North Dakota

The drought is taking a toll on the nation's spring wheat crop. "Just 38% of the crop rated good to excellent. 25% rated very poor to poor that represents a decline from last week which was not a very good number 42% good to excellent 20% very poor to poor," USDA Meteorologist, Brad Rippey noted the Northwest one of the most impacted areas ...

Sugar beet planting nationwide is nearing completion, a little earlier than normal. According to USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey, 81% of the U.S. crop was planted by May 2nd, ahead of the five-year average of 51% and last year's 47%. "We're seeing planting approaching completion in Michigan 95% complete, and Idaho 93% ...

When it comes to the 2021 sugarbeet crop, USDA metorologist Brad Rippey says plantings nationwide are off on the right foot. "We're off to a pretty quick start especially in Michigan and Idaho. Overall, national progress 17% of the sugarbeets planted by April 11th ...

Hemp cultivated for seed and grain comprised approximately 10% of 2020 total U.S. acreage. According to Hemp Benchmarks, that comes out to 14,000 acres nationwide. By comparison, Canadian cultivators grew more than five times that acreage, beyond 75,000 acres, the vast majority of which were exported to the United States ...

Earlier this week, the USDA announced investments to modernize and improve rural electric grids through 11 projects under the Electric Loan Program. The funding will benefit 460,000 rural residents and businesses in 7 Arizona, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia ...

Farmers Union Enterprises recently donated $50,000 to provide roughly 5,000 meals to National Guard troops on duty in the nation’s capital. The funds went to D.C.-based restaurants Farmers Fishers Bakers and Founding Farmers, both of which are part of Farmers Restaurant Group. FUE ...

Legislation introduced this week in the Senate would provide farmers and ranchers with additional flexibility to alleviate feed shortages in years with widespread excessive moisture, flooding or drought. The Feed Emergency Enhancement During Disasters with Cover Crops Act would create an emergency waiver authority for the Secretary of Agriculture to allow for haying, grazing or chopping of a cove

Progressives in agriculture appear to be making a push to prevent former North Dakota Senator Heidi Heitkamp from becoming Ag Secretary in the Biden administration. NewsBreak.com is reporting the conflict is ramping up as Representative Marcia Fudge of Ohio has begun to campaign for the head of the $150 billion Department of Ag ...

Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee Chair John Hoeven says the Senate version of the fiscal year 2021 Ag appropriations Bill fully funds farm loan programs and supports rural innovation. The North Dakota Republican added it will also bolster future agricultural research ...

According to the latest numbers from the USDA canola acreage in the northwest increase between 2019 and 2020. Not only did acreage increase year-over-year, but both Idaho and Washington hit all-time highs. And the Pacific Northwest now has three of the four top canola producing states the country ...