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Omnibus legislation authorizes USDA to make payments to rice farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently previewed plans to provide up to $250 million in assistance to rice farmers and what steps they can take to be prepared to sign up when...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reminds our nation’s farmers and ranchers that the deadline to respond to the 2022 Census of Agriculture is Feb. 6. Producers can respond online at agcounts.usda.gov or by mail. Last month,...

⋅ BY MARY HIGHTOWER ⋅ U of A System Division of Agriculture Arkansas has connections to several projects being funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $2.8 billion Climate-Smart Commodities program aimed at reducing greenhouse gases, improving carbon storage and developing...

Commodity prices and input costs are key considerations this year. ⋅ By H. Scott Stiles ⋅ University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture Rice or soybeans — or both? Many Mid-South growers are still wrestling with that decision. Deciding on the optimal crop...

The University of Arkansas, in collaboration with The Organic Center and the University of California Cooperative Extension, has been awarded nearly $500,000 through U.S. Department of Agriculture's Organic Research and Extension Institute. The funding will help support a three-year...

• By Scott Stiles • U.S. Department of Agriculture’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates and Crop Production reports will be released Monday, July 12, at 11 a.m. central time. As we discussed last week, the results of the June acreage...

• By Ryan McGeeney • Arkansas growers responded to a global economy beginning to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic with shifting acreage, betting big on corn and pulling back from cotton, according to data from a U.S. Department of Agriculture...

• By Ryan McGeeney • As world markets slowly unfurl from the global knot of the COVID-19 pandemic, futures markets for both soybean and corn responded in a powerfully positive manner March 31 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s annual...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service has released its perspective planting report for 2021, and it shows a reduction in rice plantings of about 326,000 acres — or about 11% — nationwide compared to 2020. Based on...

U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced an expansion of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program. The Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021 provides additional CFAP assistance for producers of eligible row crops under CFAP 2. Row crops eligible for CFAP 2...

• By Jamison Cruce • The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced the Pandemic Assistance for Producers (PAP) initiative that provides aid to agricultural producers impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The $12 billion initiative contains four parts, including $4.5 billion in...

• By Ryan McGeeney • Although the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed many human activities, it hasn’t stopped feral hogs from reproducing and causing damage. Throughout 2021, the Cooperative Extension Service, in partnership with the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, the Arkansas...

If there’s any wisdom we can glean from the unprecedented events of the past year, it’s how important it is to support each other and our communities and come together during tough times. The U.S. rice industry takes that...

• By Ryan McGeeney • Despite a year dominated by major weather systems run amuck and a global pandemic, most of Arkansas’ major crops came out ahead in 2020, according to a Jan. 12 report from the U.S. Department of...

Agricultural producers and private landowners interested in the Conservation Reserve Program  can sign up for the program through Feb. 12. The competitive program, administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency, provides annual rental payments for land devoted...