Farmers are extremely attentive to governmental policy, especially the regulations generated by the Environmental Protection Agency, but also tax policy, trade policy, and conservation policy. Immigration policy has recently moved to the forefront of farmers’ minds due to necessity of finding labor and the rising costs to farmers of the current farm worker visa program.…
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Monsanto’s patent on the original Roundup Ready soybean trait is set to expire after the 2014 planting season. The Roundup Ready (RR) patent and the Roundup Ready to Yield (RR2Y) patent are general utility patents, by the way, not Plant Variety Protection Act (PVPA) protections, and that is one reason farmers cannot save seed. But…
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With harvest in full swing, farmers are spending lots of time in their combines with their eyes on their yield monitor. The NCSPA and USB invest checkoff funding in research each year to help farmers protect and improve yield. One example of this is USB’s high yield project, which has identified yield-limiting factors and management…
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It is important to many companies who buy and use soy in their products that the soy be sustainable. These companies have sustainability goals because their customers demand it, so in turn they seek to buy soy and other products that are sustainably produced. CLICK HERE to read an interview with Rachel Grantham, an agronomist…
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Deciding where to invest soybean checkoff research dollars can be a daunting task for a checkoff board. The facts of the situation are that (1) farmers on checkoff boards do not routinely work in a research environment and so do not keep up with the current state of science and (2) research leaders routinely make…
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If you’re considering adding technology to your farm to take advantage of the data that can be gained from it, setting up the precision agriculture systems, software and sensors is very important. You’ll need to make sure everything is positioned well to result in accurate yield data. Find out the five things you need to…
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Big data in agriculture is here to stay and it’s evolving all the time. Farmers are considering investing in reporting on everything from machine feedback and control to telematics to crop health (drone, plane and satellite sensors) and in-field monitoring. And then of course, there’s how to organize and make decisions with all that information.…
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Though harvest is nearing completion and we are headed into farming’s “off-season,” there are many things that can be done to prepare for a successful crop in 2018. These include taking soil samples, updating nutrient-management plans, looking for ways to minimize soil loss, repairing equipment, evaluating field drainage, recording pest issues and taking steps to…
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The controversy over GMO labeling occupies a central place in the discussion around food systems and farming. This was evident at the recent N.C. Agriculture & Biotechnology summit during a panel moderated by Tamar Haspel, a journalist at the Washington Post. Another panel at the conference raised the issue of a society caught in a…
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A Piedmont area farmer mentioned today that Dannon, a yogurt maker and a downstream customer for products produced from feed grains, will begin transitioning to milk from cows fed only non-GMO grains. Since many dairy cows are fed GMO grains, Dannon will have to find currently non-existent sources, or depend on a very tight supply…
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Have you gotten your soil tested but don’t know exactly what to do with the results? View this helpful video about using the information to maximize the fertility of your soil: http://unitedsoybean.org/article/know-how-to-use-your-soil-test-results/
What sets these soybean growers apart from other young professionals? (1) They aren’t looking to change employers several times in their career, (2) they are already taking charge of many, if not all, business decisions, and (3) they are well-trained and deeply knowledgeable from the start, even when they weren’t sure that farming would be…
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