Japan has been skittish about foreign beef since the first case of mad cow disease was found in the United States in December 2003. The following comments are provided by readers and are the sole responsibility of their authors. Department of Agriculture has denied a Japanese request to remove a Nebraska beef processing facility owned by Tyson Foods inc. from a list of plants authorized for Japanese export. In February, Japan stopped beef imports from a Lexington, Neb. Although the USDA...

You also might grow varieties that aren't commercially available, such as heirloom apples, or varieties best suited for freezing, canning or preserves. A number of rootstocks can be used, capable of producing 40-foot trees or 7-foot ones. Cross-pollination is necessary for satisfactory crops on many fruit trees. It's also sweeter and juicier since you pick it at its peak (rather than weeks ahead of time to process and ship) Our unpredictable spring weather can disrupt fruiting; some years...

In the West, USDA says unusually cool weather prevails, accompanied by lingering rain and snow showers across the northern Intermountain region. In contrast, pastures and summer crops in the southern Atlantic region continue to benefit from recent soil moisture improvements," they add. However, the heaviest rain associated with this storm will fall in parts of the Dakotas, north and west of the low-pressure system," says USDA. The remainder of the region is making a transition to sharply...

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Funding attached to the federal war-spending bill allows for $3 billion in agriculture disaster relief, but Veal says he can t say for sure when that relief will be available to local farmers he hopes this summer. Poor pasture conditions and low hay production last year led several local farmers to thin their herds in an effort to sell what they couldn t feed. Corn crops statewide are already suffering, according to the report, which showed 64 percent of corn classified as either poor or...