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USDA Celebrates Renee McDonald, a Georgia Woman-Owned Agriculture Entrepreneur during National Small Business Month

May 18, 2023 staff of USDA’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization

Renee McDonald, a first-generation sheep producer in Lee County Georgia, spends many nights monitoring newborn ewes. In the last lambing season at Sheepy Acres Farm, eight out of ten of her pregnant ewes gave birth to twins. The lambing season holds many memories, but it also presents challenges...

Equity Farming Initiatives

A Rare Glimpse at Traditional Crops Grown in New Mexico

December 05, 2019 Longino Bustillos, New Mexico State Statistician, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service

Farming has been a part of New Mexico for over 2,500 years, ever since Native Americans first grew corn, squash, and beans throughout the region. The 2017 Census of Agriculture provides a rare look into our state’s agriculture crop acreages and livestock numbers. For instance, the 2017 Ag Census...

Research and Science

UC Sheep Shearing School Prepares Students for Gainful Employment

June 29, 2016 Scott Elliott, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) administers the Smith-Lever capacity grant program . The Smith–Lever Act established the cooperative extension services program administered through land-grant universities. Today, a guest blog from Jeanette Warnert, University of California...

Initiatives

Organic Study Uses Domestic Sheep to Facilitate Sustainable Farming

April 20, 2016 Kelly Flynn, National Institute of Food and Agriculture

Environmental and economic management of weeds and pests is a priority for organic farmers and they typically use tillage to address these issues. However, frequent mechanical tillage can reduce soil integrity, which increases costs for farmers and negatively impacts future crop growth. Now, Montana...

Conservation

Virginia Is for Lovers - and Silvopasture

September 17, 2015 Kate MacFarland, USDA National Agroforestry Center

Throughout his life, Chris Fields-Johnson has been keenly aware of the need to preserve the natural landscapes, which provide us with clean air to breathe, water to drink and food to eat. As a graduate student of soil science at Virginia State and Polytechnic University, a forestry undergraduate, a...

Forestry

Dogs Help Protect Livestock Against Predators

May 19, 2015 Travis Kocurek, APHIS Public Affairs

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is helping to provide livestock producers in the western United States with livestock guard dogs that offer greater protection against predators. Generally large and white with shaggy hair, livestock protection dogs are trained to respond...

Animals Plants

USDA Fosters Market Transparency in Grass Fed Lamb and Goat Industry

May 13, 2015 Ed Avalos, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs

According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, there are over five million head of sheep and lambs in the United States, and over 2.6 million head of goats. A growing trend is producing these animals using grass fed production systems, especially for small to mid-sized producers. In response to the...

USDA Results Food and Nutrition Farming

Creating New Opportunities for the Sheep Industry

October 07, 2014 Edward Avalos, Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs

Since they were brought over during the earliest explorations of North America, the sheep industry has played a vital role in the agricultural history of our nation. In the 1940s, there were over 55 million sheep in the U.S., but today those numbers hover around one-tenth of that total. There are...

Conservation
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