Nonprofits, local and government entities, trade and commodity associations and colleges have until later this month to apply for a piece of $544,000 available in grant funding for projects related to specialty crops. What type of projects are eligible? Investment in specialty crop research. Enhancing food safety. Improving pest and disease control. Those are just a few types. Learn more about what’s eligible and how to apply.   Read more

The threat of wheat supplies struggling to leave the Black Sea region has slowly lessened, and today, they’re back to levels once again weighing on the market. “I just can’t see (wheat prices) cascading too much lower than where we are here. When you see it approaching a two-year low, that’s pretty brutal,” Clayton Pope of Clayton Pope Commodities told RFD Radio’s DeLoss Jahnke.   Read more

Illinois Farm Bureau Young Leader Vice Chair Rachel Fulton’s perspective on life shifted after a family tragedy several years ago. “We kind of had a fire lit under us that we need to start living our life the way we want to, and there’s no time like the present,” Fulton said. Learn more about the married mother of two as part of a series of profiles on this year’s new IFB Young Leader Executive Committee members. READ MORE

Southwestern Illinois residents can share their broadband needs at two state listening sessions next week in Centrailia and East St. Louis. Future listening sessions will be held across the state’s 10 economic regions. Learn more about The Illinois Broadband Lab’s schedule and how your input will be utilized.   Read more

That’s one of the goals behind the award-winning FarmDocs program — a collaboration between Champaign County Farm Bureau and Carle Illinois School of Medicine. First-year medical students have visited members’ farms the past two years to learn about the farming lifestyle, equipment used and modern agriculture in general. Learn why the program has been so popular with students and faculty.   Read more

USDA’s latest world ag supply and demand estimates (WASDE) report brought good news for soybean exports, but not so much for corn exports. “We’ve got good (soybean) demand. However, the big wild card is the South American crop,” said Ellen Dearden of AgReview. With corn exports, USDA lowered its estimate by 75 million bushels. But does a window of opportunity still exist?   Read and listen