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Japan weighs buying more U.S. soybeans as part of tariff deal... Japan is considering an increase in imports of U.S. soybeans, Nikkei reported, as Tokyo seeks to coax the Trump administration into dropping its tariffs. Ryosei Akazawa, Japan’s lead negotiator in the tariff talks, will visit the U.S. from April 30 to May 2 and meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other Trump administration officials. Japan, whose soybean imports are handled by the private sector, could ask companies to boost trade with the U.S. to help offset a loss of American exports to China, the report said.
As we reported earlier this week, the Trump administration is also demanding greater market access in Japan for U.S. rice and other ag products.
Bessent: Trade talks with South Korea may be moving faster than expected... Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, “We had a very successful bilateral meeting” with South Korea, noting there may be “technical terms as early as next week.” He said the two sides could “reach an agreement on understanding as early as next week.”
Winter wheat drought footprint modestly smaller... As of April 22, the Drought Monitor showed 59% of the U.S. was covered by abnormal dryness/drought, up one percentage point from the previous week. USDA estimated 33% of the U.S. winter wheat crop was experiencing D1-D4 drought conditions, down one point from last week but three points more than last year at this time. Abnormal dryness (D0) covered another 16% of winter wheat areas.
In HRW areas, dryness/drought covered 81% of Kansas (no D3 or D4), 56% of Colorado (1% D3, no D4), 46% of Oklahoma (no D3 or D4), 81% of Texas (30% D3 or D4), 97% of Nebraska (6% D3, no D4), 100% of South Dakota (3% D3, no D4) and 75% of Montana (2% D3, no D4).
In SRW areas, dryness/drought covered 12% of Missouri (no D3 or D4), 33% of Illinois (no D3 or D4), 15% of Indiana (no D3 or D4), 0% of Ohio, 21% of Michigan (no D3 or D4), 0% of Kentucky and 5% of Tennessee (no D3 or D4).
As the planting season gets underway, USDA estimates drought covered 26% of corn areas, 21% of soybean production and 49% of spring wheat.
Click here to view related maps.
Cold Storage Report: Meat stocks decline slightly less than average... USDA’s Cold Storage Report showed both beef and pork stocks declined slightly less than average during March.
Beef stocks totaled 426.9 million lbs., down 9 million lbs. from February, whereas the five-year average was a 10.7-million-lb. decline for the month. Frozen beef inventories increased 3 million lbs. (0.7%) from year-ago but declined 59.8 million lbs. (12.3%) from the five-year average.
Pork stocks dropped 1.2 million lbs. in March, less than the five-year average decline of 7.7 million lbs. for the month. Pork inventories fell 40.8 million lbs. (8.8%) from March 2024 and 104.3 million lbs. (19.8%) from the five-year average.
Total poultry inventories stood at 1.094 billion lbs., including a March record 251.9 million lbs. of chicken breast meat.
Outlaw & Fischer: Rethinking ‘all or nothing’ in farm bill debate... In a timely analysis, Dr. Joe Outlaw and Dr. Bart Fischer argue in a Southern Ag Today item that Congress may need to abandon its traditional “all or nothing” stance on farm policy to urgently shore up the safety net for U.S. crop producers. They emphasize that since the expiration of the 2018 Farm Bill in September 2023, economic conditions for farmers have worsened sharply due to “low prices and high costs.”
Progress on a new farm bill has stalled behind competing legislative priorities — chiefly a budget reconciliation package aimed at extending Trump-era tax cuts and boosting border security. That bill carries budget instructions requiring steep cuts: $230 billion over 10 years from the House Ag Committee, and at least $1 billion from the Senate Ag Committee.
Outlaw and Fischer suggest a piecemeal approach may be the only viable path forward. “In our opinion, that is the only realistic pathway to achieving meaningful enhancements to the farm safety net for the 2025 crop,” they write.
While some fear fragmenting the longstanding farm/food coalition, Outlaw and Fischer note this isn’t without precedent. During the 2014 Farm Bill debate, separate bills for nutrition and farm programs were passed and later merged in conference. “Congress may wish to consider moving away from all or nothing this time around,” they conclude, urging pragmatism in the face of rising farm sector vulnerabilities.
Farm Bureau presses EPA for clarity on WOTUS rule post-Sackett... The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) urged the Trump administration and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to issue clearer regulatory guidance on the revised “Waters of the United States” (WOTUS) rule, following the Supreme Court’s Sackett v. EPA (2023) decision that significantly narrowed federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.
Key concerns from AFBF:
- Definition of “relatively permanent”: AFBF calls for a strict definition limiting regulation to waters with year-round or nearly year-round flow. They oppose federal oversight of ephemeral features like rain-fed ditches and field depressions.
- Farmer exemptions: Urges explicit protections for normal farming activities — plowing, planting, fencing — from triggering Clean Water Act permitting.
- Wetland criteria: Requests clarification on when wetlands are “indistinguishable” from federally regulated waters. AFBF supports limiting oversight to wetlands with direct, continuous surface connections.
Zeldin has pledged to streamline the WOTUS rule and reduce uncertainty. The agency has issued interim guidance but acknowledges more work is needed to align field-level decisions with the Sackett ruling, especially under conditions like drought or seasonal water flow.
U.S. in talks with Ukraine, to demand Putin accept Ukraine’s right to military force... Ukraine and the U.S. reportedly signed a memorandum in which Kiev and Washington moved closer together. The memorandum states, among other things, that the U.S. and Ukraine want to create “a reconstruction investment fund” as a piece of an economic partnership between the two nations.
“This fund, as a financial instrument, will have the privileged right to invest in a wide range of facilities in Ukraine, as soon as there are opportunities for this,” Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Kachká noted. “First of all, we are talking about minerals, but we are also interested in U.S. investments in infrastructure: roads, ports, energy,” he added.
Kachká, who also serves as Ukraine’s trade representative, is leading a Ukrainian delegation visit to Washington to conclude technical discussions on the investment fund for Ukraine’s reconstruction to be created within the framework of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the U.S. will demand that Russia accept Ukraine’s right to have its own army and defense industry as part of a peace agreement between Moscow and Kyiv, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to raise the issue with Russian President Vladimir Putin when they next meet.
The U.S. is trying to broker a peace agreement between the two countries.