The transportation bill passed last week exempts farmers from an onerous Commercial Drivers License requirement. American Farm Bureau transportation specialist Andrew Walmsley said, “Those farmers and ranchers that are using a farm vehicle to haul their calves or their produce to market were exempt from some requirements that were meant for long-haul truckers, commercial truck drivers.

The fact that Goss's wilt was a widespread corn disease in Minnesota in 2011 is broadly known.  The question of how much Goss's wilt will develop in 2012 is dependent in part on field and weather conditions. As of June 13, Goss's wilt had been confirmed over the previous week in several counties in Iowa and Nebraska. Thus it could also start to appear soon in Minnesota.

Indiana's forage crop yields are down and won't likely improve without decent rainfall in the near future, prompting a need for growers to take precautions to avoid further crop loss, says a Purdue University Extension forage specialist.

Forages initially were damaged during hard freezes in April and have struggled to yield amid the unrelenting hot, dry weather of May and June.

"Many producers have reported to me that their first cutting was reduced fairly substantially as compared with other years – down by 25 percent or more," Keith Johnson said.

The nation’s first E15 (15 percent ethanol/85 percent gasoline) gallons are being sold at a Zarco 66 “Oasis” station in Lawrence, Kansas, and plans to offer E15 at the nation’s second retail station, a Zarco 66 in Ottawa, Kansas, are nearly complete. On June 8, the EPA gave final approval for the sale and use of E15 ethanol blends in light duty vehicles made since 2001. This represents nearly two-thirds of all vehicles on the road and nearly three-fourths of all miles driven. Given present market conditions, E15 will sell for less than E10 and gasoline not containing ethanol.

Indiana dairy producers feel the pain of their corn- and soybean-farming brethren. The weekslong drought literally is drying up feed supplies in the field and leaving producers with some tough decisions, say two Purdue University Extension dairy specialists. Producers need to act now to make sure they have access to alternative feed sources if dry conditions persist and they plan to continue operating their dairies at current herd size, said Tamilee Nennich and Mike Schutz.

The U.S. government announced that Canada has been extended an invitation to actively join the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement negotiations. The National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) and the U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) strongly support Canada’s participation in the TPP negotiations. Both groups agree that since Mexico has been invited to join the talks, it only makes sense for the third member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to join as well. However, whereas Mexico and the U.S. already have removed all dairy trade barriers between them, this is not the case with respect to trade between Canada and the U.S. – a situation which TPP must remedy, say the two organizations.