Agricultural News

State Senator James Seward joined with his senate colleagues Tuesday to unveil the "Young Farmers NY" plan which aims to address the issue of the advancing average age of New York farmers and to preserve the future of family farming. Seward says the initiative will support and encourage a new generation of farmers and help strengthen the state's leading industry...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York officials have formed a new task force to help farmers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the task force will include farmers and state officials and will be charged with improving how state agencies work with people in the agriculture industry...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Maple producers across New York are planning open houses the last two weekends in March, but so far the season is off to a slow start because of frigid weather. The best weather for sap is daytime temperatures in the low 40s and nighttime lows in the 20s...

WASHINGTON (AP) — New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is telling federal officials that the Empire State needs its bees to pollinate crops. Gillibrand wrote Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to ask him to expand the department's efforts to revive bee populations in New York and the Northeast...

WASHINGTON (AP) — American agriculture has experienced a boom, with market values of crops, livestock and total agricultural products reaching record highs even as the amount of U.S. farmland declined. A new government survey says the number of U...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — A producer of hard cider in Albany has become New York's first licensed farm cidery. The "Farm Cideries" law approved last year created a license for operations that make and sell no more than 150,000 gallons of cider annually from crops grown in New York...

The Farm Bill passed in the Senate this week with a vote of 68-32 margin. The House passed the bill by a 251-166 vote last week. It will now go to the President to be signed. Republican US Congressman Chris Gibson of the 19th District, a strong advocate of the Farm Bill, shared his thoughts with WDLA's Ron Galley: The Farm Bill will also support fruit and vegetable farmers and family farms, as wel

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The New York Farm Bureau says its top legislative priorities this year include the governor's proposal to raise the exemption threshold on the state's estate tax from $1 million to $5.25 million. According to the bureau, some 3,000 farms are above the $1 million mark and may be land rich, but cash poor...

New York state's two US senators say they have asked the US Department of Agriculture to help the state's grape growers. Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand persuaded the USDA to buy concord grape juice for programs like school lunches...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The Cuomo administration says New York is back to being one of the nation's top three states when it comes to milk production. Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday that the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirms that New York passed Idaho in 2013 to become the nation's third largest producer of milk, trailing California and Wisconsin...