Need a quick catch up on the news? Here are seven agricultural stories you might have missed this week.

1. Wheat harvest is wrapping up for this year. In the last update of the season, custom harvesters report that spring wheat in North Dakota is producing good yields and test weights, but low protein. – FarmFutures

2. The average age of farmers in the United States is around 55 and getting older and it turns out the nation isn’t alone. In Africa, the average age of farmers is 60, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. What makes that figure most startling is that 60% of the continent’s population is younger than 24. - Reuters

Farmers are getting older, pollinators and neonicotinoids and ADM settles lawsuit.

3. ADM settled a lawsuit that claimed the company directed a Ponzi scheme by a former dealer who is serving a nine-year prison sentence for defrauding Missouri farmers. – FarmFutures

4. An increasing number of women are considering a career as a farmer and companies are starting to cater to the emerging market. Audrey Levatino recently wrote a book about women thinking about farming. – PRI

5. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican who chairs the committee, has heard from many constituents who are concerned about the wave of mergers occurring in the agricultural industry. He plans a late September hearing on the issue. – FarmFutures

6. Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has issued an executive order restricting uses of neonicotinoid pesticides in an attempt to reverse the decline of bees and pollinators. Meanwhile, a Washington State University study says neonicotinoid pesticides pose little risk to bees. – MPR and YakimaHerald.com

7. USDA is purchasing 11 million pounds of cheese in an effort to help prop up sagging milk prices. Congress, National Farmers Union, American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Milk Producers Federation had asked USDA to make the purchase. The surplus food will go to food banks throughout the nation. – FarmFutures

And your bonus:

Ready for football? Jim Shaw cultivates earthworms while raising sons who have played Big Ten football.  – The Washington Post