Ag in the News

05/12/2008

National

Creekstone Farms defends right to test for BSE
Lawyers representing Creekstone Farms Premium Beef told a federal appeals court on Friday that USDA has no authority to keep the company from testing slaughtered cattle for bovine spongiform encephalopathy. MORE!

Judge grants class-action status in Oscar Mayer donning and doffing case
A federal judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit filed by workers from an Oscar Mayer plant in Madison, Wis. MORE!

Nolan Ryan pitches new beef line
Nolan Ryan's All-Natural Beef announced it is introducing a new product line: Nolan Ryan's Premium Reserve. MORE!

Ninety percent of consumers trust supermarket meat and poultry: FMI report
for Meatingplace.com Ninety percent of consumers agree with the statement, "I trust the meat, poultry and fish my grocery store sells is safe," according to the Food Marketing Institute's U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends 2008 report, released last week. MORE!

USDA: Red meat production to decline, prices to rise in 2009
Tighter supplies of cattle will force beef production to decline in 2009, and pork production will decline due to reduced farrowings later this year and next year, USDA said Friday in its latest World Agriculture Supply and Demands Estimates. MORE!

Wrap Up

Corn, beans start week higher. Corn futures were 1 to 2 cents higher, while soybeans were mostly 11 to 13 cents higher in overnight trade. Chicago wheat futures were steady to 2 cents lower.

Farm bill action this week. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the conference report on the farm bill this week. The House vote, expected Wednesday, will be key for whether or not lawmakers will be able to override what has been a promised veto of the package. USDA Secretary Ed Schafer admitted Friday it could be difficult to sustain the farm bill veto.

Korea battles over birds and beef. Tens of thousands of protesters again were out in South Korea over the weekend as citizens continue to protest the coming reopening of trade to U.S. beef. The Korean government continues to battle information in the media -- some of which is not correct -- about the safety of U.S. beef. Meanwhile, the country has destroyed all poultry in the city of Seoul as they try to bring bird flu under control.

World wheat buyers split. India, who has see-sawed back and forth over imports of wheat for months now is back on the side of not importing wheat. But neighboring Pakistan is now signaling it wants to import 2.5 million metric tons (MMT) of wheat. Just last week they announced an intention to buy 1.5 MMT but are raising that thinking now.