Top Agriculture News

Horticulture researcher Guochen Yang, Ph.D., has spent four decades promoting better health, better crops and instructing the next generation of horticultural scientists. Now, he has achieved “legendary” status, according to his peers.  Yang, a professor in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Design, has been named a 2025 horticultural legend, or “HortLegend,” by the American Society […]

I can’t hold back, Corey, I’ve got to let folks know there is relief in sight. Before we start talking about how hot it’s been, and we all know how hot it’s been, the good news is it seems to be coming to an end today. Corey Davis, of course, my guest from the State […]

The 2018 farm bill provided a legal pathway for the production of hemp in the United States. This summer, researchers at the University of Illinois held a Hemp Research Open House. David Lakeman from the Illinois Department of Agriculture kicked off the event. “Illinois is almost perfectly designed for hemp production. One of the things […]

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) today introduced the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) Improvement and Flexibility Act. The legislation would bolster CRP by improving access to grazing, maximizing enrollment options for producers, and expediting emergency haying in response to drought and other weather-related disaster events. “Ensuring that […]

Union Pacific will buy smaller rival Norfolk Southern in a deal worth $85 billion. U.P. says this would create the first coast-to-coast freight rail operator in the U.S. Reuters said, if approved, the deal would be the largest buyout in the sector’s history. It would combine Union Pacific’s tracks in the western two-thirds of the […]

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says there will be a 90-day negotiating period with Mexico over trade as 25% tariffs stay in place. Trump posted online Thursday a phone conversation with Claudia Sheinbaum was “very successful in that, more and more,” they’re “getting to know and understand each other.” Trump says goods from Mexico imported into the U.S. will continue to face a 25% tariff he has ostensibly linked to fentanyl trafficking. The Republican president says autos face a 25% tariff, while copper, aluminum and steel are taxed at 50%. Trump had threatened tariffs of 30% on goods from Mexico, something Sheinbaum says Mexico gets to stave off for the next three months.

One could say to be in farming, you need faith in farming, faith within farming, and just faith. The U.S. Agriculture Department recognizes this and has for quite some time. “At the turn of this century, can you believe that we had quarter all the way through the new century?” That’s Dr. Alveda King. She’s […]

Backyard veggie and fruit growers worried about recently extreme heat and your garden crops, perhaps you are seeing signs of heat stress impacts on your produce. How to mitigate that? While most will say, add water and lots of it, North Carolina State University Extension expert Minda Daughtry says there needs to be consideration how […]

I have grown to love lantana. I never really had anything against it. It’s just the fact I haven’t had a lot of sun areas in my landscape and lantana can take up a fair amount of room if it is happy. Most of North Carolina is hot throughout the summer and we certainly have drought periods. Lantana is made to order for these conditions. Lantana is in the verbena family and is sometimes called “shrub verbena.” It comes in various sizes from 1 to 6 feet tall and 3 to 5 feet wide according to my friends at the Cooperative Extension Service. It loves full sun, moist, but well-drained soil to fully perform. Lantana grows particularly well in the piedmont and thrives on the coastal plain and coast of North Carolina. It is even salt tolerant.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican lawmakers and some Democrats have overridden eight of Democratic Gov. Josh Stein’s 14 vetoes. Tuesday’s override votes were a test for the GOP after the House lost its Republican supermajority during last year’s election. Republicans succeeded in enacting some bills targeting transgender rights and allowing guns on private school property. They accomplished the overrides with the help of some House Democrats. Democrats did block override votes on bills on permitless concealed carry and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Those bills can still be overridden at a later date.