Radio Newsline

This Year July 4th cookout celebrants may have more to celebrate than our country's independence. (Gary Crawford and Matt MacLachlan, USDA economist)

Even if you follow all the rules for grilling meat and poultry for that July 4th cookout, you can still give food poisoning bacteria a chance to make people sick by ignoring one important post-cooking rule. (Gary Crawford and USDA food safety expert, Meredith Carothers) ****Broadcasters: The USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE(888-674-6854)Listeners can also go online to Ask.usda.gov***

Meredith Carothers, food safety expert with the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline, outlining several ways you can get food safety questions answered live by real experts. ****Broadcasters: The USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE(888-674-6854) Listeners can also go online to Ask.usda.gov

We'll have a much better idea of this year's potential corn and soybean production very soon when USDA releases a key report. (Gary Crawford. Lance Honig with USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service. Seth Meyer, USDA Chief Economist) Broadcasters: USDA will release the Acreage Report Wednesday, June 30th at noon EDT.

Food safety experts say many of the food poisoning cases that will flare up on July 4th will be from two common grilling mistakes. (Gary Crawford and USDA food safety expert, Meredith Carothers) ****Broadcasters: The USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE(888-674-6854)Listeners can also go online to Ask.usda.gov***

Meredith Carothers, food safety expert with the USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline, giving the minimal recommended internal cooking temperatures for various meat and poultry products. ****Broadcasters: The USDA's Meat and Poultry Hotline number is 888-MPHOTLINE(888-674-6854) Listeners can also go online to Ask.usda.gov

Condition ratings for the country's two main crops are down, but appear to be stabilizing. (Stephanie Ho and USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey)

USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey, has the season's first look at corn silking.

USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey, notes that the nation's overall corn condition rating has shown a precipitous decline since the rating started several weeks ago.

USDA meteorologist, Brad Rippey, has a detailed look at corn conditions around the country.