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Thursday, May 15, 2008


 

Statewide Ag News »
  • Smith: South Korea Should Import Beef Shipments as Soon as Possible
    WASHINGTON, DC— Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) today voiced his concern the South Korean government is delaying opening of its markets to U.S. beef imports until later this month. Public protests in South Korea have escalated, putting pressure on the South Korean government. — Full Story »
  • “Mower Blight” May Be Deadly To Trees
    Green-up time in the spring focuses attention on potential insect and disease problems of trees. However, we as homeowners and yard tenders may be guilty of causing some of the worst and needless damage to trees – lawn mower damage or “ mower blight”. — Full Story »
  • 4-H fishing club provides lifetime skills
    KEARNEY, Neb. – The University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension, in partnership the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, has started a 4-H club to teach kids about fishing, said Keith Koupal, Game and Parks Commission irrigation reservoir specialist. — Full Story »
  • WESLEY HOUSE FUNDRAISERS FEATURE GALE SAYERS
    OMAHA, NEB. - Wesley House Leadership Academy and Gale Sayers have teamed up again for the 3rd annual Gale Sayers Wesley House Golf Classic. The KANEKO gallery will also be hosting ‘The Art of the Game,’ a silent auction and cocktail banquet to benefit the Wesley House. — Full Story »
  • Washington passes Farm Bill (Adrian Smith)
    WASHINGTON, DC— Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) today voted to pass H.R. 2419, the reauthorization of the Farm Bill. The measure passed by a vote of 318 to 106, enough to survive a threatened presidential veto. — Full Story »
  • USDA, GINNIE MAE ANNOUNCE MILESTONE IN GUARANTEED RURAL RENTAL HOUSING PROGRAM
    LINCOLN, Neb. – USDA Rural Development and Ginnie Mae announced this month that they have reached a significant milestone by securing more than $100 million in loans to build or rehabilitate affordable rental housing in rural communities. — Full Story »
  • MPR PROGRAM KEY TO SUSTAINING AFFORDABLE RURAL RENTAL HOUSING
    A Buyers and Sellers Outreach Conference sponsored by USDA Rural Development, was held in Kansas City, MO last month. More than 200 investors, lenders, housing finance agencies, regional planning corporations, public and private parties as well as buyers and sellers of existing USDA Rural Development financed multi-family housing properties from a ten state area met to explore innovative methods to meet the affordable rental housing needs of rural areas. — Full Story »
  • Animal Science Field Day planned in Lexington
    To learn more about livestock, have fun with friends, and meet new people, plan to be at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, West Central District Youth Animal Science Field Day Thurs., June 5, 2008, in Lexington. — Full Story »
  • Event Features Plant Sale, Horticultural Tours and Talks
    The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) West Central Research and Extension Center (WCREC) at North Platte will host an Anniversary Celebration for the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum (NSA) on Saturday, May 24, 2008, featuring a plant sale plus horticultural tours and talks. — Full Story »
  • Types Of Mulch Have Different Advantages
    Mulch comes in two varieties, organic and inorganic, and it is important to know the advantages and disadvantages of each one.  — Full Story »
  • EMERALD ASH BORER AWARENESS WEEK IS MAY 18-24
    Governor Dave Heineman has declared May 18-24 as Emerald Ash Borer Awareness Week in Nebraska. The purpose of the proclamation is to increase awareness of the emerald ash borer, which, if found in Nebraska, could affect the state’s 30 million ash trees.  — Full Story »
  • Pork Industry Situation
    Recent headlines proclaim the new 'golden era' of agriculture with skyrocketing grain prices and rising net farm income. But, the pork industry continues to struggle with losses. Why is the U.S. and Nebraska pork industry struggling? In an effort to bring some clarity to this issue, we have compiled a situation analysis that hopefully helps to bring some comprehension to the current crisis facing our industry.  — Full Story »
  • Emergency Supplemental (Adrian Smith)
    This past week, Congress debated a $183 billion supplemental-spending bill designed to fund the military as our brave citizen soldiers continue to fight for democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.  — Full Story »
  • Grain Sorghum -- a well-placed rotation crop
    During recent years a large number of acres of milo have been replaced with soybeans and corn. Across southern Nebraska grain sorghum is grown from one end of the state to the other. It does very well in one of the state’s toughest growing areas for dryland crops. Southern Nebraska often has temperature and moisture variability that challenge crops and producers alike.  — Full Story »
  • IOWA LAKES STUDENT ACCEPTS INTERNSHIP IN BRAZIL
    An Iowa Lakes Community College student from rural Scranton will have the chance of a lifetime to get a free trip to Brazil this summer – and gain valuable experience on an international level. Tony McDonald studied in the Biorenewable Fuels program at Iowa Lakes Community College under the direction of Dave Peterson.  — Full Story »
  • CHIEF OF NRCS ANNOUNCES EXTENSION OF CSP SIGN-UP TO MAY 30TH
    U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief Arlen Lancaster today announced that producers in 51 eligible watersheds nationwide will have two additional weeks to apply for the Conservation Security Program (CSP). The sign-up now ends on May 30, 2008.  — Full Story »
  • It's a sport, but cattle dogs are all business in trials
    It's the second year in a row that the National Cattle Dog Finals have been held at Little Moon Lake, and it's the second year that Rudy Starke has entered Rooster and Debbie, his two border collies. Dog trainers and owners from the east coast to the west coast and points in between, arrived at the meadows of Little Moon Lake ready to challenge last year's winners for the titles.  — Full Story »
  • Platte pact signed, but will there be water?
    HOLDREGE - An agreement to divert excess Platte River flows into severely depleted Elwood Reservoir has been signed by all the parties involved. Now, they must wait to see if a promising Rocky Mountain snowmelt produces South Platte River flows high enough to implement the plan.  — Full Story »
  • Republican surface water irrigators benefiting from fuller lakes
    ALMA - Republican Basin surface water irrigators can water their crops this summer for the first time in years, thanks to higher water levels in some basin lakes.  — Full Story »
  • Wind energy ventures' profits won't all blow away
    BLOOMFIELD, Neb. -- For 35 years, Bruce Lemke has tilled the high hills of extreme northeast Nebraska to reap corn and beans.  — Full Story »
  • NRD going after rules violaters
    ALMA - Several people who allegedly violated rules in the Lower Republican Natural Resources District's integrated water management plan ultimately could lose the right to irrigate some of their farmland. — Full Story »
  • NDA FUNDS SECOND ROUND OF RIPARIAN VEGETATION PROPOSALS
    The Nebraska Department of Agriculture (NDA) has awarded five groups funding to manage weeds and other overgrowth in sections of the Republican, North Platte, South Platte, and Platte rivers. — Full Story »
  • Invasive species control summit relies on coalitions
    From a helicopter to an air boat to a "Marsh Masher," the heavy duty equipment in the Gering Civic Center parking lot Tuesday afternoon suggested something interesting was going on inside.  — Full Story »
  • Even pressure a must in calibrating sprayers
    If producers don’t have even pressure throughout the sprayer boom, they won’t get even application of chemicals, said a University of Nebraska–Lincoln specialist.  — Full Story »
  • A third of sugar beet seedlings freeze
    Once again, Mother Nature has laid a heavy hand on the WyoBraska sugar beet crop. While recent snowfall was welcomed for its moisture content, the accompanying wind and freezing temperatures contributed to the destruction of 10,000 to 12,000 acres of sugar beets in western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming. — Full Story »
  • Slow IMP progress calls for deadline extension
    When LB 962 was passed by the Nebraska legislature in 2004, it called for a set of operational plans from individual natural resources districts as well as a basin-wide plan. Having failed to reach an agreement by now, the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources has suggested the districts request an extension until September 2009, the maximum time allowed in the bill.  — Full Story »
  • Invasive species clearance continues
    TORRINGTON, Wyo. - A second season of Russian olive removal along the North Platte River is underway. In a continuation of the Goshen County Weed and Pest Department project, 300 acres are expected to be cleared this summer near the Wyoming/Nebraska state line and along two tributaries. — Full Story »
  • Economic Challenges
    In 1979, President Carter gave what has become famously known as the “malaise speech,” in which he tried to address the nation’s concerns about the economy  — Full Story »
  • Controlling Musk Thistle & Eastern Redcedar in Pastures
    Favorable rains last fall have created the right conditions for lots of thistles this spring. — Full Story »
  • Ag equipment manufacturer Intersystems decides to stay in Omaha as it grows.
    The growing worldwide demand for grain has helped one Omaha-based manufacturer expand. So when word first leaked that Intersystems was looking for a larger facility, other communities across the country tried recruiting it, said Walter Greig, president and CEO of ESI, Intersystems' Houston-based corporate parent. — Full Story »
  • Younger generation shows interest in farming
    According to a survey conducted from nearly 600 Iowa Future Farmers of America members throughout the state, an increasing number from Generation Y desire to farm, raise livestock, live and work in Iowa upon completing their education. — Full Story »
  • Livestock producers seek help
    With cattle and hog producers being squeezed by higher feed-grain prices, the Nebraska Farm Bureau is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help increase demand, and thus prices, for beef and pork.  — Full Story »
  • Ag income bolsters economy
    Record farm income and fewer problems than the rest of the country with a slumping housing market helped the Midwest economy improve in March, an economics professor said while releasing a monthly survey of the manufacturing industry.  — Full Story »
  • Fifth generation farmer goes green
    Steve Williams of Villisca is a fifth generation farmer in Page County. After graduating from Iowa State University in Ames, he moved to Chicago for one year but decided to come back home to raise a family and a farm.  — Full Story »
  • Corn growers must catch up
    Corn planting is behind the historical schedule in Nebraska, the result of rain and even snow in the last half of April, but not so much that farmers won't be able to catch up.  — Full Story »
  • Monsanto learning center will bring jobs to Gothenburg
    "The earth moved,'' Mike Bacon, president of Gothenburg Improvement Co. said last week when it was learned that Gothenburg would be the home of a new Monsanto learning center that will bring 20 to 30 new jobs.  — Full Story »
  • No simple cure for high food costs - Johanns
    To understand why food costs are so high, tear apart a Bulova wristwatch. Disassembling a complex timepiece will show you why there are no simple solutions to the dramatic price increases at U.S. groceries and for food costs worldwide, said former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns.  — Full Story »
  • Summer clinics offering assorted opportunities to area youth
    An assortment of clinics are being offered this June to area youth. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension office near Mead is offering opportunities to learn more about hobbies and 4-H projects.  — Full Story »
  • Students track growth rate of 'space seeds'
    Now the analysis and speculation begins for a half dozen students at Wheatland School District south of here. The class of Susan Stevens has participated in the NASA Lunar Plant Growth project, building growth chambers to compare how cinnamon basil seeds that flew in space compare with those that remained on earth.  — Full Story »
  • Reward Set in Waste Dumping
    A reward of up to $10,000 is being offered for information that results in charges filed in connection with illegal and intentional discharging of livestock wastes into Shell Creek, north and west of Columbus.  — Full Story »
  • The Nebraska Farm Bureau says feed prices are a "disaster'' and the USDA needs to act.
    With cattle and hog producers being squeezed by higher feed-grain prices, the Nebraska Farm Bureau is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help increase demand, and thus prices, for beef and pork.  — Full Story »
  • Conifers require special treatment
    KEARNEY, Neb. – In general, conifers thrive in dry soils and too much water can damage them, said a Nebraska Statewide Arboretum assistant director. — Full Story »