Daily spot soybean basis had weakened by an additional 1/2 cent per bushel entering Friday's trading session, leaving the national average at a discount of more than 90 cents to CBOT Aug contracts. Although cash corn basis had also slipped an average of a half-cent lower Friday, local winter wheat premiums held steady, and spot spring wheat values actually strengthened by an average of 1 1/2 cents. Most grain futures continued Thursday's post-holiday rally again overnight, producing...

I'm very much a carnivore, and feel my body needs the protein, although I agree with him that eating meat is morally wrong. Now, when we eat out, and I mention that my food smells wonderful, he launches into a tirade about how I've made an animal suffer a horrendous death because of my eating habits. Like a conch shell, which supposedly sounds like the ocean, maybe if you listen closely to your burger you can hear echoes of the cow screaming when it was slaughtered. Thoughts like that must...

Congress passed a disaster relief program after last year's drought, Prosser said, but the states haven't yet learned how much money has been specified for each crop. Recent rains have been welcomed by farmers, but Gerard said the accumulation may not be enough to counteract a year-and-a-half long drought. Some parts of the Pine Belt may get lucky, he said, but the widespread, prolonged rainfall so desperately needed by farmers isn't on the radar. For cattle farmers, the drought has meant...

We all know and accept the knowledge that hot dogs are made from the scrappiest meat and flavored with who knows what else. Also remember your body needs protein for healthy muscles so you can jog lots, exercise lots and work hard and long hours like the people who came before you. Grate some potatoes that you had to peel, some zucchini, onion, some salt, a little bit of flour, maybe an egg and cheese. Maybe the fact that they worked longer and harder than today's younger people had...

HICKORY - Six Catawba County gas stations began selling biodiesel gas less than a year ago, and it s made a bigger splash than anticipated. The construction companies bring their trailers, construction equipment, the trucks and vehicles they use at the site and their own vehicles at the site and fill up in the morning, on the way to work, Price said. Biodiesel is made out of organic materials, such as soybeans, cooking oil and animal fat, and can be blended in any ratio with petroleum...