Business of Agriculture: Programs and politics in the promotion of agricultural products
It’s an axiom of agriculture as old as the hills: 50 percent of farming is producing the commodity, the other 50 percent is marketing the product at a price that makes enough money to sustain the farm enterprise. While the issues of contemporary production agriculture tend to get most of the media and political attention — think water-quality regulations, animal welfare, pesticide hazards — there’s a vast parallel universe of...
Business of Agriculture: Money Grows on Christmas Trees — Slowly
If there’s one piece of New Hampshire and Vermont agriculture that stands out for stability and profitability in recent years it’s the Christmas tree sector, and this year the mojo continues with solid demand on the wholesale side and expectations for continued strong consumer interest on the retail “choose and cut” side of the trade. But if there’s any worry that a lot of new production suddenly will appear to capture what seems like...
December Editor’s Note: Clock Management
It’s still a few days before Thanksgiving as I write this and here we are assembling the December edition of Enterprise, with its references to Santa and Christmas trees, and laying the groundwork for the January edition, which may well include a resolution or two. All this before I’ve had a first helping of turkey and stuffing, to say nothing of seconds. Such is the nature of publishing: It monkeys with one’s sense of time. It also...
The Business of Agriculture: Cold-hardy kiwi has high-value potential
The first time Iago Hale popped a cold-hardy kiwifruit in his mouth in graduate school, he was left speechless, amazed that he had never encountered the delicious, grape-like fruit before. Now, the researcher with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station at the University of New Hampshire is a hardy kiwifruit breeder working to develop the small, sweet fruit into a new high-value crop for New England farmers. “Hardy kiwis are...
Trade Groups, Farmers Spar Over Beef Ban
Washington — Bob Wilts was 10 years old when the Big Lake, Minn., farm where he grew up got its first beef cow. Fast forward 45 years to today, and Wilts still lives in Big Lake, about 35 miles northwest of Minneapolis. He still raises cattle. Wilts and his wife, Judy, manage about 30 steers that they sell to individual families and stockyards annually. But Wilts and other ranchers worry about something that they say could threaten...
