The U.S. Department of Agriculture is exploring how the agency can support food supply chain resiliency long-term.
Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary Farah Ahmad tells Brownfield, “Strengthening the resilience of America ‘s food supply chain—we know that’s vital to everyone in our country and frankly it’s vital to our national security.”
Ahmad says the U.S. needs to be prepared for future market disruptions but program funding beyond the American Rescue Plan for the middle of the supply chain is unclear.
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Additional state funding could reduce deer depredation for Michigan farmers while increasing meat processing capacity.
Dan Ulfig with the National Deer Association recently testified during a Michigan Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing about the need for the Department of Natural Resources to fund the Michigan Sportsmen Against Hunger program.
“We have a crisis here in Michigan and it’s primarily antlerless deer and it’s particularly the southern Lower Peninsula,” he says. “We have an overabundance of deer.
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Broadband continues to reach more rural areas.
Focus on Rural America founder and former Iowa Lieutenant Governor Patty Judge says billions in taxpayer dollars are being distributed across the country to bring high-speed internet access to the nearly one in five rural Americans still on the wrong side of the digital divide.
“A really substantial amount of money into the projects of getting those last miles, those people without any opportunity right now to be part of this digital explosion.”
While deployment has been slow, Judge tells Brownfield she’s encouraged by the various ways broadband can be accessed.
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The latest Rural Mainstreet Index has sunk below growth neutral for a sixth straight month.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss says lower agricultural commodity prices has been the biggest factor. “It’s the top risk at least according to the bankers. “Now they’re not farmers but they got close ties to the farmers and when we ask them about the biggest risk for the farmers they listed that one.”
The index is a monthly survey of ag bankers in 10 states including Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota.
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The USDA expects farmers to plant fewer acres of corn and more acres of soybeans in 2024.
Corn planted area is projected at 90.036 million acres, at the low end of pre-report guesses and 5% less than 2023, with acreage steady to lower in 38 of the 48 states used in the estimation.
That includes potentially the lowest expected planted area in Iowa since 2006 and the highest for Minnesota since 1958.
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U.S. ethanol stocks hit a more than one-year high last week.
The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the domestic supply of 26.092 million barrels was a 53-week high, up 83,000 on the week and 565,000 on the year, with the Midwest stockpile at its second largest weekly total on record.
That build is partially due to demand not rising to the level of production.
The Renewable Fuels Association says net inputs of ethanol purchased by refiners and blenders and the volume of gasoline supplied to the market were both down from the previous week.
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The director of the Soy Transportation Coalition warns the U.S. agricultural supply chain could feel ripple effects from the Baltimore bridge collapse.
Mike Steenhoek tells Brownfield ocean vessels like the one that struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge early Tuesday typically make multiple stops.
“So the impacts of this is not just going be confined to Baltimore, obviously that’s ground zero. That’s where the problem will be most acutely felt, but it’s also going to have an impact on these other port regions.”
He says those include Norfolk, Virginia and Savannah, Georgia.
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A veterinarian with University of Missouri Extension says the mysterious illnesses being reported in dairy cows in Kansas and Texas could be more than Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza.
Scott Poock tells Brownfield USDA says HPAI is part of the problem “or maybe it might be what tipped the cows over into the problem, but right now, they don’t believe this is the sole cause of the problem of the mysterious illnesses going on.”
And he says farmers should contact their local veterinarian if their cattle exhibit any of the following symptoms.
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