Value of U.S. corn, soy, and wheat crops slips
The farm-gate value of this year's U.S. corn, soybean, and wheat crops would be nearly 8 percent lower than the 2023 crops due to the continuing decline in commodity prices, according to USDA estimates of season-average prices.
U.S. farmers lean into corn, soy and wheat in 2023

American farmers will plant 7.6 million more acres of corn, soybeans and wheat, the "big three" crops of modern U.S. agriculture, this year than last, according to USDA estimates. With normal weather and trend-line yields, the result could be the largest soybean crop ever and the biggest corn crop since record production in 2016.
USDA outlook: Record corn crop to swell U.S. stocks, soy exports to recover
U.S. farmers will harvest their largest corn crop ever this year, fueled by the largest plantings since 2013 — growing so much corn that carry-over stocks will be the largest in more than three decades, according to USDA's projection at its annual Ag Outlook Forum. The soybean crop would be the fourth-largest on record, with exports recovering to pre-trade-war levels thanks to "increasing global import demand, particularly for China."
U.S. economy slows as corn and soy output soar, according to USDA projection
With a return to normal weather, farmers will expand vastly their corn and soybean plantings next year — enough to produce their largest corn crop ever and the fourth-largest soybean crop, according to USDA's agricultural projections. Bumper crops will drive down market prices in the near term and create huge stockpiles that will take years to whittle down.
Right-to-repair pact has worrisome tradeoff, says consumer group

Federal and state lawmakers "should move full steam ahead with their right-to-repair bills" this year, said consumer group PIRG, which took a skeptical view of a memorandum of understanding between Deere and Co. and the largest U.S. farm group on equipment repair. In the agreement, the American Farm Bureau Federation says it will urge state affiliates to stay on the sidelines of the right-to-repair debate.
‘Right-to-repair’ bills languish as time for congressional action dwindles

So-called right-to-repair laws won’t help consumers but could damage the retailers and manufacturer-authorized repair shops now in business, said a string of Republican lawmakers at a House hearing on Wednesday, while a consumer advocate warned that “repair monopolization” was pervasive in sectors including personal computing, TVs, and agriculture.
Deere to market fully autonomous tractor for farm tillage
The world's largest farm equipment maker, Deere and Co., said on Tuesday it will begin sales later this year of a "fully autonomous tractor that's ready for large-scale production," but limited for the moment to tillage. "The machine combines Deere's 8R tractor, TruSet-enabled chisel plow, GPS guidance system, and new advanced technologies," said Deere, which unveiled the autonomous tractor at a consumer technology show in Las Vegas.
Farm groups ask FTC for right to repair Deere equipment

The world’s largest farm equipment maker, Deere and Co., unlawfully forces farmers to pay a Deere dealer when their tractors or other equipment break down, said farm groups in a “right to repair” complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday. The FTC said last year that it would ramp up its law enforcement against repair restrictions that prevent small businesses, workers, and consumers from fixing their own products.
Strike continues as Deere workers consider new offer
Deere and the United Auto Workers agreed over the weekend on a proposed six-year contract covering 10,000 union workers at the world's largest farm equipment manufacturer. The UAW said its members would remain on strike during consideration of the agreement.
U.S. asks Canada for more access to dairy, poultry and egg markets in NAFTA talks
Canadian officials say prospects of agreement on a new NAFTA by the end of the year are fading in the face of unacceptable U.S. demands, reports Canadian Press, with some analysts questioning if the true U.S. goal is a breakdown in negotiations. The chief U.S. negotiator told Bloomberg, "We made a request of Canada for improved access for dairy, poultry and eggs" over the weekend, the first time agricultural trade was discussed at the talks.
EU disarray stalls trade pact with Canada, may doom U.S. deal
The Canadian trade minister, Chrystia Freeland, declared that the European Union was incapable of finalizing a trans-Atlantic trade deal and walked out of negotiations, said Reuters. The environmental group Friends of the Earth said it was time to kill the Canada-EU pact and a proposed U.S.-EU free-trade agreement.
Enormous potential in Cuba, ag trade is not a one-way street
World Food Prize laureate Pedro Sanchez, a soils scientist, says Cuba "could be a very good market" for U.S. food companies, but adds that "it's not a one-way situation." In an interview with UC Food Observer, Sanchez said, "America has so much to learn from Cuba. Some of the agricultural techniques used in Cuba may benefit our food system."
Trump trade war had ‘winners and losers’

When Trump appointees at the USDA parceled out trade war assistance to farmers, they exaggerated the damage in 2019 and over-compensated corn and wheat growers, said a congressional agency on Monday. "This report confirms that the Trump USDA picked winners and losers in their trade programs and left everyone else behind," said Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, a Michigan Democrat.
Half-a-billion dollars in additional trade-war payments
Chance of trade war payments ‘less than 10 percent’

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the odds of a multibillion-dollar round of trade war payments to farmers this year are “less than 10 percent,” although a senior lawmaker said the payments may be "absolutely vital" for survival in the Farm Belt. China will turn to the U.S. market for soybeans “late this spring, this summer,” Perdue predicted during a House Agriculture hearing on Wednesday.
If exports rise, farmers won’t need trade aid, says Perdue

U.S. ag exports have gained limited traction from President Trump's ballyhooed trade victories, but Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is optimistic that demand will improve. "I hope we can show that a third round [of trade war payments] is not needed for 2020," Perdue said in a statement. "We still believe farmers want trade rather than aid."
Trade war aid outweighs Trump’s cuts in crop insurance and farm subsidies
This week's White House budget proposal to cut crop insurance by 31 percent and to tighten eligibility rules for farm subsidies would save less in 10 years than the administration spent to mitigate the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war on 2018 and 2019 farm production, said an economist.
House defeats Trump-backed government funding bill
One day after President-elect Donald Trump shot down a stopgap government funding bill, the House defeated a Trump-backed bill written by Republicans to keep the government running until March 14. The GOP bill included $31 billion to buffer the impact in rural America of natural disasters and lower farm income.
Three-way Democratic race at House Agriculture Committee

Minnesota Rep. Angie Craig launched a campaign on Monday to be elected the Democratic leader on the House Agriculture Committee, joining two other candidates, California Rep. Jim Costa and Georgia Rep. David Scott, currently the ranking member. Costa and Craig say they will defend SNAP and climate funding in the new farm bill and carry a Democratic message to rural America, a weak spot for the party.
Trump chooses former White House adviser to become Agriculture secretary

President-elect Donald Trump nominated Brooke Rollins, director of his Domestic Policy Council during his first term, for Agriculture secretary, saying she would "spearhead the effort to protect American farmers, who are truly the backbone of our country." Rollins is chief executive of a think tank that has advocated stronger work requirements for SNAP recipients. She would be the second woman to lead USDA.
A post-election farm bill will require high-level dealmaking, say analysts

The lame-duck session of Congress offers a last chance to enact the new farm bill this year, but it would require compromise on a number of nettlesome policy disputes and an agreement among House and Senate leaders on how much to spend, said farm policy experts. The bill could also be sidetracked by overarching issues such as passing a government funding bill, they cautioned.
Agriculture losses from Helene are significant, says Vilsack
The USDA will work with farmers and rural communities to help them recover from “significant” losses caused by Hurricane Helene, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. As an example, he said, “We’re working with crop insurance companies now to expedite payments so farmers will receive help in November, if not sooner.”
Vilsack trade view: ‘Over-reliance on China,’ no deal with EU soon

Ag exports, a key part of U.S. farm revenue, are expected to generate 36 cents of every $1 in cash income this year, thanks to high commodity prices as the world recovers its appetite and the pandemic recedes. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the country ought to diversify its sales to a broader range of markets.
EU targets U.S. agriculture and aircraft in airplane dispute
How did Europe avoid a Covid-19 crisis at its meatpacking plants?
In the United States, Covid-19 has been sweeping through meatpacking plants, infecting more than 24,000 workers and killing at least 92 of them. Those figures are more than nine-times larger than at meat plants in Europe, though the U.S. industry has only a third more workers. Bridget Huber explains how Europe largely avoided the crisis sweeping the U.S. industry in FERN's latest story. <strong> (No paywall) </strong>
EU won’t discuss agriculture in trade talks with U.S.
Leaders of EU countries agreed to open trade talks with the United States on Monday with the goal of eliminating tariffs on industrial goods but said that agricultural products would not be part of the negotiations.
French dairy giant recalls 7,000 tons of baby formula
Lactalis, the biggest dairy company in France, has recalled over 7,000 tons of baby formula and powdered milk products across 80 countries, reports the New York Times. The recalls, which were implemented over the course of several weeks, amounted to one of the biggest such recalls in history. At least 38 children were sickened by salmonella found in the recalled products.
Dicamba revisited: Will corn be the next herbicide debacle?
Dicamba-tolerant corn seeds aren’t available yet. But if the seeds reach the market, and tens of millions more acres are sprayed with dicamba, there’s good reason to expect a repeat of the soybean disaster, in which the highly volatile weedkiller drifted off-target and damaged 5 million acres of conventional soybeans and an untold number of other crops.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Pigweed develops resistance to dicamba and 2,4-D
Researchers at Kansas State University have found pigweed that tolerates dicamba and 2,4-D, two herbicides that are often used to combat the invasive weed. Pigweed, or Palmer amaranth, is difficult for farmers to control, growing up to 10 feet tall and capable of producing 1 million seeds per plant.
Arkansas plant board to try again Friday on dicamba vote
Due to a procedural error on Tuesday, the Arkansas state plant board will re-vote on Friday on whether to temporarily ban use of the weedkiller dicamba, suspected of drifting out of cotton and soybean fields to damage neighboring crops, reported DTN. Some 167 complaints alleging misuse of the herbicide, mostly along the eastern edge of Arkansas, were filed with the state board as of midday Wednesday.
Half of river water comes from intermittent streams, say researchers
As a result of the Supreme Court decision on the upstream reach of antipollution laws, half of the water in U.S. rivers comes from so-called ephemeral streams that are now without federal protection, said researchers from the University of Massachusetts and Yale on Thursday.
Expect another round of ‘WOTUS whiplash,’ warns senator

The Biden administration made only minimal changes to its “waters of the United States” regulation to comply with the Supreme Court’s new and stricter definition of wetlands, and that will perpetuate litigation over the Clean Water Act, said West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito on Wednesday.
New wetlands rule fails to satisfy farm and construction groups
The Biden administration removed federal protection from an estimated half of U.S. wetlands in a regulation unveiled a week ago to comply with the Supreme Court decision shrinking the upstream reach of water pollution laws. But agricultural and construction groups said the regulation was "legally vulnerable" because the administration, in their view, did not fully carry out the ruling.
Ag, mining, construction groups ask for new wetlands rule in 45 days
Although the Biden administration says it will update its “waters of the United States” regulation by Sept. 1, it might have to act a bit faster than that under a motion filed in federal court in Texas. The motion asks the court to discard the Biden regulation entirely “and request that the agencies promulgate a new rule within 45 days.”
Biden vetoes GOP attempt to overturn WOTUS rule
Agriculture is better off with the administration's "waters of the United States" rule than it would be without it, said President Biden in a veto statement last week.
More room needed between field and feedlot, says study
A two-year study in Nebraska indicates that current guidelines on separation between cattle feedlots and fields growing fresh produce are likely to be inadequate, says Food Safety News.
Earliest date for mechanically tenderized meat labels – 2018
Food Safety News says "the earliest consumers will see labels on mechanically tenderized beef in grocery stores will be 2018" because the administration failed to complete work on the regulation during December.
Slow progress on label for mechanically tenderized meat
Consumer groups fear the slow pace of rule-writing may delay until 2018 the labeling of mechanically tenderized meat, says Food Safety News.
Opponents dominate funding in GMO label drives in West
The opposition to state-level labeling of GMO foods is out-spending the proponents in Colorado and Oregon, which hold statewide referendums on the issue on Nov 4, says Food Safety News.
War devastates agriculture in Gaza
Two-thirds of the cropland in the Gaza Strip has been damaged by shelling, razing, and vehicle traffic since armed conflict began a year ago in the territory, said two UN agencies. The escalating agricultural damage exacerbated a food shortage, said the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Satellite Center.
Desalination plants could help bring peace to the Middle East
With the largest reverse-osmosis desalination plant in the world, Israel is now the only country in the Middle East to have a water surplus, says Ensia. But if other countries take Israel's cue, all that extra water could mean less fighting.
Israeli herbicide use killing Palestinian crops, say Gaza farmers
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip say that their crops are failing because of herbicides sprayed by Israel along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone, says Aljazeera. It quoted an Israeli Army spokesman who confirmed spraying in the area, citing security reasons.
Rice-growing experiment could cut water use by 50 percent
A massive farm in Central Valley, California, is teaming with Israeli water experts running the first ever experiment with drip irrigation for rice production in the U.S.