Growers associations in California are urging Gov. Jerry Brown to veto the bill that recently passed the California Assembly that would make California the first state in the U.S. to mandate the payment of overtime to farm workers after eight hours worked in a day or 40 hours worked in a week. Packer reports, Jim Bogart, president of the Salinas-based Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, as saying that his “ fear is that this bill, if signed, is going to hurt the very people that the legislation is designed to help because he thinks it’s very likely to result in reduced hours of employment for farm workers and, as a result, smaller paychecks.”

Deere & Co. and Precision Planting say they plan to fight the Justice Department's attempt to block the farm equipment giant's acquisition of Precision Planting on antitrust grounds. DOJ filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that Deere's proposed acquisition of the Monsanto subsidiary would probably raise prices for farmers and virtually eliminate competition in the precision agriculture arena.

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