Top Agriculture News

The South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Hugh Weathers has just wrapped up something of a marathon session of meetings, taking about a day and a half to talk about strategic planning for agriculture in South Carolina. First of all, what brought this all about, and what happened? “Well, we’ve been thinking about it for months […]

Agritourism is growing in North Carolina, and to find out just how much well, I’ll pose that question right now to Ag Commissioner Steve Troxler and Commissioner, springtime is definitely here. The pollen is proving it, and along with it comes folks getting outside to enjoy the warmer temperatures. And a lot of folks are […]

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. The outside markets continue to get hammered due to the uncertainty surrounding the tariffs Trump announced last week. The market was expecting something reciprocal but immediately questioned the validity of the metrics used to calculate what tariffs […]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump says he won’t back down on his sweeping tariffs on imports from most of the world unless countries even out their trade with the U.S. He’s digging in on his plans to implement the taxes that have sent financial markets reeling, raised fears of a recession and upended the global trading system. Speaking to reporters Sunday aboard Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t want global markets to fall, but also that he wasn’t concerned about the massive sell-off either, adding, “sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” His comments came after Trump’s aides sought to soothe market concerns by saying more than 50 nations had reached out about launching negotiations to lift the tariffs.

Immigration reform is something the agricultural industry has been pushing for several years now. And recently, U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse says we might be moving in that direction. “So, we’re looking at ways that we can reform our visa programs to better suit today’s agriculture so that the workers that we have can rest assured […]

Raleigh, NC (April 4, 2025) — The North Carolina Pork Council and Smithfield Foods donated $30,000 and 30,000 pounds of pork products to the MANNA FoodBank to fight hunger in North Carolina communities. Smithfield’s 30,000-pound protein donation was made up of ready-to-eat items including lunch meat, hams and smoked sausage, and was the equivalent of 120,000 […]

Well, the big word, no question about this in weather is pollen, to tell us where it’s coming from and just how bad it is, as if we don’t already know Corey Davis from the state climate office of North Carolina. Last week, Corey I went to South Carolina. When I got to Columbia, the […]

This is the SFN Market Report with Brooks Schaffer of Palmetto Grain. Reach him at [email protected] or 843-540-4540. The USDA report came and went on Monday without the fireworks we were expecting. The fireworks came after what Trump labeled liberation day. After several tariff deadlines came and went with the can being kicked down the […]

There’s been a lot of discussion in recent years about the opportunities within climate-smart agriculture. Jon Doggett, former CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, says we’ve unfortunately missed a few opportunities as well. “When we started these conversations 30 years ago or more, you know, we didn’t even know what questions we wanted to […]

On the last Friday of March, the Farmdoc team at the University of Illinois held a webinar discussing the ARC-PLC or farm safety net decision which is due at your local FSA office on April 15. In it, University of Illinois agricultural economists Nick Paulson and Gary Schnitkey made the case that farmers should choose […]