January 28, 2025

Pictured: National Pork Board’s David Newman at the 2025 Iowa Pork Congress (Photo by Brent Barnett/Brownfield) A leader with the National Pork Board says hog farmers have indicated they want a significant amount of their checkoff investments spent on domestic market development. David Newman, senior vice president of market growth, says addressing domestic demand is […] The post Utilizing pork checkoff investments to boost domestic market development appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

Pictured: Brownfield’s Brent Barnett interviews Iowa hog farmer Matt Gent at the 2025 Iowa Pork Congress A past president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association says he’s optimistic about the direction of the U.S. hog industry. Matt Gent has a farrow-to-finish operation near Wellman in Washington County. “It’s hard not to recognize the tough economic […] The post An optimistic future for U.S. pork producers appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A new, $800 million mixed cattle processing facility is slated to begin operations in Warren County, Missouri in April of this year.  America’s Heartland Packing LLC is in the final stages of construction and hiring around 1,300 employees.  Once fully operational, the facility will process over 2,400 cattle per day. Missouri Ag Director Chris Chinn […] The post America’s Heartland Packing poised for open appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

The communications director with the Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council (MSMC) says the state’s soybean checkoff is focused on helping young and beginning farmers. Samantha Turner tells Brownfield the organization can be a farmer’s teammate. “In creating market avenues, demand, investing in research and technology that can increase yield.”  She says, “Also have less impact down […] The post Missouri soybean checkoff helping beginning farmers appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

Photo by Brownfield’s Erin Anderson. A dairy market analyst says there’s potential for expansion in the industry. Mike North with Ever.ag says growing consumer interest in dairy as a protein could create more market opportunities for dairy producers. “Products that promote health, for example,” he says. “Consumers are demanding more protein and as we walk […] The post What’s next for the dairy industry appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

University of Minnesota Extension educator Susanne Hinrichs says the 9th Women in Ag Conference hosted by Extension and the Minnesota Farm Service Agency is important in many ways. “Not only because conferences are live, they’re real people, bringing people together, that’s an important piece.” She tells Brownfield the conference will help producers achieve their goals […] The post Minnesota Women in Ag Conference February 11th appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A livestock economist says the latest Cattle on Feed report shows no signs of widespread expansion in the cattle herd. Kenny Burdine with the University of Kentucky says the USDA estimates 38.7 percent of on-feed inventory is heifers. “It’s definitely not a number that implies that we’re retaining heifers enough to grow a cow herd,” […] The post Economist says heifer retention isn’t enough to grow the cattle herd appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A marketing advisor has concerns about the future of new and expanded soybean crushing facilities.  John Heinberg with Total Farm Marketing tells Brownfield demand for soybean oil to make renewable biodiesel has struggled. “Right now, the picture is very cloudy in terms of the biofuels side. You know first off, the Biden administration really kind […] The post Marketing advisor concerned about new soybean crush plants appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story

A co-founder of AgMarket.net says several factors are influencing price possibilities in the corn market this year. Matt Bennett, who also farms in central Illinois, says issues with the crop in the U.S. or South America would push prices higher. “Does that mean $6 corn?”  He says, “I’m not sure.  That would be the very […] The post Outlook shows range of corn price possibilities appeared first on Brownfield Ag News. View Full Story