2020 has been challenging on all fronts, to say the least, and one of the challenges we faced this year was poor seed quality in early planted/early maturity group beans. According to a survey conducted by Dr. Rachel Vann, there was anywhere from 5-30% damage seen in fields planted prior to mid-May. One of the…
2020 has been a year in the books for most people, but for farmers, it was another year of added stress and challenges. Compile that with the mounting stress of the Holiday season, the NCSPA feels that is important to stop and shed light on the topic of mental health in the agriculture industry. While…
There are only four countries that export significant amounts of commodity soybean products – the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Although Brazil recently surpassed the United States in terms of production, with a growing world population, hungry for protein, there is no getting around the fact that the world needs US soybeans. In summer…
As the year comes to a close and harvest 2020 wraps up, it’s a good time to think about soybean production lessons learned not only in 2020 but over the years as you start planning for 2021. One place we can look for production practices that may be contributing to higher yields is the North…
After careful consideration and discussion, the four organizing commodity boards have made the difficult decision to cancel the 2021 N.C. Commodities Conference scheduled for January 14th-15th. The conference has been rescheduled to 2022 at the Sheraton Imperial RTP where we look forward to recommencing the event with good health and renewed enthusiasm. Please continue to…
This summer a valued member of the N.C. soybean research team, Dr. Tommy Carter, retired. Dr. Tommy Carter is a soybean breeder at the USDA-ARS’s Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Unite where he has been the head of the unit since 2011 and the facility’s leading research geneticist since 1981. Dr. Carter has worked tirelessly for…
Last week, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, announced a second round of the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP 2) that will provide an additional $14 billion to producers who have seen increased marketing costs associated with the COIVD-19 pandemic. CFAP 2 includes support for commodities that were left out of the first program, which is…
The NC Cooperative Extension Service continues to cite crop damage from deer as one of the biggest challenges soybean producers face and North Carolina Hunters for the Hungry, Inc. (NCHFH), a 501(c)3 non-profit serving North Carolinians since 1993, can help. The NC Wildlife Resources Commission (NCWRC) estimates that deer numbers exceed 1 million statewide with…
Over the past two years, the US agricultural sector has been hit by a trade war with China (April 2018-present), the global disruption of African Swine Fever (August 2018-present), a series of hurricanes beginning with Florence (September 2018), and flooding in the corn belt (June 2019) all aggravated by a strong dollar that has made…
