Latest Agribusiness Headlines

All the headlines from our Agribusiness Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Schumer Seeks Help for N.Y. Craft Beer Industry with Crop Insurance Program

Dec 12 2017 // U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer wrapped up another tour of New York’s 62 counties Friday with a call for greater federal help for the state’s craft beer industry.During a stop at a brewery in the Columbia County...

Nebraska Corn Crop Diminished by Strong Winds in Late October

Dec 11 2017 // Several days of strong winds in late October arrived at the wrong time for many farmers who saw their crops shrink as ears of corn fell to the ground in Nebraska and western Iowa.The extent of the damage varied, but in the...

Arkansas Farmers Get $466M in Payments for Crop Losses in 2016

Dec 11 2017 // The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Arkansas farmers received $466 million in federal “safety net” payments this year for their crop losses in 2016, third highest in the nation. The Arkansas...

Harvey-Related Woes Linger on Some Texas Farms

Dec 11 2017 // For days after Hurricane Harvey flooded her Sour Lake, Texas, neighborhood, Deanna Coburn’s farm was silent, without its usual chorus of bleating goats and crowing roosters.The Beaumont Enterprise reports her...

Judge Orders North Carolina-Based Pork Producer to Clean Up Water Pollution

Dec 8 2017 // A major pork producer must live up to an agreement it signed 11 years ago and work on cleaning up water pollution tied to almost a dozen industry-scale hog operations, a federal judge ruled this week.Murphy-Brown LLC must...

Monsanto Moves to Stop Arkansas from Banning its Dicamba Weed Killer

Dec 8 2017 // Monsanto has asked a judge to prevent Arkansas from enforcing a proposal going before lawmakers next week that would ban the use of a weed killer that farmers in several states have said drifts onto their crops and causes...

Los Angeles Wildfires Close Roads, Threaten Crops, Force Evacuations

Dec 7 2017 // Wildfires raging across Southern California have shut a major commuter artery in Los Angeles, suspended filming, wiped out more than $3 billion of market value for regional utility Edison International and are threatening...

COUNTRY Financial Appoints Thorpe VP of Commercial/Agribusiness Underwriting

Dec 6 2017 // Andrea Thorpe, of Bloomington, Illinois, has been named vice president of Commercial/Agribusiness Underwriting at COUNTRY Financial. She replaces Sheri Bane who will retire in January 2018.Thorpe will lead the Agribusiness...

California Seeking $4.4B in Federal Aid for Wildfires

Dec 4 2017 // California’s 53 U.S. House members are requesting $4.4 billion in federal aid to help the state recover from its deadliest wildfires ever.That’s down sharply from the $7.4 billion originally sought by Gov....

Harvey Flooding Put Some Texas Christmas Tree Farms Out of Business

Dec 1 2017 // For more than two decades, Deidra Marler and her family piled into pickup trucks after Thanksgiving lunch and headed over to the K&K Evergreen Farm to pick out their annual Christmas tree.The Beaumont Enterprise...

Florida’s Hurricane Irma Recovery: The Cost, The Challenges, The Lessons

Nov 30 2017 // The hurricane season is officially over, but it didn’t go by without leaving a major mark on Florida and its insurance industry. Hurricane Irma, a name most in the state won’t soon forget, first hit the Florida...

Texas’ Hochheim Prairie Farm Mutual Ratings on CreditWatch; Harvey Cited

Nov 29 2017 // S&P Global Ratings has placed its ‘B+’ financial strength ratings for Hochheim Prairie Farm Mutual Insurance Assoc. (HPFMIA) and its subsidiary, Hochheim Prairie Casualty Insurance Co. (HPCIC; collectively...

Hurricane Harvey Caused More than $200M in Crop, Livestock Losses in Texas

Nov 20 2017 // Hurricane Harvey caused more than $200 million in crop and livestock losses, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Hurricane losses by agricultural commodity include: livestock – $93 million; cotton...

Agribusiness Contributes $23B to Arizona’s Economy, Report Shows

Nov 20 2017 // Researchers with the University of Arizona say agricultural businesses contribute more than $23 billion in sales to the state’s economy.A report released in early November by the university’s Cooperative...

Canada’s Economical Restructures to Strengthen Broker Relationships, Profits

Nov 17 2017 // Economical Insurance announced the creation of a new organizational structure, with three market-facing regions.The restructuring is designed to improve profits, strengthen relationships with broker partners, capture more...

How Consolidation Has Changed Crop Insurance Sector: Conning

Nov 17 2017 // Crop insurance was once a sector full of smaller players, but a mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A)-driven push for efficiency and scale has left it dominated by fewer and larger carriers, and analysts at Conning predict a...

Louisiana Parishes Have Been Designated Disaster Areas Due to Harvey

Nov 16 2017 // The federal government has designated several Louisiana parishes disaster areas due to damages caused by flooding from Hurricane Harvey.Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain says the U.S. Department of...

Austin American-Statesman: Texas Has 100s of Substandard Dams in Populated Areas

Nov 14 2017 // The earthen dam on the outskirts of Georgetown in Texas’ Williamson County certainly does not look flimsy.The Austin American-Statesman reports at 35 feet high and nearly a third of a mile long, it has done a...

Nebraska Farmers Coop Fined Nearly $374K After Worker Trapped in Grain Bin

Nov 13 2017 // U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited a Nebraska grain-handling cooperative for failing to protect workers from grain bin entrapment and engulfment hazards. The...

Agribusiness Contributes $23B to Arizona’s Economy, Report Shows

Nov 13 2017 // Researchers with the University of Arizona say agricultural businesses contribute more than $23 billion in sales to the state’s economy.A report released this week by the university’s Cooperative...