AgribusinessA 30,000-tonne shipment of Belarusian muriate of potash is due at New Orleans around 14 October, the first to reach the United States in four years, after Washington eased sanctions on Belaruskali.
AgrotechGUSS Automation, a John Deere subsidiary, is fitting Ouster colour lidar to its driverless orchard sprayers so they can hold their rows under tree canopies where satellite signals fail, with one person supervising up to eight machines.
AgrotechA Georgia Tech-led team has field-tested CLASP, a robot whose rolling silicone bands pull ripe blueberries off a whole cluster while unripe berries stay attached, with a 92% grasp rate in 25 attempts.
FruitsAPHIS is taking comments until 13 October on a USDA Agricultural Research Service petition to deregulate two gene-edited European plum lines that flower early and repeatedly, a trait meant to cut years off fruit-tree breeding.
CropsUSDA's Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage programmes will pay about $13.8 billion in gross payments for the 2025 crop year, the most since they began under the 2014 Farm Bill, after higher reference prices took effect.
AgribusinessAveraged over 2007-18, about 40 percent of full-time-equivalent jobs in the US Cooperative Extension System went to agriculture and natural resources, the largest of its four program areas, an ERS chart shows.
CropsSupplies are strong, says the Propane Education & Research Council, but delivery is the pinch point if drying demand peaks across the US at once, so farmers are urged to plan ahead.
CropsDaytime temperatures above 100F and warm nights dried rice too fast in the field, cracking kernels and cutting milling yields; researchers suggest spreading planting into mid-April.
AgribusinessSmall family farms were 86% of all farms but produced 17% of output, while large family farms, 5% of farms, produced half; nonfamily farms' share of production fell to 14% from 17%.
AgrotechAt the Carrington Research Extension Center, a Hylio drone applying 5 gallons an acre cut the Fusarium head blight index to 2.50% against 2.83% for a 15-gallon ground application, in preliminary results.
AgrotechThe new tool for farm-input retailers combines past performance data, in-season crop information and satellite imagery, with anomaly detection, NDVI-based weekly reports and an AI summary.
EnvironmentIrrigation in Hockley County, Texas, peaked decades ago, and weakening wells threaten to turn drip systems costing about $1,500 an acre into stranded assets, says adviser John Duff.
LivestockTighter slaughter supplies are giving feedyards more leverage, and cattle sold on negotiated grids have lately fetched $2 to $3 per hundredweight more than formula sales, The Cattle Report says.
