farm service agency

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month. Deirdre Holder, FSA regulatory review director, was diagnosed two years ago at stage 3a and is now a survivor in remission. Here, she shares her story.

Dairy producers have until June 1, 2018, to register for the new and improved Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy), which provides protection to dairy producers from shifting milk and feed prices.

The World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) is a monthly report providing a global look at the markets for key agricultural products. The many users include agricultural commodity traders, agricultural producers, processors, retailers and consumers, input suppliers, livestock and dairy feeders, and researchers interested in global agricultural markets. The market uses the WASDE report as a common understanding of current conditions under which many take actions to position themselves or make future plans based on the current global supply and demand situation.

Even before the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, agricultural producers have recognized the economic and emotional devastation that drought can cause. Recently, the focus has shifted from dealing with drought as an unexpected hazard, to more proactive planning for the inevitability of drought. One of the tools available to producers is the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), a weekly map of drought conditions produced jointly by the USDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

When a disaster strikes, farmers and ranchers don’t want a process, they want help.

Financing is a challenge for business start-ups, and it is especially true for small farms. Sarah Longstreth, owner of Good Stead Farm, made her agriculture career goal a reality with some help from USDA.

Hokuao Arce, a 12-year-old student at Molokai Middle School in Molokai, Hawaii, is naturally following in his family’s footsteps and embracing his agricultural background.

“As of 2015, an estimated 18,091,710 people lived in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, up from 17,986,898 in 2014. Experts predict the watershed’s population will surpass 20 million by 2030 and reach 21.4 million by 2040. Each of the 18.1 million people that live in the region affects the Bay: consuming resources, altering the landscape and polluting the air and water.” -- Chesapeake Bay Program

Doug Harper, a fifth-generation farmer, moved to the Texas Gulf Coast area in 2012, looking forward to the potential for increasing corn, cotton, milo, and watermelon production there.

Texas farmer Doug Harper comes from a long line of farmers. Growing up in the business, he knows there are always ups and downs, and the importance of insurance coverage to prevent against the “what ifs?”

Since its inception nearly 100 years ago, USDA’s Agricultural Outlook Forum has provided analysis of the farm economy, including the short- and long-term outlook for agricultural commodity markets. Producing credible and reliable information about supply and demand conditions for all the major crop and livestock markets, along with the implications for prices, production and trade, is a year-round process that relies on expertise from dozens of highly-trained analysts spread across several USDA agencies, including USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS).