News & Press

Chicago Mercantile Exchange lean hog futures rose in thin trade on Thursday to halt a three-session slide, buoyed by firming cash hog markets and higher wholesale pork prices, analysts said.

Most-active February hog futures settled up 1.025 cents at 80.350 cents per pound. Trading volume for all months was estimated by CME at 19,460 contracts, which would be the lowest for hogs since December 2020 if confirmed in final figures.

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USDA has set aside up to $50 million in pandemic assistance funds allocated under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act passed in March 2020 for the Spot Market Hog Pandemic Program, which provides pandemic assistance to hog producers who sold hogs through a negotiated sale from April 16, 2020, through September 1, 2020, the period in which these producers faced the greatest reduction in market prices due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Negotiated sale, or negotiated formula sale, means a sale of hogs by a producer to a packer under which the base price for the hogs is determined by seller-buyer interaction and agreement on a delivery day. USDA is offering SMHPP as packer production was reduced due to the COVID-19 pandemic due to employee illness and supply chain issues, resulting in fewer negotiated hogs being procured and subsequent lower market prices.

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In the past year, the cost for urea and diammonium phosphate has more than doubled. With no end in sight, some producers are looking at alternatives like manure. Daniel Andersen, associate professor at Iowa State University, says that farmers interested in integrating manure as a fertilizer have the possibility for great outcomes in terms of improved soil health and crop nutrition.

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Preventing foreign animal diseases, addressing a shortage of agricultural workers, and reauthorizing a livestock price reporting law are the primary issues on which pork producers will lobby their congressional lawmakers over the next two days, during the fall Capitol Hill fly-in of the National Pork Producers Council. More than 100 producers from across the country are expected to participate virtually in NPPC’s Legislative Action Conference.

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It’s cold out there these days. Probably the last place you want to spend time is out in your pastures and pens. But doing so right now could pay major dividends down the road when it comes to the performance of your cattle herd.

Click on this story for the full article and read the 4 steps you should take for your early-winter herd-management planning.

Dairy Herd Management, Oct. 6, 2021 – The 18th Annual MILK Business Conference has a great line-up of speakers and sessions to help dairy producers capitalize on and further develop their strengths to work for them. Held at the Paris Hotel in Las Vegas Nov. 30 – Dec. 2, the MILK Business Conference is like no other dairy conference.

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WASHINGTON, D.C., Sept. 29, 2021 – The National Pork Producers Council today commended Agriculture Secretary Vilsack for dedicating $500 million in USDA Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) funds for the prevention of and preparation for African swine fever (ASF), a pig-only disease that would be devastating for the U.S. pork industry.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Tony Evers has proposed a nearly $25 million package of bills targeting the state’s agriculture industry and rural communities.

Evers announced the plans Tuesday, with Democratic lawmakers, at the World Dairy Expo. The centerpiece is a proposal that would create $20 million in grants to help Wisconsin food banks and pantries buy food from local farmers.

“The state can do more and should do more to invest in farmers and the agriculture industry,” Evers said.

Producers who suffered losses during the pandemic due to insufficient access to processing may now apply for assistance for those losses and the cost of depopulation and disposal of the animals through Oct. 12, 2021, rather than the original deadline of Sept. 17, 2021. PLIP is part of USDA’s Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative.

Visit farmers.gov/plip for more information on how to apply.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture says workers on farms and at meatpacking plants who were severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic will be eligible to get grants of up to $600 per person as part of a new $700 million aid program.

The grants announced Tuesday are intended to defray some of the costs workers bore as many of them bought their own protective equipment or took unpaid leave as the virus tore through their industries, even as they were required to keep showing up for work.

The United Food and Commercial Workers union estimates that at least 132 meatpacking workers died of COVID-19 and at least 22,000 workers have been infected or exposed to the virus.

Read the Full Story at: https://www.keyc.com/2021/09/07/meat-farm-workers-get-600-grants-new-700m-aid-plan/