Farm News & Views

Entry into farming remains difficult for young want-to-be farmers who are not in line to take over or inherit an established farm or ranch, food price inflation declines slightly in June, some tips for spending less on food, and a look at the schedules for upcoming fairs in the Four Corners.

Monsoon rains bring much needed, albeit inconsistent, rain to the area, a new report contends that 11 million acres of America’s agricultural land were developed or converted to uses that threaten farming, a breakdown of water use by agriculture, and the 2023 Farm Bureau Farm Dog of the Year Contest is underway.

The Senate Agriculture Committee passed two bills on Wednesday dealing with the regulation of the cattle industry, an activist organization specializing in research about agricultural subsides reports that the government paid a record $41.6 billion in a variety of subsidies to farmers in 2020, double the amount they received in 2018, and reintroduction of wolves in Colorado remains a controversial topic with livestock producers.

Drought persists although the Four Corners Region received a little rain, paleoclimate evidence shows a drought in the Colorado River basin in the 2nd century AD, and a conservation group ranks the Colorado River as No. 1 on its list of the country’s most endangered rivers.

The Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey asks consumers about how food and agricultural issues affect them, inflation is pushing grocery prices up almost 12% in the past year, and while many farmers are concerned that the ag economy is in trouble, other farmers and investors remain bullish on farmland.

Cattle ranchers are getting squeezed by high costs of maintaining their herds while calf prices fall, the government continues to fund a variety of agriculture programs, United Nations officials warn that the war in Ukraine threatens a hunger crisis, and a farm in Ukraine takes in displaced animals.

Farmers in the Conservation Reserve Program will have an opportunity for a one-time voluntary termination in order to expand production, a brief history of government initiatives to encourage farmers to produce more crops, and the USDA is making $200 million available to create a new meat processing capacity expansion program.

A USDA Crop Progress report has rated half of the country's pasture and range conditions as poor, filling a tractor tank daily now costs some farmers $1,000, twice what it was a year ago, and the USDA addresses baby formula shortages and possible milk substitutes.

Fallout from the Russia-Ukraine conflict continues to rattle commodity markets, the USDA cuts yield estimates on U.S. corn, avian influenza continues to impact chickens, turkeys, and other birds, Corn Belt agricultural land values are on the rise, the US Climate Prediction Center reports La Nina conditions are likely again this fall and upcoming winter, and the Russian military has stolen farm equipment from Ukraine that may be useless.

On today’s segment, ag correspondent Bob Bragg is talking about how cities in the southwest are responding to the drought and educational opportunities for farmers and landowners this summer.