Livestock Sector
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The US government shutdown, now the longest in history, continues to affect over 800,000 federal workers, as President Trump refuses to back down on his request for funding to build the proposed Mexican border wall.
AUSTRALIA, North Sydney. The US government shutdown, now the longest in history, continues to affect over 800,000 federal workers, as President Trump refuses to back down on his request for funding to build the proposed Mexican border wall.
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been one government agency significantly affected by the shutdown. The USDA announced plans to temporarily reopen about half of its Farm Service Agency offices and call back around 2,500 employees, in order to assist in processing farm payments and federal farm loans.
The shutdown has led to the USDA delaying the release of key agricultural reports. For the US livestock sector, these have included the quarterly report on US grain stocks, crop production, weekly export data, weekly beef and cow slaughter numbers and the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report (WASDE). The monthly cold storage inventories report and cattle on feed report, scheduled for release this week, will also likely face delays as the shutdown continues.
Steiner Consulting Group commented that most critical for the livestock industry is the possible cancellation of the US cattle inventory report, however the outcome remains unclear and could depend on the duration of the shutdown. The lack of reporting makes understanding the current US supply dynamics extremely difficult for industry to gage.
Source: MLA