Weekly Ag Update
Weekly Field Crop IPM Report; By Ned Birkey, MSU Extension Educator Emeritus/ Spartan Agricultural Consulting; [email protected]; March 12, 2025
The agricultural weather from the National Weather Service Climate Predication Center 8-to-14-day outlook for March 19 to 25, 2025, updated March 11 is predicting “likely above” outlook for temperature and precipitation.? Astronomical Spring finally arrives on Thursday, March 20 at 5:01am EDT.? The Spring Equinox means the sunrise and sunset are of equal lengths of time as the sun crosses the equator on its journey north.?
?National Agriculture Day: March 18 marks the 52nd yar of the nationwide effort to talk about agriculture and remind citizens that agriculture affects everyone.? This is one day to highlight the importance of agriculture, and the farmer contributions of food, feed, fuel and fiber.? The theme for 2025 is Agriculture: “Together We Grow,” recognizing the tremendous diversity in agriculture, and it takes everyone to produce a safe, nutritious, abundant and affordable food supply.? According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the U.S. has an agriculture product market value of over $543 billion, while the farms in Michigan sold over $12, 212,745,000 of ag products and in Monroe County, agricultural products have a market value of over $206.5 million.? There about 1.9 million farms in the U.S., 45,581 farms in Michigan and 1,122 farms in Monroe County as of the 2022 census.
Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis and is increasingly contributing to fuel and other bio-products.? The industry needs scientists, biologists, food safety technicians, livestock nutrition specialists, arborists, conservationists and many more jobs besides being a farmer or have a direct on-farm job.? One recent example of the broad impact of agriculture was in 2012 when Goodyear announced it was now using soybeans to replace some petroleum oil in the manufacture of tires.
?Photo of the Goodyear blimp over a Henry Ford farm, Canton, Michigan 2012.
?
Weekly Field Crop IPM Report
By Ned Birkey, MSU Extension Educator Emeritus/ Spartan Agricultural Consulting; [email protected]; March 12, 2025
?The agricultural weather from the National Weather Service Climate Predication Center 8-to-14-day outlook for March 19 to 25, 2025, updated March 11 is predicting “likely above” outlook for temperature and precipitation.? Astronomical Spring finally arrives on Thursday, March 20 at 5:01am EDT.? The Spring Equinox means the sunrise and sunset are of equal lengths of time as the sun crosses the equator on its journey north.?
?National Agriculture Day: March 18 marks the 52nd year of the nationwide effort to talk about agriculture and remind citizens that agriculture affects everyone.? This is one day to highlight the importance of agriculture, and the farmer contributions of food, feed, fuel and fiber.? The theme for 2025 is Agriculture: “Together We Grow,” recognizing the tremendous diversity in agriculture, and it takes everyone to produce a safe, nutritious, abundant and affordable food supply.? According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the U.S. has an agriculture product market value of over $543 billion, while the farms in Michigan sold over $12, 212,745,000 of ag products and in Monroe County, agricultural products have a market value of over $206.5 million.? There about 1.9 million farms in the U.S., 45,581 farms in Michigan and 1,122 farms in Monroe County as of the 2022 census.
Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis and is increasingly contributing to fuel and other bio-products.? The industry needs scientists, biologists, food safety technicians, livestock nutrition specialists, arborists, conservationists and many more jobs besides being a farmer or have a direct on-farm job.? One recent example of the broad impact of agriculture was in 2012 when Goodyear announced it was now using soybeans to replace some petroleum oil in the manufacture of tires.
?Photo of the Goodyear blimp over a Henry Ford farm, Canton, Michigan 2012.
?
?Gardening can be a family affair that is both fun and nutritious.? Tending the garden offers valuable family time together, especially when flowers are included along with vegetables and small fruits.? This could be the start of a new family tradition that includes having kids help do such jobs as; pick up sticks and debris, dig holes for planting, pull weeds, water plants, and harvest flowers, fruits and vegetables.
?