Ag Update

2 days ago | agupdate.com | Jeff DeYoung

Will Loux says things have been up-and-down in the dairy industry over the last several years. Right now, however, he says the state of the dairy industry looks positive. “On a national level things look OK,” says Loux, a Pella, Iowa, native and senior vice president for global economic affairs with the National Milk Producers Federation. “Feed costs are down and milk prices have risen.

3 days ago | agupdate.com | Benjamin Herrold

Outside of a brief period shortly after the COVID outbreak, Choice beef cutout prices have been at their highest-ever levels. University of Tennessee ag economist Andrew Griffith says beef prices have shown consistent strength over the last 12 months. “The Choice cutout price is at record levels if one ignores the four weeks of May in 2020 when COVID induced a short-lived run in wholesale boxed beef prices,” he says.

4 days ago | agupdate.com | Janelle Atyeo

Ten years apart, two major rain events washed over Feikema Farms in southwestern Minnesota. But a shift in management practices meant that the fields handled the deluge much differently the second time around. Major flooding in 2014 caused washouts and gullies through every field, and nearly 80 acres of crop was lost, Shawn Feikema said. Rains came again last June, pouring down 6-8 inches over a three-day period. “It was drastically different,” Shawn said.

5 days ago | agupdate.com | Jeff DeYoung

WELLMAN, Iowa — For Pat Gent, life is all about family. Gent and his wife, Krista, farm near here in Washington County, Iowa. They were named Master Pork Producers earlier this year by the Iowa Pork Producers Association. Gent grew up on his family’s southeast Iowa farm, helping with the hog and row crop operation. He thought he wanted to come back and farm but chose a path that wasn't completely straight. “I loved the farm growing up.

5 days ago | agupdate.com | Sue Roesler

If producers cut their forage sorghum at the right time, they can achieve good quality hay, according to James Rogers, NDSU Extension forage crops production specialist and the assistant interim director at NDSU’s North Central Research Extension Center (NCREC). Research by Rogers and others showed that the right time to cut forage sorghum to gain the most protein, energy, and other nutritional needs is at the boot stage, just before heading.