NEWS IN BRIEF

— UA division issues hay harvest warning

Dry conditions are hurting Arkansas’ hay crop, causing the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service to issue a warning Wednesday.

A crop report issued Monday by the National Agricultural Statistics Service said last week’s rainfall “was enough to prevent a decline in pasture and range conditions but not enough to significantly improve conditions.” That means 1 percent of pastureland in Arkansas is rated excellent; 11 percent was good, 32 percent fair, 35 percent poor and 21 percent very poor.

While this year’s warm spring allowed growers to get an early cutting, the lack of rain has hurt.

Phil Sims, extension staff chairman in Pope County, called his county’s hay situation, “Critical.

Code blue.”

The National Weather Service said that in Russellville, May’s rainfall was 4.67 inches short of normal.

Wal-Mart announces prepaid mobile plan

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

and TruConnect Mobile LLC, based in Los Angeles, said Wednesday they are partnering on a prepaid mobile Internet plan that customers can refill as needed with credit or debit cards.

Users can buy online access in increments of $10 for 100 megabytes, $25 for 500 megabytes or $45 for one gigabyte.

The company said the 100 megabyte plan could enable a subscriber to view up to 700 Web pages, send up to 2,000 e-mails, post 1,200 social media updates, listen to 100 minutes of music or view 50 minutes of video.

Wi-Fi-equipped devices supported by the plan are those using Windows, Mac OSX, Apple iOS and Google Android operating systems. Sprint Network is the provider of the online plan.

Arkansas Index slips 1.40 as 10 stocks fall

The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, fell 1.40 to 224.24 Wednesday.

“U.S. stocks fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve cut estimates going forward for economic growth and announced the extension of Operation Twist,” said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. “The Arkansas Index moved lower as 10 stocks declined, four advanced and two remained unchanged.”

Deltic Timber dropped 2.5 percent on low volume.

USA Truck gained 1.9 percent in light trading.

Volume was 25.5 million shares, compared with average daily volume of 28.1 million shares.

The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.

Business, Pages 27 on 06/21/2012

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