Faced with continued low milk prices and high feed costs, California dairy operators increasingly are being wooed by states offering cheaper costs and expanding markets.

A robust crowd, good weather and an improved farm economy helped kick off the 46th annual World Ag Expo on Tuesday at the International Agri-Center.

Farmers should pay 10 percent more for Modesto Irrigation District canal water this year, staff will propose this morning. The MID board will be asked to schedule an April 9 public hearing that would complete a protest period.

With great anticipation, the World Ag Expo will open its doors Tuesday with a new crop of tractors, cost-saving technology and visitors from around the globe.

The ethanol debate flared again this week over the Renewable Fuel Standard, the Farm Beat column notes, with livestock producers on one side and the ethanol industry on the other, disputing how its increasing use is affecting costs for consumers.

Today, supervisors will consider approving lease agreements for a solar farm proposed on county-owned acreage next to the Fink Road Landfill in western Stanislaus County.

Modesto-area farmers can learn Tuesday about sorghum, a livestock feed grown mostly on the Great Plains but now in demand from San Joaquin Valley ethanol plants.

Two Buck Chuck, a wine made in Stanislaus County that took the industry by storm, now costs half a buck more. Formally known as Charles Shaw, it has risen to $2.49 at Trader Joe's stores in California.

Traina Foods Inc. of Patterson has taken on an American icon. The state's largest producer of sun-dried tomatoes has started making them into ketchup — ketchup with more tang and texture than you get from the standard brands.

Far from the San Joaquin Valley, an irrigation drainage problem that once turned deadly continues to confront a crucial but little-known federal court.

Twice a day, Dan Agundez leads a parade at his rural Modesto home. Rather than marching bands and floats, though, the lineup includes Lily, Theresa and Reba McIntyre — goats he and his wife, Sue, raise in their barn.

A dairy group said Wednesday that farmers will get little help from milk price increases approved by the state. The California Department of Food and Agriculture, after hearing from farmers struggling with high feed costs, decided Tuesday to slightly increase the minimum milk prices that processors must pay from February through May.

A scrap metal company made sure that a tractor would never, ever pollute the air again. Modesto Junk Co. demolished the tractor Friday as part of a program that aims to reduce air pollution from farm equipment.

Small farmers can apply for startup loans of up to $35,000 under a federal program launched Tuesday.

My kids drink milk and get good grades, but they have yet to win a Nobel Prize. So I was not sure what to make of a British study suggesting a link between a nation's milk consumption and how many Nobel winners it has produced.