The visceral political fights over livestock marketing rules will carry into the Trump administration as reaction to USDA's release of three rules on Wednesday ranged from all-out praise from some farm groups to condemnations of political retribution by other groups. The livestock marketing rules under the USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, or GIPSA, are in different stages of the process. They date back to language in the 2008 farm bill, and the rules have been controversial throughout the Obama administration. [node:read-more:link]

The visceral political fights over livestock marketing rules will carry into the Trump administration as reaction to USDA's release of three rules ranged from all-out praise from some farm groups to condemnations of political retribution by other groups. The livestock marketing rules under the USDA Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, or GIPSA, are in different stages of the process. They date back to language in the 2008 farm bill, and the rules have been controversial throughout the Obama administration. [node:read-more:link]

The Creighton University Rural Mainstreet Index remained weak with a reading again below growth neutral for the 15th straight month, according to the monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy. Overall: The index, which ranges between 0 and 100 rose to 36.6 from October’s 31.8. Farm commodity prices continue to slam Rural Mainstreet economies. Over the past 12 months, livestock commodity prices have tumbled by 27.2 percent and grain commodity prices have slumped by 16.6 percent. [node:read-more:link]

Politicians from both sides of the aisle are fond of blaming outsourcing and imported manufac-tured goods for U.S. manufacturing job losses. While it is correct that U.S. manufacturing has lost jobs during a period of solid U.S. job growth “the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves.” Between 2000 and 2015, U.S. manufacturing lost 29.6 percent of total sector employment, or 4.7 million production jobs, as the nation experienced a 9.1 percent job gain outside of manufacturing. Over the time period, agriculture lost 76,000 jobs for a 8.5 percent loss. [node:read-more:link]

Ranchers in Alberta and Saskatchewan can apply to access $16.7 million in financial assistance as they cope with an outbreak of bovine tuberculosis that is forcing the slaughter of an estimated 10,000 cattle, Canada’s agriculture minister announced. An estimated 10,000 cattle are scheduled to be slaughtered across 40 ranching operations placed under quarantine [node:read-more:link]

The U.S. [node:read-more:link]