AgDay
Hosted by Haley Bickelhaupt, AgDay provides the nation’s farmers and ranchers with the latest news, weather and business headlines, and features the people and places unique to the industry and small-town America.
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When farmers face the creep of federal agency regulation, the game is consistently tilted in the bureaucracy’s favor, and although agricultural producers know the deck is stacked, most are unaware of the joker concealed in the government’s sleeve: Chevron deference.
In 2000, southwest Mississippi producer Rodney Burkley heard about a business venture gaining steam in multiple states: earthworms.
Edward Poitevent is at the mercy of an invisible frog. He has lost private property rights on 1,500 acres to a frog species that will never live on his land and doesn’t live in his state. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is shackled to a litany of odd cases, but Poitevent’s battle with a $34-million frog may rank as the most bizarre of the lot.
Lawsuits against farmers once were a rarity, but as civil suits stack up in farm country, today’s producer is often popularly perceived as a wealthy, land-rich businessman. Welcome to agriculture’s litigious age.
Crops don’t wait for irrigation, and now means now when it’s time to water. Solid end-of-season irrigation maintenance goes a long way in preventing problems the following crop year during crunch-time. Before the grip of winter sets in, checks and repairs are vital.
Send in the bots. Artificial intelligence is finding unbounded opportunity in agriculture. Aerial and ground drone combinations are hauling a host of possibility into all areas of farming.
Slugs are an accepted part of the bill for many agriculture operations, but as numbers rise, particularly in the Midwest, producers are reckoning with a new level of damage. A mild slug presence, sheltered by increasing no till acreage, can usher in a wave of replants, major yield loss and expensive bait control.
Bill Bader is the bell cow of dicamba drift litigation, with farmers in at least 10 states right behind him. How the cases will play out remains a matter of conjecture, but one fact is clear: Dicamba-related litigation has only just begun.
John Duarte’s five-year legal nightmare ended Aug. 15, with over $1 million in total penalties. Duarte couldn’t evade the iron hand of the Clean Water Act.