Income weak, producers borrow more from ag banks
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Ag bankers report the largest summertime increase in non-real-estate loan volume in 16 years, driven primarily by demand for operating loans to pay day-to-day expenses, said a quarterly Federal Reserve report.
Rural mothers are younger, have highest fertility rates
Nationwide, women are having fewer children and waiting longer to have them than a decade ago. But one pattern is unchanged: rural women, on average, are younger when they give birth and have more children than women living in metropolitan areas, says the CDC.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
The 11,000-year-old Four Corners potato (Salt Lake Tribune): No bigger than a penny, the Four Corners potato has survived in southern Utah for nearly 11,000 years, and was a food source for American Indians in the Escalante and Bears Ears regions and fed white settlers centuries later.
DowDuPont says ag division is worth less (Bloomberg): Weaker markets for seeds and pesticides have reduced the value of DowDuPont’s agriculture arm by $4.6 billion, the company said as it prepares to spin off the unit.
Nearly a quarter-million H-2A positions (AFBF): The Labor Department certified 242,762 positions for H-2A workers in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, one-fifth more than were certified in fiscal 2017 and double the total for 2014.
China culls 200,000 pigs (Reuters): The world’s largest pork producer, China, has killed 200,000 hogs in its ongoing response to outbreaks of highly contagious African swine fever, an often-fatal disease for hogs.
The 100-year war against pink bollworm (USDA): After a century of work that included rigorous control and regulatory actions, the U.S. is free of the pink bollworm, a cotton pest that caused tens of millions of dollars in yield losses.
Dozens of places want ERS and NIFA (Politico): Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says 139 cities in 34 states submitted offers to house the relocated Economic Research Service and National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Fertilizer, cadmium, Russia and the EU (New York Times): The EU could move forward as early as this week with regulations to limit the amount of cadmium, a toxic metal, in phosphate fertilizer at a moment of intrigue in the industry; the dominant Russian company, PhosAgro, happens to mine low-cadmium phosphate and would prosper at the expense of competitors.
ON THE USDA CALENDAR
Monday
– U.S. Grains Council, the Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy host Export Exchange, a biennial meeting of international buyers and end-users of U.S. feed grains and co-products, through Wednesday, Minneapolis.
– USDA releases monthly Cold Storage report, 3 p.m. ET.
– USDA issues weekly Crop Progress report, 4 p.m. ET.
Tuesday
– FDA and USDA host two-day public hearing on regulation and labeling of cell-based meat, through Wednesday, 8:30 a.m. ET, USDA South Building. The first day will focus on hazards in production of cell-based meat and oversight considerations for federal regulators; the second day will discuss labeling.
– Livestock Marketing Information Center hosts Industry Outlook Conference, through Wednesday, St. Louis.
Wednesday
– National FFA Convention and Expo, through Saturday, Indianapolis.
– Six USDA agencies jointly host annual Data Users Meeting, Kansas City.
– National Organic Standards Board holds fall meeting, through Friday, St. Paul.
Thursday
– USDA releases monthly Food Price Outlook, 9 a.m. ET.
– International Grains Council releases monthly Grain Market Report, London.
– European Commodities Exchange 58th annual conference, through Friday, Rouen, France.
Friday
– USDA releases Vegetables and Pulses Outlook, 3 p.m. ET.
– Agritourism World Summit 2018, through Sunday, French Lick, Indiana.
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