Beef

Florida agriculture suffered more than $190 million in losses from Hurricane Milton, making it the costliest for farmers and ranchers of three cyclones that pummeled the state in 2024, according to University of Florida researchers.

AgriNews has followed the Rahn family throughout the year. This is the last in a series of updates about the family members and the decisions they make on their farm.

Indiana Farm Bureau announced “Right This Very Minute: A Table-to-Farm Book About Food and Farming” as the 2025 INFB Book of the Year.

The 2025 Indiana Farm Bureau Book of the Year educates children where the food they eat daily comes from in an informative and fun way.

Though growth in economic activity was generally small, expectations for growth rose moderately across most geographies and sectors across the Federal Reserve Districts.

Garrett Hawkins, a Waterloo farmer, was elected president of the Illinois Corn Growers Association for 2024-2025 at its recent reorganizational meeting.

Optimal cow and bull management will produce a uniform calf crop that is born in a 60-day window or less for most commercial herds.

An outbreak of often-fatal epizootic hemorrhagic disease afflicted more than 500 white-tailed deer in Indiana’s Allen, Porter and Wabash counties last summer.

Cattle and sheep graze on permanent pasture, cover crops and crop residue on Pasture Grazed Regenerative Farm in northern Illinois.

Cade Bushnell received the Randy Stauffer Stewardship Award, recognizing his farm conservation work through the Precision Conservation Management program.

For the first time since the end of 2019, farmland values in the 7th Federal Reserve District did not see a year-over-year increase.

This year’s Greater Peoria Farm Show will include a new Kubota Sidekick UTV giveaway and the new University of Illinois Extension seminar series.

CattleCon 2025 invites future agricultural leaders to San Antonio to experience the largest cattle industry event of the year, Feb. 4-6.

McDonald’s USA, Lopez Foods and Syngenta North America announced a collaboration that aims to increase feed efficiency and help reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions released per pound of meat produced.

Fall fieldwork is near completion for Berkeley Boehne after some much-needed rain slowed tillage for some of his fields.

Even amidst the ever-present challenges that are part of farming, we have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season.

The goal of the Illinois Grazing Lands Coalition is to help support livestock producers in building profitable, sustainable grazing operations.

Fall is a great time to enjoy the fruits of our labor as farmers and to remind us of our many blessings as we approach Thanksgiving. Be sure to give proper thanks to the author of those blessings.

Have you started your holiday decorating? I did see some cute ornaments to make using scrap wool felt. I have a bunch of scraps from the felted coasters I made using my Scottish blackface wool.

Voters chose to send Donald Trump, who served his first term as U.S. president from 2016 to 2020, back to the White House in the Nov. 5 national election.

Chef Bryan Flower hurries toward one of the raised “free-to-pick” vegetable, flower and herb beds that flank Neptune North residence and dining hall on the Northern Illinois University campus in DeKalb.

As a high school student, Richard Siedenburg did not plan to join his dad farming, but that changed after spending time in other countries in the U.S. Army and Army Reserves.

Ron Dykstra knew from a very young age that he wanted to farm.

Charley Jordan retired from the Army as a Chief Warrant Officer 4 in 2017, after more than 28 years of service.

Lt. Col. Dan Rooney will be the opening general session speaker at CattleCon 2025, Feb. 4-6, in San Antonio.

Agricultural economic activity has been flat to down modestly since early September, with some crop prices remaining unprofitably low.

For more than 30 years, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association has offered the annual Redbook to help cattle producers effectively and efficiently record their daily production efforts.

What a great harvest we had, huge crop and great weather to harvest in. Aside from the dusty road conditions, I do not recall an easier harvest ever.

Once again, no shortage of things to do on the farm and couple that with the planning and office work that continues to be done, there won’t be much time for rest or slacking.

If you buy nearly two billion pounds of beef a year — an on-the-hoof equivalent of seven million cattle — you’d think you’d get the best deal ever from your suppliers. Think again, says McDonald’s.

Harvest is on pace for the Rahn family to finish earlier in 2024 than they have in many years.

The Beef Quality Assurance training and certification program will be offered at 11 sites in Indiana.

With the current crises we face on all fronts, foreign and domestic, we need a strong leader and God’s help to get us through.

The National Cattlemen’s Foundation is accepting applications for the 2025 CME Group Beef Industry Scholarship. Ten scholarships of $1,500 each will be awarded to outstanding students pursuing careers in the beef industry.

The focus at Schoepp Farms LLC is to keep soil and nutrients on the land.

Multiple research projects focused on making a difference for cattle producers has earned Lizzie Schafer the honor of being selected a finalist for the American Star in Agriscience award.

For more than 30 years, Cattlemen’s College sponsored by Zoetis has provided cattle producers with valuable information to help improve their herds and businesses.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association is reminding students of internship opportunities available for the spring 2025 semester.

Will we someday return to a more diversified Midwest agriculture economy incorporating livestock into row crop operations?

We have all but finished our harvest for the year. Corn chopping went extremely smooth with no rain delays and to my recollection only one truck needing pulled all season long — surely a record.

Who would have thought that hurricanes would impact Illinois weather so much, but that is what has happened. Not just one, but two of those storms made their way to southern Illinois with ample amounts of rain.

Like farmers and ranchers, veterinarians love to pour concrete. Many build customized facilities dedicated to their animal health mission: examination rooms, operating theaters, cattle chutes, holding pens, loading docks.

Seedstock breeders should be identifying bulls they plan to consign to the 2025 Illinois Performance Tested Bull Sale.

Farmers are increasingly turning to high-moisture corn silage, specifically earlage or snaplage, due to its high energy content and easy digestibility.

Corn harvest started on the Rahn farm at the middle of September, which is typical for them.

We’ve gone more than a month now without any rain and none in our forecast, so the pastures are thirsty. In spite of that, the cover crops on our wheat stubble are looking surprisingly well.

Nominations are now being accepted for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Environmental Stewardship Award.

Beef production spans generations in the Hanson and Kuipers family in Iroquois County where they operate a forage-based program utilizing a paddock grazing system along with growing corn, soybeans and wheat.

Disaster assistance for producers and training new staff has been among the many focuses of the Farm Service Agency’s Illinois offices over the last several months.

After waiting, not so patiently, for the corn to mature, we finally had a field last week get mature enough to start chopping. Now we will race to stay ahead of the corn getting too mature.