Crop yields will be double compared to last year's yields, according to some estimations. Yet an increase in yields means a decrease in crop insurance payouts. And when the price of some crops has plummeted that means farmers might see their income dropping, as well.
Costco wholesale stores have joined grocery chain Kroger Co. in recalling Foster Farms’ chicken products from its shelves. The recall involves nearly 40,000 pounds of chicken sold on the west coast that has been linked to a 20-state outbreak of Salmonella Heidelberg contamination. So far, the outbre
Corn farmers have seen high prices of corn in the last few years, as prices have reached nearly $8 per bushel in some places. This year though, experts predict that corn prices will drop considerably.
In recent years, farmers in the Midwest have transformed millions of acres of prairie grass to rows of corn. High crop prices are a big motivation, but some also believe crop insurance is encouraging farmers to roll the dice on less productive land.
Encouraged by a strong farm economy and healthy business tax breaks, Farmers are buying new machinery and equipment that can run anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000. And some of the new equipment -- powered by GPS and sensors that can even detect moisture in a crop -- practically run on auto-pilot.
Farm equipment sales are booming, currently running about $20 billion annually. Surprisingly, some of the hottest-selling pieces of machinery aren't new. Used-farm equipment is becoming more desirable to some farmers, who don't want to have to run their machines with laptops.
On Sept. 18, 2013, The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and Poynter Institute conducted a Webinar on covering agribusiness. The Webinar included information about finding documents and people for stories, along with information about coming up with story ideas in any area.
U.S. Agriculture cooperatives receive hundreds of millions of dollars from federal marketing programs. A recent report called those programs' impact into question.
Grape farmers in Wisconsin are facing a growing threat, and in many cases it is coming from their own neighbors. Herbicides that are used to kill weeds in crops such as corn and soybeans can be deadly to other plants, including grapes. Food or wine grape vines exposed to the chemicals may shrivel up
With continued hot weather over the past few weeks, estimates for corn yield are expected to decline. One Central Illinois farmer explains the ins-and-outs of estimating corn yields.
The U.S. and Russia are two of the world’s top grain-producing countries and according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Russia will provide 22 percent of the world’s grain exports by 2021. But how, exactly, do farmers in each of these countries provide food for the masses? We visited two area
A new report by The Center for Investigative Reporting found that hundreds of female agricultural workers have complained to the federal government about being raped and assaulted, verbally and physically harassed on the job, while law enforcement has done almost nothing to prosecute potential crime
