The Cedar Valley Business Journal reported recently that at least a handful of workers will return to plants in Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and that the union will continue to fight for more.

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Titan Machinery has reported financial results for its quarter ending April 30, defined as the first quarter for fiscal year 2016.

Titan reported equipment sales down by $100 million compared to the same quarter last year. Sales fell by $345 million in FY 2015 to $245 million in FY 2016.

The boards of directors of the Western Equipment Dealers Association and the Pacific Northwest Association announced Monday an agreement to merge.

The merged organization, which will operate as the Western Equipment Dealers Association, will represent more than 1,250 dealers in the United States and Canada.

Steven Key has been named Business Development Manager for Kondex Corporation. In this newly formed position, Key will expand business and pursue opportunities in new markets.

Key has more than 20 years’ experience in sales and marketing. He joined Kondex in 2009 as an account manager for various corporate accounts.

An alternative crop is emerging amid the corn and soybean fields of Iowa: hops. The Iowa City Press-Citizen talked with a farmer in May who is converting a fourth of his 100-acre traditional farm into a hopyard.

Participants at the Association’s Fall Convention need not go far to find fun. The Sheraton Kansas City is part of Crown Center, an 85-acre “city within a city” in downtown.

Crown Center is home to three live theaters, a movie theater, 300,000 square feet of shopping space, and more choices for meals than time to eat them, including The American Restaurant, rated by Forbes as a four-star dining experience.

Idaho has surpassed New York State as the nation’s third largest milk producer, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The state finishes behind dairy powerhouses California and Wisconsin.

Sentry Insurance sponsored an OSHA compliance seminar at its Stevens Point, Wis., headquarters in May.

Rain in the Midwest, coupled with low prices for corn, has disappointed ag analysts who hoped supply of the grain would surpass USDA estimates.

Still, numbers for this growing season are comparable to recent averages,including:

Ingersoll Tillage Group (“ITG”) and its majority owned subsidiary, Corporacion Patricio Echeverria announced the sale of a portion of ITG’s shares to ONCAP, effective June 1.

The last time the Association surveyed members, you sent a clear message: The Shortliner—and its online companion—are among the most valued benefits of your membership.

The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), with the Texas Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), has filed an appeal to overturn a court decision upholding a new union-organizing timeline.

A rule issued by the National Labor Relations Board accelerates the schedule by which workers can file a petition to hold a union election and the election itself. The rule, which became effective April 14, has been dubbed the Ambush Election Rule by opponents who say it robs businesses of proper time to respond to such petitions.

The EPA has claimed “unprecedented jurisdiction over many different kinds of water, including those that temporarily result from a ‘drizzle,’ and areas that are not always filled with water,” said Sen. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who led the hearing. “Under this regulatory regime, Americans will be subject to required permits and the constant threat of government intervention. The onslaught of EPA regulations continues.”

A preliminary report on the cost of drought to California agriculture suggests the toll could reach $2.7 billion.

The University of California-Davis and ERA Economics released a report to the California Department of Food and Agriculture in May that forecasts:

The International Monetary Fund issued a discussion note recently that governments should be charging consumers more for water. The Fund argues that paying more will lead to sustainable water use and improve access for the poor,

We are 138 days away from the opening of the Association’s convention in Kansas City. It is not time quite yet to pull the suitcase from the closet, but at the Association, we are thinking KC!

The Social Media Examiner, an online magazine that defines its mission as helping us “navigate the constantly changing social media jungle,” has released a 53-page report that breaks down how businesses use social media marketing and what they might do next.

The Environmental Protection Agency released a decision in May that eases requirements on how much ethanol goes into the nation’s fuel mix, citing market restraints and other challenges preventing compliance with a 2007 law.

The law requires refiners to blend an increasing amount of biofuels into the U.S. gasoline supply each year. The EPA was late in setting the ethanol quotas for 2014 and 2015, so the decision in May included requirements for 2014, which resembled actual use, the current year, and 2016.

The USDA has approved a plan to import eggs from the Netherlands for use in baking and processed foods.
This comes in response to a bird flu outbreak that has devastated poultry in the United States. The death toll among egg-laying hens has risen to 35 million.

The U.S. Supreme Court last week revived a discrimination lawsuit that accused Abercrombie & Fitch Co. of refusing to hire a Muslim woman because she wore a religious headscarf, the Legal Times reported.

In the case, Samantha Elauf applied for a job at Abercrombie & Fitch while wearing a religious headscarf, or hijab.

Financial Times took a look recently at wearables in the workplace—devices that track employees’ whereabouts, for example, or their productivity or stress level. What the newspaper found: the potential is impressive, implementation complex.

Talk of global trade agreements happens far beyond the walls of the U.S. Capitol.

It’s part of conversations, for example, in the tobacco fields of North Carolina, where farmers cultivate land that Johnny Barnes considers the “Napa Valley of tobacco.”

Barnes talked with The Farm Journal recently about what he grows in Spring Hope, N.C., and how pending trade legislation could affect farmers’ futures.

Canada filed a request with the World Trade Organization (WTO) last week seeking to impose $2.4 billion in retaliatory tariffs on United States exports. The request is a response to the failed Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) rule.

To television viewers, he is best known as Cliff Clavin, the endearing mail carrier with a seat at the bar on the NBC sitcom Cheers, but John Ratzenberger considers himself a blue-collar everyman and has dedicated much of his career to celebrating America’s manufacturers.

Ratzenberger will join the Association at the Fall Convention to share thoughts on U.S. manufacturing and its workforce.

Congress moved a step closer Friday to passing Trade Promotion Authority legislation, which is commonly known as the fast-track bill. The legislation would give Congress the ability to vote for or against—but not amend or filibuster major international trade agreements negotiated by the White House.

Sukup Manufacturing Co. of Sheffield, Iowa has sold its implement line to Remlinger Mfg. Co., of Kalida, OH. The implement line includes grain drills, row crop cultivators, shredders, rotary cutters, food plot planters, seeders, grain carts, and rippers.

Osmundson Mfg. Co. in Perry, Iowa, is now certified as an ISO 9001:2008 company.

The designation establishes the company as meeting criteria in quality management systems that focus on providing customers the best value possible, implementing a continuous improvement model, and reducing waste and maximizing resources.

GT Mfg., Inc., in Clay Center, Kansas, will be featured in a “How It’s Made” episode on the Discovery Science Channel. Tune in at 8 p.m. (central time) on Thursday, June 4.

A production crew for “How It’s Made” spent 10 hours at GT a year ago; company president Dennis M. Pederson said the footage has been whittled down to 10 minutes that explains to viewers how grain dryers are made. Pederson said the TV crew worked with GT on narration of the piece, but the company has not seen it in its final edited form.

A revenue report from Buhler Industries Inc., shows a $40 million decline in second-quarter revenue from 2014. Revenue for the first six months of 2015 was $124.8, down $48.8 from 2014.

Three Ph.D. candidates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won $100,000 for a technology that can scan and analyze farmland to pinpoint crop damage before pests and diseases can spread.

CLAAS has restructured its top management to position itself for continued growth.

With the restructuring, the company’s America President Leif Magnusson has been named President of CLAAS Global Sales – Americas. He will oversee three sales regions: CLAAS of America, Argentina and America Latina.

Bottlenecks at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are forcing some who depend on them to reroute their shipments through other ports, ship by air, or reduce their workforce to offset losses.

Moodie Implement and Frontline Ag announced merger

Brokaw Supply Co. and Riggins Ag Equipment also merged

Dairy prices fell by 2.2% last week to the lowest level since August 2009.

Causing the fallout: Demand for imports is soft while the “spring flush” is underway in the northern hemisphere.

Ag Growth International Inc. (AGI) last week completed its $221.5 million previously announced acquisition of the Westeel division of Vicwest Inc.

Highlights from Association of Equipment Manufacturers monthly Ag Flash Reports for unit retail sales of tractors and combines in the U.S. and Canada. For more information, go to FarmEquip.org/flash.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) announced last week it will pay ¥3 billion ($25 million) for a 33% stake in Japan’s Mitsubishi Agricultural Machinery Co. Ltd.

Deere & Co. reported Friday that a weak global farm economy led to a second-quarter profit loss. Earnings fell from $981 million in the second quarter of 2014 to $690.5 million this year, a 30% decline.

Farmers in California have offered to reduce their water use by 25%, which matches a mandatory water reduction that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) called for in cities and towns in April.

The BBC reported that a group of about 350 farmers made the concession after state officials threatened to cut their water rights. The agreement is the first of its kind in more than 30 years, and involves farmers in the delta of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers.

Kubota Tractor Corp. and Kubota Credit Corp. will move out of their corporate headquarters in Torrance, CA, and into new space in Grapevine, TX, near Dallas.

Kubota also announced this week it will build a 502,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and expand existing operations in Gainesville, GA.

A new rule from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that compresses the schedule between the filing of a petition to unionize and conducting a union election has in its first six weeks altered the labor-organizing landscape.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City reported earlier this month that financial pressures on farmers are bleeding beyond the farm and into rural communities. The data show crop farmers are bearing the brunt of the downturn; livestock producers continue to see better market conditions because of the affordability of grain.

“Mr. Samuel Adams … Allen,” said Clarke President Sister Joanne Burrows. “I knew I was going to … you know, I practiced not to say that.”

The U.S. Department of Commerce has awarded Ace Pump Corporation of Memphis, TN , The President’s “E” Award for Excellence in Exporting. The “E” Awards are presented annually to organizations that have made significant contributions to increasing America’s exports. Only 26 companies received the award.

A non-profit organization committed to closing the “farm to food knowledge gap,” is about to release its first project, a film about a struggling family dairy farm and a conflict that emerges when the family’s Harvard-educated son pushes for high-tech farming processes. The family’s drama plays out against the backdrop of a community where schoolchildren are not getting enough to eat.

A report recently released from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Purdue University anticipates more jobs in agriculture than graduates in coming years. Researchers expect about 58,000 jobs to open each year of the next five years in agriculture and agriculture-related jobs and only about 35,500 graduates to fill them.

A pinch in global demand for the resource has led researchers in Ohio to explore the possibility of creating a domestic source. In the early growing, the crop shows promise.

The Obama administration on Monday moved ahead with the EPA’s sweeping WOTUS measure to control the nation’s waterways and every imaginable point of connection to those waterways. The initiative has drawn strong opposition from almost every agriculture interest in the nation.

Vernon Schmidt, the Association’s Executive Vice President, called the proposal an “unlawful power grab by the EPA to assert federal jurisdiction over local water and land use.”

Today Schmidt added, “This decision by the administration shows a continued pattern of disregard for business, industry, and farm and ranch families. Given the opportunity to reach a reasonable solution, EPA has chosen to ignore millions of Americans, extending its control over private land. The EPA should not be in the business of regulating irrigation ditches, isolated ponds and other ‘non-navigable’ waters as waters of the United States.”

After 73 years in the farm equipment manufacturing industry, Soo Tractor is closing its doors.

Soo Tractor, a 54-year member of the Association, began in 1942 as Soo Tractor Sweeprake, a name which referred to

Agriculture in America accounts for 3.75 million jobs—farm jobs, of course, manufacturing, transportation, research, and more. That total compares to about 4.3 million jobs in the tech sector, according to Joel Kotkin, who explores demographic, social, and economic trends, and who recently contributed an article to Forbes on “The Uncelebrated Places Where America’s Farm Economy is Thriving.”