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Rollins clarifies a bevy of ag related items and announces ECAP payments… USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins addressed several key issues presently impacting the farm economy yesterday at the Kansas City Ag Outlook Forum. According to USDA, Between 2020 and now, seed expenses have increased 18%, fuel and oil expenses increased 32%, fertilizer expenses increased 37%, and interest expenses increased by a whopping 73%.
In response, effective immediately, the Antitrust Division of DOJ will work closely with USDA to scrutinize competitive conditions in the ag marketplace, including antitrust enforcement that promotes free market competition. Rollins noted, “The success of our farmers is a national security priority, and at USDA we are looking at every option to ensure the future viability of American agriculture.
USDA also released $2 billion in remaining funding for the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) and announced the purchase of more than 417,000 metric tons of American grown commodities to support international food assistance programs.
Rollins noted a quick turnaround for the funds saying, “…I’m excited to announce that the remaining two billion dollars of ECAP funding will be delivered within the week.” That completes the 10 billion dollars Congress approved, with five-and-a-half billion dollars out of 16 billion paid so far in supplemental disaster relief.
USDA, meantime, discontinued use of its farm labor survey for setting government-mandated wage rates, while the Labor Department will now centralize handling of H-2A paperwork.
Rollins says some Biden DEI money will be added to $285 million a year for trade promotion in the Trump tax bill, and new money will go to the McGovern-Dole and Food For Peace programs saying, “…the amount we’re purchasing is equivalent to over 16 million bushels of our row crops.”
Rollins also said USDA will deal head-on with foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, announce a new strategy to revitalize cattle inventories short of market-distorting payments, and ban cattle imports from Mexico until it fully combats New World Screwworm.
Farm Bill back in conversation… Washington Representative Dan Newhouse says a new Farm Bill will get much-needed attention sometime soon. Newhouse remarked quote, “We passed HR 1, and that was signed into law on July 4th… Many of the important things that we were working on were covered by HR 1, and so the things that are left to do, which is about 25 percent are things that should be much easier to accomplish.”
Newhouse assured the Ag Chair is on board. “Chairman Thompson has told us and the farmers that he has visited with that he wants to get this done as soon as possible.” Newhouse says the House has very few excuses not to get a new farm bill done.
An answer on timing China’s U.S. soybean purchases… A spokesman from the Chinese commerce ministry was asked this week when China might resume buying American soybeans. He said the U.S. should remove what China describes as unreasonable tariffs and create conditions that help expand trade between the two nations.
Bessent comment not easing ASA ire… Argentina’s Treasury is reportedly moving to scoop up large amounts of foreign currency in block trades just as $7 billion from grain exports enters the market. A recent announcement from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has upset U.S. soybean farmers. In a post on X, Bessent said the U.S. will offer financial support to Argentina to help prop up its ailing economy.
Friday’s Cold Storage Report Details… Frozen beef supplies totaled 393.8 million lbs. at the end of August, down 4.0 million lbs. (1%) from July, but up (1.5%) from year-ago.
USDA’s Cold Storage Report showed 393.9 million lbs. of pork in frozen storage at the end of August, down 10.7 million lbs. (2.7%) from July and 61.4 million lbs. (13.5%) from August 2024. Pork bellies declined 25% from last month and 8.5% from year-ago.
Total frozen poultry supplies on August 31 were down slightly from the previous month and from year-ago. Total stocks of chickens were down 2% from the previous month but up 4% from last year. Total pounds of turkeys in freezers were up 3% from last month, but down 8% from Aug. 31, 2024.
Notable closes…
The smaller-than-expected breeding and market hog inventories in yesterday’s Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Report pulled lean hog prices to the upside. October lean hogs gapped higher, slipped back to fill the gap then pushed up to a high-range close.
- October hogs up $1.40 to $101.50
- December hogs up $2.42 ½ to $91.05.
Argentina’s aggressive actions to sell beans this week sent soybean prices sharply lower Monday then prices consolidated through the rest of the week.
- November beans were a-penny-and-a-half higher at $10.13 3/4
- January beans up 1 3/4 cents to $10.33
- March beans closed at $10.49, up 1 1/2 cents
Your weekend read…
Hack off a head of magnificent antlers. Slice away a scrotum of trophy semen. Roll the carcass onto its snowy belly to conceal the crime. High-five. Make bank. Fly away in a jet. Do it again.
One of the most astounding illegal hunting cases in U.S. history unfolded in the pastureland and crop rows of southwest Kansas with the poaching of at least 119 giant bucks, representing a minimum of 16,600” of horn, a mind-boggling quarter-mile stretch.
Who was killing the monsters of Kansas? Who triggered one of the wildest conservation busts on record?
“The sickest bunch of outlaws I’ve ever come across,” says retired game warden Tracy Galvin. “They came up here out of Texas and Louisiana, and raped our deer country.”
Read this garish tale from AgWeb’s Chris Bennett titled, “Historic Kansas Sting After Slaughter of 119 Monster Bucks” if you dare.