Deadline reminders, crop and livestock futures, coronavirus impacts & more.

This week, we talk to Tracy Dunbar, Chair of the UAPB Department of Agriculture, about the school’s recent Rural Life Conference and we sit down with Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Brandy Carroll to learn more about the Arkansas Abandoned Pesticide Program. We also get an update on the latest Healthy Soils for Sustainable Cotton & Arkansas Soil Health Alliance meeting.

We've got the scoop on building the workforce of the future in Arkansas. Learn about the various efforts to improve professional skills and career training in the state, get a look at Johnny Cash's boyhood home and check out a delicious Taste Arkansas recipe for chocolate cake.

Construction of the Pump Station in Scott, Ark. for the Bayou Meto Water Management District was completed in 2014. Unfortunately the station's pumps have been idle, as work continues to secure additional funding for construction of the canals and infrastructure needed to deliver Arkansas River water to farms and communities in the district. Once federal and state funding is received, officials hope to complete the project and turn the pumps on, delivering surface water to subscribers in 2026.

ARC and PLC enrollment deadlines approaching, corn and rice future updates, hog and cattle updates and more.

Just four years ago cotton prices bottomed out, Arkansas acreage and production dropped and only a handful of cotton gins remained open. But in 2019, prices, acreage and production saw a dramatic increase, bringing a need for more ginning capacity. In southeast Arkansas, the Day family joined others there to build a new gin at Winchester, south of Dumas. The gin began operating in January and provides a new facility to process what is expected to be expanded acreage this year.

This week, we talk to John Lewis, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service, about the long-range weather outlook and we sit down with Cooperative Extension Service entomologists to talk about insect problems farmers could face this year. We also visit with Ralph Pinkerton of Garland County Farm Bureau and Melony Ritter of National Park College to talk about the recent Arkansas Farm Bureau Candidate Forum hosted by the college.

This week, we talk to Harrison Pittman, director of the National Agricultural Law Center at the University of Arkansas about legal issues in agriculture and we learn about the importance of agricultural activism from speaker and logging industry veteran Bruce Vincent. We also hear from Ed Swaim, Executive Director of the Bayou-Meto Water Management District.

This week, we talk with members of Arkansas Farm Bureau commodity boards about this week’s Winter Commodity Meeting in Little Rock and we learn what’s going on with the Arkansas Forestry Association.

This week, we talk with experts on the outlook for rice in Arkansas in 2020 and the potential impact of the EPA’s final rule defining “Waters of the U.S.” We also get some helpful tips on preventing timber theft on farms, ranchers and other private property.