For now, much of what China is doing to manage a possible epidemic of bird flu is a mystery.
China is not only the most populous nation, but also the biggest producer of poultry. It has a quarter of the world’s chickens, two-thirds of the world’s domesticated ducks and almost nine-tenths of the world’s domesticated geese.
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After battling intense hurricane seasons and plant-destroying citrus canker, Florida citrus growers now have another threat to deal with. A plant condition from China known as yellow dragon disease or citrus greening has been found in southeast Florida and appears to be spreading
Read (New York Times)
Don Bell, a soybean farmer in West Memphis, Ark., says that he is having one of his best harvests in decades. Too bad he can’t enjoy it more.
Read (New York Times)
Soybean prices are down while expenses – fuel and freight charges – are up.
Scientists say all modern varieties of potatoes derive from a common ancestor farmed in Peru 7,000 years ago.
Potatoes were brought back to Spain by the conquistadors around 1570, and spread throughout Europe.
They were later introduced in North America by British colonists.
Read (BBC)
Hurricanes Rita and Katrina hit Louisiana’s sugar growers hard, flattening and flooding cane fields just as the harvest was to begin. The annual harvest festival was canceled last week — for the first time in memory since World War II. There are fears the storms will adversely impact the sugar industry.
Listen (NPR)
The F.D.A. proposed banning from animal feed the brains and spinal cords of cows more than 30 months old.
Read (New York Times)
The Washington area experienced the driest September in more than a century. At Meadow Hill Farm in Loudoun County, the pastures are taking on a yellowish hue. Shoots aren’t sprouting from 100 acres planted with rye because there hasn’t been enough rain for the seeds to germinate, and the usual grass dinner for the 200 cows has been supplemented with hay.
Read (Washington Post)
It’s not good if you’re already tapping into your hay supply.
Eight Virginia counties, including Fauquier and Prince William, have been declared agricultural disaster areas.
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Organic farms don’t have to be in bucolic settings. They could stand alongside skyscrapers in the middle of Tokyo or Los Angeles, if a Delaware company has its way.
Read (Wired)
Cows are producing less milk because of the inedible pastures. Maryland’s drought is forcing beef and dairy farmers to feed their herds winter stockpiles of hay now, a situation that could shrink profits and send them out to buy hay this winter.
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Farmers say rice, vegetables, peanuts and fruit are growing well, spurring hopes that agriculture in the still devastated region will recover faster than expected.
Read (AP via USA Today)
An environmental group says farmers around the Chesapeake Bay are doing a better job reducing pollution that runs into the water, but they’re getting squeezed out by development.
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Orange County, VA’s largest cattle operation lost more than 40 percent of a cow-calf herd last week, and the cause of the mass casualties is still not completely known.
Read (Fredericksburg Free Lance Star)
The hurricane will cause an estimated $2 billion in damage to farmers nationwide, according to an early analysis.
Read (New York Times)
Over the past decade, the number of Virginia beekeepers has fallen roughly by half, to between 2,000 and 3,000. The main culprits are two parasitic mites that feast on bees and have killed large numbers of them since the 1980s.
Beekeepers acknowledge concern about their declining numbers. They attribute the trend partly to the ravages of time — most beekeepers are older, and many have died.
Read (Washington Post)