More in Heat and Drought

Having again failed to schedule floor time for a new farm bill despite expiration of current law on Sept. 30, House leadership is unlikely to be moved to action by a fellow lawmaker’s scathing critique. But that didn’t stop Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, from making such a harsh assessment during a Tuesday press call....More

Drought-affected farmers forced to buy hay from out of state can take steps to avoid introducing red imported fire ants to their farms....More

For years, many farmers in the Midwest signed up for federal crop insurance coverage, took the papers and struck them in a file folder or drawer and never looked at them again. But not this year....More

Cattle producers in drought-stricken areas are facing the same decisions that producers in the Southern Plains and Louisiana faced last year -- purchase high-priced hay and feedstuffs to survive or cull in order to retain part of their herds....More

Participants are invited to submit questions for Thursday's drought issues webinar hosted by the National Agricultural Law Center of the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture....More

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has announced the availability of up to $5 million in grants to evaluate and demonstrate agricultural practices that help farmers and ranchers adapt to drought. NRCS is taking applications for Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) to help producers build resiliency into their production systems so they can adapt to climatic extremes, such as the historic drought impacting the nation....More

Arkansas’ drought has made hay in short supply and what’s available is expensive, raising the importance of stretching every ounce....More

The USDA intends to file special provisions with the federal crop insurance program to allow haying or grazing of cover crops without impacting the insurability of planted 2013 spring crops, a move that can help provide much needed forage and feed this fall and winter for livestock producers....More

On August 15, the USDA designated four Louisiana parishes and seven contiguous parishes natural disaster areas as a result of the drought....More

The area of Arkansas covered by the most intense drought has expanded again, but its growth rate slowed significantly from the previous week, according to Thursday’s (August 16) U.S. Drought Monitor Map....More

With the 2008 food-price riots in developing nations still fresh in mind, non-governmental agency analysts are wary of where this year’s diminishing U.S. corn yields might lead. With much of U.S. farm country under a punishing drought -- along with reports that world food prices have gone up some 6 percent in the last few weeks -- corn prices have spiked....More