October Prices Received Index Decreased 5.2 Percent The October Prices Received Index (Agricultural Production), at 87.3, decreased 5.2 percent from September 2017. At 82.2, the Crop Production Index decreased 8.1 percent. At 94.1, the Livestock Production Index decreased 0.7 percent. Producers received lower prices for market eggs, broilers, apples, and potatoes but higher prices for cattle, lettuce, sweet corn, and hay. Compared with a year earlier, the Prices Received Inde

This U.S. Drought Monitor week saw a series of storms impact the Pacific Northwest, northern California, and northern Rockies. The heaviest precipitation was observed across the Olympic Mountains and North Cascades of western Washington where precipitation accumulations (liquid) ranged from 4-to-12 inches. In the Puget Lowlands of western Washington, runoff from the storm event led to severe flooding on the Skagit River that peaked at 5 feet above flood stage on Friday. Elsew

Capital Press Dairy traders had a lot to digest last week and it wasn’t just turkey. The menu also included the October Milk Production, Cold Storage and Slaughter reports, plus the Global Dairy Trade auction. They closed the Thanksgiving-holiday shortened week with CME block Cheddar at $1.61 per pound, down a penny on the week and 25 cents below a year ago. The barrels finished at $1.6750, up 4 3/4-cents, 1 1/2-cents below a year ago, and an inverted 6 1/2-cents above the bl

A strong heifer nutrition program is a multi-phase process geared toward optimizing animal growth and development. While there’s no one-size-fits-all program every farm or calf ranch must adopt, the most successful heifer raisers have a few things in common, including: They feed high-quality feedstuffs. They feed to maximize productivity. They don’t feed too much forage too soon. They keep accurate health and growth records for each animal, especially cases of scours and pneu

A fast time is crucial to winning a race. Newborn calf care is a lot like a race: The faster you get quality colostrum in calves, the sooner they’ll start to build immunity through antibodies known as immunoglobulins. “IgG” stands for immunoglobulin G, a protein produced mainly by plasma cells. The protein is used by the immune system to combat pathogenic bacteria and viruses. In cattle, they are transferred from the dam’s blood serum to colostrum in the mammary gland a few w

Calf scours is one of the most important and costly calf health issues affecting dairy operations in North America. According to the USDA, scours, diarrhea and other digestive problems are responsible for more than half of all pre-weaned heifer calf deaths. The National Animal Health Monitoring Survey attributes six in 10 deaths of calves under the age of 2 months to calf scours. Financial losses are not measured solely by calf mortality; veterinary care, medications and incr

OMAHA (DTN) -- USDA's final Crop Progress report of 2017 showed winter wheat conditions below the five-year average. USDA estimated winter wheat conditions at 50% good to excellent as of Sunday, Nov. 26, down 2 percentage points from 52% good to excellent the previous week. That resulted in a DTN Winter Wheat Condition Index of 130, down 5 points from the previous week. "DTN's index is down from 147 a year ago and below the five-year average of 135. Monday's lower crop rating

October 2017 U.S. milk production grew 1.4 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, picking up the pace after slowing somewhat in September, according to the USDA’s latest Milk Production report. At 1.5 percent, year-over-year growth in the 23 major dairy states was also higher, led by gains of 5 percent or more in Arizona, Colorado, Texas and Utah. The increase came despite a 1,000-head decline in cow numbers from September. USDA: October recap Reviewing the USDA

Jackson Lake, Palisades, Grassy Lake, Island Park, Ririe, American Falls, Lake Walcott Total space available:739241 AF Total storage capacity:4045695 AF

With a few exceptions, dry weather dominated the contiguous 48 states this past week, particularly in areas already experiencing dryness and drought. Heavy precipitation fell on the orographically-favored areas in the West (specifically, the Sierra Nevada, windward slopes of the Cascades, and much of the coastline from northern California to the Canadian border). Anywhere from 4 to locally 12 inches doused much of these areas. Between 2 and 4 inches fell from central and east