Farm loan volumes increase (Kansas City Fed): Farm lenders, especially smaller ag banks, are turning increasingly to USDA loan guarantees and loan syndication to handle a rising demand for farm loans.
Wild bee identification (Center for Food Safety): The Wild Bee ID app was developed by the Center for Food Safety, an environmental group, to make it easy to identify wild bees and the plants that will provide habitat for them.
Parks for play, not pesticides (Environmental Health News): Two members of the New York City Council proposed legislation to ban city agencies from spraying glyphosate-based herbicides and other toxic pesticides in parks and other public spaces.
What do urban coyotes eat? (High Country News): As coyotes spread from the western plains into metropolitan areas, their prey increasingly includes small pets. In fact, a National Park Service study says up to one-fifth of urban coyotes’ diet is cats.
Weather trumps technology in planting corn (farmdoc daily): According to two University of Illinois economists, a stretch of fair weather is the key determinant in the timely planting of the corn crop because despite the larger equipment now in use, there been little change in the number of days needed to plant the corn crop.