Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture is projecting a $1.9 billion drop in exports this year, led by a decline in trade with China. While talks remain ongoing between China and the United States, USDA during its 95th annual Agricultural Outlook Forum Thursday predicted 2019 fiscal year exports at $141.5 billion. USDA Chief Economist Robert Johansson told attendees China is expected to fall from the top market for U.S. exports in 2017, to the fifth largest market in 2019, pending the outcome of trade talks. [node:read-more:link]

A foreclosure case brought against a cattle operation in Corsica, S.D., has left potentially thousands of head of cattle in limbo between the feedlot and the slaughterhouse. The case was brought earlier this month by the First Dakota National Bank against Robert and Becky Blom. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue talked about trade and the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum on Thursday. But a lingering problem remains over how and when the Trump administration would remove steel and aluminum tariffs against the country's closest trade partners. To protect domestic steel and aluminum manufacturers, President Donald Trump last March placed national security "Section 232" tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum. [node:read-more:link]

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue talked about trade and the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts at the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum on Thursday. But a lingering problem remains over how and when the Trump administration would remove steel and aluminum tariffs against the country's closest trade partners. To protect domestic steel and aluminum manufacturers, President Donald Trump last March placed national security "Section 232" tariffs of 25% on imported steel and 10% on imported aluminum. [node:read-more:link]

An Arkansas panel has adopted a plan to allow restricted use of an herbicide banned in the wake of complaints that it drifted onto crops and caused damage. The Arkansas Plant Board voted after a 9½-hour public hearing to allow the use of dicamba through May 25. The new restrictions also would impose a half-mile buffer zone around research stations, organic crops, specialty crops, non-tolerant dicamba crops and other sensitive crops. The rules now go to lawmakers for approval.The state had previously banned dicamba's use from April 16 through Oct. 31. [node:read-more:link]

An Idaho House bill that would legalize hemp as an agricultural commodity in accordance with a new federal law now includes estimates of how much it will cost. A fiscal note included with House Bill 122, discussed in a hearing Feb. [node:read-more:link]

Pennsylvania dairy farmers are being short-changed at least $550 million dollars each year, and New York dairy farmers are facing a $650 million dollar shortfall, which should make everyone anxious to do something to correct these criminal prices that dairy farmers are facing everyday. Our figures indicate that the total underpayments to all the US dairy farmers each year are approximately $12 billion. But wait, it gets much worse. Using a multiplier of five, the total loss to our rural economy across the US is approximately $60 billion per year. [node:read-more:link]

Mexico imports nearly a quarter of the U.S. dairy industry’s exports annually. It’s a critical $1.4 billion marketplace. And it’s one that President Trump continues to risk damaging permanently – and unnecessarily. Locked in a trade war since May, Mexican leaders are setting aside American business connections that took decades to build as our neighbors to the south find new sources of cheese, butter and other products.This should have changed in November when Trump declared success with his newly rechristened U.S.-Canada-Mexico Trade Agreement replacing NAFTA. [node:read-more:link]

More Americans than ever say they want sustainable food. According to a 2018 survey conducted by the International Food Information Council, 59% of American consumers said they care about whether their food is grown sustainably. But much like “GMO” or “natural,” sustainability can be a murky term with no clear definition. Now, two stalwarts of the ‘Big Food’ landscape are working to clear up that murkiness with a “Turbo-Tax style” software platform aimed at getting farmers to grow their crops more sustainably. [node:read-more:link]

The Oklahoma Board of Agriculture on Tuesday approved proposals for new or expanding poultry operations requiring them to be a certain distance away from homes and schools, but some eastern Oklahoma residents say the plan doesn't go far enough. The board voted 3-2 for the rules that include "setback" requirements that operations with fewer than 150,000 birds be at least 500 feet from homes and larger operations be at least 1,000 feet away. [node:read-more:link]