Missed some agricultural news this week? Here’s seven stories to catch you up.

1. The Wall Street Journal’s Jason Bellini talks with a group of farmers to hear how tariffs are affecting their businesses. – MarketWatch

2. House Appropriations Committee Chair Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., is proposing to block the White House request for its farm bailout program, according to a draft of legislation reviewed by the Washington Post, potentially imperiling President Trump’s ability to direct payments to thousands of farmers. – Washington Post

3. Stefan Soloviev, 44, is an empire builder. He’s heir to a New York real estate fortune worth $4.7 billion and a self-taught expert on dry-land agriculture. Over the last two decades, he has acquired 325,000 acres, enough to make him America’s 31^st-largest landowner. The 100 largest owners of private property in the U.S. collectively have 40 million acres, or about 2% of the nation’s land mass. – Farm Futures

4. Farmers blame USDA, bureaucracy for their troubles, not Trump, who they continue to support. “It’s much easier to be angry at a faceless Washington bureaucracy than at the man you voted for,” one farmer said. – The Gazette

5. Dr. Kristine Nichols, a leader in regenerative agriculture, called for a “brown revolution” of feeding and rebuilding the nation’s topsoil during a presentation in Kansas. She said 1.7 billion metric tons of topsoil are lost in the U.S. each year. “Nothing can be sustained if we don’t reduce the loss to zero.” Farmer Michael Thompson says the time has come for a change in the way farmers think about soil and plant health. – Kansas Farmer

6. The U.S. and China are talking, with President Trump postponing 5% in extra tariffs on Chinese goods by two weeks and China is considering buying U.S. soybeans and pork. – Farm Futures

7. John Deere’s annual sustainability report details a solid future for Deere and agriculture. Among the topics covered in the report are precision agriculture and how Deere is helping to improve living standards for people around the world. – Quad City Times

And your bonus.

Washington Post reporter Chris Ingraham looked at the data from USDA and it put Red Lake County last. After Ingraham wrote the story, he visited Red Lake County. Now, he lives there and his wife serves on the city council. – Minnesota Public Radio