CHICAGO Dow Jones)--After sagging at the start due to Chicago Board of Trade corn's sharp rise, Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts rebounded and closed higher on fund buying and cash optimism for next week that spurred June/August bear spreading against spot-June longs conducting the Goldman Roll. CHICAGO Dow Jones)--After sagging at the start due to Chicago Board of Trade corn's sharp rise, Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts rebounded and closed higher on...

And we would urge Scottish Enterprise and industry leaders to get this plan off the ground as soon as possible to make the most of the recent acceleration in exports. The UK has finally left behind the dark days of the BSE crisis, and producers, many of them in Scotland, are reaping the rewards of the return of beef to overseas menus. Scotland has also been punching above its weight in salmon production, exporting more than 12 million whole salmon in 2006. In March, rural development...

each morning, Elizabeth Bush, who owns 15 cows and approximately 50 steer, has strapped on her work gloves and revved up the tractor to do one of her favorite things - farming. She can identify each one, even though most of the similarly-sized, solid black livestock are nearly indistinguishable to the untrained eye. On a crisp Sunday morning, Elizabeth Bush eased into a herd of cattle hoping to find a new calf peering out from behind its mother. Each morning, Bush checks dozens of pregnant...

Instead of investing in large capital expenses, beginning farmers like Maxwell are looking at ways they can join the agriculture industry without the unmanageable debt load. Coming up with a better path into agriculture is becoming increasingly important as the field continues to lose farmers, said Steve Deller, a UW-Madison professor of agriculture and applied economics. His mother was a banker and his father worked in a factory while he was growing up in the town of Arena countryside,...

soybean acreage is expected to slide 11 percent and cotton production 20 percent this year alone, the Agriculture Department said. The thing that should make people cautious is the irrational exuberance, that somehow ethanol is going to be the silver bullet that gets us out of our energy woes. They worry, too, about ethanol s fuel efficiency lower than traditional gasoline and its effects on the environment and food prices as corn chews up more farmland. The corn-for-ethanol boom, however,...

If you're like me, you probably would like to have lunch or dinner while you're there and maybe even visit a dairy in nearby Odessa where you can watch the owners make cheese. She's the most affable cheese maker I've ever met and she will, with great personal pleasure, talk you through her process, too. You're invited to watch, and Ron, one of the most affable farmers I've ever met, will, with great personal pleasure, talk you through the process. At the end of the meal, our friendly...