Wheat harvest stumbles along in Panhandle
Posted: Thursday, Jul 29th, 2010
Conditions across much of the tri-state region have been summer-like over the past week, featuring daytime temperatures in the 90s, plenty of sunshine and clear skies, mild breezes, and only a few widely scattered thunderstorms.
While the summer weather has for the most part been conducive to harvesting wheat, the wheat crop hasn't been ready for harvest in all cases, ...more

Is it time for biotech alfalfa?
Posted: Thursday, Jul 29th, 2010
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has received a letter signed by 75 members of Congress urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to allow limited planting of Roundup Ready alfalfa. The bipartisan group supports action by USDA that would allow farmers to plant seed that's being held in inventory while the department completes an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) related to the ...more

Cow-calf commentary - A runway runs through it
Posted: Thursday, Jul 29th, 2010
I was giving a ranch tour to some city folk a few years back. As we drove along county roads and trail roads I pointed out crops and cattle and talked about what we do on the ranch and why. The four city folk, husband and wife, son and daughter, seemed interested and asked quite a few of the usual ...more

UW tests new technologies to aid farmers
Posted: Thursday, Jul 29th, 2010
A University of Wyoming technician here discussed his research July 8, detailing how he uses a radioactive alloy to emit high-energy neutrons that collide with hydrogen atoms.
But Axel Garcia y Garcia is not a nuclear engineer or an advanced weapons designer. He's an irrigation specialist at the UW Research and Extension Center.
The neutron probe he uses is the ...more

Platte Basin NRDs review progress for basin plan
Posted: Thursday, Jul 29th, 2010
Officials from Platte Basin Natural Resources Districts (NRDs) and the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) met at the Monsanto Water Utilization Center near Gothenburg on Tuesday, July 27 for the first review of the Basin-wide plan for the Platte River Basin in Nebraska. This is the first year of implementation of the joint plan, which went into effect ...more

Higher ethanol blend might be on horizon
Posted: Thursday, Jul 29th, 2010
Corn growers, the ethanol industry, and motoring public, and the rest of America are awaiting EPA's decision on whether to allow ethanol to expand beyond the 10 percent blending limit, and if so, how much. The proposal being studied by EPA would have the blending limit increased to 15 percent, but other options being studied are 12 percent and retention ...more

Wheat harvest begins under hot, clear skies
Posted: Thursday, Jul 22nd, 2010
High barometric pressure was the norm across much of the tri-state region over the last week, one part of a meteorological equation making for hot, dry weather and clear skies, perfect conditions for wheat harvest. Unfortunately, much of the winter wheat crop across the region is not yet ready to combine. Producers began test cutting in selected locations and in ...more

Ronnie Green selected as new IANR vice chancellor, VP
Posted: Thursday, Jul 22nd, 2010
Sutton resident and beef geneticist Ronnie D. Green has been named University of Nebraska Vice President and Harlan Vice Chancellor for the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Green, Global Technical Services senior director at Pfizer Animal Health, will begin his work at the university July 19 pending approval by the University of Nebraska Board ...more

Is the Farm Bill working for sugar industry?
Posted: Thursday, Jul 22nd, 2010
Farm leaders from numerous commodities joined House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson (D-Minn.) and Ways and Means Committee Member Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) on a sugarbeet farm in the Red River Valley on July 7 to tackle one question: "Is the safety net in the current Farm Bill working?"
Russ Mauch, a producer from Barney, N.D. and president of the American ...more

Ethanol industry struggles to keep incentives
Posted: Thursday, Jul 22nd, 2010
The once-popular ethanol industry is scrambling to hold onto billions of dollars in government subsidies, fighting an increasing public skepticism of the corn-based fuel and wariness from lawmakers who may divert the money to other priorities.
The industry itself can't agree on how to persuade Congress to keep the subsidies, which now come in the form of tax credits worth ...more