U.S. Hay Cupboads Nearly Bare, Says USDA

All hay stored on U.S. farms on Dec. 1 totaled 76.5 million tons, according to a USDA Crop Production report issued last Friday. That’s down 16% compared to the year-earlier figure and the lowest Dec. 1 stocks level since 1957. Also in the report, USDA noted that hay...

USDA Reports Provide Some Price Direction

University of Illinois, January 14, 2013 On Jan. 11, the USDA released a series of reports that provide important fundamental information for the crop markets. The information included the final estimate of the size of the 2012 United States corn and soybean crops,...

Can Civilization Age Gracefully?

Daniel Looker, Business Editor, Agriculture.com, January 9, 2013 Long before most of us, Tom Gillaspy knew 2008 would not be a great year. He didn’t know that Lehman Brothers would collapse that year, helping to trigger a financial crisis and the biggest...

Putting antibiotic use in perspective

Antibiotics and Animals Raised for Food: Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics By Dr. Richard Raymond, Food Safety News, January 7, 2013 From what I have been reading lately, it appears to me that the next big fight over agriculture’s ability to provide consumers with...