USDA

The Agriculture Department received 51 patents and unveiled 180 inventions during fiscal 2013, according to its annual Report on Technology Transfer.

On Earth Day, AgSec Vilsack announced in Des Moines that USDA awarded $6 million to 10 universities to study the effects of climate change on agricultural production and to develop responses to them.

Cold, wet weather is holding the spring planting season to a slow start, says the weeklyCrop Progress report from USDA. At the start of this week, 6 pct of corn was planted in the major states vs the usual 22 pct.

The government could soon be required to make public how much a retailer or a specific store records in food stamp sales, says a story in Mother Jones and produced in partnership with the Food and Environment Reporting Network; a longer version appears at thefern.org.

The Commerce Department announced it will open an investigation into charges that Mexico is dumping subsidized sugar in the United States

In a step to protect the U.S. swine, herd, AgSec Vilsack announced the Agriculture Department will require reports of cases of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus and the similar Swine Delta Coronavirus.

The National Weather Service forecasts more precipitation than usual in the Midwest, the Plains and the Pacific Northwest for late April, which could delay spring planting but relieve dry conditions in the western Corn Belt and the central and southern Plains.

U.S. farmers will stick with traditional crop subsidies based on crop prices and shy away from the crop revenue subsidy created in the new farm law, says the Congressional Budget Office.

USDA has lowered its forecast of the U.S. corn stockpile for five months in a row and the current estimate, of 1.33 bln bu, is down 29 pct from November, when growers were harvesting a record-large crop, writes economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois.

Nothing says spring planting like snowfall across the upper Midwest in mid-April, does it? Up to five inches of snow fell in north central Wisconsin on Monday with forecasts of an inch or two of snow today in Detroit and Toledo.

The Agriculture Department said it will release the full results of the Census of Agriculture on May 2, after more than a year of work.

The 2014 farm law ended the direct-payment subsidy and made crop insurance the major farm support. For most states, there is little difference in the state's share of the receipts.

Last week, the Ag Insider reported AgSec Vilsack's comments on working with a nonprofit group on a potential mentoring project for beginning farmers.

AgSec Vilsack is optimistic about a foundation created by the 2014 farm law to encourage agricultural research. Funding is a recurrent problem despite wide agreement about the long-term payoff from the work.

The Agriculture Department plans to begin monthly reports in September or October on soybean crush, corn mill grind and cotton mill use, a senior official told reporters on Monday.

States are following the law in averting cuts in food stamp benefits tied to utility costs, said Rep Jim McGovern of Massachusetts during a lively moment in a House Agriculture Committee hearing.

AgSec Vilsack mentioned during the House hearing a possible "food corps" to provide mentoring and training for young people interested in farming.

The Conservation Reserve, the largest U.S. land retirement program, holds 25.58 mln ac, down 30 pct from its peak of 36.77 mln ac in 2007, at latest count by USDA.