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3 weeks ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
This is Bob Bragg with the Farm News & Views Report for the week of June 2nd. Honeybees are in the news again, but not in a good way. According to an ongoing survey by the nonprofit Project Apis m, commercial beekeepers reported that they have lost an average of 62 percent of their bee colonies over the winter. Data for this survey was collected from 702 respondents who are responsible for around 1.84 million colonies.
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1 month ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
This is Bob Bragg with the Farm News & Views report for the week of May 26th. The Memorial Day holiday is set aside to recognize the sacrifices that military veterans have made to our Nation, so the following statistics from the 2022 USDA Agriculture’s Census are timely. It indicates that out of 3.4 million agricultural producers in the U.S., approximately 11% of them have served or are currently serving in the U.S. Armed Forces.
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1 month ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
While there was a lot of bombast about a recent trade agreement with the United Kingdom, it appears that there are more than a few loose ends. For example, the UK is standing firm that they’ll not accept hormone treated beef.
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1 month ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
On the 11th of this month, the USDA announced that it was suspending imports of live cattle, horses and bison through the southern U.S. border, because New World screwworm flies have been found in Oaxaca and Veracruz, Mexico. This area is about 700 miles south of the U.S. border.
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1 month ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
In a recent USDA conference with congressional staff, the agency reported that more than 15,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture employees have taken one of the two Trump administration’s financial incentive offers to leave the agency, which represents about 15% of the USDA’s total workforce. These numbers could rise in the near future, because employees over 40 were given more time to decide whether to leave.
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2 months ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
The impacts that tariffs will have on the U.S. ag economy continues to concern both larger and small farmers and ranchers. Last week, California filed a lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s wide-ranging tariffs on foreign trading partners, accusing him of abusing his powers and inflicting financial harm on both the state and nation.
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2 months ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
This is Bob Bragg with the Farm News & Views Report for the week of April 14th. As farmers sit on the sidelines watching the crazy tariff-tennis match between the Trump administration and global trading partners, it’s all but impossible to determine what will happen with crop prices this year. Farmers are also dealing with, arms tied behind their backs, unknown input costs for crop supplies, machinery and repairs.
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2 months ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
This is Bob Bragg with the Farm News and Views Report for the week of April 7th. In early March, Donald Trump posted on Truth Social, , “To the Great farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd. Have fun!” But most ag producers couldn’t change the composition of either their livestock or crop enterprises for 2025.
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2 months ago | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
This is Bob Bragg with the Farm News & Views Report for the first week of April. Over the past nine weeks or so since a new administration took over in Washington D.C., the stock markets have taken a beating, with the Standard & Poors 500 market index down about 10% from mid January. The agricultural economy has also been affected, with declines in many commodity prices, like soybeans, corn, cotton, wheat and pork setting at prices that are 5% to 8% lower than were in early January.
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Mar 25, 2025 | 
ksjd.org | Bob Bragg
The Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor survey, administered by Farm Journal Magazine, is sent monthly to agricultural economists nationwide to gauge their perspectives on important drivers of agriculture. The majority of respondents in the March survey agree that the U.S. is currently involved in a trade war. The Trump Administration contends the U.S. is in the driver's seat, and by using tariffs as a negotiating tool, he’ll restore his version of fair trade.
