USDA

With federal pandemic aid in their hands, farmers and ranchers borrowed far less money than usual from ag bankers during the first quarter of this year on operating expenses.

The USDA, FDA and Centers for Disease Control continue to underscore there’s no credible evidence of food or food packaging as a likely source of viral transmission of COVID-19.

China made its largest weekly U.S. beef purchases on record two weeks ago, followed by its biggest U.S. corn deals in almost a month.

"People should not fear food, or food packaging or processing or delivery of food.”

The Animal Agriculture Alliance is launching the ‘Animal Ag Allies’ program to empower farmers, ranchers and practicing veterinarians to be outspoken advocates for agriculture.

Despite high unemployment rates during the pandemic, California farmers say they continue having trouble filling their harvest crews.

Additional sales opportunities for some California farmers and ranchers should open with implementation of the new USMC trade agreement that took effect last Wednesday.

**Stay-at-home protocols have caused severe losses for county fairs and some fair boards have said their operations may not survive losses in revenue from canceled events at local fairgrounds.
The closures have also hurt students who raise livestock for 4-H or FFA projects...

The USDA announced it has purchased more than $2.2 billion of meat, fruits, vegetables, specialty crops and dairy products in fiscal years 2019 and 2020.

The USDA reported that April milk production was up 1.4%. Cow numbers are up 49,000 head from a year ago, but down 4,000 from March.