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Research has found that producers’ attitudes toward the beef checkoff program remain stable and are favorable.

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: Now we turn from politics to food prices, specifically a noticeable rise in prices. They’re way up in some cases, and the experts who watch these things say they’ll keep going up over the coming months as farmers struggle with bad weather and lousy harvests as a result. But is there any relief in sight?

Texas’ farmers and ranchers are coping with their eighth drought in the last 13 years, and this one, while still young, has a chance of slamming producers with their biggest losses ever, officials said.

This lightweight, compact 24-row planter and applicator leave no tracks—and they don’t hog the road.

The Agriculture Department would be barred, under language in a House appropriations bill, from proceeding with proposed marketing regulations opposed by major meatpackers and livestock trade groups.The House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved the draft fiscal 2012 spending bill, including the provision, by voice vote on Tuesday. The bill would provide $17.3 billion in discretionary funds to the Agriculture Department, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies, a $2.6 billion cut from fiscal 2011. The measure also includes $108 billion in mandatory funding, almost 3 percent more than in fiscal 2011.The policy rider would bar the Agriculture Department’s Grain Inspection Stockyard and Packers Administration (GIPSA) from producing a regulation requiring meatpackers to report and justify pricing agreements with livestock producers. The proposed rule, unveiled last year, was written in response to a 2008 farm law (PL 110-246) directive to review marketing and competition issues in the livestock industry.

A record amount of corn was planted in Ohio this year, providing a sharp turnaround from a month ago when many farmers thought the entire season might get washed out by weeks of heavy rain.Some excellent weather in early June and increasingly advanced growing methods are credited with the change in fortunes.The amount of corn produced per acre isn’t expected to be at record levels because of the late start, but farmers and experts now think yields could at least be average.

They say the Environmental Protection Agency’s numeric nutrient criteria is flawed.

The Aberdeen-Angus Cattle Society said yesterday it had nothing to fear from a new US beef brand being sold in the UK.Black Angus is being stocked by Tesco at a small number of its UK stores.

During the seven-year drought of the 1950s, the old-timers of that era told tales about the drought of the 1930s being worse: “Why, it was so dry that jackrabbits west of the Pecos grazed at full gallop to keep from starving to death.”

The 2011 wheat crop has resulted in mainly low yields as harvest winds down for another season throughout the Lone Star State. Because of extreme drought conditions, the Kasberg Grain Co. in Miles, 73 miles southwest of Abilene, handled approximately 25 percent of normal volume compared with years with adequate rainfall.