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Farm News & Views for the week of January 13th, 2025

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This is Bob Bragg with the Farm News and Views report for the week of January 13th.

As the Presidential Inauguration approaches, farmers and farm organization leaders are becoming concerned about international agricultural trade, because President Elect Donald Trump has stated that he will impose a 25% tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico and a 60% tariff on goods from China. The United States participates in a combined $1.5 trillion in overall trade with Canada and Mexico, Kenneth Hartman Jr., President of the National Corn Growers Association, points out that a trade war with these trading partners would come at an inopportune time for farmers, because both corn and soybean prices are “way below the cost of production,” and that the imposition of tariffs could encourage those countries to source corn and soybeans from Brazil and Argentina. U.S. food and ag sales to Mexico surged by 7% during the 2024 fiscal year, making Mexico our number one ag export customer. China fell to third place behind Canada in export purchases. The U.S. exported $28.4 billion in agricultural products to Canada in 2023. Through November of 2024, U.S. agricultural exports were $26.2 billion, which indicates that Canadian imports from the U.S. were about the same as a year earlier. On the import side, the U.S. purchased about $40.4 billion in agricultural goods from Canada last year, which was similar to 2023.

As Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack prepares to leave his post, he points out that the U.S. has lost nearly 545,000 farms and 155 million acres of farm ground since 1980. He said policymakers need to "widen the lens" on farm policy or the number of farmers will continue to shrink,since farm policy largely benefits the top 10% of farmers who receive 85% of the income and 60% of the support in farm-program payments. He suggested that "A significant amount of money goes to a very narrow band of American agriculture. And the price that we’ve paid for that system over the last 50 years has been a loss of farms, and a loss of farmland. He suggests that there should be a debate about these losses.

While crop producers are facing some tough headwinds in 2025, beef cattle producers have had a pretty good 2024. According to USDA data, five weight steers are trading at almost $80 per cwt higher than a year ago, 800 pound feeder cattle are up $50 to $60 per cwt,while heavy slaughter cattle are fetching about $30 per cwt more. But good times are often fleeting, and successful producers grid themselves during the good times to maintain their equilibrium in the inevitable tough times that are sure to come.

In support of cattle producers, Montezuma and Dolores County Extension are hosting the 2025 Southwestern Colorado Beef Cattle Symposium Thursday, January 23rd from 9 am to 2 pm , at the Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction facilities. Topics include Cattle and Hay Markets, Beef Cattle Nutrition, Drought Planning for Livestock Producers, Nitrate Management for Drought Tolerant Forages, and Farm Service Agency Livestock Program Updates. Cost of the Symposium is $15 per person, which includes lunch. Organizers request that attendees pre register by January 17th. Supporters include Carhart Feed and Seed, Basin Coop, IFA and the Yellow Jacket Livestock Auction. Additional details are on the Farm News & Views blog post at KSJD.org.

Will Rogers wrote, “Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

Contact information for the 2025 Southwestern Colorado Beef Cattle Symposium.

Montezuma County Extension Office Emily.Lockhard@colostate.edu 970-564-4170
Dolores County Extension Office
Gus.Westerman@colostate.edu 970-677-2283

RSVP $15 https://bit.ly/Beef Cattle2025

Bob has been an agricultural educator and farm and ranch management consultant for over 40 years in southwest Colorado. He writes about agricultural issues from his farm near Cortez, and has helped to produce farm reports on KSJD for more than a dozen years.