5 years, 9 months ago American Farm Bureau Federation
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will be the only witness to give testimony during a hearing this week before a Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. Lighthizer is one of the key Trump administration members at the center of the president’s trade strategy that’s led to retaliatory tariffs from China, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, and others. Many of those tariffs are hitting the farm sector extremely hard and provoking ag groups and farm-state lawmakers to become much more vocal in their opposition to Trump’s tariffs. The opposition is growing after Trump repeated a threat to add even more tariffs to Chinese goods. He told CNBC that he’s “ready to go to $500 billion.” The U.S. originally hit China with $34 billion in tariffs back in July, but then added another $200 billion to that after China matched the first $34 billion. The escalation was combined with White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro’s complete disregard for the damage the tariffs are doing to the ag economy, drawing sharp responses from ag leaders. Navarro told CNBC that the trade losses due to Chinese tariffs amounted to a “rounding error.”
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Republicans Introduce New Immigration Bill in House
Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a new immigration bill that they say will benefit agriculture. A Pro Farmer report says the Agriculture and Legal Workforce Act would take the place of the current H-2A visa program. It would require farmers, as well as all employers, to use the E-Verify Program to make sure that all their workers are in the United States legally. The new bill actually includes some of the same provisions that were in a broader GOP immigration bill that was voted down recently in the House. The bill would authorize up to 450,000 H-2C visas annually, which would be good for three years. There is some controversial language in the new bill that would require those workers to have health insurance. A press release from the House Judiciary Committee says the H-2C program would be available to temporary and year-round agricultural employers. The release also says the bill provides generous visa allocations to ensure that labor needs are met, gives needed flexibility to avoid farm disruptions, eliminates regulatory burdens, and provides effective means of enforcement and monitoring.
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Farm Bill in Senate’s Court
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are expected to appoint their members of the farm bill conference committee this week. Politico says the upper chamber will need to clear some procedural hurdles on the floor before that can officially happen. During the last farm bill debate, 12 senators, including seven from the majority and five from the minority, were appointed to the committee. The task ahead will be to reconcile differences with the House version of the farm bill. These are the final steps before the farm bill reconciliation process can officially get going. The challenge is that House lawmakers leave for the August recess after this week. House Ag Chair Michael Conaway says that even though he won’t be in Washington, he’ll stay in touch with staff members working on reconciling the two versions of the farm bill. McConnell has actually canceled most of the August recess for the Senate, so most of the chamber’s members will be in town for the bulk of the negotiations.
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University of Missouri Reports 1.1 Million Acres of Dicamba Damage
University weed scientists from farm country estimate that 1.1 million acres of soybeans have been accidentally damaged by dicamba in spite of stricter usage limits. Those are the latest findings from a University of Missouri report. Damage was highest in the number one soybean-growing state, Illinois, where 500,000 of those 1.1 million damaged acres are located. Arkansas was second with an estimated 300,000 acres. By way of comparison, an agriculture dot com article says there were 2.5 million acres of soybean damage reported at this point in 2017. Agronomy Professor Bob Hartzler of Iowa State University says state officials have received 121 complaints of herbicide drift, compared to 82 complaints in early July of 2017. Hartzler wrote that “The significant increase in pesticide misuse cases during the first part of the growing season indicates a pesticide stewardship problem.” The Environmental Protection Agency gave a two-year license to dicamba, so the agency will soon need to revisit the decision on allowing the use of dicamba.
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Large Livestock Loan Drive Rise in Farm Lending
The Federal Reserve’s Agricultural Finance Databook says lending activity in the agricultural sector increased slightly in the second quarter of 2018. The overall number of non-real estate farm loans was roughly two percent higher than at the same time in 2017. The slight increase was supported primarily by larger loans for livestock. In the short term, The Kansas City Fed says higher livestock prices were likely responsible for the increased size of livestock loans, at least in the short term. Looking longer term, the size of livestock loans has been trending higher, suggesting that farm consolidation has contributed to fewer and larger farms with larger lending needs. Increased lending for farming operations comes as the overall risk in the ag sector is increasing. Adjusted for inflation, livestock loans reached a historical high point in the second quarter, while the volume of farm machinery and equipment loans shrank to the lowest second-quarter level in three years. Expectations of larger supplies and trade disputes have contributed to sharp declines in most of the major commodity prices through the month of June.
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Continued Drought Could Lead to Cattle Culling in Southern States
A Texas A & M AgriLife Extension expert says southern beef producers should be planning ahead when it comes to the size of their herds, should the drought continue. Jason Banta says a shortage of forage and hay might mean producers would need to reduce their herd sizes. A plan to cull their herds could save producers money in both the short term and long term. There wasn’t a lot of hay carryover from last year. Because of the drought, this year’s first alfalfa cutting, which is typically one of the best, was below average. The second cutting was also below normal in both quantity and quality. Hay stocks are also low in several other states like Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Banta says producers should adjust their stocking rates to avoid overgrazing pastures. “It’s probably a good idea to have plans on how to reduce herd numbers to save some forage supplies and reduce the need for hay in the winter,” Banta says. He adds that producers should also be mindful of cow body condition, as keeping weight on easier than recovering lost pounds. Banta also says producers may want to wean calves one to two months earlier than normal to help keep cows in better shape going into winter.
