Top Agriculture News

It appears the nation’s hog producers are trying to keep a lid on production and get hog prices up by reducing farrowings and balancing that out with more pigs per litter. That is largely what appears to be happening. USDA livestock analyst Shayle Shagam. He bases that on USDA new quarterly hogs and pigs report. […]

The results will soon be available to the public: The findings of USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture. We’re looking for a good product to be available on the 13th of February. That from Joe Prusacki of the Agriculture Department’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Now some might wonder why a census where data was collected in […]

Looking at 2024 U.S. red meat export potential, the forecast is mixed. Erin Borror, vice president of economic analysis with the U.S. Meat Export Federation, says the numbers look better for U.S. pork. “On the pork side, it’s been really strong growth or even a rebound in exports in 2023 – about an eight percent […]

It’s a New Year and we have a lot of exciting new things to share with you. As we wrapped up 2023, we launched the department’s new website after close to a year’s worth of work behind the scenes to create this new, more user friendly site. And, as with the start of every New […]

The year 2024 is off to a hot start. The South Carolina Agritourism Association is holding its annual conference Jan. 21-23, 2024. This is a great way to learn more about agritourism for your farm, or enhance your farm’s agritourism activities. The registration deadline is January 7, 2024. The conference includes a Sunday night reception, two-day […]

With recent House passage of the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act, attention now turns towards the Senate to take action. National Milk Producers Federation Senior Director of Government Relations and Head of Nutrition Policy Claudia Larson explains what’s next for the legislation in the Senate. “Its own version of the Whole Milk for Healthy […]

Fresh water is the gasoline for the Panama Canal making it run. The man-made lake between the locks gathers that rainwater to make the locks functional to in Lake typically sits around 87 feet above sea level. Right now, it’s around 81 feet, causing the Panama Canal Authority to limit the number of transits through […]

Rural vibrancy struggles when local newspapers close; smoke from seasonal wildfires is affecting the mental health of rural residents; and gym classes in Southwest Virginia are helping those in drug treatment court turn their lives around.

COLUMBIA – The South Carolina Department of Agriculture (SCDA) is partnering with USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to offer over $4 million in competitive grants to support middle-of-the-food-supply-chain infrastructure for domestic food and farm businesses and other eligible entities. Grants under the Resilient Food System Infrastructure program, or RFSI, will support expanded capacity for the aggregation, processing, manufacturing, […]

As we wrap up 2023, it gives us an opportunity to look back at what we accomplished and think about where we need to go in the year ahead. Here are some of the biggest NCDA&CS stories of 2023 and a remembrance of some we lost in 2023.