Tom Vilsack

President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration will affect indirectly at least 250,000 and perhaps as many as 500,000 farm workers, says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.

USDA won't proceed with its proposal for a new and separate beef checkoff program, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in DTN interview, acceding to congressional opposition.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is to make a keynote speech during a two-day visit to Purdue next week, said the university. Its president, Mitch Daniels, is to moderate the question-and-answer session that follows Vilsack's speech, which will be open to the public, on Monday.

U.S. farm exports set back-to-back records, climbing to $152.5 billion in just-ended fiscal 2014, said the Agriculture Department, up 8 percent from the mark set one year earlier.

The Agriculture Department could ask for suggestions as early as this week on how to structure a new beef checkoff program, said an official at the largest U.S. farm group.

An email released as part of a federal court case indicates the White House had a role in the forced resignation of USDA official Shirley Sherrod in 2010, says the Associated Press.

Dairy farmers can enroll in the new dairy support program, the insurance-like Margin Protection Program, until Dec 5, one more week than originally announced, said the Agriculture Department.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told DTN it may be January before the United States files an appeal of the World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. country-of-origin meat labels.

The Agriculture Department is taking a supporting role in assuring food security in countries struggling with an outbreak of the deadly ebola virus in West Africa.

Farmers will be able to buy crop insurance polices for crops planted in spring 2015 that allow them to get higher yield coverage by excluding catastrophic losses when they calculate average production, the government said.

The World Trade Organization ruling on U.S. meat-origin labels could be public in "weeks, if not days" in the words of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, says Feedstuffs.

On the same day EPA approved the new Dow herbicide, USDA listed four steps it will take in response to the spread of herbicide resistant weeds.

The World Trade Organization agreed with U.S. complaints and ruled that India's restrictions on imports of hogs, poultry meat and chicken eggs violate world trade rules.

Dan Glickman knows his time is running out as the longest-serving agriculture secretary in half a century. Tom Vilsack, who started on the job at the dawn of the Obama administration in 2009, will tie Glickman, who served in the Clinton era, at 2,123 days in office on Nov 13 and surpass him on Nov 14, according to a USDA tally.

The Agriculture Department is drafting a $1 a head beef checkoff program of its own that would run alongside the current $1 checkoff that is a lightning rod for complaints of favoritism.

The Agriculture Department announced $118 million in grants for research and market-building for specialty crops - fruits, vegetables, horticulture, nuts and nursery crops.

The government formally introduced its new crop subsidy programs along with an online tool to help grain and oilseed growers decide which of the two is best for their operations. Beginning on Monday, owners can tell USDA if they want to re-allocate "base" acres and update yield histories for crops they usually grow. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack described those "very important decisions" as a preparatory step to the choice of whether to enroll in the Agriculture Risk Coverage or Price Loss Coverage subsidies.

"There is no greater challenge" than climate change to the chore of growing enough food to feed a world population forecast to reach 9 billion in 35 years, say Obama administration officials. "Feeding them will require at least a 60 percent increase in agricultural production," say the officials - Secretary of State John Kerry, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and USAID chief Rajiv Shah - in a USDA blog that marks the launch of the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture.