Industry News

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- Climate trends and agronomic improvements were the overwhelming factors leading to higher corn yields on farmland in Nebraska from 2005 to 2018, while improvements in genetic traits accounted for a small percentage of yield gains, a new study by the University of Nebraska found.

Most yield studies have focused largely on improvements in corn genetics as a reason for growing yields, as well as reason for hope in feeding a growing world population.

OMAHA (DTN) -- Most retail fertilizer prices were slightly higher the third week of January 2022. But as was the case last week, one fertilizer was lower in price looking back a month.

Seven of the eight major fertilizers were slightly higher, although none were up a considerable amount. DTN designates a significant move as anything 5% or more.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) -- A California court halted the enforcement of Proposition 12 on Monday, moving back enforcement of the animal-welfare law to six months after rules are finalized.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is more than two years late in finalizing rules for the law that places animal-welfare restrictions on pork producers who sell products in the state.

By Susan Winsor Progressive Farmer Contributor

Greg Entinger, New Prague, Minnesota, gave himself a huge pay raise when he switched from conventional tillage to strip-till in 2015. The extra money in his pocket comes from fewer trips across fields, reduced fertilizer rates and selling off unneeded equipment.

When looking at how the cattle contracts are trading throughout Jan. 24, traders may have gasped in shock about Friday's Cattle on Feed (COF) report.

In case you missed it, on Friday's COF report the market was caught off guard by the 6% year-over-year jump in placements. Analysts anticipated that placement numbers would be anywhere from steady to 4.7% higher than a year ago, but 6% wasn't on their radar.

OMAHA (DTN) -- For the second time in nine years, Idaho couple Michael and Chantell Sackett will have their battle over a wetlands designation heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on a parcel that is roughly two-thirds an acre in size.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted a new hearing in the Sacketts' long-standing battle with EPA to decide whether the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals followed "the proper tests for determining whether wetlands are 'waters of the United States' under the Clean Water Act."

OMAHA (DTN) -- For the second time in nine years, Idaho couple Michael and Chantell Sackett will have their battle over a wetlands designation heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on a parcel that is roughly two-thirds an acre in size.

The Supreme Court on Monday granted a new hearing in the Sacketts' long-standing battle with EPA to decide whether the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals followed "the proper tests for determining whether wetlands are 'waters of the United States' under the Clean Water Act."

On Dec. 19, 2021, the Maria G, filled with grain from the CHS terminal in Superior, Wisconsin, became the last saltie to depart from the Port of Duluth-Superior, officially ending the grain shipping season. Since that time and up until Jan. 17, 2022, when the last ship arrived, lakers moved along the Great Lakes from the Port of Duluth-Superior with loads of coal and iron ore. The final vessel to leave the port was the Arthur M. Anderson on Jan. 14, loaded with iron ore.

OMAHA (DTN) -- A pair of senators are making clear they don't want to rework their cattle markets legislation after the American Farm Bureau Federation changed its policy earlier this month to oppose any mandates that would require packers to buy more cattle through negotiated cash trades.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) -- When Zack Rendel learned EPA's new labels for Enlist One and Enlist Duo banned use of the herbicides on his northeast Oklahoma farm, which was banking on planting Enlist soybeans this spring, he had a lot of words to describe the situation -- not all of them fit for publication.

But after EPA dropped its new endangered species policy that same day, a new phrase has emerged to describe the 2022 Enlist labels: A preview of things to come.