID-19 pandemic.
ERP and PARP offer a holistic approach to disaster assistance and provide economic support for producers who bear the financial brunt of circumstances beyond their control.
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