National & World Ag News Headlines
State Ag Leaders Thank Congress for Farm Support
USAgNet - 12/23/2020 The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture thanks Congress for advancing a COVID-19 stimulus bill and fiscal year 2021 omnibus spending bill that provide important funding for agriculture and food programs. The new funding enables
NASDA members to continue tailored COVID-19 responses as their communities needs change through the duration of the pandemic. We are grateful for the financial support of the agriculture community, specifically the $100 million for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and $100 million for the Local Agriculture Market Program, NASDA CEO Dr. Barb Glenn said. Farmers markets
Row crop farmers to receive $5 billion and livestock producers up to $3 billion for euthanized animals.
The latest round of coronavirus aid for farmers provides specific guidelines on how an additional $13 billion in new funds can offer direct support for farmers and ranchers as well as an increase for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Both chambers are expected to debate and vote on the package Monday.
Unlike the original $16 billion offered earlier this spring that allowed the secretary of agriculture to determine which agricultural sectors needed aid, the latest relief package specified $5 billion for row crop producers, $225 million for specialty crops and up to $3 billion for livestock producers forced to euthanize animals due to the COVID crisis, according to a bill summary from Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., who has advocated for more strings attached to USDA’s purse.
IANR Media
LINCOLN, Neb. Sam Wortman, associate professor of horticulture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and Ali Loker, a doctoral student in plant health, have launched a new decision support tool for specialty crop producers and gardeners: the Vegetable Variety Navigator. The tool can guide specialty crop growers and gardeners as they look for high-yielding, high-quality vegetable varieties for their soil climate in the Midwest.
The university’s Department of Agronomy and Horticulture, along with Nebraska Extension’s Katie King and John Porter, received a grant last year through the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program to support on-farm variety trials for peppers, cucumbers and broccoli. The trials were to be performed on five farms in eastern and central Nebraska. Researchers had begun work on the project, and the plants were ready to be transplanted into plots at the participating farms
December 17, 2020
Cones grow on a Turkish fir tree, possible progenitor of an improved Christmas tree variety. WSU scientists are part of a national effort to select improved varieties for growers dealing with a persistent disease that damages popular firs.
By Seth Truscott
College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences
Christmas tree lovers and tree growers across the U.S. could one day admire new varieties that look great, hold up for weeks in the home, and stand up to a deadly disease that kills popular firs, thanks to globe-trotting research by Washington State University scientist Gary Chastagner.
Known as “Dr. Christmas Tree” to growers for his 40 years of research at WSU, the plant pathologist’s work on holiday trees has encompassed disease management, needle retention, variety improvement, and care of cut trees in the home, along with research into other valuable ornamental crops, including bulbs and cut flowers.