Each week we round up the latest N.C. agricultural headlines from news outlets across the state and country, as well as excerpts from the stories. Click on the links to go straight to the full story.
- “Farm Aid concert coming to Raleigh in September,” News & Observer: Since 1985, Farm Aid has had concerts in 18 states from sea to shining sea. This year, North Carolina makes state No. 19. Farm Aid’s 2014 concert will be Sept. 13 at Raleigh’s Walnut Creek Amphitheatre. All four members of Farm Aid’s board will perform – founder Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp and Dave Matthews. Over the years, Farm Aid has raised more than $45 million for family farmers with benefit concerts almost every year, pulling everyone from Lou Reed to Julio Iglesias onstage. Dylan, Kenny Chesney, Johnny Cash, Tom Petty and Paul Simon are among the many acts to play Farm Aid shows. …
- “Wonderful watermelon,” Wilmington Star News: Watermelon is a summertime treat that you’ll see popping up at cookouts and other gatherings when the temperature is at its peak. Its high water content offers refreshment and hydration in the midst of the hottest days of the year. According to information from the N.C. Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, the watermelon is of the cucurbitaceae, or gourd, family. The Tar Heel State ranks about eighth in the nation, producing more than 193 million pounds. …
- “Goat Dairy Industry Sees Big Boost in NC,” Time Warner Cable News: Not everyone wakes up with the sun, but for ten years, Sammy Gray has been doing just that to tend to his more than 200 goats. “When one of my girls dies, it’s like a part of me dies, because I live with them I do everything to kept them healthy,” said Sammy Gray of Wilderness Trail Dairy. Gray spends hours milking more than 165 goats at Wilderness Trail Dairy every day. He sells the milk, which eventually becomes cheese. He says he’s seen a growing demand for goat dairy in the state with more people buying local. “There’s a large demand for the cheese, plus also fluid milk because there’s a lot of people who cannot drink cow milk,” said Gray. …
- “Wineries thriving in mountains and across the state,” Asheville Citizen-Times: Craft beer gets plenty of attention and promotion in North Carolina. But the state also has a lively wine scene that is constantly adding new players of all sizes. The mountains are home to more than a dozen wineries including America’s most-visited (Biltmore in Asheville) and the nation’s smallest (Calaboose Cellars in Andrews, with just 300 square feet). Wineries (about 129) in North Carolina outnumber breweries (110). The same is true nationally, with 7,946 wineries (according to the National Association of American Wineries) and more than 2,700 craft breweries (according to the Brewers Association). This weekend, a cluster of wineries in Cherokee and Clay counties in N.C., and Towns and Union counties in north Georgia will be officially designated as a federal wine growing American Viticultural Area, the first AVA in the mountains and one of only four such areas in the state. Together, the state’s wineries are packing quite an economic punch, said Whit Winslow, wine marketing specialist with the N.C. Department of Agriculture. …
- “North Carolina Innovation, From Barcodes to Berries,” Xconomy: If you’ve made a retail purchase recently, chances are good you used technology developed in Research Triangle Park without even realizing it. The modern day barcode has its origins in the 1970s research of IBM scientists Joseph Woodland and George Laurer. Their work in IBM’s RTP labs was accompanied by the scanning technology to read Universal Product Codes. This technology was so transformative for retail that it found widespread adoption. These days, no one even gives the technology that facilitates their shopping transactions a second thought. Silicon Valley and Boston always top the lists and rankings of technology and life sciences hubs. Like barcodes, Research Triangle Park often remains a distant thought. But there’s a lot happening in North Carolina that the rest of the country doesn’t know about. There’s more happening here than drug research and new cloud-based software. And it’s not just in the Park. …
- “Tour of poultry plant shows what business may bring to Cumberland County,” Fayetteville Observer: Every day, 60 tractor-trailers loaded with chickens are hauled to Sanderson Farms Inc.’s only North Carolina plant, where they are processed into fresh meat for retailers such as Harris Teeter, Walmart and Lowes Foods. Sanderson Farms, which is considering a Cumberland County site for a processing plant that would employ 1,000 workers, gave The Fayetteville Observer a tour Monday of its Kinston operations employing 1,600. …
- “State officials close down gas pump after water discovered in tank,” WBTV: Lauren Smith takes pride in the Mercedes that she normally drives, but these days the big sticker on her rear window reads ‘courtesy vehicle,’ and she says there’s a good reason for that. This past Sunday night, Lauren had just filled up with 93 octane at the Quick and Easy convenience store near Trade Street and I-77. “I drove about a mile home and then the next morning I made it about three blocks before the she engine seized up. I had to pull off, it broke down on the side of the road,” she said. After her car was towed to the dealership, Lauren returned to the store to complain, and that’s where she learned of another problem at the pump. …
- “Premium Lock Precision agriculture: Tech drives next big thing in farming,” WRAL: Farming continues to evolve, becoming even more high tech. The latest wave is called “precision agriculture,” and it was the topic of the NC Ag Biotech Professional Forum at the NC Biotechnology Center, uses GPS guided, self-steering equipment, drones to monitor crops, precise, hyper-local weather reports, and the collection and analysis of data in real time for immediate action or strategic planning. WRAL TechWire Insider Allan Maurer has the exclusive details. …
- “Agribusiness: What Does NC Produce The Most Of In The U.S.?” WFMY: North Carolina’s agriculture industry contributes $78 billion to the state’s economy. Agribusiness is everything from fish to Christmas trees, cotton to sweet potatoes! North Carolina produces more tobacco than any other state. Not a surprise. What is the other crop they produce more than another other state? Sweet potatoes. North Carolina ranks second in the nation for Christmas trees and the production of hogs and turkeys. Agribusiness accounts for nearly 17% of the state’s income and employs 16% of the work force! Four Triad counties are in the top 10 in the state for producing beef cows. And one ranch in Snow Camp has been doing it the old fashioned way for 40+ years. And by old fashioned, we mean the rancher herds the cows by calling them! We visited Little Creek Ranch a few years ago to show you how cattle is Made in the Triad. …
- “N.C. State Fair makes Fodor’s Top 10 list,” Triangle Business Journal: The North Carolina State Fair, held each October in Raleigh, has made it to Fodor’ s list of Top 10 State Fairs in the U.S. Ours is the only southeastern state fair on the list, and the Midwest dominates the list with five. …
- “Apple growers escape ‘crazy’ weather with good crop,” Hendersonville Times-News: With the N.C. Apple Festival right around the corner, Henderson County’s apple orchards are lucky to have weathered freeze, frost and hail storms mostly intact, farmers and county extension agents say. “Everybody around has got different damage in different orchards,” said Jerred Nix, president of the Blue Ridge Apple Growers. “Some places, Romes are affected; other places, they’re not. Some places, Galas are affected, and others they’re fine.” Despite the scattered damage, Nix said they’ll be no lack of unblemished apples in a range of varieties for sale at the Apple Festival, which starts Aug. 29 and runs through Sept. 1. “There’s going to be plenty,” he said. “One grower might be a little bit short on something, but the next two growers are likely to have it. It’s just sporadic the way the weather’s happened. It was so crazy this year.” …