Director Dan Wyant recommends that all horse owners have their animals tested for EIA before the biting-insect season begins. Irradiation offers additional safeguard for consumers For many years, pasteurization of milk, through heating, has eliminated bacteria from milk. For the first time, a new technology is offering those same safeguards for meat. Market Outlook Commodity price forecasts from Michigan State University's Jim Hilker, including corn, wheat, soybeans, cattle, hogs and dairy. European currency may have positive effects on U.S. agriculture While decreasing international demand continually contributes to declining commodity prices, economists estimate the European Union's new common currency, the euro, may have positive long-term effects on American agricultural exports.
Alfalfa preserves soil tilth, especially important for high-value sugar beet crops.
Farm Credit boards approve proposal to merge At a meeting April 14, the boards of directors for the four Farm Credit Service centers in Michigan's Lower Peninsula unanimously approved a proposal to consolidate the associations into one statewide organization. Young farmer's leadership sets a statewide example Chairing committees, sitting on directors' boards and running meetings is only part of Chris Donbrock's everyday life. Besides being an exemplary leader in his community and church, Donbrock farms 645 acres and contract finishes about 1,000 pigs each year on his Coldwater farm where he lives with his wife, Dusti, and two daughters. Variety selection has greatest effect on white mold in soybeans Thanks to a recent checkoff-funded study, soybean growers have access to additional information on how to fight white mold through the wise use of soybean varieties, row width, tillage practices and herbicides. A wheat check-off program for Michigan has moved a step forward as 200 of the state's producers have signed their names in support of the idea.