Ag Policy Blog

A week into the federal shutdown we are starting to see some of the impacts in different ways on agriculture and agribusinesses.

Meanwhile, Congress is now willing to pay federal employees to stay home after years of complaining about people staying home collecting government checks because they are unwilling to work.

A few ag-related items:

Associated Press reported farmers in Kansas were feeling they have no clue what's going on in the market. (Clearly not a DTN subscriber.) The argument was that the farmers rely on reports from the National Agricultural Statistics Service to make cropping decisions.

The lack of market information was more disturbing for one farmer than not receiving his direct payment that usually comes in October. Other farmers in the article were also waiting for the Conservation Reserve Program checks.

AP also quoted the Wisconsin secretary of agriculture saying a farmer couldn't get paid for a cow he sold because he needed signoff from the Farm Service Agency for a loan. http://dld.bz/…

Reuters reported major meatpackers such as Cargill and Smithfield "will change the methods they use to determine what price to pay for hogs on Monday because of the partial shutdown."

Smithfield will be relying more heavily on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Cargill was going to rely on a private firm to set prices.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/…

In Oregon, AP reports the U.S. Forest Service has told loggers to shutdown logging operations in national forests. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., told AP he was told about shutdown, which would affect 150 forests nationally.

"What this means is another economic hit to rural areas in tough economic shape during the shutdown," Wyden told AP.

http://dld.bz/…

In South Dakota, "one of the worst blizzards" in the state's history led to reports of hundreds of cattle killed, as well as other significant damage. Gov. Dennis Daugaard has declared a state of emergency and declared a disaster that would ideally, "pave the way for a federal designation and financial assistance." http://dld.bz/…}

Follow me on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

© Copyright 2013 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.