Bob Bragg

1 week 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.

3 weeks 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.

1 month 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.

1 month 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.

1 month 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.