Kansas Announces Pilot Disease Traceability Program for Cattle

Kansas state government officials and leaders from the Kansas livestock industry announced a new program called the Cattle Trace Pilot Project. Cattle Trace is a unique public-private project that will develop and test a cattle disease traceability infrastructure in the state, which will hopefully be a catalyst in discussing and designing a national traceability program. Kansas Governor Jeff Colyer was …

Senate Approves Pesticide Registration Improvement Act

Senate Ag Committee Chair Pat Roberts and Ranking Member Debbie Stabenow announced that the Senate has unanimously approved the reauthorization of the Pesticide Registration Improvement Act. “The U.S. Senate just passed a bipartisan farm bill to provide farmers and ranchers with some certainty amid a tough economy,” Roberts says, “and we can add to this certainty for producers and many …

Quebec Says Canada Should Rethink Dairy Policy

The largest dairy-producing province in Canada says the country should reconsider its dairy policy to help ease tensions with the United States. The Premiere of Quebec says the perception is that the Class 7 milk-pricing policy was put in place to hurt the competitiveness of American dairy products. Phillippe Couillard tells Bloomberg that the pricing policy seems to be the …

More Ag Tariffs In Place This Week

Major U.S. trading partners, including China, Canada, and Mexico are hitting back against the Trump Administration’s trade policies by putting retaliatory duties on almost $50 billion worth of U.S. goods. Politico says the final list of tariffs in Canada includes a lot of U.S. agricultural products, including orange juice, maple syrup, and U.S. prepared beef products. Canada’s Foreign Minister says …

Trump Administration Drafting Bill to Pull U.S. Out of WTO?

The website AXIOS, as well as AOL, are both reporting that the Trump Administration has drafted a bill that would abandon the United States’ commitment to the World Trade Organization’s rules. Trump has reportedly been discussing the withdrawal of the U.S. from the WTO altogether. However, Congress is unlikely to approve the measure. Administration officials involved in drafting the legislation …

Pork Industry Hit from All Sides

The pork industry is holding some of its highest inventory of hogs and pigs since the USDA began recording the data back in 1964. That’s according the to the Hogs and Pigs Report that came out Thursday. Politico says pork checkoff experts struggled to find a bright spot for hog producers in the months ahead. “We’re looking at an awful …

Meat Companies Accused of Artificially Inflating Pork Prices

A class action lawsuit is accusing Hormel, Tyson Foods, and other meatpacking companies of artificially raising the price of hot dogs, bacon, and other pork products with the help of a company called Agri Stats, an info-sharing service. A Bloomberg report says the complaint was filed by a group of meat buyers in a Minnesota court on Thursday. The complaint …

Soybeans Overtake Corn in USDA Acreage Report

Soybean planted acreage topped corn for the first time since 1983, the USDA reported in its Planted Acreage Report on Friday. Soybean acreage is 89.6 million acres. That’s actually 1 percent lower than last year as planted acres are either down or unchanged in 14 of the 31 biggest soybean states. Corn acres are also down 1 percent from last …

NCBA Responds to Canada Tariff Hikes on U.S. Beef Imports

Canada has announced it will place higher tariffs on U.S. beef imports starting on Sunday, July 1. Kent Bacus is the NCBA Director of International Trade and Market Access, and he says Canada has finally followed through on actions it’s been threatening for months. “Canada has followed through on a threat to slap a tariff on $170 million worth of …