The USDA offered Conservation Reserve Program contracts for 2.6 million fewer acres in the April general sign-up than are set to expire on Sept. 30. USDA will accept 3.9 million acres of 4.5 million acres offered. Scheduled to expire are 6.5 million acres, the most ever to come out at once.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
With more favorable spring weather this year, total pea and lentil acreage in Idaho is up significantly compared to 2011. But both crops are well below their historical averages, as Gem State growers have planted a record number of chickpea acres.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Idaho ag exports increased modestly during the first quarter compared with the same period in 2011. But because 2011 was a record year for Idaho farm exports, the small increase is viewed as a positive sign.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says he's seeing more young people and even returning disabled veterans expressing an interest in farming, and he's rolling out a program to help them realize their dreams.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
In this podcast, editors and reporters look at the upcoming federal trial of two ranchers charged with arson on public lands, EPA’s deregulation of runoff on logging roads, and what some rural Californians are calling an illegal tax to fund fire suppression efforts.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The National Organic Standards Board has unanimously endorsed a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack calling for better protection of organic crops from GMOs.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The number of farm workers in the U.S. was down 5 percent in January, and wages paid per worker during that period were up 2 percent from the prior year, according to a new USDA report.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Idaho's recent primary election didn't appear to contain any bad news for agriculture and could have helped pave the way for an ag jobs bill that easily passed the House this year but died in the Senate.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has reopened the comment period on its proposed rule to amend the regulations governing imports of cattle and beef from BSE-affected countries.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
J.R. Simplot, Co., and Lamb Weston have told potato growers in Idaho and the Columbia Basin that they won't accept spuds treated with Luna Tranquility, a fungicide recently released by Bayer CropScience.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
In this podcast, editors and reporters talk about the federal audit that found deficiencies in USDA inspections of meat-processing plants, the EPA’s attitude toward farmers’ spill prevention plans, and the Idaho Potato Commission’s plans to open an office in Seoul, South Korea.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
University of Idaho and potato industry researchers are helping growers learn to identify the tiny potato psyllid in an effort to control the potentially serious zebra chip disease.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
A preliminary study has shown it may be economically feasible to build a multimodal transloading center near Boise that could benefit farm commodities by better facilitating the movement of shipping containers.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The Idaho Potato Commission plans to open a satellite office in Seoul, South Korea, by early next year to capitalize on a new trade agreement with the country.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
A plan to make an emergency sale of Idaho bean seed to Mexico has fallen through because that country's agriculture department has been unwilling to provide the financial assistance Mexican growers need to make purchases.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Encouraged by higher prices, Idaho growers will plant an estimated 130,000 acres of dry beans this year, significantly more than last season. This year's massive upswing in total bean acreage follows an almost equally big downturn in 2011.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
In this podcast, editors and reporters discuss the outcome of Snokist’s bankruptcy, a ballot effort to keep the Malheur County extension office funded, new trends in financing organic and small farms, and why federal agencies don’t know how many millions — or billions — they are losing to environmental lawsuits.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
During his three decades as an extension educator in east Idaho, every crop Stan Gortsema worked with had a growers' association or state commission that represented farmers and provided money for research. Except one -- corn.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack unveiled a new program that seeks to enlist farmers to help tackle some of the nation's toughest water quality challenges.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The Mexican agriculture department is still holding up financing for the emergency sale of hundreds of tons of Idaho bean seed to buyers in that country.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Idaho dairymen continue to see their profit margins erode, and some say it could get worse.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The negative impacts from the frenzy over lean finely textured beef, called "pink slime" by the media, and last month's discovery of BSE in a 10-year-old California cow are passing quickly, industry insiders say.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
In this podcast, editors and reporters discuss California’s fair crisis, the Labor Department’s U-turn on child labor regulations, an upcoming court hearing on genetically modified sugar beets, and a new development in a lawsuit challenging an international agreement on the softwood lumber trade.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The Mexican agriculture department is still holding up financing for the emergency sale of hundreds of tons of Idaho bean seed to buyers in that country. Mexico's dry bean industry has struggled due to the worst drought the country has experienced in 70 years.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
American Falls potato grower Jim Tiede said February used to be the year's slowest month for Idaho potato sales . But Tiede, chairman of the Idaho Potato Commission, believes his organization has turned that around through its Potato Lover's Month Retail Display Contest.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
Rep. Ken Andrus, the chairman of Idaho's House Agricultural Affairs Committee, may seem an unlikely critic of the state's new felony penalty for animal cruelty, given that he wrote much of the bill. But Andrus believes the new law lacks teeth and won't deter ballot initiatives that could be onerous for agriculture.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
The Environmental Protection Agency's new water discharge permit for concentrated animal feeding operations will for the first time make nutrient management plans available for public comment.
Subscribe to this podcast in iTunes or your favorite RSS reader.
To listen, click here.
