NRCS ‘listening session’ takes comments on enhancing water quantity in the West.
A stronger focus on groundwater recharge, fixes to crumbling infrastructure and the continuation of a federal Water Subcabinet were the most popular requests from growers and organizations speaking in a USDA-led online forum on getting the most from limited water supplies in the West.
In an open-ended “listening session” hosted Dec. 17 by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, speakers from California to Oklahoma pushed for projects that would improve their access and efficiency with water as droughts are expected to worsen in the coming years.
Many called on federal officials to boost support for groundwater basin restoration projects such as one underway in Washington state’s declining Odessa aquifer, where agencies are building a network of surface-water conveyance to reduce the roughly 100,000 acres of irrigated agriculture relying on deep wells.
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New Record Set in Sorghum Producers Yield Contest
USAgNet - 12/17/2020 National Sorghum Producers is proud to announce a new U.S. dryland sorghum yield record has been set at 245.86 bushels per acre by Ella Johnston of Fulton County, Pennsylvania, in the 35th National Sorghum Yield Contest.
Facing weather challenges, economic uncertainty and a challenging year overall, sorghum farmers showed resilience, continued to farm and produce high yielding sorghum, matching the pace of strengthened national average yields annually.
The 2020 National Sorghum Yield Contest had seven national winners, selected from three categories for both the eastern and western regions of the U.S, and one winner was selected for the food grade division. This year s top yield and Bin Buster winner is
National Sorghum Producers
Sorghum exports continued their strong upward trend this week with China purchasing 4.8 million bushels. This trend has lead USDA to increase their 2020/21 projected exports for sorghum 15 million bushels to 275 million bushels for the marketing year. This update came out the most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. At only a little over 3 months into the 2020/21 marketing year total sorghum exports have reached 178.4 million bushels, or 65 percent of the projected total. Basis is up on the gulf with sorghum trading at 132 percent of corn and remains steady in the interior.
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