Biofuel Targets Good & Bad and Feral Hogs Population

Biofuel Targets Good & Bad and Feral Hogs Population

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.

**New biofuel targets proposed by the EPA left the biodiesel industry downbeat even as they pleased ethanol producers. While the ethanol industry was glad the EPA is seeking to maintain the mandate for conventional corn ethanol at 15 billion gallons, the agency's proposed rule contained some ominous signs about the administration's approach to biodiesel.

EPA said it was reluctant to propose increases in the mandates for biodiesel and renewable diesel because of the impact on other industries.

**The U.S. is going "Hog Wild" ... or at least feral hog ... with a population growing to an estimated 6-million, despite increased government funding to combat the menace blamed for billions of dollars in damage each year.

Three years ago, Congress appropriated $20 million to fund the program. This year, it was upped to $25 million.

The program has had some success, virtually eradicating the pigs in six states.

According to the USDA's Dale Nolte, farmers in the Mississippi Delta region, where wild hogs once terrorized the landscape, are now able to sow crops with expectations of harvest.

**Wheat acreage in the U.S. is at its lowest level in more than 100 years and that's bad news for the country's millers and bakers who depend on stable grain supplies.

According to a new report, rising yields have helped offset declining acreage, but a catastrophe like a major drought could put America's breadmakers in a bind.

American farmers still produce a lot of wheat despite a roughly 40% reduction in wheat acres over the past 27 years.

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