Keith Massey, a crop farmer and hog producer from Columbus Junction in southeast Iowa, contracted the bacterial disease brucellosis from his sows that were exposed to wild pigs. Feral swine, numbering an estimated 4 million nationwide, can spread disease if they come in contact with domestic pigs. Wild hogs roaming through at least 39 states are lately alarming wildlife officials by their population growth in northern states, such as Iowa and Michigan. Under a national wildlife disease...

The USDA s final estimate of the 2006 production not only shocked the market, but also scared end users into aggressively scrambling for coverage via the cash markets, futures and options markets. With corn rallying to buy acres this spring, soybeans will try to keep pace with corn as not to lose out on seeded acres. With the smaller production figure, the USDA also lowered projected ending stocks for this marketing year to the second-smallest in history at 752 million bu. producers will...

Farm forum highlights state's Ag initiatives Kevin Howell Reporter Area farmers and farm interests from as far away as Lake County were treated to a free lunch and state agricultural highlights Friday during a Lafayette Bank and Trust-sponsored Farm Forum. Farm forum highlights state's Ag initiatives Kevin Howell Reporter Area farmers and farm interests from as far away as Lake County were treated to a free lunch and state agricultural highlights Friday during a Lafayette Bank and...

Meat exports help pork producers Agriculture News from HPJ - Your Ag News Source Agriculture News from HPJ - Your Ag News Source Agriculture News from HPJ - Your Ag News Source Agriculture News from HPJ - Your Ag News Source High Plains Journal - Farm, Ranch, Agribusiness, Crops and Livestock High Plains Journal - Farm, Ranch, Agribusiness, Crops and Livestock Markets OnRequestEnd. Meat exports help pork producers Agriculture News from HPJ - Your Ag News Source Agriculture News from HPJ -...

Keith Massey, a crop farmer and hog producer from Columbus Junction in southeast Iowa, contracted the bacterial disease brucellosis from his sows that were exposed to wild pigs. Under a national wildlife disease management program, Keirn said researchers will collect and test wild pigs in up to 25 states to look for the presence of classical swine fever. Wild hogs roaming through at least 39 states are lately alarming wildlife officials by their population growth in northern states, such...

Baby Pig, sometimes called Big Bertha, weighs in at 283 pounds, and Mayfield said he would be sorry to see this particular pig go, but he was happy to have finally won the grand prize after showing pigs for 10 years. Wallis, 10, has been showing pigs for three years and she had a particular form in driving her hogs, bent over, keeping her eye on the judge, with her whip over the back of the pig. Pigs were divided into classes according to the weight of each pig, with the lightest in Class...

Even though farmers and farming experts know the market is volatile and corn may not stay at such high prices for long, they still see those high prices as a relief for the farm economy, at least for now. Ethanol isn't solely responsible for the high prices farmers are getting for their corn, experts say. Hundreds of local residents have challenged the plant and six of their representatives filed suit seeking to permanently block the plant's construction. Probably the most famous argument...

Around the Northwest, there is growing attention to how the food that nourishes us is produced. For farms animals, it can make all the difference in the world. Paul Shapiro of The Humane Society of the United States' Factory Farming Campaign says reducing our dependence on factory farming practices, such as keeping pigs and chickens in cages their whole lives, might cut food supplies enough to require some modest diet changes toward more grains and vegetables. Paul Shapiro of The Humane...

Like Albertans who see an overheating economy with their oil boom, Iowans worry about the huge increase of trucks on their roads, about the refineries' voracious appetite for water leading to the depletion of ground water, about an influx of out-of-state workers, and about the overall upheaval in their traditional farm economies. As he does every year, he plans to rotate his crop this spring, planting half corn and half soybeans, resisting the trend to increase corn production. To a lesser...