Spend more on food and ag research
Congress perennially recognizes the long-term payoff from agricultural research but repeatedly fails to adequately fund the work in the near term, said Kathleen Merrigan, who served as Deputy Secretary of Agriculture during the Obama era. During a panel discussion on the future of global agriculture, she put ag research at the top of her list of issues that need attention.
With new outbreaks, bird flu toll nears 59 million fowls
Ending a five-month hiatus, highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in commercial flocks in two states — turkey farms in Utah and South Dakota — said the Agriculture Department. Some 58.97 million birds, mostly egg-laying chickens and turkeys being raised for human consumption, have died in bird flu outbreaks that began in February 2022.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Record olive oil prices: Drought in the major olive-growing nations has reduced supplies of olive oil and driven prices to a record $9,000 per metric ton. (Washington Post)
Iowa values leveling off: The average value of Iowa farmland rose by 0.6 percent since last September, a “move toward leveling off” after double digit increases in 2021 and 2022. (Realtors Land Institute — Iowa Chapter)
Farmland abandoned in war: Farmers in Ukraine have abandoned between 6.5 and 8.5 percent of the nation’s cropland, running mostly along the front lines of the war. (National Public Radio)
World grain output climbs: Pointing to “recent and more positive yield estimates” for wheat in Ukraine and Russia, the forecast for world grain production was raised to 2.819 billion metric tons, the highest ever, said the FAO Cereal Supply and Demand Brief. (FAO)
U.S. pork exports surge: With sales to Mexico, the No. 1 customer, up by 18 percent for the first eight months of the year, U.S. pork exports of $5.3 billion worldwide are running 9 percent higher than at the same point last year. (U.S. Meat Export Federation)
ON THE CALENDAR
Tuesday
Two Kansas State University deans — Ernie Minton, dean of agriculture, and Bonnie Rush, dean of veterinary medicine — speak at the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City meeting, 12:30 p.m. ET, Olathe, Kansas.
First Lady Jill Biden tours the Menominee Tribal Enterprise’s sawmill to learn about the tribe’s sustainable forest management plan, Neopit, Wisconsin.
USDA releases weekly Crop Progress report, 4 p.m. ET.
Wednesday
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announces “several actions by USDA to expand opportunities to help schools invest in high quality, nutritious meals for students” while visiting a school in Fairfax County, Virginia.
Thursday
The Labor Department releases monthly Consumer Price Index report, 8:30 a.m. ET. At present, the food inflation rate is 4.3 percent and the overall U.S. inflation rate is 3.7 percent
USDA releases monthly Crop Production and WASDE reports, noon ET. Traders expect USDA to make marginal changes to its forecasts of the corn and soybean harvests and to lower slightly its estimate of the large amount of corn on hand at the end of the current marketing year. In a Reuters poll, traders said they expect the corn carry-over to be 2.22 billion bushels, up by 47 percent from the 1.45 billion bushels in storage on Sept. 1. This year’s corn crop is expected to be the second-largest on record.
