US Imports of Brazilian Beef Surged in First Quarter
Brazilian beef exports to the U.S. are booming, according to monthly USDA trade data released Tuesday. Brazilian meat packers shipped $795 million in beef to the U.S. in the first…
USDA Relocating More Employees to Kansas City & Iowa
The Agriculture Department on Thursday announced additional relocation plans for employees as part of its larger reorganization, including a new center for food inspectors in Iowa and a second attempt…
USDA to Include More Farmers in Future Surveys
The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to survey more farmers for some of its key U.S. crop reports following a drop in the response rate for its March 31 plantings…
USDA Raises Wheat, Corn and Soy Price Estimates
Season-average price estimates for wheat, corn, soybeans, soybean meal, cheese and cotton were all raised slightly in the Agriculture Department’s latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report published…
Trump Budget Would Cut USDA Funding by $4.9 Billion
The Department of Agriculture is a “bloated Washington, D.C., bureaucracy,” the Trump administration’s fiscal 2027 budget request says, proposing to cut USDA spending by $4.9 billion, or 19%, from current…
Farmers Will Plant Less Corn and More Soy in 2026, USDA Says
Farmers intend to plant 95.3 million acres of corn and 84.7 million acres of soybeans in 2026, the USDA NASS said on Tuesday. Altogether, the USDA is estimating a total…
U.S. Corn Acres to Fall in 2026, Surveys Show
The Iran war has upended the planting intentions of U.S. farmers, resulting in fewer acres of corn and the lowest quantity of spring wheat planted since 1970 as rising fertilizer…
Most Rented Farmland Owned by Non-Farmers, USDA Says
The vast majority of over two million landowners who rented out 347.8 million acres of agricultural land in 2024 were non-farming landlords, according to the latest USDA survey data, while…
Half of Farmer Bridge Assistance Already Allocated, USDA Says
The U.S. Department of Agriculture already has obligated more than $6 billion in payments under its new Farmer Bridge Assistance program just days after enrollment opened.
USDA Seeks Input on Data Collection as Confidence Falls
USDA is asking farmers and other stakeholders to help examine how USDA can improve its data collection and analysis. The department is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to examine…
Ag Economy to Improve Slightly in 2026, USDA Projects
The Agriculture Department is anticipating a slightly easier 2026 for U.S. ag producers, with prices for major commodities nudging higher and input and labor costs moderating, according to USDA Chief…
Number of U.S. Farms Shrank by 15,000 in 2025
The number of U.S. farms shrank by 15,000 in 2025, bringing the total to 1.865 million, USDA said (last week) in its Land in Farms report. This continues a long-lasting…
USDA Crop Data Reliability Remains Under Scrutiny
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, long the world's gold standard for crop estimates, faces mounting doubts about the reliability of its data from farmers, grain traders and economists following deep…
Farm Income to Fall in 2026 Despite Hefty Gov’t Payments
In a sign of growing stress for U.S. farmers, the Agriculture Department forecast on Thursday that U.S. net farm income would fall 0.7% this year, despite near-record government payments that…
Brazil Surpasses US as Top Global Beef Producer
Brazil surpassed the U.S. as the world's top beef producer last year, according to market estimates, after the South American country beat output forecasts by hundreds of thousands of tons,…
USDA Says 2025 Corn Production Hit 17 Billion Bushels, Likely to Keep Prices Low
Corn futures plunged to the lowest levels since August after USDA stunned the market by boosting its 2025 U.S. crop estimate above 17 billion bushels for the first time, signaling…
USDA Projects $37 Billion Ag Trade Deficit in FY26
The USDA is projecting that the ag trade deficit will shrink in FY2026 even more than previously anticipated. USDA expects the trade deficit to fall from $43.7 billion in FY2025…
20,000 Employees Left USDA in First Half of 2025
More than 20,300 employees left the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the first five months of the administration of President Donald Trump, about a fifth of staff, according to a…
USDA Receives Mostly Negative Feedback on Reorganization Plan
The Agriculture Department received overwhelmingly negative feedback on its plan to relocate thousands of staff and consolidate dozens of offices, as employees, lawmakers and stakeholders said it could lead to…
Bird Flu Surging as Holiday Season Begins
As the holidays approach, bird flu is once again sweeping through commercial and backyard poultry flocks, infecting and killing more than 8.9 million turkeys, chickens, and ducks in the U.S…