research and science

Everyone wants healthy, thriving honey bee colonies. One-third of the food we eat requires pollinators, and commercial beekeepers transport honey bees hundreds of miles each year to pollinate almond trees and other crops.

Researchers have been working for well over a decade to enhance the health of pollinators and now beekeepers, citizen scientists, and anyone interested in pollinator health can join in using a new online tool, Beescape.

With the recent release of the 2017 Census of Agriculture, the agricultural industry has a chance to remind consumers about the importance of agriculture, and in Oklahoma that is no exception. With $7.5 billion of agriculture products sold in 2017, Oklahoma Agriculture continues to show its importance.

Military-connected youth have an exciting opportunity to join other members of the military family this summer. These residential and day camps will develop skills and teach the campers new techniques that will help prepare them to be productive citizens.

The 2017 Census of Agriculture results are out, and Maryland shows its diversity, with poultry, an array of crops, vegetables, and floriculture ranking high for a small state. Maryland is small, but it reaches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Appalachian Mountains, providing a suitable environment for a variety of agricultural commodities.

Land managers have a new tool in their firefighting arsenals that models forest fuels in three dimensions. These 3D fuel models have the potential to make firefighting and the management of controlled burns safer and less costly while helping to protect valuable natural resources.

Since 1801, Tennessee’s motto has been “Agriculture and Commerce.” As we see in the latest Census of Agriculture results, our farmers do their part keep our motto alive, with agriculture remaining the number one industry in the state. In 2017, our state’s farmers and ranchers sold more than $3.8 billion in agricultural products.

USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently released the results from the 2017 Census of Agriculture (COA). Unlike the annual estimating program, which estimates acreage, yield, production, price and value on major commodities, the COA takes a look at the people who are our farmers and ranchers and accounts for minor commodities produced across the Grand Canyon State.

It’s a new year at USDA, at least for those of us forecasting agricultural commodity markets. Every May, the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) in the Office of the Chief Economist releases USDA’s initial projections of the markets for the crops and livestock that will be produced and harvested in the new crop year. WAOB develops USDA’s official forecasts by coordinating Interagency Commodity Estimates Committees (ICECs) to compile the latest and most comprehensive information and intelligence available from across USDA agencies. On May 10, USDA released its World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report with these estimates for the 2019/20 crop year. The report also includes updated information on the 2018/19 and previous marketing years, but the early assessment of the “new crop” is a focal point of the May report.

In 2017, consumers in the United States spent $1.2 trillion on U.S.-produced food. Nearly all food starts out on a farm, but did you ever wonder how the value added from processing, packaging, transporting, and marketing agricultural food products factors into the costs?