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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Thursday, May 25, 2023
The chief of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service expressed confidence that the agency could hire the staff it needs to handle a sharp increase in climate-related funding, despite many applicants for soil conservationist positions lacking a key job requirement – a class in soil science.
USDA plans to send Emergency Relief Program and Emergency Livestock Relief Program pre-filled applications directly to eligible producers in early summer for those with qualifying disaster losses for the 2022 calendar year.
Farm groups are calling for Agriculture Department loan program payment rates to be increased in the upcoming farm bill, while agency officials look at other ways to make the programs more accessible and flexible for producers.
The administrator of USDA’s Farm Service Agency, Zach Ducheneaux, says USDA is rethinking the way it structures farm loans to lower the risk of default.
Western producers in areas once dealing with devastating droughts scrambled to keep their livestock safe and fed this winter as a series of storms caused record-breaking amounts of precipitation. Now, the snowpack is beginning to melt, and there are concerns about potential flooding.
Senate Agriculture Committee staff are going through requests from 98 senators detailing what they want to see in the farm bill as the committee works to get a bill ready this year.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee Monday that he has hired more staff to track foreign farmland purchases after a three-year gap in his department’s application of disclosure penalties.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday that relatively low salaries are making it difficult for USDA to retain employees, including Farm Service Agency field staff.
When the wind blows in Prowers County, soil tends to follow. The southeastern Colorado county sits at the heart of what is known as the “Dust Bowl” region, a place where the fear of prairie winds scattering tilled dirt through communities and towns looms large.
