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According to Kansas Wheat, the 2025 wheat growing season in Kansas will go down as one of the most challenging in recent memory, with widespread viral disease pressure affecting crops statewide. In the latest episode of Wheat’s On Your Mind, host Aaron Harries is joined by Kansas State University experts Dr. Kelsey Andersen Onofre and Dr. Romulo Lollato to explain why and how this viral outbreak took hold. From the biological intricacies of the wheat curl mite to the nuances of symptom onset and misdiagnosis, they break down what really happened and...

Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) will be submitting a comment to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and will share the document with its membership following submission. The comment period closes on August 22, 2025 and is available: Docket ID EPA-HQ-OPP-2024-0154 at www.regulations.gov  The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has opened public comments to its proposed registration for three end-use dicamba products for broadleaf weed control in dicamba-tolerant cotton and dicamba-tolerant soybean. The Agency received applications from Bayer CropScience LP, BASF Corporation, and Syngenta Crop Protection, LLC for new dicamba...

Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association’s (KARA) leadership increased the amounts awarded and reviewed nearly 100 applications to award seven applicants scholarships for the upcoming academic year. “We are thankful for our membership donating and raising money to award additional funds to deserving students,” KARA’s president and CEO Ron Seeber said. “Our board of directors, scholarship committee and overall membership congratulate and wish nothing but the best for this year’s recipients as we collectively look forward to their future contributions to our industry.” Each year, KARA awards one $1,000 Jim Lee Memorial scholarship, five $2,500...

Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association (KARA) President and CEO Ron Seeber, Senior Vice President Randy Stookey and Vice President Trae Green recently met with United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 7 Administrator Jim Macy and staff members to discuss various regulatory issues. Throughout the two-hour meeting, KARA, along with the Kansas Cooperative Council and association professionals from Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska reviewed agency initiatives and how they're affecting agribusiness. Specifically, KARA took the lead in coordinating the meeting, drafting the agenda and thoroughly covering issues such as: Waters of the United States,...

Kansas Agribusiness Retailers Association diligently works with a coalition of industries and organizations to oppose high electric utility rates. Information regarding Evergy’s proposed rate increase, and how to submit comments and attend public hearings, is below. Evergy has filed an Application with the Kansas Corporation Commission (Commission) requesting a $196.4 million rate increase (8.62%) for Evergy Kansas Central (EKC) customers. If approved, prices would become effective in September 2025. EKC residential customers would have an average monthly increase of $13.05. Evergy’s Application requests updated prices to include nearly $1 billion investment infrastructure...

In 2024, the Kansas legislature passed House Bill 2477 to amend the Remediation Reimbursement Program statutes. The bill increased the maximum amount an eligible person may receive in reimbursement from the Remediation Reimbursement Fund to $300,000 per location. In addition, the Kansas Agricultural Remediation Board has now amended board regulation K.A.R. 125-1-7 to remove a separate reimbursement limit. The new maximum reimbursement limit will become effective on June 13, 2025. All new applications to the remediation reimbursement program will be subject to the new maximum reimbursement limit. In addition, any eligible person...

The state of Kansas will no longer issue commercial driver licenses (CDLs) to non-domicile, temporary residents working in the United States. Instead, those workers coming from Mexico and Canada must obtain a CDL in their home country. That license will then be honored in Kansas and across the U.S. Please see further details from the Kansas Department of Revenue below. “The Kansas CDL program is subject to audit annually by the FMCSA.  It was during one of these federal audits a few years back that KDOR was informed that due to the...

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division issued a field assistance bulletin providing guidance on how to determine employee or independent contractor status when enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act. While the department reviews the 2024 final rule, Employee or Independent Contractor Classification Under the Fair Labor Standards Act – which is also being challenged in federal court – agency investigators are directed not to apply the 2024 rule’s analysis in current enforcement matters. Instead, the division will rely on longstanding principles outlined in USDOL Fact Sheet #13 and further informed by...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released its final Insecticide Strategy that identifies protections for federally endangered and threatened species from the use of insecticides. The Strategy identifies mitigations aimed at protecting more than 900 species listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) that EPA considers when it registers a new insecticide or reevaluates an existing one. “Today’s action is another example of how protecting our environment and safeguarding our economy can go hand in hand,” said EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “We have found commonsense ways to keep endangered...

During the Kansas Legislature’s brief veto session earlier this month, a handful of bills were passed and sent to the Governor for consideration. Because the legislature adjourned sine die on April 11th, there was no opportunity for the legislature to attempt to override any bill that was vetoed by the governor. Below is a brief update of bill activity following the Veto Session. Next year’s legislative session is scheduled to begin on January 12, 2026. Water Program Task Force CCR on HB 2172 established a water program task force to evaluate the state's...

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