California Cattle Slows and China Has Enough U.S. Chicken
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.**This would typically be a prime marketing time for California cattle ranchers, but pandemic-related slowdowns at meat processing plants have created a bottleneck in the beef market.
Ranchers say the situation is forcing them into tough decisions about their market-ready animals.
One rancher describes the situation as a waiting game, as ranchers monitor cattle markets and the status of grass on drying pastures.
**China will be out of the market for U.S. chicken in June as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, in a reversal from a recent surge of imports.
Sanderson Farms president Lampkin Butts tells agriculture.com China is out because they bought so much product in anticipation of restaurants reopening, but that’s are not yet back to anything close to normal.
China lifted a nearly five-year ban on imports of U.S. poultry in November after African Swine Fever killed millions of pigs in the pork-loving country.
https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/china-backs-away-from-us-chicken-during-covid-19-recovery-sanderson-farms
**Farmers regularly face challenges from insects, disease and climate change, which can threaten US food security.
To help farmers overcome these obstacles, the Foundation for Food and Ag Research is now providing research funding to develop transformative tools and technologies allowing scientists to rapidly introduce new traits into multiple crop species.
This request for proposals is funded through FFAR’s Crops of the Future Collaborative and is now accepting applications.