Farmers across Edwards, Richland and Wayne counties are surveying the damage left behind from heavy flooding. “In 50 years, I’ve never seen this,” said Wayne County Farmer Jacqueline O’Daniel. Farmers and crop specialists throughout southeastern Illinois shared stories of standing water in farm fields, hundreds of acres of corn and soybeans pushed to the ground and roads completely washed out. READ MORE   “It breaks your heart some days.” In northwestern Illinois, heavy rain and flooding damaged homes and crops as rivers and creeks escaped their banks. FarmWeek’s Kay Shipman spoke with Stephenson County Farm Bureau Directors Greg Miller and

Illinois Farm Bureau is asking members to communicate their opposition to the massive climate, tax and health funding package that could be voted on in the U.S. House as soon as Friday. “A lot of what’s in this bill, particularly when it comes to the agriculture side, our policy supports. But on the backside with the tax implications … we really don’t know what’s in this act and the impact it’s going to have on landowners and our members at the farm gate,” IFB President Richard Guebert Jr. told RFD Radio. Learn how to have your voice heard.

  Rural middle school and high school educators are invited to a digital skills summit on July 28. Participants will receive customized classroom resources, access to Level 1 or Level 2 Google for Education Certification credits and more. READ MORE The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is accepting nominations for county committee members. All nomination forms for the 2022 election must be postmarked or received in the local FSA office by Aug. 1. READ MORE    

Brent Corners says timely rains have helped his corn and soybean crops. He discusses the latest crop conditions, including pest and disease pressure and wheat harvest, in this update with RFD’s Jim Taylor.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) denied a proposal from the federal government to impose duties on nitrogen fertilizers imported from Russia, Trinidad and Tobago. “This comes as a welcome relief,” National Corn Growers Association President Chris Edgington said in a statement. “We have been sounding the alarms and telling the ITC commissioners that tariffs will drive up input prices to even more unaffordable levels for farmers and cripple our supply.” Read more about the ruling.

The DeKalb Farmers Market is the only one in DeKalb County that both accepts LINK benefits — Illinois’ version of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — and matches those dollars through Link Up Illinois. The program has become so popular that on the first day of the 2022 season, the market ran out of vouchers for the extra benefits. That seems to follow a national trend. At least $59 million in SNAP benefits were redeemed at over 5,000 farmers markets in fiscal year 2021, according to USDA Food and Nutrition Service. In part one of a series, FarmWeek’s Timothy