Chris Clayton

To help greenlight upgrades to an 82-year-old lock and dam north of St. Louis on the Mississippi River, soybean checkoff groups are offering funds to the Corps of Engineers to do some initial prep work on the project. The new...

A North Dakota farmer who started investing in plans to grow a farm in Ukraine lost his funds and accused his farm manager of theft. That farm manager is now Ukraine's agricultural minister and the North Dakota farmers is now...

The DOJ's antitrust division brought a case against privately held United States Sugar Corp., which has been moving to acquire Imperial Sugar Co., a division of Louis Dreyfus Co. DOJ stated if the sale were to happen, sugar buyers...

Members of Solutions from the Land who attended the COP 26 climate event in Scotland this month saw persistent messaging from groups attacking animal agriculture and pushing plant-based diets. Solutions from the Land has...

The Build Back Better Act includes more than $1 trillion in tax provisions while increasing spending on Democratic priorities such as addressing climate change, as well as health care costs, child care, education and immigration. The...

After spending much of 2021 working to get the program right, USDA announced the department would be sending out pandemic aid checks to contract livestock producers. Key senators, however...

With the country's current need for workers and supply-chain breakdowns, the Deere strike drew a lot of attention. The strike raised concerns about machinery availability for farmers and implement dealers.

Higher land and commodity prices could clash with inflation, higher interest rates and long-term demographic challenges moving ahead. Ag bankers heard a lot of similar themes at their conference this week in Cincinnati.

The ABA and Farmer Mac survey of agricultural bankers shows lenders expect 80% of their borrowers will be profitable in 2021 and 70% of those borrowers should be profitable through 2022 as well. The report was released at the...

House Ag leadership from both parties have mentioned the need to vet what is in the bill related to agriculture, and what isn't in the bill. There is a lot of misinformation out there, and some of...

Thirteen Republicans helped move to final passage the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act last week. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., was the only Republican member of the House Ag Committee to vote on final passage of the bill. The...

A bill led by four senators, dubbed the Cattle Price Discovery and Transparency Act, would establish regional mandatory minimum thresholds for negotiated cash and grid trades based on each region's 18-month average negotiated...

Groups over the weekend issued statements supporting the bipartisan passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The bill will upgrade roads and bridges, as well as inland waterways. That will eventually help address...

The final vote on the infrastructure bill came after a day of negotiations among Democrats in Congress and the president. The agreement to shore up Democratic votes for the infrastructure bill also allowed the president's $1.75...

The Biden administration's focus on agricultural emissions and potential for revenue from carbon markets at COP 26 was directed as much at U.S. farmers as it was at international groups focused on climate change. Climate change is...

Farm Service Agency is encouraging producers to reach out to their local USDA Service Centers to make changes to their elections and enroll for ARC or PLC for 2022 crops. Changes of enrollment are optional, but producers must...

The newest version of the Build Back Better Act was debated in committee on Wednesday evening to detail the amendments and rules for debate if the bill gets to a House floor vote this week. The $1.75 trillion bill boosts USDA...

Executives from across the agricultural and food supply chains on Wednesday highlighted a litany of challenges finding and physically getting products or trying to ship their own products. The House Agriculture Committee had...

On an analyst call Tuesday detailing Mosaic's third-quarter financials, Mosaic executives said grain stocks remain limited and global corn and soybean demand is elevated, driven in part by surging Chinese demand and rising global...

Commodity groups are joining an appeal against a decision by the International Trade Commission (ITC) last March to impose 19% tariffs on phosphate fertilizers from Morocco.

While at the G-20 meeting in Rome this past weekend, President Joe Biden reached an agreement with the European Union on steel and aluminum trade tied to reducing emissions from steel and aluminum production. The deal will...

For agriculture, the Build Back Better Act includes big investments in forestry, conservation and research programs. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition pointed to the increases in...

A week before the 10,000 or so Deere and Co. workers went on strike, roughly 1,400 Kellogg workers in Michigan, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Tennessee went on strike. Workers at both companies are pushing back against two-tier...

A coalition of agricultural organizations wrote the secretary of transportation highlighting their supply-chain concerns. The group stressed the need for labor, transportation and infrastructure policies, proposals on container...

Mexico's agriculture minister on Wednesday promised to keep buying U.S. corn during a visit to Iowa with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The secretary also took time to visit with striking United Auto Workers at a Deere facility...

A federal judge has allowed multiple pension funds that are shareholders of Bayer to sue the company over its acquisition of Monsanto and questions about whether Bayer did proper due diligence when it came to Monsanto's...

In public meetings across Iowa, landowners raised concerns about a carbon pipeline project that would capture emissions from ethanol plants, then pipe liquid carbon dioxide to North Dakota to store it in the ground. Some farmers...

Agricultural groups wrote a formal objection to EPA, making the case that the pesticide chlorpyrifos is vital to helping a variety of commodities reduce pest risks for crops. EPA revoked the feed and food tolerance levels for the...

Pork producers, dairy farmers, corn farmers and grape growers highlighted trade concerns Thursday in an online event led by Farmers for Free Trade. While agricultural exports are at record...

United Auto Workers International issued a statement that John Deere members went on strike at midnight after talks with Deere & Co., at Moline, Illinois, had failed to reach an agreement. The strike comes after talks between...

In a long, wide-ranging hearing Thursday on livestock markets, U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack touched on several issues as lawmakers wanted assurances about USDA's protections against African swine fever, the state of disaster aid...

Calling themselves Rural Investment to Protect our Environment (RIPE), a new group seeks minimum $100 per-acre payments that would reward farmers for the total public value of their...

Payments go out in October from the Farm Service Agency for ARC-County and Price Loss Coverage. Corn and soybean producers won't see any payments for PLC, but some counties that saw significant yield losses will see...

The Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute at the University of Nebraska is holding its 2021 Water for Food Global Forum throughout October with a series of virtual events. The center focuses on research into irrigation...

U.S. Trade Ambassador Katherine Tai on Monday laid out the Biden administration's view of China trade, indicating the array of tariffs placed on more than $350 billion of Chinese imports would remain. Tai also opened the prospect...

The continuing resolution passed into law Thursday includes provisions to help farmers with an array of disasters that hit agriculture over the past two years.

The move by China earlier this week to ban phosphate exports until at least June of next year puts even more pressure on global phosphate trade. Fertilizer prices are already significantly higher than a year ago and supplies...

A former Marine infantryman with close ties to his alma mater, Texas A&M, Chris Narayanan, 46, had been working as a farm-management specialist in west Tennessee since July 2020 after an extensive career as a commodities...

A professor at Iowa State University who worked to develop a project planting prairie grasses in corn and soybean crops to help reduce nutrient runoff was recognized as a MacArthur Foundation genius grant recipient.

USDA's Regional Conservation Partnership Program provides grants to projects that bring together multiple groups in a particular area to focus on increased conservation practices. USDA on...

More than three weeks after Hurricane Ida, AAA shows little impact on fuel prices. Grain exports are down sharply from a year ago while Louisiana experts report roughly $584 million in...

Agricultural groups started sending around top-line numbers for the $28 billion that will go into conservation programs as part of the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better plan. The money would go for conservation measures that address...

The Renewable Fuels Association cites that numbers reported showing lower expected RFS blend requirements are fake numbers that were not released by the ethanol trade group.

To boost assets farmers can pass to heirs, House Democrats propose expanding a special farmland valuation formula in the IRS code. Section 2032A could help some farmers with their estates, but the provision comes with some...

NEW Cooperative in Fort Dodge, Iowa, confirmed Monday it had been hit with a ransomware attack that affected the grain cooperative's operations.

The North American Meat Institute and the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America each issued news releases offering a separate but equal debate about the state of complaints about cattle prices...

While farmers are ramping up harvest and football season, U.S. ag leaders in government and the private sector have been wringing their hands over the U.N.'s first Food Systems Summit on Sept. 23, looking to pivot other countries...

Speaking to analysts early Thursday, Canadian Pacific executives again laid out some of the opportunities they first championed in mid-March when CP first appeared to strike a deal to buy...

FAPRI released its latest baseline Wednesday for U.S. farm income and costs. The big change is a $23 billion projected drop in government payments that will bring down net farm income in...

The tax bill dropped Monday by Democrats on the House Ways & Means Committee includes an array of changes to estate assets, trusts, corporate taxes and business deductions. If the bill...

The House Agriculture Committee early Monday voted to advance $66 billion in spending the committee plans to add to the budget reconciliation package that the full House will eventually vote on...

With the American Rescue Plan and the expected infrastructure bill coming out of Congress, there will be many opportunities for communities to address some needs with rural grants. Those grants, though, require someone in rural...

The secretary spoke to the White House press corps about some of the actions USDA is doing to invest funds into smaller packing plants and address antitrust enforcement in the packing industry. He also talked about the need...

USDA has changed some of the provisions of the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honey Bees and Farm-raised Fish Program, (ELAP) to help producers who have livestock that normally graze, but producers have instead been...

Farm groups spell out they are opposed to proposed changes in capital gains or stepped-up basis for heirs that Democratic leaders are considering using to pay for their new programs. With billions of dollars in tax breaks at...

The House Agriculture Committee is scheduled to meet Friday to consider how to spend $135 billion carved out in the budget reconciliation resolution for food and agriculture. Along with that, the House later this month will vote on...

St. Louis Lambert International Airport opened its Livestock Export Center last November. So far, the airport has shipped out hundreds of breeding hogs in a handful of shipments to Brazil. Airport officials expect demand to use...

USDA received an array of comments from groups and individuals on ways to invest as much as $500 million to increase competition and resiliency in the supply chain for meat processors.

Hurricane Ida's impact was felt in prices for corn and soybeans through the week. CHS reported the cooperative has some clean-up work to do, but its terminal was not damaged. CHS' terminal is the most southern along the...

A report by the Center for American Progress repeats the White House position that President Joe Biden's tax plan would not impact the vast majority of farmers. The report highlights that heirs for family businesses and farms...