USDA looking at $15-$20 billion for new Trump bailout
As it did with the Trump tariff payments on 2018 crops, the administration is likely to send money directly to producers in the upcoming round of aid, which may total $15-$20 billion, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday. That total would be a larger package than the president himself has suggested.
Peterson challenges USDA on land stewardship offers
Almost as soon as the USDA offered to admit land in need of high-priority stewardship practices into the long-term Conservation Reserve Program, the House Agriculture chairman threatened on Thursday to void the offer. “I am going to stop it somehow or other,” chairman Collin Peterson told two USDA officials.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
EU ends anti-dumping duties on U.S. ethanol (Argus Media): The European Commission revoked the duties, saying the U.S. market share of 0.1 percent was too small to be a risk to European producers. But Epure, an ethanol trade group, said the Sino-U.S. trade war and rising protectionism in other markets could mean more U.S. ethanol will land on the continent.
First wheat imports in Australia since 2007 (Sydney Morning Herald): The country, normally the largest wheat exporter in the Southern Hemisphere, will see its first large wheat imports in more than a decade, due to a punishing drought.
Will almond prices rise? (Sacramento Bee): A California almond-processing plant owned by Blue Diamond, the world’s largest almond producer, was significantly damaged by fire. The cooperative owns two other plants.
Vaccinations can reduce salmonella (The Poultry Site): Poultry producers can reduce salmonella levels in broiler chickens by 30 to 60 percent by vaccinating the birds, although doing so adds to production costs, since two doses are needed.
Regal prices for king salmon (San Francisco Chronicle): Prices for king salmon reached as high as $40 a pound following the May 1 opening of the season along the California coast. A catch of 380,000 fish is expected this year, up significantly from the catch of 224,000 last year.
Receding floods leave a ‘mountain of sand’ (AP): Specialists from the USDA and the University of Nebraska are racing to solve a problem created by this spring’s floods: What to do with tons of sand, sediment, and other debris — some of it too deep to be mixed into crop-producing soil — deposited on farms and ranches in the eastern two-thirds of the state.
