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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Highly pathogenic avian influenza has been confirmed in U.S. livestock for the first time.
Minnesota Board of Animal Health director Dr. Brian Hoefs says several baby goats became sick on a Minnesota farm that recently depopulated a backyard poultry flock because of the virus.
“These goat kids were born kind of in the mix, and really were exposed to a high level of viral load just because the birds had died.
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A livestock economist says there were a couple of factors that contributed to February placements into feedyards that were nearly 10% above year-ago levels. University of Missouri’s Scott Brown tells Brownfield in addition to the extra day because of the Leap Year. “ January was bitterly cold and we had a lot of those auction markets closed down for a period of time,” he says. “We probably pulled some calves from January into February because all that cold weather.”
He says the industry is a long way from how tight placements could get in the coming months.
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