Today, a bipartisan group of 37 U.S. House members, led by Reps. Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and Angie Craig (D-MN), sent a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan encouraging him to support biomass-based diesel and advanced biofuels volumes that fully account for availability and production capacity. Clean Fuels applauded the letter and thanked all of the Representatives who led and signed.

NFU Vice President Jeff Kippley represented family farmers and ranchers Wednesday at a House Agriculture Committee hearing. “Examining the Consequences of EPA’s Actions on American Agriculture” provided a platform for discussing various concerns related to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations and their impact on the agricultural sector.

U.S. pork industry players are voicing their frustrations with accessing the South African market as lawmakers works to renew a bill providing countries in sub-Saharan African with duty-free access to U.S. markets.

The U.S. EPA has announced it expects to finalize biofuel blending volumes for 2026-2028 late next year.

The value of U.S. beef exports topped $900 million in May, the highest since June 2023, according to data released by USDA and compiled by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF). Pork exports posted another solid performance in May, but were below last year in both volume and value.

According to Farmers National Company, the agricultural land market has been “nothing short of exceptional during the past five years.”

The Agriculture Department is taking a deliberate approach to the question of whether cows should be inoculated against avian flu, even as some vaccine developers report substantial demand for a vaccine from dairy farmers worried about lost milk production.

It will take time to assess all the agricultural damage in Texas and other states from Hurricane Beryl and its remnants, but at least some grain infrastructure was knocked out by winds that reached 95 miles per hour in some areas.

The USDA’s national corn and soybean condition ratings improved a little over the past week. Development weather remains mostly favorable, but there are some areas of concern, and there could be some impact this week as the remnants of Tropical Storm Beryl make their way inland.

Now that Beryl has made landfall and continues to interact with land, it will continue to weaken. While weakening to tropical storm status on Monday, Beryl will still provide a threat for heavy rain and thunderstorms to the Mississippi Valley and even the Eastern Corn Belt through the first half of this week.

EPA has significantly raised the level at which the agency believes atrazine harms aquatic plants, potentially helping some farmers who rely on the weedkiller.

For many farm businesses, the amount of debt they hold is a key factor of their ability to sustain and grow their operations. Data from USDA’s Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) show that 23 percent of U.S. farms held debt in 2022.

Moderna, Inc. (NASDAQ:MRNA) recently announced a project award of $176 million through the Rapid Response Partnership Vehicle (RRPV) to accelerate the development of mRNA-based pandemic influenza vaccines.

Time is running out for Congress to get a farm bill accomplished in 2024. The head lobbyist for NCBA says he hasn’t changed his opinion on Congress’ ability to get it across the finish line. Ethan Lane says, “I still think we’re spring of next year before we really are having an honest conversation about passing a farm bill.”

Over the past four years, soybean oil experienced a dramatic bull market that took prices to a new record high -- over 80 cents a pound in April 2022. Roughly two years later, those peak prices were cut nearly in half as the bullish excitement of becoming part of a new market for low-carbon fuel gave way to regulatory disappointments and the reality of competing feedstocks. This year, as recently as late June, August soybean oil prices were trading near their lowest level in over three years and it seemed as if the market had lost its appreciation for soybean oil's new role as a low-carbon fuel, as well as its traditional use as a source of food.

Lawmakers return to Washington to try to focus on fiscal 2025 spending bills even as Democrats face an ongoing debate about whether President Joe Biden should end his re-election bid. House Ag Committee member Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., announced on Saturday that she believes Biden should drop out of the race. In a statement released by her campaign, she said that “given what I saw and heard from the President during last week’s debate in Atlanta, coupled with the lack of a forceful response from the President himself following that debate, I do not believe that the President can effectively campaign and win against Donald Trump.” But Biden continues to insist that he’s not dropping out of the race, saying in a ABC News interview that he would only step aside, “if the Lord Almighty comes down and tells me that.”

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision in the case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo—a decision that reins in the legal concept of Chevron deference and reduces overreaching regulations from federal agencies that lack congressional authority.

An American Farm Bureau Federation economist says USDA’s proposed changes to the Federal Milk Marketing Orders are not all good. Danny Munch tells Brownfield USDA addressed the “higher of” Class I milk price mover. “The biggest takeaway is that they do recommend a switch back to the “higher of” Class I mover, which was one of our biggest priorities. We are disappointed, though, that they did not decide to switch back to the “higher of” on an emergency basis.” And, he says not making the immediate emergency change will continue to cost farmers a lot of money.

We continue to have a very busy pattern across the U.S. over the next week. System after system will move through Canada or the northern U.S. and send cold fronts through the Corn Belt. We have already seen some areas of heavy rain in southeastern Nebraska on July 1, and we are poised to see more from this system the rest of the week. Temperatures across the South and Gulf Coast will continue to be hot and challenge the 100-degree threshold. But we are going to see a change in the pattern for next week.

USDA is out with its proposed reforms to federal dairy pricing. The proposals still must be ratified by producers, but the National Milk Producers Federation won some key changes, most notably in how Class 1, or fluid milk, is priced. USDA is proposing to scrap a formula introduced to the federal milk marketing order system in the 2018 farm bill that has priced Class 1 74 cents above the average of Class 3 (milk sold for cheese) and Class 4 (butter and milk powder). Instead, Class 1 would again be priced as the higher of Class 3 and 4, plus a differential.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin accepting applications starting on Monday, July 1 through its updated Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP) to provide financial assistance to eligible dairy producers who incur milk losses due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, also known as H5N1infection in their dairy herds. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) expanded ELAP through the rule-making process to assist with a portion of financial losses resulting from reduced milk production when cattle are removed from commercial milking in dairy herds having a confirmed positive H5N1 test.

Ag lobbyist Randy Russell says not much progress has been made on the new farm bill in the U.S. House or Senate. “The leadership ultimately has to get into a room and each give a little bit if we’re going to get a compromise.” Russell says House Ag Committee leadership is still trying to secure bipartisan support for the bill passed in committee last month and Senate Ag Committee leaders are far apart on how to fund more farm in the farm bill.

Farmers have nearly 37% more corn in on-farm storage as of June 1 than the year before, relying on their enhanced storage capacity as profitable prices remain elusive. On June 28, USDA said national corn stockpiles stood at 4.99 billion bushels (bb), 22% more than in June 2023. Of that, 3.03 bb are stored on farms, while 1.97 bb are in commercial storage. "We did have an opportunity for higher prices in May, but we didn't ring the $5 bell," DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman said. The July corn futures contract hit a high of $4.755, while the national average cash price only got to $4.49 during May, which is historically when a seasonal peak occurs.

Business groups and congressional Republicans are ready to remake the administrative state following the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision overruling the Chevron doctrine, the 40-year-old precedent that required courts to defer to federal agencies in interpreting ambiguous laws. On Capitol Hill, the conservative Republican Study Committee issued a memo ahead of the decision saying that House committees “have an opportunity to review any regulatory action that was justified by Chevron deference toward agency interpretation.”

Officials from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative hammered arguments made by Mexican representatives this week during oral arguments over Mexico’s ban on imports of genetically modified corn used in some food products.

Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) Director Tim Boring celebrated the passing of Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s fiscal year 2025 bipartisan budget, which provides vital funding for the department and bold investments for Michigan’s growing food and agriculture industry.

Increased use of lower-carbon liquid fuels in light-duty vehicles would lead to larger and faster reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than EPA’s recently finalized EV-forcing tailpipe emissions standards, according to a new study commissioned by the RFA and executed by an independent not-for-profit research institute.

Families celebrating the 4th of July holiday will continue to find stubbornly high prices at the grocery store. An Independence Day cookout will cost $71.22 for 10 guests this year, based on the 2024 American Farm Bureau Federation annual marketbasket survey.