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Pa. wheat production down, oats up

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania winter wheat production totaled 14.6 million bushels in 2024, down 16% from the 2023 total of 17.5 million bushels, according to Kevin Pautler, acting director of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), Northeastern Regional Field Office. Area harvested for grain totaled 195,000 acres, down 15% from the previous year. Yield was estimated at 75.0 bushels per acre, down 1.0 bushel from the previous year yield of 76.0 bushels per acre. Oat production was estimated at 3.01 million bushels, up 5% from 2023. Yield was estimated at 59.0 ...

Mayor: 5 injured in fatal Philadelphia plane crash remain hospitalized

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Three people injured on the ground when a jet crashed in a busy Philadelphia neighborhood, killing seven people, remain in critical condition, Mayor Cherelle Parker said Sunday. Parker said 22 people were injured and five of them remain hospitalized. At least 11 ...

Extension workshops help specialty crop farmers

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State Extension educators recently completed a grant-funded project that tackled workforce retention, pesticide safety and food safety challenges for specialty crop farmers. Led by Linda Falcone, leadership and community vitality extension educator, and Maria Gorgo-Simcox, a bilingual horticulture extension educator, the program addressed issues such as high turnover, labor shortages and compliance with food safety regulations, all compounded by language barriers. Latinos make up 75% of the agricultural workforce in the U.S., Gorgo-Simcox noted, with many ...

PA Beef Council ‘beefs up’ state’s school lunch menus

BEDFORD — The Pennsylvania Beef Council (PBC) has announced that, to date, 117 school districts within the Commonwealth are participating in the PA Beef to PA Schools Program (PBPS) for the 2024-2025 school year. Now in its third year, PBPS connects schools and food service professionals with cattle producers to provide fresh, locally sourced beef to students. The focus of the program is more beef, more often. The initiative not only supports farmers, but also integrates locally grown food into school lunch menus, connecting students to agriculture and their community through the ...

Rural communities impacted by closings

UNIVERSITY PARK — All communities rely on physical spaces that are vital to the well-being of their citizens, such as grocery stores, recreational facilities and pharmacies. But what happens when these places are lost, especially in rural areas where no alternatives exist? Two new studies led by researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences and College of Health and Human Development — one published in the journal Wellbeing, Space and Society and the other in the Journal of Rural Health — analyzed the experiences of residents in one such rural Pennsylvania ...

Patriotic voices to start each day at 2025 PA Farm Show

HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania performers will sing the National Anthem daily and at special events during the 2025 Farm Show. Finalist nine-year-old Cadence Kline from Barnesville, Schuylkill County got the most social media fan-votes in the 2025 PA Farm Show National Anthem contest, Oh, Say Can You Sing? She will sing live to kick off the 109th PA Farm Show at 8 a.m. on Saturday Jan. 4, 2025. "The 2025 Farm Show theme, Powering Pennsylvania, highlights the strength and vitality of our agriculture industry and its role in driving our state forward," Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding, ...