Farm Help

The U.S. Farm Bill impacts agriculture and other matters under the United States Department of Agriculture’s scope of authority. It also has effects on immigration, trade and commerce, energy and social welfare, to name a few. To Ozarks' farmers, the biggest impact is in direct payments, and the funding available through programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP).

As a result of the recent drought and temperature extremes across Missouri affecting foraging and haying, on July 18, 2012, Edward Hamill, state executive director of USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) in Missouri, released a statement announcing emergency haying and grazing use of the (CRP) Conservation Reserve Program throughout Missouri. This emergency release authorized 77 Missouri counties. Additional counties can still be approved in the future if the qualifications are met.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Disaster and Drought Assistance web page, “drought is a weather phenomenon plaguing agriculture since civilizations began farming and ranching as organized ways to feed themselves. Drought that affects growing or grazing quality affects about a third of the nation's counties each year.”

Creep feeding is usually a method to supplement pre-weaning calves in a manner when their dams do not have access to a desired level of feed quality or quantity.

The University of Arkansas animal science researchers conducted sale barn surveys in Arkansas to study factors affecting feeder-calf prices at livestock auctions. The surveys were conducted in 2010 and collected from 14 Arkansas livestock auctions. Data was collected from 38,346 lots consisting of 79,822 head of cattle representing 19 percent of total calves sold. Information was collected on body condition, castration, horn status, fill, health and individual or group selling. All prices were based on dollars per 45.45 kg of live weight.

You may be wondering if your investment of preconditioning before sale will be rewarded.

The rapid growth of the ethanol industry has meant the availability of ever-increasing quantities of dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS). Left over from the ethanol production process, DDGS is low in carbohydrates but high in protein, fat and fiber. In many areas, it’s revolutionized livestock production; rather than compete with ethanol plants for corn, feeders and cattle producers are adding DDGS to their rations.

When a Kentucky Circuit Court sentenced Thomas “Tommy” Gibson and another former Eastern Livestock officer in June to 10 years in prison, it was just the latest chapter in a strange story that became public in Nov. 2010, when checks written by the New Albany, Ind.-based livestock dealer founded by Gibson started bouncing. More than 700 ranchers were left holding about $130 million in bad checks, and Gibson and his former Chief Operating Officer, Steve McDonald, pleaded guilty to one count of running an organized crime syndicate and 172 counts of theft by deception. They admitted that for two years, they had been falsely inflating the company's bank accounts to create the illusion of solvency.