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Ag Groups Launch Legal Challenge Against RFS

By Todd Neeley, DTN Staff Reporter 

January 11, 2016

Snip20160112_1In what could be the first of many legal challenges to the latest Renewable Fuel Standard volume requirements, ethanol and agriculture industry groups on Friday petitioned a federal appeals court to hear a challenge to the RFS finalized by EPA in November 2015.

The petition was filed by Americans for Clean Energy, American Coalition for Ethanol, Biotechnology Innovation Organization, Growth Energy, National Corn Growers Association, National Sorghum Producers and the Renewable Fuels Association in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

A preliminary listing of “issues to be raised” in the court of appeals “will be filed at...

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Can You Hear Me Now?

By: Lance Woodbury, DTN Farm Business Adviser My eight-year-old daughter recently accused me of not listening to her. She says that sometimes I interrupt her, or other times I'm not paying attention while she's talking, or that I'm on my computer, working, when I should be focused on what she has to say. She humbles me, of course, in a way that only a child can humble an adult; it's also difficult criticism for a professional mediator trained in communication skills to take!

When it comes to participating in a closely-held business, we often take communication in general, and listening in particular, for granted. That's due in part because we've grown up with our business partners, or because we interact with them at family events...

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Ag Confidence Index Released, Farmers and Ranchers Face Future Concerns

OMAHA (DTN) -- Farmers' discontent with crop input prices and farm incomes has continued to grow while hope of an economic turnaround has faded, according to the latest results of the DTN/The Progressive Farmer Agriculture Confidence Index.

The latest reading of the index came in at 92.7, compared to 99.4 in August and 103.4 in December 2014. An index value of 100 is considered neutral, while higher values indicate optimism and lower values reflect pessimism.

The index is an average of farmers' and ranchers' assessments of their present situation and their expectations of conditions 12 months from now, and low hopes of improvements in the ag economy have led to the lowest confidence index since DTN began surveying farmers in April 2010.

"Farmers have never...

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