This week in interesting industry headlines: 

Wisconsin's Century-Old Model of Forestry Comes Under Pressure [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
"For more than a century, family-supporting jobs have grown on trees in Wisconsin.

Not a smattering of jobs, but the most private-sector jobs the state has ever known: jobs in logging, lumber, furniture making, pulping, papermaking and the printing presses for the nation's books, magazines and catalogs. If employment linked to forest products represented a single sector, Wisconsin would have the largest in the nation.” Read more

This week in interesting industry headlines: 

There’s a Coal Miner Who Wants to Buy Your Gently Used Bulldozer [Bloomberg]
"Some of America’s coal producers are doing what anyone else might do when faced with tough times and the need to shop: They’re hitting the thrift stores.” Read more

This week in interesting industry headlines: 

DuPont Weighing Agriculture Deals, Interim Chief Says [Wall Street Journal] 
"DuPont Co.’s interim chief executive said he is considering potential deals in the agriculture industry and scrutinizing the chemical company’s research spending in an effort to boost profits." Read more

This week in interesting industry headlines: 

New Food and Agriculture Fund S2G Ventures Launches With $125 Million [Wall Street Journal]
"Investors are placing increasing bets on two traditional industries confronted by changing consumer tastes: food and beverage businesses and agriculture." Read more

House approves bill to speed up mineral mining [The Hill]
"House lawmakers approved a bill Thursday to speed up the permitting process for mining resources deemed "strategic or critical." Read more

Robot builder designed for construction sites [Reuters]
"Zurich-based architects and roboticists have created the In-situ Fabricator, an autonomous construction robot capable of laying bricks into pre-programmed structures. Designers at the Swiss National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR) Digital Fabrication laboratory believe a future generation of the robot could be used widely on building sites." Read more

This week in interesting industry headlines:

Use of Unmanned Aircraft System in agriculture continues to expand [Farm & Ranch Guide]

"These larger unmanned aircraft will be used in precision agriculture and some of the first things farmers will be willing to pay for is the ability to make yield predictions. In addition, Nowatzki predicts farmers will use large UAS to track insect and disease movements. Accurate elevation data, he feels, is also something growers will be willing to pay for." Read more

Exuberance and Disappointment at Shell's About-Face in the Arctic [NYTimes.com]

"The economies and cultures of Alaska and Washington have long been intertwined and dependent. Many Alaskan fishing fleets today are based in Seattle and pay their wages here; in decades past, gold miners disembarked from Puget Sound for the gold fields of Alaska and Canada. The result is akind of mutual orbit with each side circling the other, in mutual benefit or frustration. On Monday, the glaring differences were everywhere." Read more

Timing is important when disposing equipment at auction [American City & County]

"Tractor-loader-backhoes in the North American markets are following seasonal trends in auction and private retail valuations, according to a new EquipmentWatch Intelligence report. The valuations, say EquipmentWatch analysts, vary based on model age and month of sale." Read more

Volkswagen's Biggest Challenge Right Now: Fixing the Cars [Fox Business]

"It's believed that VW's engineers, under intense pressure to meet mileage and performance targets, chose to rig the software because they couldn't hit those targets while keeping the emissions below legal levels. Certain types of emission controls impede both performance and fuel economy. One of the challenges facing new VW CEO Matthias Mueller is that all of those cars must now be fixed." Read more

This week in interesting industry headlines:

Interesting industry headlines from this week: 

Caterpillar CEO: Economy not pushing Fed to hike [CNBC.com]

"If the Federal Reserve were to increase interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point Thursday, the worst-case-scenarios won't materialize, said the leaders of two U.S. companies with a combined stock market value of about $124 billion." Read more

Powerful environmental group sues Mass. over gas pipeline [BostonGlobe.com]

"The environmental group sued the state utility regulator for approving three contracts to buy natural gas on a pipeline planned by Kinder Morgan. The CLF said the pipeline would bring in more gas than the state needs." Read more

UK's mining industry is revived -- by Australians [The Independent] 

"Ask people about British mining and many are likely to imagine striking coal miners on picket lines, shouting anti-Thatcher slogans and clashing with police. It is a measure of the industry’s inertia in this country that it this remains the lasting image a good 30 years on – for some, the scars have still not fully healed. But Wolf Minerals, a little-known Australian company which is listed on London’s Alternative Investment Market, is preparing to inject life into the UK’s dormant mining industry." Read more

While shopping IronPlanet's enormous end-of-quarter sale on September 24 and 25, don't miss the Aggregates West LLC package: a single-owner complete liquidation of quarry and aggregate equipment from AggWest's yards in rural Washington State. AggWest, the operators of Washington's Lummi Island quarry, have just over 50 items up for auction in this package, including many late-model and low-hour machines with competitively-priced starting bids. Other don't-miss packages coming up: our first U.S. Marine Corps sale on September 22, and an all-Humvee sale on GovPlanet on September 23. All items are now available to preview and bid!

Some of the exciting items in this package: 

Champion 760 Motor Grader
Item #643182, 348 hours. Enclosed Cab, Heater, 16.00R24 Tires, 14' Moldboard. See more

This week in interesting industry headlines: 

John Deere, other equipment manufacturers say new law interferes with existing contracts [Fox Business]

"John Deere and other farm and heavy equipment manufacturers told the New Hampshire Supreme Court on Thursday that a new state law looping them into protections designed for automobile and truck dealers unconstitutionally interferes with their existing and future contracts with dealers." Read more

XPO Logistics to buy trucker Con-way in $3B deal [CNBC]

"XPO Logistics said it would buy trucking and logistics company Con-way for $3 billion, including debt, making it the second largest provider of less-than-truckload services in North America." Read more

U.S. court finds EPA was wrong to approve Dow pesticide harmful to bees [Reuters]

"A U.S. appeals court ruled on Thursday that federal regulators erred in allowing an insecticide developed by Dow AgroSciences onto the market, canceling its approval and giving environmentalists a major victory." Read more

This week in interesting industry headlines: 

Florida readies for Tropical Storm Erika [Miami Herald]

"Haiti and the Dominican Republic braced for Tropical Storm Erika Friday morning as it churned westward on a course that could have the storm making landfall in southwest Florida Monday morning." Read more

Brazil Expected to be Major Exporter [Agriculture.com]

"Brazil, the fifth most populous nation, suddenly is second to the U.S. as the world’s largest agricultural exporter and has room to expand production." Read more

Miners Cozying Up With Rivals to Endure Commodity Turmoil [Bloomberg Business]

"Those deals are part of a nascent trend to join forces to run mines or to develop projects that might otherwise face cancellation or long delays. It’s a contrast from just a few years ago when companies preferred, and investors rewarded, simple ownership structures and decision-making." Read more