INDUSTRY NEWS

Alfalfa researchers were the beneficiaries of the National Alfalfa & Forage Alliance's (NAFA) second round of research funding through the U.S. Alfalfa Farmer Research Initiative (USAFRI), a farmer-funded investment in alfalfa-related research better known as the Alfalfa Checkoff.

Over the last three years, the top 10 types of agribusiness claims have accounted for more than 50,000 claims received by Nationwide. To help educate agribusiness professionals about costly trends in the industry, Nationwide has released its most common commercial agribusiness insurance claims. Below are the top 10 commercial agribusiness claims received by Nationwide in 2017:

Hay inventories stored on farms as of May 1 were the second-lowest total for that date in the past decade, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Crop Production report, released May 10. 

Northwest U.S. alfalfa and timothy producers will remain slightly profitable over the next 12 months, according to the latest Northwest Farm Credit Services’ Hay Market Snapshot report. Exports should boost alfalfa sales, while low dairy profitability will provide demand headwinds.

Facebook's recent privacy breach has made me wonder whether these same missteps could happen to an ag tech provider. I think the answer is most-assuredly yes. An ag tech provider could carelessly walk into the same trap that caught Facebook. What should we learn from what happened?

131 million – that’s 131 million tons. And that’s roughly the weight of 4,367 school buses, which is how much dry hay was harvested in the U.S. in 2017. Add to that corn silage and greenchop, and the forage total would reach the weight of over 8,392 school buses (at 30,000 pounds apiece).