Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that his office has criminally charged Keith Schaefer in Stearns County District Court with one count of felony racketeering and four counts of wage theft in excess of $5,000. Schaefer owns and operates Evergreen Acres Dairy, LLC.

The Senate Finance Committee Tuesday advanced the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), by a vote of 14-13.

China is planning to implement new tariffs on agricultural equipment next week as part of its retaliation to new U.S. duties.

Most average retail fertilizer prices were higher than last month during the fourth full week of January 2025, according to sellers surveyed by DTN. For the first time in 17 weeks, two fertilizers saw significant price increases, which DTN designates as anything 5% or more.

While it is easy to glance over incoming challenges, the renewable fuels industry must face those hurdles head-on and not let change deter the destination. That was the message from the 2025 Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit where Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw told the audience, “If our desired destination is Fuels of Opportunity, then we must beware of letting anyone take the wheel who only looks in the rearview mirror.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) recognized seven of the nation’s top cattle operations during CattleCon 2025 in San Antonio as Environmental Stewardship Award Program (ESAP) Regional winners for their conservation efforts.

The first big trade dispute of the second Trump presidency ended Monday after five days of salvos and market whiplash, but no tariffs imposed.

U.S. farmers retained their post-election optimistic outlook at the start of the new year as the January Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer Index rose 5 points above a month earlier to a reading of 141.

U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) Monday voted to advance the nomination of Brooke Rollins to be Secretary of Agriculture.

U.S. farmers and agricultural groups are closely watching developments around the Panama Canal.

National Farmers Union, alongside ranch group R-CALF USA and four fed cattle producers, who filed a class-action antitrust lawsuit in April 2019 against JBS, Tyson, Cargill, and National Beef, filed a motion with the Federal District Court for the District of Minnesota for preliminary approval of a proposed $83.5 million class action settlement with the JBS defendants.

President Trump has signed three Executive Orders imposing new tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China. The tariffs are set to begin Tuesday.

The list of $30 billion in U.S. products facing retaliatory tariffs from Canada starting Tuesday includes a long list of food and agricultural products.

The United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing the resumption of cattle and bison imports from Mexico. Imports are scheduled to resume within the next several days.

Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., is the new ranking member on the House Ag Committee. We sat down with her and Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Penn., to discuss their vision for leading the committee and their stance on nutrition programs, which could be subject to cuts in budget reconciliation.

The Purdue University Center for Commercial Agriculture (CCA) has announced a new partnership with Acres.com, a leader in farmland transaction data.

The January Cattle Inventory report from the UDSA will be the first time in a year that the industry has had official data that will help determine if the nation’s cattle herd is growing.

Twenty-three states joined the Iowa Pork Producers Association on Wednesday in an appeal to the Supreme Court challenging California's animal-housing law created by Proposition 12.

Non-irrigated cropland prices in Kansas rose 3.8% last year, while pasture and hay ground increased by approximately 2.7%, according to information in the 2024 Kansas Agricultural Land Values and Trends publication released earlier this year.

The Indiana State Department of Agriculture, The Nature Conservancy, Indiana Agriculture Nutrient Alliance and the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency have joined forces to implement the Cover Crop Premium Discount Program for the fifth year in a row.

There’s a sense of urgency in Congress to address key farm tax provisions set to expire this year.

NASDA’s members-led Board of Directors chose five issues to serve as the organization’s primary policy focus for 2025. They include the farm bill, food systems, pesticide regulations, PFAS and state cooperative agreement funding.

Weather news headlines in this last half of January have prominently focused on unseasonable, record snow and cold in the southern and southeastern U.S. Meanwhile, much of the primary crop areas of the central U.S. have been largely devoid of snowfall.

The U.S. Senate Wednesday officially confirmed Lee Zeldin as the new administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) is reporting a case of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in a beef herd from Alcona County, located in Michigan’s Modified Accredited Zone (MAZ).

After concerns were raised over the status of billions of dollars in USDA operating and farm ownership loans -- and an array of other loan and grants -- the White House on Tuesday said individual assistance should not be affected by the Trump administration's freeze on loan and grants.

A food economist says the prospect of another trade war is weighing heavily on the agriculture and food sectors.

Farmer and rancher delegates to the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 106th Convention today adopted policies to guide the organization’s work in 2025. Key topics ranged from labor to rural broadband to trade.