News & Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The federal government announced Tuesday a program that will provide $1.3 billion in debt relief for about 36,000 farmers who have fallen behind on loan payments or face foreclosure.

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With summer comes the inevitable for cattle producers: flies. Managing these pests can pose a challenge to producers and cause discomfort to cattle, so work ahead to create a management plan.

Flies can cause the cattle industry up to $1 billion in losses every year, so creating a pest management plan is essential.

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Aged manure is not composted manure. Proper composting needs regular, active management with the right combination of temperature, size, moisture, oxygen, and carbon-to-nitrogen ratio to keep microbes happy and make the piles break down into compost. It’s as much of an art as it is science.

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The White House announced that it will allocate $1 billion toward the country’s independent meat and poultry producers in order to help independent farmers compete with more powerful meat producers that the administration says is responsible for surging consumer prices.

As the U.S. faces ongoing concern over inflation, the Biden Administration has criticized large corporations and argued that more competition will drive down prices. With this latest round of funding, the administration is hoping to achieve that level of competitiveness.

The plan is officially called the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain.

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Two Sanilac County farms are moving toward environmental sustainability by participating in a project that will produce renewable natural gas from cow manure.

Energy companies SJI and REV LNG are installing an anaerobic digester on each farm, which will capture methane gas from cow manure and turn it into commercial-grade renewable natural gas.

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Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures rose in thin trade on Thursday to halt a three-session slide, buoyed by firming cash hog markets and higher wholesale pork prices, analysts said.

Most-active February hog futures settled up 1.025 cents at 80.350 cents per pound. Trading volume for all months was estimated by CME at 19,460 contracts, which would be the lowest for hogs since December 2020 if confirmed in final figures.

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USDA has set aside up to $50 million in pandemic assistance funds allocated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed in March 2020 for the Spot Market Hog Pandemic Program, which provides pandemic assistance to hog producers who sold hogs through a negotiated sale from April 16, 2020, through September 1, 2020, the period in which these producers faced the greatest reduction in market prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Negotiated sale, or negotiated formula sale, means a sale of hogs by a producer to a packer under which the base price for the hogs is determined by seller-buyer interaction and agreement on a delivery day. USDA is offering SMHPP as packer production was reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic due to employee illness and supply chain issues, resulting in fewer negotiated hogs being procured and subsequent lower market prices.

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In the past year, the cost for urea and diammonium phosphate has more than doubled. With no end in sight, some producers are looking at alternatives like manure. Daniel Andersen, associate professor at Iowa State University, says that farmers interested in integrating manure as a fertilizer have the possibility for great outcomes in terms of improved soil health and crop nutrition.

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Preventing foreign animal diseases, addressing a shortage of agricultural workers, and reauthorizing a livestock price reporting law are the primary issues on which pork producers will lobby their congressional lawmakers over the next two days, during the fall Capitol Hill fly-in of the National Pork Producers Council. More than 100 producers from across the country are expected to participate virtually in NPPC’s Legislative Action Conference.

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It’s cold out there these days. Probably the last place you want to spend time is out in your pastures and pens. But doing so right now could pay major dividends down the road when it comes to the performance of your cattle herd.

Click on this story for the full article and read the 4 steps you should take for your early-winter herd-management planning.