Kansas

David Pfrang and Jim Dobbins, who live in the rolling hills of northeastern Kansas, are "two farmers raising an few cattle and a lot of Cain," says Harvest Public Media in a deep dive into the politics of the beef checkoff program.

The renamed Citizens Bank of Weir, located in a town of 700 people in southeastern Kansas, could be the bank of the future, says the New York Times.

"It will be nearly another decade" before the mammoth National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility in Kansas goes into operation, says Drovers CattleNetwork, reporting on a presentation at a veterinarians' conference.

During the agricultural boom that started in 2006, farm income zoomed and many producers upgraded their equipment. Data from two major farm states, Illinois and Kansas, shows the impact of the expenditures.

Three states in the Great Plains - Texas, Kansas and Oklahoma - account for nearly half of crop insurance indemnities paid so far this year, say USDA data.

A dozen elections today may influence food and agriculture policy nationally, They range from the Kansas race that could determine the next chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee to referendums on soda taxes and GMO labeling.

Independent Greg Orman campaigned in typically Republican rural Kansas with the argument incumbent Pat Roberts doesn't keep the state's agricultural interests in mind, says the Associated Press.

Sen Pat Roberts, potentially Agriculture Committee chairman if Republicans win control of the Senate, rarely mentions his record on agriculture - defender of crop insurance and author of the 1996 Freedom to Farm law - on the campaign trail.

"The race for the U.S. Senate seat from Kansas is about to get nastier," says the Kansas City Star in a story headlined, "With a week to go, U.S. Senate candidates in Kansas still haven't closed the sale."

The latest poll from Kansas shows a dead-even race for the Senate. Business Insider says "there's a simple reason" for incumbent Pat Roberts' rebound from trailing independent Greg Orman - Orman "has finally been put under the microscope."

"Sen Pat Roberts (R) of Kansas may be making a comeback after having been left for dead on the battlefield," says the political newsletter Sabato's Crystal Ball, which now lists the Senate race as a toss-up vs the previous "Leans Independent."

With Abebgoa to open its $300 million celllulosic ethanol plant in Kansas on Friday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune says there is worry within the industry that debut of large-scale cellulosic plants in the United States may also be the closing act for big plants domestically.

Republican Pat Roberts is the leader in newly released polls by CNN and Fox. Roberts, potentially the next chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was ahead of independent Greg Orman 49-48 with 3 percent undecided in the CNN poll...

Independent Greg Orman leads Sen Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, by 7 points, 47-40 with 13 percent undecided, in a Gravis Marketing poll of the Senate race in Kansas.

Republican Pat Roberts, a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, faces an uphill struggle to win his fourth Senate term from Kansas, say two polls over the weekend.

Republican Joni Ernst's folksiness seems to be paying off in the retail politics of Iowa, says the weekly political tip sheet Sabato's Crystal Ball, in rating the Senate race in the Hawkeye State as "leans Republican," vs the previous "Toss-up."