Latest Agribusiness Headlines
All the headlines from our Agribusiness Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Texas’ Hochheim Prairie Farm Mutual Ratings on CreditWatch; Harvey Cited
Nov 29 2017 // S&P Global Ratings has placed its ‘B+’ financial strength ratings for Hochheim Prairie Farm Mutual Insurance Assoc. (HPFMIA) and its subsidiary, Hochheim Prairie Casualty Insurance Co. (HPCIC; collectively...
Hurricane Harvey Caused More than $200M in Crop, Livestock Losses in Texas
Nov 20 2017 // Hurricane Harvey caused more than $200 million in crop and livestock losses, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Hurricane losses by agricultural commodity include: livestock – $93 million; cotton...
Agribusiness Contributes $23B to Arizona’s Economy, Report Shows
Nov 20 2017 // Researchers with the University of Arizona say agricultural businesses contribute more than $23 billion in sales to the state’s economy. A report released in early November by the university’s Cooperative...
Canada’s Economical Restructures to Strengthen Broker Relationships, Profits
Nov 17 2017 // Economical Insurance announced the creation of a new organizational structure, with three market-facing regions. The restructuring is designed to improve profits, strengthen relationships with broker partners, capture more...
How Consolidation Has Changed Crop Insurance Sector: Conning
Nov 17 2017 // Crop insurance was once a sector full of smaller players, but a mergers-and-acquisitions (M&A)-driven push for efficiency and scale has left it dominated by fewer and larger carriers, and analysts at Conning predict a...
Louisiana Parishes Have Been Designated Disaster Areas Due to Harvey
Nov 16 2017 // The federal government has designated several Louisiana parishes disaster areas due to damages caused by flooding from Hurricane Harvey. Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain says the U.S. Department of...
Austin American-Statesman: Texas Has 100s of Substandard Dams in Populated Areas
Nov 14 2017 // The earthen dam on the outskirts of Georgetown in Texas’ Williamson County certainly does not look flimsy. The Austin American-Statesman reports at 35 feet high and nearly a third of a mile long, it has done a...
Nebraska Farmers Coop Fined Nearly $374K After Worker Trapped in Grain Bin
Nov 13 2017 // U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited a Nebraska grain-handling cooperative for failing to protect workers from grain bin entrapment and engulfment hazards. The...
Agribusiness Contributes $23B to Arizona’s Economy, Report Shows
Nov 13 2017 // Researchers with the University of Arizona say agricultural businesses contribute more than $23 billion in sales to the state’s economy. A report released this week by the university’s Cooperative...
Hub to Buy Wells Fargo Crop Insurance Broker Business
Nov 9 2017 // Global insurance broker Hub International Limited (Hub) has agreed to acquire the assets of the crop insurance broker business of Wells Fargo Insurance. Terms of the agreement to buy the business, known as Wells Fargo Crop...
Special Reuters Report: The Path to Monsanto’s Weed-Killer Crisis
Nov 9 2017 // In early 2016, agribusiness giant Monsanto faced a decision that would prove pivotal in what since has become a sprawling herbicide crisis, with millions of acres of crops damaged. Monsanto had readied new genetically...
Hurricane Harvey Caused More than $200M in Crop, Livestock Losses in Texas
Nov 8 2017 // Hurricane Harvey caused more than $200 million in crop and livestock losses, according to Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Hurricane losses by agricultural commodity include: livestock – $93 million; cotton...
Typhoon Damrey’s Vietnam Death Roll Rises; AIR Worldwide Comments
Nov 7 2017 // A powerful typhoon that rocked Vietnam has killed at least 44 people, left more than a dozen missing and caused extensive damage to the country’s south-central region ahead of a summit that will draw leaders from...
Declarations
Nov 6 2017 // Fire Starter? “We still don’t know whether the fires caused pole or line damage or the poles caused the fires. They may never sort it out.” — Michael Picker, chairman of the California Public...
People
Nov 6 2017 // Crop insurer, Farmers Mutual Hail Insurance Co. of Iowa (FMH), announced that James A. Brost, retiring senior vice president with Holborn Corp., will join the FMH board of directors on Jan. 1, 2018. Brost began his...
South Dakota Family Sues Dakota Access over Damage to Farmland
Nov 3 2017 // A farm family is suing the Dakota Access pipeline company alleging it failed to restore farmland it damaged during construction as promised. Slack Family Properties accuses the pipeline company of breach of contract,...
Manure Runoff from Iowa Dairy Farm Blamed for Death of 60K Fish
Nov 1 2017 // Authorities are blaming a manure runoff from a dairy farm for killing about 60,000 fish in eastern Iowa. The farm is situated about three miles east of New Vienna. The fish kill was reported Oct. 9 after fish carcasses...
Farmers Files Trade Secrets Suit in California Against Auto Club Michigan, Former Employees
Oct 31 2017 // Farmers Insurance has filed a lawsuit in California against a pair of former employees and the Automobile Club of Michigan alleging the theft of trade secrets. The suit alleges violations of the California Trade Secrets...
South Dakota Farmers Report 57K Acres Damaged by Dicamba
Oct 27 2017 // South Dakota farmers have reported about 57,000 acres of crops damaged by an herbicide called dicamba. Dicamba is an herbicide widely used to kill weeds in soybeans genetically modified to be resistant to the herbicide,...
U.S. Senator Calls for Increased USDA Response to North Dakota Drought
Oct 24 2017 // U.S. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is calling on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to send more workers to western North Dakota, where she says understaffed Farm Service Agency offices are dealing with an overwhelming workload...
