Surge in million-dollar operating loans to farmers
Ag bankers reported more than 40 percent growth in the volume of new operating loans during the summer compared to the third quarter of 2023, said the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. "For the first time in at least two decades, the volume of loans larger than $1 million eclipsed the volume of loans smaller than $1 million," said the regional Fed, based on a survey of banks across the nation.
Farmers take out more operating loans as revenue tightens
Bankers reported a 10-percent increase in farm operating loans this summer, compared to a year ago, said the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. "A moderation in the agricultural economy and lower farm sector liquidity has spurred higher financing needs and credit conditions have also shown signs of tightening," said the bank, based on quarterly reports from lender.
Farm finances are strong despite moderation in ag economy
Agricultural credit conditions are likely to remain strong through the end of this year, although bankers expect farm income and loan repayment rates, now the healthiest since 2010, to soften in the months ahead, said the Kansas City Federal Reserve on Thursday.
USDA earmarks $1.3 billion for debt relief to distressed farmers
Financially distressed farmers have received $800 million of an anticipated $1.3 billion to reduce their debts on USDA farm loans, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Tuesday. "Today, I've got to think there are thousands of producers out there who can breathe a little easier," he said during a teleconference.
Agriculture can be climate leader with ‘build back’ funding, says Vilsack
The farm sector would gain $27 billion for climate mitigation, including payments for planting cover crops, from the social welfare and climate change bill passed by the House, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. "Agriculture can lead the way in the fight on climate with climate-smart agriculture and forestry practices that sequester carbon, reduce emissions and create new and better market opportunities for producers."
Hurricane Michael wallops Georgia cotton, pecans and poultry
For Georgia farmers, Hurricane Michael is "the most widespread and devastating hurricane in recollection," said state Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black. More than 92 poultry barns, housing more than 2 million birds, were destroyed; cotton growers suffered massive losses; and pecan growers lost trees for the third year in a row to a hurricane.
Michael threatens Southeast’s crops and livestock
As Hurricane Michael made landfall Wednesday, farmers in the Southeast were still recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence just weeks ago.
USDA calls referendum on pecan checkoff program
Pecan growers in 15 states nationwide will vote from March 9-30 on creating a checkoff program that would raise up to $8 million a year for research and promotion of the nut crop, according to a notice to appear today in the Federal Register.
USDA: Test for bird flu before interstate transport of cattle
Michigan officials said the H5N1 bird flu virus has infected three additional dairy herds in the state, just as the USDA recommended farmers test their herds for the virus before moving cattle between states. The tests "should both give us more ... information and should mitigate further state-to-state spread between herds," said the USDA's animal health agency.
Mad cow case traced to Tennessee producer
Animal health officials announced the seventh case of mad cow disease in the United States in 20 years — an apparently spontaneous infection of a beef cow from a farm in southeastern Tennessee.
Midwest cattle farmers embrace pea crop
The Midwest has long been known for its vast fields of corn and soybeans, but there is a new crop on the rise — peas. With growing consumer demand for sustainable and plant-based protein options, farmers are adding peas as a crop rotation because it's profitable, drought tolerant and can improve soil health.
USDA proposes livestock welfare rules for organic farms
More than four years after the Trump administration nixed the idea, the Biden administration proposed a broad-ranging set of animal welfare rules for organic farms. Producers already are required to provide their animals with year-round access to the outdoors and enough room to stretch their limbs. Agriculture Undersecretary Jenny Moffit said on Friday the proposed regulation would "establish and clarify clear standards for organic livestock and poultry production.”
Trump says it’s hard to bring down prices
President-elect Donald Trump, who recently told an interviewer, “I won on groceries,” said in a Time magazine transcript released on Thursday, “It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up.” Meanwhile, a Purdue University poll found that consumers have lowered their expectations for food inflation.
Consumers say ‘shrinkflation’ continues in food
Three out of four Americans said they have noticed “shrinkflation” at the grocery store within the past 30 days, with snack foods catching their attention most frequently, said a Purdue University report on Wednesday. Shrinkflation is the practice of reducing the amount of food in a package while keeping the price the same.
Food inflation’s ‘remarkably small’ bite and consumer perception
Americans are spending a greater share of their income on food than they did before the pandemic, but the increase is less dramatic than some commentators are making it appear in an election year, said two think tank analysts on Wednesday. Food is the second-largest consumer expense, accounting for about 13.4 cents of the consumer dollar.
Food prices are not going to decrease, says analyst
Despite the attention the cost of food is getting in the presidential campaign, “food prices are not going to decrease,” said Aaron Smith, a University of California professor of agricultural and resource economics, in a blog on Thursday. “In a healthy economy, the prices of individual products go up and down, but the general price level only goes up.”
One in three consumers expect inflation to worsen this fall
The U.S. inflation rate is the lowest in three and a half years, but six of 10 consumers say inflation affects them more now than it did three months ago, and more than one-third of them expect inflation will be worse in November than it is now, according to a University of Illinois survey. Republicans held the gloomiest views.
Second recall of raw milk in California because of bird flu
California state agriculture officials ordered the recall of raw milk from a dairy farm in the Central Valley after tests found bird flu virus in a sample from the farm's bulk tank. The state Department of Food and Agriculture warned against consumption of milk from Valley Milk Simply Bottled on the grounds that it "may lead to infection with this rare, emerging flu virus." No illnesses were reported.
USDA launches program promoting organic dairy products
Agriculture Undersecretary Jenny Moffitt announced a $15 million program to expand sales of organic dairy products to schools and youth programs on Monday. “Expanding access to a variety of organic dairy products in schools and community programs promotes healthy consumption habits and strengthens local dairy markets,” said Moffitt during a trip to southeastern Vermont.
Bird flu: 20 people ill, 300 herds infected since March
In the nearly seven months since bird flu was identified in dairy cattle in Texas, the virus has infected 20 people — all but one of them livestock workers — and been found in 300 herds in 14 states from North Carolina to California. "The epidemiology of the situation continues to suggest sporadic instances of animal-to-human spread," rather than the virus gaining power to spread among people, said the Centers for Disease Control.
California quarantines three dairy farms hit by bird flu outbreaks
The H5N1 avian flu virus infected three dairy herds in California's Central Valley, the first time the disease has been confirmed in the nation's largest milk-producing state, said officials. California was the first new state to be hit by the disease since Oklahoma reported cases on July 11.
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.
EPA says it will revise wetlands rule in line with Supreme Court decision
The Biden administration intends to update its “waters of the United States” regulation, which determines the upstream reach of anti-pollution laws, by Sept. 1, said the EPA on Wednesday. The revised WOTUS rule will reflect the recent Supreme Court decision that reduces federal protection of wetlands, it said.
What the Supreme Court’s ruling means for the future of U.S. wetlands
Mark Squillace, a professor of Natural Resources Law at the University of Colorado Law School, spoke with FERN's Ag Insider about how a recent Supreme Court decision will affect the nation's wetlands. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Supreme Court restricts federal protection of wetlands
In a decision that will narrow federal protection of wetlands, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the 1972 clean water law applies only to marshy areas with “a continuous surface connection” to streams, oceans, rivers, or lakes. “Today’s ruling is a profound win for property rights and the constitutional separation of powers,” said the Pacific Legal Foundation, which argued the case for a couple blocked from building a home in northern Idaho. <strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Override Supreme Court on livestock regulation, say meatpackers
The meat industry encouraged farm-state lawmakers on Wednesday to legislatively override the Supreme Court ruling that gives states the power to set animal welfare standards and regulate meat sales. The Supreme Court decision upholding California’s Proposition 12 “opens the door to chaos,” said Bryan Burns of the North American Meat Institute.
U.S. let in record 317,000 agricultural guestworkers
With American farmers increasingly relying on foreign agricultural laborers, the Labor Department approved 317,619 seasonal guestworkers during the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, up 15 percent from a year earlier, a farmworker advocacy group said on Tuesday. <strong> No paywall </strong>
U.S. ‘stabilizes’ H-2A pay rates at 2020 level through 2022
Advocates fear canceling Farm Labor Survey is first step in gutting guest farmworker protections
Farmworker advocates fear the USDA’s decision last month to cancel the Farm Labor Survey is a step toward dismantling the already modest protections for agricultural guestworkers under the H-2A visa program in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Farm-labor reform bill heads for House vote this week
Six weeks after sponsors unveiled their plan, the House is scheduled to vote on a bipartisan bill to provide legal status to undocumented farmworkers and to modernize the H-2A guestworker program. If passed, the bill has an uncertain future, with impeachment dominating the congressional agenda and the Republican-run Senate blockading legislation from the Democratic-controlled House.
White House fleshes out immigration plan, but no mention of farm labor
President Trump's proposal for a "merit-based" immigration system that favors younger, highly-trained and high-salary workers is now a 620-page bill that will be released "very soon," said presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner on Tuesday.
Researchers confirm that E. coli can lurk in raw flour
A well-known cause of food-borne illness is the E. coli bacteria, usually associated with moist foods, such as meat or bagged salad leaves. In solving a food illness mystery of 2016, researchers determined that Shiga-producing E. coil bacteria can survive in raw flour, an arid host, according to an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
CDC closes investigation of illnesses linked to flour
Federal health officials closed their investigation into foodborne illnesses linked to wheat flour milled by General Mills with a renewed warning to consumers to look for, and discard, packages of flour covered by the recall. "Consumers unaware of the recall could continue to use these recalled flour products and potentially get sick," said FDA.
New illnesses prompt General Mills to expand flour recall for fourth time
For the fourth time since May 31, General Mills expanded its recall of flour because of illnesses linked to handling or eating uncooked flour dough and batter. The company said E. coli bacteria, which can cause food-borne illness, "has been detected in a small number of ... flour samples and some have been linked to new patient illnesses that fall outside of the previously recalled dates."
Dozens sickened by eating raw dough, FDA says
Dozens of people across the country have become ill by eating raw dough contaminated with a strain of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli, the FDA said. The doughs had been made with General Mills flour produced in a Kansas City, Missouri, facility.
Tax bill’s benefits for agriculture will be mostly temporary
The tax bill written by the Republican-controlled Congress would deliver “near-term benefits to many ag producers, but rate reductions and estate tax changes beneficial to ag are temporary” and bring the risk of higher taxes in the future, says the accounting firm K-Coe Isom.
Indiana mega-farmer is face of Trump’s drive to repeal estate tax
The most hated tax in agriculture, the estate tax, would be repealed as part of the tax reform package unveiled by President Trump in Indianapolis on Wednesday. Mega-farmer Kip Tom, who operates more than 20,000 acres in Indiana and Brazil, was chosen by the White House to attend the speech and to serve as a living example of the peril of the “death tax.”
Trump touts tax reform, Perdue says it should include the estate tax
The first overhaul of the tax code in three decades should result in a one-page tax return for most Americans, President Trump said in Missouri, while declaring that tax reform is the foundation of job growth. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said separately that the estate tax, a bugaboo of the farm sector, should be part of the overhaul expected to be a Republican priority in Congress this fall.
Obama calls for higher capital gains tax rate
President Obama will call for a higher tax rate on capital gains during the State of the Union speech, according to the White House. It rolled out tax-reform proposals over the weekend.
‘Very dangerous fire year’ is likely, say Biden officials
The government will deploy 15,000 firefighters, 1,600 engines, and 625 aircraft against what is expected to be another dangerous year for wildfires, said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday.
Wildfire losses already well above average
Wildfires have burned 6.51 million acres so far this year, with 51 large fires active in 11 states this weekend, says the National Interagency Fire Center.