Archives

Eminent Domain Database – In two weeks, the Comptroller’s office will begin constructing an online database for public and private entities operating with eminent domain authority. The Comptroller’s office has been collecting information for the database, which was established by SB 1812 during last year’s 84th Legislative Session, since December 7th, 2015 and will conclude the bulk of the information …

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Texas Primary Filing – Monday the 14th was the filing deadline for Texas’s primary elections. Candidates who failed to register by then will not be eligible to appear on the March 1st ballot. The election will decide party nominations for president, Congress, state legislature, and local office, and the races are shaping up to be contentious and unpredictable. There are …

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“Patriarchs” Retire from Grain Sorghum Board—Jack Cobb (Plains, TX) and Dale Spurgin (Allen, TX) both retired from the TGSB board of directors after 60 years of combined service. Mr. Spurgin and Mr. Cobb both began their years of service in the 1980’s essentially when the state program was just starting. “Both men were instrumental in starting programs as well as guiding …

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Ninth Circuit Court Gets Sulfoxaflor Decision Wrong, NSP Insists on Solutions – The following is a press release provided by National Sorghum Producers – The Environmental Protection Agency last week issued a cancellation order for all previously registered Sulfoxaflor products, including Transform. This cancellation order is in response to the Sept. 10, 2015, ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals …

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Latin America Trade Team Visits Texas – A U.S. Grains Council (USGC) trade team of Colombian and Peruvian poultry and swine producers and grain importers traveled to Texas Oct. 19-21 as part of a learning journey on purchasing U.S. sorghum and incorporating it into animal rations. The trade team spent two-and-a-half days in Texas, and during that time, met with …

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Why China Continues to Buy US sorghum –  Today there are 137 million bushels (the production of Texas), that China has committed to purchasing this year. Of that, only 22 million bushels have been shipped. Overnight, China literally bought every kernel of US produced sorghum they could find last marketing year. Consuming 382 million bushels of grain sorghum with a …

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Request for Comment Period Open for EPA Proposed Applicator Rule Change – On August 5, the EPA issued a proposal to revise the Certification of Pesticide Applicators rule. The proposed rule changes include a minimum age of 18 to apply restricted use pesticides and increased safety and education training for applicators. A graphic with the most glaring changes is below. EPA …

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Lesser Prairie Chicken Removed from Threatened Species List–On Sept. 1, Senior U.S. District Judge Rob Junell struck down the threatened species designation of the lesser prairie chicken. Junell ruled that the Fish and Wildlife Service acted “arbitrarily and capriciously” by not giving the regional plan a chance before making the threatened species listing in April 2014. Water Weekly Week of 8/31/15, …

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Texas Managed Pollinator Protection Plan – The purpose of the Texas Managed Pollinator Protection Plan (Texas MP3) is to establish a voluntary strategy to mitigate managed pollinator exposure to insecticides with minimal impact on production agriculture. The newly created program accomplishes this through improving communication between agricultural producers, applicators and beekeepers; increased awareness of Best Management Practices (BMP’s) and Integrated …

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Herbicide-Tolerant Sorghum Trait – DuPont Crop Protection and Advanta US have signed a joint agreement to commercialize the DuPont Inzen Z herbicide-tolerance sorghum trait. The non-GMO trait will give growers a greater ability to control yield limiting grass weeds in grain sorghum. DuPont has noted that annual grass weeds reduce U.S. sorghum yields by approximately 20 percent. The new trait will …

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