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Agriculture

Penn State Extension to offer food safety certification courses

LEWISTOWN — The ServSafe Food Safety Manager course, conducted by Penn State Extension, will be held at Penn State Extension Mifflin County, 152 East Market St., Suite 100, Lewistown, Pa. The course will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., June 3, and from 9 a.m. to noon, June 10. The exam will begin at 1 p.m., June 10. These in-person trainings, taught by certified ServSafe instructors, will help participants learn how to prevent contamination of food by properly receiving, storing, preparing, cooking, cooling and serving the food, as well as proper methods of sanitizing food service ...

Penn State Extension announces inclusion of new canine program

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences has announced the recent hire of Abby Hodder as the assistant clinical professor of canine behavioral welfare in the Department of Animal Science. Hodder's onboarding marks the beginning of a Penn State Extension canine program designed to support professional dog breeders through education, outreach and applied research focused on canine behavior and welfare. The canine program is available to all dog breeders — whether private or commercial — regardless of their breeding goals, whether for service, companionship, ...

USDA seeks feedback from producers

HARRISBURG — Over the next several weeks, USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct two major mid-year surveys, the June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey. The agency will contact more than 5,000 producers across the northeast to determine crop acreage and stock levels as of June 1, 2024. “The June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey are two of the most important and well-known surveys NASS conducts,” said Charles Butler, Acting Director of the NASS Northeastern Regional Office. “When producers respond to these surveys, they ...

USDA to conduct quarterly pigs survey

HARRISBURG — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is contacting producers for the June Hogs and Pigs survey. This survey is a comprehensive gathering of quarterly data on market hog and breeding stock inventories as well as pig crop and farrowing intentions in every state. “Pennsylvania inventory of all hogs and pigs on March 1, 2024, was 1.46 million head. This was up 10.6% from March 1, 2023, and down 1.35% from Dec. 1, 2023,” said Charles Butler, acting director of the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office. “The June survey ...

USDA, USAID deploy $1B for food assistance

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Agency for International Development will deploy $1 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funding to purchase U.S.-grown commodities to provide emergency food assistance to people in need throughout the world, according to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and USAID Administrator Samantha Power. “America’s farmers are the most productive and efficient in the world, and we rely on them to supply safe and nutritious food not only to our nation, but to the global community,” Secretary Vilsack said. “With many ...

Juniata Co. Dairy Princess Pageant was held on May 5

MEXICO, Pa. — Juniata County’s 48th annual Dairy Princess Pageant was held May 5 at Walker Grange in Mexico. Nine young people were recognized as dairy ambassadors, dairy maids and dairy misses. Chairperson Karen Shearer presented Steve Beers a check for $4,000 for the Juniata County Food Pantry from the Fill-A-Glass With Hope campaign the promotion court worked on during the past year. Dairy Ambassador Blaine Imes presented a speech explaining PA Preferred milk products. Dairy Maids Caylee Imes and Ella Zimmerman presented a skit explaining the importance of including milk in ...