Nebraska State

Missouri State

Oklahoma State

As Jess Bray pulled up to a 21-acre farm nestled in an eastern Oklahoma valley, she instantly got a warm feeling. “This is the place,” she thought. After attempting to buy two other properties before being outbid by cash buyers, Bray and her husband Jon began to wonder whether their dream of owning and operating their own farm would become a reality.

As investors pay top-dollar for land, farmers are often priced out

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced loan interest rates for August 2024, which became effective Aug. 1, 2024. USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans provide important access to capital to help farmers start or expand their farming operation, purchase equipment and storage structures or meet cash flow needs.

USDA Announces August 2024 Lending Rates for Agricultural Producers

Washington – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced changes to the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Farm Loan Programs, effective Sept. 25, 2024 — changes that are intended to increase opportunities for farmers and ranchers to be financially viable. These improvements, part of the Enhancing Program Access...

USDA Updates Farm Loan Programs To Increase Financial Freedom, Resilience And Profitability For Agricultural Producers

Minnesota State

Here's a closer look at how corn and soybeans in the state are progressing. The progress of Minnesota’s corn crop was behind historical averages in all 3 of the progress categories included in USDA’s most recent Crop Progress report. Silking progress has been behind compared to last year...

What’s going on with Minnesota’s corn and soybeans?

As news of large layoffs at ag equipment manufacturers make headlines and auction prices continue to soar, producers are hesitant to invest in new machinery. But is the current situation actually a good time to buy? On the latest Unscripted podcast, host Tyne Morgan brings in Greg Peterson (AKA Machinery Pete) to help unravel what’s happening.

Machinery Pete Sees a Surprising Opportunity in the Current Ag Equipment Market

CBS San Francisco

For much of 2024, it appeared the Federal Reserve had successfully navigated a tricky line, tempering the hottest inflation in four decades while keeping the U.S. economy from sinking into a recession. But recent weak economic data is prompting some economists to caution that the nation isn't out of the danger zone just yet. One economic indicator sparking fears of a so-called hard landing was the disappointing jobs report on August 2, which showed that the unemployment rate jumped to 4.3% in July from 4.1% in the prior month. That climb triggered the Sahm Rule, or when the three-month moving average of...

Is the U.S. headed for a recession? Here's what the experts say.

Denver, CO

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David Heitz

No, pallet shelters for people experiencing homelessness don’t fold into caskets. It’s a question a reader posed one of the first times I wrote about pallet shelters. I find the pallet shelters to be more palatable than ice fishing tents. The Colorado Village Collaborative operates both micro-communities and the so-called Safe Outdoor Spaces with the tents. We all learned the tents are not safe when a fire roared through a CVC Safe Outdoor Space, destroying the compound quickly. Officials never disclosed a cause of the fire.

Opinion: No, pallet shelters for homeless in Denver, Aurora don’t fold into caskets

Ohio State

The Lantern

On Tuesday, licensed Ohio dispensaries began legally selling non-medical marijuana to consumers; however, the drug’s possession, growth and/or usage are still prohibited on Ohio State’s campus. Credit: Jefferee Woo/Tampa Bay Times/TNS [Original caption: Four citizen-led petitions with proposals to update Dallas’ charter hit the 20,000 valid signature threshold to make it on the Nov. 5 election ballot, including one that would ban police officers from arresting or citing people carrying less than four ounces of marijuana.] As of Tuesday, students 21 and older can now legally purchase marijuana in Ohio.

Dispensary sales of recreational marijuana began Tuesday; possession and usage still prohibited on Ohio State’s campus

The manure spreader may be considered by some to be the lowliest of all farm implements. Yet, considering that it was one of the most frequently used implements on many farms and weighing the huge impact it exerted on reducing the back-breaking labor to spread manure across fields, enriching them. and boosting yields, the manure spreader deserves a prime position in the pantheon of farm machinery advances.

Celebrating the history of the manure spreader

Colorado State

A bill quietly introduced this spring in the Colorado legislature to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia obtained by harm reductionists has become law. As low-key as the legislation was introduced, the bill was signed into law without fanfare June 6. It garnered little to no media attention.

Colorado legalizes needles, pipes for meth and crack if obtained by harm reduction group

Markets Insider

As mortgage rates fall, refinancing applications soared 34.5% last week to the highest level in over two years, according to the MBA.

Borrowers are rushing to refinance their mortgages as rates tumble to the lowest level in over a year

Lenders have been lowering their rates ahead of a hoped-for interest rate cut in August.

Mortgage rate hopes as one lender offers below 4%

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The average rate on the popular U.S. 30-year mortgage plunged to its lowest level since May 2023 this week, following days of market turbulence resulting from last week's softer-than-expected employment report.

U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgage plunges to lowest since May 2023, Freddie Mac says

New York State

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Rootbound Homestead

Rural America is experiencing a significant amount of quiet stress. With an eye toward outpacing the current low crop prices, farmers are still concentrated on growing this year's crop. Many of them believe 2024 will go down in history as their worst financial year ever.

What's Happening To Our Farmers: USDA Predicts Worst Financial Year In History

Arkansas State

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. farm production expenditures report says higher input costs and lower commodity prices are threatening to shrink profits for farmers this year. The report says U.S. farms spent $481.9 billion on expenses necessary to run farming operations last year. That’s up 6.5% from 2022.

Rising costs, lower commodity prices threaten U.S. farmers’ profits

There’s a dearth of dairy replacements in the countryside. Dairy farmers began to understand that market reality in September 2023. As a result, U.S. dairy producers have sent fewer cows to slaughter for 46 consecutive weeks dating back to September 3, 2023, in order to preserve dairy cow numbers.

Cull cows drop 397,000 head in 10 months

Farmland prices keep climbing, according to USDA’s Land Values Report. Danny Munch, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, talks about what farmers are facing. Munch says, “The Department of Agriculture’s Land Values Report shows that agricultural real estate values are up five percent, or an average of...

New Report Shows Land Values at Record Levels

With interest rates sitting at more than two-decade highs and inflation continuing to bear down on consumers, big banks are preparing to face more risks from their lending practices. Suggested Reading. In the second quarter, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo all raised their provisions for credit...

Banks are bracing for consumers to stop paying off their credit cards

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The Lens

This year’s area of low oxygen in the Gulf of Mexico is larger than average, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Thursday. The “dead zone” is approximately 6,705 square miles , as measured last week. Within NOAA’s 38 years of measuring the dead zone, this year’s assessment marks the 12th-largest area of low to no oxygen, which can kill fish and marine life.

Gulf ‘dead zone’ larger than average, larger than expected for 2024, scientists announce

In addition to collecting more than 8,000 used needles in the past year from Denver drug users, the Harm Reduction Action Center passed out 10,000 meth pipes and “snort kits,” according to a newsletter sent to its supporters Thursday. They also connected about 1,700 people to medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Denver group hands out 10K meth pipes, ‘snort kits,’ connects 1,700 to treatment annually

NewsBreak

Farm income is down in Plains, say ag bankers

More than six of every 10 ag bankers in a Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank survey said that farm income was lower than a year ago...

Farm income is down in Plains, say ag bankers

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