LINCOLN — University of Nebraska leaders and Nebraska’s federal delegation are celebrating a U.S. Department of Agriculture decision to reappropriate $37 million and fully fund the new precision agriculture facility at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The USDA decided last year to decommission the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Beltsville, Maryland. Doing so has freed up […]

The federal government is injecting millions of dollars into efforts to combat feral hogs – and it’s considering spending even more in the coming years. The problem has grown for decades, but our research has found that a recently revived federal effort offers the potential for bringing the hogs under control. Feral swine roam in […]

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins and U.S. Rep. Gabe Evans on Tuesday defended funding cuts and work requirements Republicans added to federal food assistance programs that have led to thousands of Coloradans losing benefits.  Rollins and Evans, a Fort Lupton Republican, hosted a roundtable with Colorado farmers and agricultural producers at Bobcat of the […]

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek is urging federal officials to help Oregon farmers and ranchers respond to, and rebound from, wildfires at the same scale and speed those officials delivered in Republican-controlled states hit by natural disasters this year. In a letter requesting aid that Kotek sent Thursday to Brooke Rollins, head of the U.S. Department […]

LINCOLN — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has approved another disaster declaration for 13 Nebraska counties due to drought, bringing the total number of counties covered by a USDA declaration for drought conditions this year to 86 of 93 counties. Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen announced Rollins’ latest approval Wednesday, one day after she approved […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is reversing course on a change to a federal crop insurance policy to allow farmers to buy more protection if weather or field conditions prevent them from planting a crop.  USDA had eliminated the option to buy additional prevented planting insurance going into the 2026 growing season. This raised concerns […]