Breaking News

Agriculture

Rollins announces USDA reorganization

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins recently announced the reorganization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), refocusing its core operations to better align with its founding mission of supporting American farming, ranching, and forestry. Over the last four years, USDA’s workforce grew by 8%, and employees’ salaries increased by 14.5% - including hiring thousands of employees with no sustainable way to pay them. This all occurred without any tangible increase in service to USDA’s core constituencies across the agricultural sector. USDA’s ...

Course offers preparation for pesticide applicator certification exam

UNIVERSITY PARK — Prospective pesticide applicators can gain a foundation of knowledge about safe and effective handling of pesticides by attending the “Pesticide Applicator Short Course: Learning Together Live,” a Penn State Extension workshop and classroom-based course. Each session ...

Penn State Extension offers food safety manager certification courses

MIFFLINTOWN — Penn State Extension will offer the ServSafe Food Safety Manager course, which is aimed at restaurant and food service managers and others who need food safety certification. The course will be held Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Oct. 21 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Juniata County Extension office, 30 N. Main St., Mifflintown. The exam will be held at noon on Oct. 21. These in-person trainings, led by certified ServSafe instructors, will teach participants how to prevent contamination by properly receiving, storing, preparing, ...

Tour Twin Springs Fruit Farm during evening field walk

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa — Specialty crop producers can join fellow growers in a no-cost, evening field walk to explore practical strategies for fruit, vegetable and leafy greens production at an upcoming Penn State Extension event. “Greenhouse and Berry Crops Field Walk” will be Oct. 9 from 4 to 6:30 p.m. at Twin Springs Fruit Farm, 936 Orchard Rd., Orrtanna. Attendees are asked to enter Rodney Lee Drive via the Orchard Road entrance only. Twin Springs Fruit Farm is a diversified operation known for its tree fruits, berries, field crops and greenhouse production. Attendees will ...

Penn State offers Beef Cattle Short Course

UNIVERSITY PARK — The Beef Cattle Short Course will take place Oct. 7-8 at Penn State and offer cattle producers two days of learning opportunities The course, presented by Penn State Extension with support from the Pennsylvania Beef Producers Working Group, begins with a live cattle evaluation, which allows participants the chance to assess live cattle and on day two of the course participants get to see how their evaluations translate to outcomes on the rail. The first afternoon features guest speaker Pedro Carvalho, assistant professor and feedlot specialist, Colorado State ...

Proactive surveillance ongoing for New World screwworm

WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently identified an instance of a traveler-associated human case of New World screwworm (NWS) in the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reaffirmed its robust surveillance and trapping strategy, confirming there have been no detections of NWS in U.S. livestock. Under President Trump’s leadership, USDA, HHS, CDC, FDA and our other federal partners have led a robust government wide response to combat the New World Screwworm (NWS) in ...