Agribusiness Update for Tuesday 5/14/13

Agribusiness Update for Tuesday 5/14/13

This is the Agribusiness Update...I’m Greg Martin...

House Ag Committee Chair Frank Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson have released a discussion draft of the Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act of 2013. The bipartisan bill cuts spending, reduces the size of government and makes common-sense reforms. According to Lucas - the bill is responsible and balanced.

USDA is projecting winter wheat production at 1.49-billion bushels. That’s a decline of 10-percent from 2012. Area harvested for grain is forecast at 32.7-million acres - down six-percent from last year - and yield is down 1.8-bushels at a forecast of 45.4-bushels per acre. Hard Red Winter production is down 23-percent from a year ago at 768-million bushels.

A OSU new study suggests that overgrazing and other factors increase the severity of cheatgrass invasion in sagebrush steppe, one of North America’s most endangered ecosystems. 
The research found that overgrazed land loses the mechanisms that can resist invasion. This includes degradation of once-abundant native bunchgrasses and trampling that disturbs biological soil crusts.

That’s today’s Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network. 

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