Cattle contribute more greenhouse gases than other livestock. The reasons behind that have some ranchers trying to address environmental impacts, while experts say there are also ways for you to curb your plate’s climate footprint. From her home in eastern Nebraska, Angie O’Brien does what she can to help the environment. She reduces,…
Documentation status, language barriers and lack of information can all create barriers for immigrants to access federal grants. Now a number of organizations are stepping in to provide direct support.
Raw milk continues to grow in popularity, despite bird flu in dairy cattle bringing increased scrutiny from health experts.
Over the last two years, several large pork packers have closed plants in California, Minnesota and most recently Iowa. For some pork producers, this means additional miles and more money to deliver hogs on top of tough economic times.
Soil science is a relatively new field and becoming more critical in the work to keep soil healthy and productive. The discovery of century-old soil samples at a land-grant university could offer big clues into how soil has changed over time.
The peach crop across the U.S. is much better this summer than it was last year when cold temperatures affected crops in Georgia and South Carolina. Yet in southern Illinois, while some orchards are getting a bumper crop, others are having yet another year of low production.
A year-long campaign to promote biomanufacturing in central Illinois has paid off for the University of Illinois and its partners. The U-S Commerce Department’s Economic Development Administration has awarded an approximately $51 million grant to a consortium led by the University of Illinois, to establish the Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing (or iFAB) tech hub in Champaign, Piatt and Macon Counties.
Planting is well underway across the Midwest, but farmers are still grappling with dry conditions that led to lower than normal corn yields last fall. It’s the third year of a near historic drought for parts of the Corn Belt.
It’s been a year since NASA kicked off an effort to provide farmers with useful information garnered from satellite images of Earth. The program includes research at two universities in the Midwest. NASA Acres aims to address some of the most pressing problems facing food production — getting important data points from satellite images of…
A strong spring wind rattles the metal, corrugated barn on the Cory Family Farm where inside, a few dozen sheep cluster next to a wall. Across the barn on the opposite wall, shearers are at work quickly removing a year’s worth of shaggy, white fleeces from ewes and rams. The shorn sheep emerge, looking sleeker…
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — the food program for low-income individuals — has become one of the hottest topics in farm bill negotiations, as congressional Republicans seek more changes. As Farm Bill negotiations hit full force in Washington D.C. in the next few weeks, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said he’s not on board…
Nick Cuchetti is mixing up something special in a bucket on his family farm in Luebbering, Missouri. The dusty substance looks a lot like charcoal, but scientists who study it bristle at the comparison. This is biochar — a soil amendment and a hot topic in sustainable agriculture. As Cuchetti pours the biochar onto his…
A new facility that raises fly larvae for animal feed has opened in Decatur.
Governor J-B Pritzker helped cut the ribbon Thursday for the North American Insect Innovation Center, built by the French biotech company Innovafeed SAS.
The 10,000 square foot facility, with a staff of ten, is the company’s first facility in the Americas. And it is a precursor to a much larger growing and manufacturing plant, with 100 to 300 employees, that Innovafeed plans to build adjacent to the current facility over the next two years.
The flu has been found in cows for the first time, but most cattle seem to be showing only mild symptoms and recovering from the illness. Officials say the pasteurization process means milk remains safe. Midwest farmers and others in the dairy industry say they are staying vigilant but are not overly alarmed as bird…
A soil scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana campus is reaching out to landowners and farmers, as he prepares to take soil samples at locations where samples were taken years ago across the state.