USDA announces $26 million investment into agriculture

Sep 09, 2016

Money will be divided between 45 projects

By Diego Flammini
Assistant Editor, North American Content
Farms.com

The United States Department of Agriculture announced an investment of $26 million to spur innovation within the agriculture sector.

The money will be shared by 45 projects. They focus on a variety of issues, including water quality, conservation finance and assistance to underserved customers.

"This investment will offer farmers, ranchers and forest landowners new ways to protect their natural resources and new revenue streams to keep their operations viable, building on the record amount of conservation work that has already been done under this Administration,” secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack, said in a release.

USDA

Projects include:

$1 million for the National Corn Growers Association to develop a greenhouse gas insetting network that can serve as a model for corporations and other entities to encourage conservation adoption and achieve greenhouse gas reductions and water quality benefits.
$944,715 for Iroquois Valley Farms to develop and offer Soil Restoration Notes, an investment vehicle that will be sold to investors.
$992,012 for Louisiana State University to develop and improve fallow season cover crop strategies as a component of overall conservation programs for soybean, field corn, cotton and sugarcane.
$400,912 for Practical Farmers of Iowa to test a new model for conservation adoption, hoping to increase the number of acres of small grains grown as a third crop in the corn and soybean rotation.

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.