A third case of avian influenza has struck southern Tennessee, confirmed the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) on March 16. The highly pathogenic H7N9 infection occurred in a commercial breeder flock in Lincoln County, Tennessee, where the state’s first 2017 case occurred. [node:read-more:link]
The first impact of President Donald Trump’s changes to U.S. immigration policy will fall on businesses that grow, process or sell food. Recent history shows that labor shortages could drive up prices and labor costs, and hurt profits. Little attention is being paid to the threat to food prices from a drop in immigrant labor. What is known so far is generally anecdotal and regional. But the impact of a nationwide hit to the supply of workers could be large. Food price increases, which have been low, would boost already accelerating inflation. [node:read-more:link]
Agriculture leaders including lawmakers from President Donald Trump's Republican Party criticized his planned 21 percent cut to discretionary spending at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), saying it could take a toll on the rural communities that helped elect him last November. Trump has proposed slashing the USDA's discretionary budget by $4.7 billion to $17.9 billion by halting funding for rural clean water initiatives and rural business services, reducing some USDA statistical services and cutting county-level staff. [node:read-more:link]
There is confirmation that a second case of H7N9 HPAI has been detected in a commercial broiler breeder flock in Tennessee. This flock was located one mile from the index case reported early last week. On Tuesday, March 14th, 144 birds were dead and yesterday 200 more perished. A sample was sent to NVSL yesterday and depopulation of the flock began. [node:read-more:link]
President Donald Trump has proposed eliminating an international food aid program, halting funding for clean water initiative in rural areas and reducing county-level staff for a 21 percent drop in discretionary spending at the Agriculture Department, according to a White House budget document. The proposal would save $498 million by eliminating a rural water and wastewater loan and grant program, which the White House proposal said was duplicative. The program helps fund clean water and sewer systems in communities with less than 10,000 people. [node:read-more:link]
State agriculture officials and ranchers are scrambling to secure feed and other supplies for approximately 10,000 cattle and horses that fled this week from wildfires in the Texas Panhandle. The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension said Thursday about 4,200 large bales of hay are needed to feed displaced animals over the next two weeks.Trucks to shuttle animals from one location to another and fencing are among the needs as ranchers recover from the fires that killed four people and burned about 750 square miles in the state. [node:read-more:link]
Greg Gardiner is a cowboy. His wide-brimmed hat carries a band darkened by years of sweat and dust. Decades of 100-degree sun, 10-below cold and wicked winds from every direction have left his face as leathery as an old baseball glove. Below his lip is a small goatee and above it a wide trademark mustache. Several days after the biggest fire in the state’s history swept through Clark County, Gardiner slowly drove along some of his family’s 48,000 acres. [node:read-more:link]
Another year, another pile of dead dogs and cats for the crematorium, courtesy of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). Late Tuesday night—almost literally at the last minute—PETA filed its 2016 animal custody information with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) admitting it had killed nearly 72% of the cats and dogs that came through the “animal shelter” at its headquarters. That’s 1,411 dead dogs and cats at the hands of PETA last year alone. [node:read-more:link]
For 2016, the IHS estimates there was $31.3 trillion in total sales activity in the United States across all sectors; of that total, IHS estimates that $416.2 billion in sales was supported by the o -highway equipment and ancillary products industry’s economic activity. This occurred through approximately $266.5 billion in direct industry sales activity, such as the sales of equipment like skid steers and combines, which generated additional economic activity as dollars fl owed through the equipment manufacturing supply chain. [node:read-more:link]
One in four Ohio hospitals could close if an Affordable Care Act replacement rescinds Medicaid expansion without a new revenue source, Ohio Hospital Association CEO Mike Abrams said, one of a growing chorus of Ohioans speaking up about the GOP health-care proposal. [node:read-more:link]
