Harvest Public Media

Farmers across the central U.S. have navigated a myriad of challenges this year, including low crop prices and federal funding cuts.

The announcement that Tyson would shutter a massive beef processing plant in Nebraska was the first such closure in more than a decade. Beef processors are running at lower capacity, as the U.S. cattle herd size is the smallest it's been since the 1950s.

The lesser prairie chicken was once a common sight in the southern Great Plains, but its numbers are dwindling. Even so, it lost federal protections earlier this year for a second time. Now states and landowners are overseeing conservation efforts

The federal funding package to reopen the government included a one-year extension of certain 2018 Farm Bill programs. Several expired Sept. 30 or would have been null by the end of the year.

The U.S. agricultural industry depends on undocumented immigrants, but President Trump's immigration crackdown is further depleting an already tight workforce. The labor crisis may be setting the stage for big changes to a federal program that allows foreign workers into the country legally.

Some Midwestern soybean farmers are selling their beans to be crushed and turned into soybean meal and oil. But economists say domestic processing won't be enough to offset the drop in Chinese demand.

Food bank staff expect a wave of new demand as millions of Americans are set to lose federal food assistance in November. But they insist that their services alone won't be enough to feed everyone who relies on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Bats love to munch on insects like stink bugs and moths. Some farmers are now relying on the mammals for pest control – and ditching chemicals.

Ranchers, lawmakers and farmers' unions are sounding the alarm over a Trump administration plan to increase beef imports from Argentina.

The government shutdown stops USDA from administering farm subsidies, raising the specter of growing farm foreclosures. It also delays a bailout President Trump had promised for farmers impacted by tariffs.