Authorizes Other Flexibilities To Help Producers Amid Coronavirus Pandemic (USDA/RMA) — USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) is ensuring that milk producers are not inappropriately penalized if their milk must be dumped because of recent market disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, RMA is extending inspection deadlines, waiving inspection requirements and authorizing more crop insurance transactions over the phone and …
Weekly Livestock Market Report Week Ending 04-10-2020
Here are the weekly livestock market reports for Alabama, Florida, and Georgia, for the week ended April 10, 2020, compiled by the Livestock Market News Service for all three states. AL Livestock Market Report: At Alabama Livestock Auctions for the Week ended-April 10, 2020, receipts at 21 markets totaled an estimated 3,300 head compared to 9,390 last week and 9,904 …
AFBF Urges Close Examination of Livestock Markets
(AFBF) — Extreme volatility in livestock markets is raising red flags across the country, leading the American Farm Bureau (AFBF) to urge the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to leave no stone unturned as they monitor and analyze market activity. American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall applauds Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue …
Meatpackers Close a Few Plants Due to Coronavirus
(NAFB) — Fears of meatpacker employees contracting coronavirus due to the close conditions they work in have led to several facilities idling production in recent weeks. For example, Tyson Foods has temporarily ceased operations at its pork plant in Columbus Junction, Iowa, after two dozen employees were found positive with the coronavirus. Politico says at least three people who work …
Dairy Producer: Unsettling Feeling to See Loads and Loads of Milk Going Down the Drain
By Clint Thompson Calvin Moody has been a dairyman for more than two decades and has never experienced what he’s had to go through over the past few weeks. “This is absolutely the first time in my lifetime that we’ve ever had to dump milk. I’ve been in the dairy business for over 20 years and never had to dump …
USDA Working on Aid for Livestock, Dairy, Specialty Crops
(NAFB) — Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue is working on developing aid programs for livestock, dairy, and specialty crop producers ahead of any aid to traditional commodity producers in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The Hagstrom Report says House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson spoke with Perdue, who told the chairman that he’s trying to develop systems to provide aid …
NCBA Commends Secretary Perdue For Swift Action In Expanding Investigation Into Cattle Markets
(NCBA) — NCBA President Marty Smith released the following statement on United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue’s announcement of expanding the agency’s investigation into cattle markets: “I would like to thank President Donald Trump and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue for their quick response to NCBA’s request to expand the agency’s investigation into cattle markets. Secretary Perdue’s decision …
Pandemic Causes Some Stockyards To Suspend Sales
(ALFA) — Several Alabama stockyards suspended cattle auctions this week to protect employees and customers and help control the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Scott Garrett, an owner of Mid State Stockyards, LLP in Letohatchee, said he and several stockyard owners in Alabama talked before suspending sales this week. Because stockyards are classified as essential, he said closures were made by …
The Day South Florida Agriculture Changed
Submitted by Gene McAvoy, Regional Vegetable Extension Agent IV Emeritus with UF/IFAS “Up to the end of Feb our growers were having a banner year and it looked like this season would be one of those homeruns that come around every 5-6 years.” Here is a report that I prepared on the state of S Florida ag and shared with …
NCBA Requests President Trump Expand USDA Market Investigation
(NCBA) — NCBA President Marty Smith sent a letter to President Donald Trump, requesting the government to act quickly to investigate the striking disparity between boxed beef prices and cattle prices in the futures and cash markets during the current COVID-19 crisis and following the packing plant fire in Holcomb, Kan., last August.  In his letter, Smith requests President Trump to …