Ag News: Junior Livestock Events Cancelled
**Cancellation of many county fairs around California due to the pandemic will have ripple effects for participants in youth and junior livestock events.
Students who raise animals to show and sell at a fair often use the proceeds for college savings or to reinvest in future projects.
County fairs that have already canceled are looking at alternatives, such as online sales, or making other arrangements for the students to sell their animals.
**As the COVID-19 pandemic and crude oil glut continue to ravage world fuel markets, U.S. ethanol sales in 2020 could fall by more than $10 billion and the industry’s contribution to gross domestic product could drop by nearly one-third.
According to a new analysis by the Renewable Fuels
Association, the economic losses stem from a “pernicious combination of steep production cuts and sharply lower prices” in response to COVID-19 and the resulting collapse of fuel consumption.
**Determining a new baseline for retail produce purchases continues to be a work in progress as an early Easter complicates comparisons.
Produce Marketing Association Vice President Joe Watson tells thepacker.com, Easter is typically a big week for produce, but social distancing created very different Easter celebrations this year.
He expects different shopping patterns, from total trips and basket size to day of week, time of day, and online ordering, to continue for some time.