USDA

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.

Corn growers harvested nearly one-fifth of the U.S. corn crop last week - around 2.9 billion bushels - last week but the harvest is far behind its usual rate, says the weekly Crop Progress report.

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.

A coalition of foodmakers, meatpackers and allies from industry asked Congress to order an overhaul of U.S. country-of-origin meat-labeling rules.

U.S. agricultural exports to the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks would rise by 5 percent over a decade if all agricultural tariffs and tariff-rate qoutas were eliminated, says USDA's Economic Research Service.

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.

More than $4 million in funding and expert advice will be provided to farmers and ranchers in five Midwestern states, to improve habitat for honey bees, a valuable crop pollinator that suffers high mortality rates.

Colder-than-usual weather "is likely to spur further concerns over the condition of the winter wheat crop" in Russia, says The Crop Site. It points to uncertainties about the state of the crop.

The Agriculture Department and a congressionally created foundation will put up to $100 million into restoration of wetlands, farmland and waterways damaged by the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster of 2010.

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.

Some 23,300 bee keepers nationwide would be contacted about honeybee mortality under a pair of surveys proposed by the Agriculture Department.

Bids for slaughter cattle hit a record $170 per 100 pounds last week amid limited supplies in Kansas, Texas, Nebraska and Colorado, says Beef Today. Cash prices were up $6 per 100 pounds on live cattle.

Food and environmental groups are renewing calls for the Agriculture Department "to adopt a slower, more stringent approval process" for genetically engineered crops, says USA Today.

Beef prices are at record highs, due to the smallest U.S. cattle inventory since 1951, and are now forecast to average 11 percent higher this year than during 2013.

The Agriculture Department aims for a February launch for a revived government report on ethanol production, says a spokesman. It would be the first of several reports that USDA will produce after they were dropped by the Census Bureau during budget cuts in 2011.

After harvesting two record crops in a row, U.S. farmers will cut back on corn plantings in the spring and produce a comparatively small 13.073 billion bushel-crop, says agricultural economist Dan O'Brien of Kansas State University.

If the low commodity prices persist into the future - a widespread concern - "it is becoming clear...there will be pressure on farmland values to end their upward march and likely fall," says Brent Gloy at the blog Agricultural Economic Insights.

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.