ag | Field 2 Field

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020

Frost in the Friday night forecast in farm country

Here is the audio podcast with Ryan Martin that you can download to your computer. You can also play it on your mobile device. Just his the play arrow on the left.

Frost in the forecast is rarely a good thing in farm country during any season outside of winter. In an ideal world, the only exception is a killing frost after corn states hit black layer. Of course, we don’t always live in an ideal world, do we? Ryan Martin of Warsaw, Indiana, is a long-time agricultural meteorologist who says the threat of some frost damage will begin this weekend.

“The days most in question are Friday night, May 8, into Saturday morning,” he said. “The axis of the coldest air will come across eastern Minnesota, Wisconsin, east-to-northeast Iowa, northern Illinois, most of Indiana, as well as all of Michigan and Ohio. This is the zone where we’ll see temperatures at 30 degrees or colder.”

He said the coldest air looks to hit Michigan and Ohio this weekend, where we could see some big impact on soft red winter wheat, especially in Ohio. The frost timing is not good as wheat has woken up out of winter dormancy and is moving forward through its growth stages.

“The wheat is at the jointing stage and anytime the crop gets further into its growth, that means the wheat is a little more susceptible to cold temperatures,” Martin said, “depending on how much the temps fall and how long they’re under a certain threshold.

“If wheat is just breaking dormancy and you get a cold snap, you have to be under 28 degrees anywhere between three and five hours,” he added. “When we get into the jointing stage and further along, wheat can barely handle 30 degrees for an hour or two. That’s where the issue lies on wheat this weekend.”

Frost — Ryan Martin, Hoosier Ag Today meteorologist, says the fast pace of planting in 2020 is
going to slow down for a few days due to cooler than normal temps in farm country. (Photo
YouTube.com)

Corn and soybeans will hopefully be a different story. Based on the crop planting progress and emergence reports, Martin, Chief Meteorologist for the Hoosier Ag Today Radio Network, is much more optimistic about those crops being able to survive the freezing temps.

“Illinois leads the way with nine percent of its corn crop emerged,” he said. “In most areas, the growing point of the crop is still going to be below ground, so I don’t think it will mean anything for corn and soybeans on mortality. What it does do is slow down that incredibly fast-paced planting season we’ve seen in many states.”

A couple of other examples include Iowa, which was on a record planting pace during the last planting update, while Minnesota just to the north is no slouch either on planting progress. The Purdue University meteorology graduate says all of the “good stuff” that comes with early-planted corn gets slowed down and “stunted” because of the frost/freeze over the weekend and the extended run of below-normal temps that won’t end till the middle of next week.

“Cold air moved out of Canada and focused on the Great Lakes, Upper Midwest, and the northeastern United States,” Martin said. “However, there’s an interesting twist ahead in the forecast for the next seven-to-ten days. We’ll start to see temperatures in the below-normal areas start to moderate on May 13 through 15.

“Things will take a drastic switch after that,” he added. “We’ll see above-normal temps in the Eastern Corn Belt, while the Plains may drop down below normal through the last part of May. There’s a lot of air currents, different movements here, different patterns trying to emerge, and it all has to do with where polar air is shifting to this time of year.”

It’s been a bit of an unusual spring so far for many reasons, but I’m just talking about the weather. What we’ve seen so far in terms of temps and precipitation has been very different from recent years. There’s no question, a lot of states have seen temperatures consistently lower than what they normally expect.

“Big swings in spring temps aren’t unusual,” says Martin. “We’ve certainly seen them before. I think the reason it’s coming home to roost a little bit more and has people scratching their heads is the degree of change from the last several years.

“We’ve had pretty dog-gone decent springs over the past handful of years,” he recalled. “We’ve come out of winter early and been able to hit the ground running based on the temps. Last year, precipitation was a big problem, but the temperatures were still decent. This year is the first out of the past five or so that’s really showed us the kind of variability we can see in the spring.”

Ryan will do custom forecasts for your radio and TV stations. Check out his work at www.weatherstud.com.

May 6, 2020May 6, 2020

Bison ranching industry struggling through COVID-19

Bison ranching. The first thing that may come to mind is hundreds of Bison thundering down the prairie a long time ago. Did you know we raise bison on farms across the country? In fact, the U.S. has bison production in every state in the union. While it’s been a growing industry for many years, the impact of COVID-19 on raising Bison has been anything but positive.

“We’re a small segment of agriculture,” says Dave Carter, the Executive Director of the National Bison Association. “However, we’ve been growing for the last 15 years and turning into a strong and steady business. Most producers have been pretty profitable over that stretch.”

Here’s an interesting conversation about raising bison in the United States. It’s from a YouTube channel called Off-Farm Income

Bison is marketed in two locations, similar to the other major protein segments in U.S. agriculture. Those markets include the restaurant/foodservice sector and the retail sector. Carter said because bison processors tend to be smaller than their counterparts that process beef and pork, they often specialize in one market or the other.

“When COVID-19 hit and restaurants shut down, those processors serving the foodservice customers really took a hit,” he said. “Some have had to lay off up to 60 percent of their employees almost overnight. Those folks who saw restaurants shut down were suddenly scrambling and trying to adapt as retail demand went up.

Bison ranching — Dave Carter is the Executive Director of the National Bison Association. (Photo from the Business Journals)

“Herein lies the problem,” Carter added. “Most of the higher-end cuts like steaks go into the restaurant and foodservice sector. On the retail side, customers are going into stores to buy ground bison. When the higher-end cuts like tenderloins at $24 a pound aren’t selling while people are buying ground bison at $9 a pound, it has a significant financial impact.”

The prices that processors have paid to ranchers over the past month have dropped around 40 cents a pound, a significant price cut for a large animal like bison. Prices have been around $3.70 a pound. He admits while other livestock sectors would love to see that price, it’s still a significant drop for bison producers in just one month’s time.

The ranchers in the finishing segment of the bison industry are the ones being hit hardest because they’ve got animals that are ready to go and are having to hold onto them longer. Processors aren’t working as quickly as they normally would due to layoffs and illness. Animals that stay longer on the farm tend to gain more weight than is optimum and it adds more expense to the bottom line.

One of the biggest challenges the industry faces is getting enough feed because of what’s going on in the ethanol industry. “Distiller’s grains have been a big part of our feeding formula in bison ranching,” Carter said. “Because of the crisis in the ethanol industry, the price of distiller’s grains is going up significantly and the availability is going down.

“That means we now have ranchers who will get less for their animals when they deliver them to their processor,” he added, “but their feed costs are going up at the same time.”

He is thankful that none of the bison processing plants in the country have had to shut down entirely because of the outbreak. Unfortunately, a high number of workers have tested positive for COVID-19 and that’s made other employees hesitant to come to work. But Carter says those bison processors are doing a “great job” of caring for their workers through social distancing, through testing, and by providing Personal Protective Equipment,

Livestock producers in the pork sector have had to make the horrible decision to euthanize some of their animals as they don’t have anywhere to send their hogs for processing. Carter says the bison industry isn’t at the point yet.

“We still have enough supply chain capacity that our ranchers haven’t had to make that decision,” he said. “One reason for that is, unlike our friends in the cattle industry, we don’t have fall calving. Most of our calves are born between April and June, which meant they were weaned and already sent to other ranchers for finishing between November and February of last year.

“That means producers were already done selling their previous calf crop before COVID-19 showed up,” Carter added. “A lot of the ranchers that are feeding bison will probably turn some of their animals back out to pasture and let them graze on grass, so they don’t have the extra feed expense. We can hold them longer than a lot of other livestock, so we aren’t in danger of having to euthanize them in the near future.”

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020

Farmer optimism hits an all-time low

Farmer optimism is in the dumper and there is no nice way to say it. COVID-19 and its economic impact, low commodity prices, trade wars, and weather have made life even more challenging. DTN found out that farmer optimism is at a record low. They’ve been doing a tri-annual survey of farmers for several years and this spring’s Agricultural Confidence Index hit an all-time low mark.

The baseline for their survey is 100. Everything below 100 is pessimistic, and any number above 100 is considered optimistic.

“We do our survey in the spring, just before planting,” said DTN Editor-In-Chief Greg Horstmeier. “We also do one at harvest, and then our final survey is in December, which is basically farm tax time. The drop in the index from the last time we did this in December is not a surprise, given everything that’s going on.

“It was a record-sized drop down to an index reading of 67,” he added. “That’s a 97-point drop, which is even more remarkable because we’re hearing that agriculture is moving on as normal. Everyone is either getting ready to or heading out into the field, so that big of a damper on the survey results is surprising.”

Horstmeier said spring is typically the most optimistic time of the year for farmers. New crops are going into the ground, which automatically means a fresh start, especially if the year before was as tough as 2019. Low optimism in the spring isn’t unusual. What’s unusual about this survey is how pessimistic farmers are about the future outlook.

The future outlook is typically very optimistic during the spring survey. “This year, that index reading was 73, which means it dove hard into negative territory,” Horstmeier said. “That was the big takeaway for me. Not only does the current situation have farmers in a pessimistic state of mind, but they don’t have a lot of promise for the foreseeable future.”

Another thing that really stood out was just how prevalent the pessimism is in different sectors of agriculture. It didn’t matter what farmers grew or how big their operations were, either. Even in down years, there’s typically difference worth noting.

“We typically see at least some differences between, for example, livestock and crop producers,” Horstmeier said. “We’ve also seen regional differences, such as the Midwest may be less optimistic than farmers in the Southeast. The pessimism was across the board, regardless of location, income level, the crops they grew, and what kind of enterprises they had.”

Speaking of Midwest farmers, in this year’s survey they showed the most pessimism currently, yet they also had the most optimism for the future. Southeastern farmers were more optimistic about their current conditions (89) but felt less optimism for their future (56).

DTN also conducts a similar survey of agribusinesses. The index level came in at a just-above-neutral 104. Agribusinesses rated their current conditions at a slightly pessimistic 85. However, they were above neutral when looking at the future, coming in at 118.

Here’s the link to the DTN survey article.

April 27, 2020April 27, 2020

Prevented planting and cover crops: 2019 Lessons Learned

Prevented planting, cover crops, and a wet fall taught farmers across the Midwest a lot of lessons going into 2020. The South Dakota NRCS has put together a short film

Watch this 3 1/2-minute video which is part of a new mini series for #agriculture.

In this discussion, farmers and specialists go over some of the lessons learned in 2020.

Wet August 2019 conditions prevented some cover crops from being planted; farmers were left weighing up terminating covers in the fall or leaving them to overwinter and provide spring growth; the perspective of experienced cover croppers on their attitudes to reseeding of covers (e.g., buckwheat) and how they deal with them.

prevented planting — Cover crops and prevent plant acres in 2019; the South Dakota NRCS documented some lessons learned from last year and how they apply to the 2020 crop year. (Photo from NPR.org(

“Growing Resilience” is intended to help farmers and ranchers gain insights into 2020 crop year thinking from eight farmers and several technical specialists from the South Dakota NRCS and SDSU. Filmed in late-February 2020 in Mitchell and Crooks, SD, these recorded conversations offer candid comments on issues they faced on 2019 Prevented Planting acres, and how their soil improvement journey makes their fields more resilient.

These short video stories provide farmers and ranchers with ideas and options to consider now and for future growing seasons. Additional resources, including technical guidelines, are available on our website at www.sd.nrcs.usda.gov > Soils > Growing Resilience with Soil Health.Specialists with the USDA NRCS are respecting social distancing and are available by phone or email for answering questions. Please visit farmers.gov/service-center-locator to find the latest COVID19 operational status and a directory with your local office and employee contact information.

Please feel free to “like and share” on your favorite social media!

Initiated by the USDA NRCS with a Partnership Work Group.
Produced by the University of South Carolina in collaboration
with the USDA NRCS serving South Dakota.

The views and opinions of the farmer participants expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes.

April 21, 2020April 21, 2020

Farm debt mediation period extended in Minnesota

Farm debt levels are piling up and it’s getting scarier. Here’s a friendly reminder that the period available for working through some debt challenges has been extended.

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is reminding Minnesota farmers and agricultural lending institutions that the state legislature extended the length of mediation available for farmers in the Farmer-Lender Mediation Program from 90 to 150 days. Minnesota farmers that are in debt can renegotiate, restructure, or resolve farm debt through mandatory Farmer-Lender Mediation. Mandatory mediation means that creditors cannot start a proceeding to collect a farm debt against agricultural property until an offer of mediation has been extended and, if the farmer so chooses, completed.

“I want to make sure that farmers and their ag lending institutions know that the mediation period was extended by 60 days to 150 days,” said Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. “This is a critical program for farmers – especially now when COVID-19 has caused the closing of agricultural markets. Having sixty more days to renegotiate or restructure debt will be a huge help in many cases.”

For more information and assistance, farmers can contact the MDA’s Farm Advocate Program at www.mda.state.mn.us/farmadvocates or the University of Minnesota Extension https://extension.umn.edu/get-help/farmer-lender-mediation.

April 17, 2020April 18, 2020

Spring weather forecast showing less flooding

Spring weather is never a dull topic of conversation in the Midwest, is it? We went from a fantastic week of mild weather leading up to Easter to a run of below-normal temps and snowfall on Easter Sunday. While it was only a couple inches here in Maple Grove, there were much higher amounts elsewhere. I talked weather with Bryce Anderson of DTN, who says it’s not unusual at all to get snow during April.

“That has certainly happened many times before,” he said. “The heavy snow was certainly unwelcome because it set back farmer fieldwork for a while, probably a week later than they wanted.

This is what spring weather looked like in a good deal of the Central Plains and Midwest when flooding hit farmers hard. The good news in the spring weather forecast this year is the threat of flooding has moderated, depending on where you live. (Photo from curbed.com)

Farmers are certainly chomping at the bit to get spring fieldwork done to get ready for planting. Remember April 15^th of 2019 and the big snowstorm that moved through the Midwest? Here on the west side of the Twin Cities, we picked up 17 inches of snow last year. Happy Tax Day, right? However, despite that recent round of spring weather, Anderson doesn’t expect the monumental planting delays we saw last year during one of the roughest springs in recent memory.

Here’s a quick recap of a rough spring in 2019, courtesy of PBS:

“It won’t be a repeat of last year by any means,” he said emphatically. “Despite storm activity that moved through the southwestern and central United States, things were starting to moderate as we headed into the weekend. That colder arctic air we saw come into the Midwest over Easter was very slow in leaving the region, so that’ll also set fieldwork back a bit.”

One area of good news in the spring weather forecast is he’s not as worried about widespread flooding in farm country as he was a month ago. However, the caveat is that it depends on where you live. Still, things have slowed down some on that front.

“It’s not just me saying that either,” Anderson said. “Hydrologists with the Corps of Engineers have said the movement of the higher water throughout the nation’s river systems has been better than they hoped it would be. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t have trouble spots.

“The James River Valley that runs through South Dakota and the Red River Valley in North Dakota and Minnesota are still at flood stage,” he said. “In the Delta, there are streams in some portions of the lower Mississippi River Valley where flooding is still ongoing.”

Unfortunately for farmers and folks in those areas, flooding will likely continue in those areas for some time yet. Anderson did say that there likely aren’t going to be any new flood threats that develop in the spring weather forecast for farm country unless there’s a drastic change in the weather pattern. Before the recent run of cold and snow, farmers have gotten some planting done this spring in the eastern Corn Belt.

“There has been some soybean planting in Illinois and Indiana,” he said. “Growers in the western Corn Belt likely haven’t gotten very busy yet. In other areas of the Delta, corn planting is way behind in states like Mississippi and Arkansas. They likely won’t get a lot done after the recent run of storms and rainfall that recently hit southern areas.

April 16, 2020April 16, 2020

Hog farmers are hurting and asking for help

Hog farmers are hurting.

COVID-19 has put a serious crimp in the U.S. economy and nowhere is that more evident than in agriculture. More specifically, American hog farmers are struggling to stay on farms because they’re having trouble getting their hogs to market. Big trouble, in fact. Hogs are so far backed up on the farm that producers may have a tough decision to make in the not-too-distant future.

Those of us in the agricultural media don’t often hear the word “euthanize” in press conferences. Unfortunately, it came up multiple times during a press conference hosted by the National Pork Producers Council. As prices for hogs have plummeted, Howard ‘A.V.’ Roth, NPPC President, says things are as bad as they’ve ever been after several years of a depressed farm economy.

“We are now an ag sector in dire crisis,” Roth said to reporters. “Farmers are already exiting the business and the damage will only intensify without direct intervention from the federal government.”

Speaking as a hog producer himself, Roth says the pork industry has a list of several things it needs in order to help keep as many farmers in operation as possible. The first item on their wish list would clear out a tremendous amount of stored pork supplies as quickly as possible, plus it would get food into the hands of people who need it.

“Over $1 billion in pork purchases by USDA to clear out a backed-up meat supply, while supplementing food bank programs around the country facing increased demand for food as unemployment continues to rise,” Roth said. “These purchases should come from packaged pork that was intended for restaurants and other segments of the foodservice market.”

In all the years I’ve covered agriculture, I can tell you from firsthand experience that farmers want to make their living from the markets, not government handouts. How desperate are pork farmers to stay in business?

“We need direct payments to producers without eligibility restrictions,” Roth says.

They’re also hoping to see China remove retaliatory tariffs on U.S. pork that are still in place despite the Phase One trade agreement between the two countries. Roth points out that it’s no secret China needs a reliable source of affordable pork after their herds were decimated by the African Swine Fever virus.

“Removing those damaging tariffs would get us back on a level playing field with our international competitors,” Roth says. “Dr. Dermot Hayes, an economist with Iowa State University, says removing those tariffs would allow U.S. exports to China to more than double their current volume.”

How badly does China need pork, one of the most preferred proteins in the Asian diet? Let’s just say that Chinese pork producers, who can’t ever hope to meet their country’s domestic demand, are enjoying some pretty high prices for their products right now.

“While Chinese producers are enjoying record pork values, U.S. producers are facing a dire decision on our farms,” Roth said. “Sadly, it’s true. Without significant assistance, euthanizing is a question that’s going to begin coming up on our farms.

“Let me be the first to say, as a pork producer, we care about our animals,” he added. “The last thing we ever want to do is euthanize even one animal. We’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Producers may be able to at least push that decision back somewhat, thanks to a recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency. Michael Formica, Assistant Vice President of Domestic Affairs and Counsel at NPPC, says hog housing restrictions have been temporarily relaxed.

“We reached out to EPA to ensure that if we were ever in a situation like the one we face now, producers would have an option to hold animals on their farm,” Formica said. “All of the farms are permitted to hold a certain number of animals. If they exceed those numbers, they have to go through new permitting.

“We asked EPA for a temporary waiver of the thresholds during the crisis we’re facing,” Formica said, “and thankfully, they granted that request a couple of weeks ago. That’s a tool that many farmers can use to hold animals on their farms while additional animals come through the pipeline.”

He says it’s important to point out that’s an advantage for farmers only if they have adequate additional space. If the backup continues indefinitely, they will run out of space and that’s when they have to start culling otherwise healthy animals from their herds, simply because there won’t be enough space to take care of them.

Why is it all piling up on hog farmers so quickly? Nick Giordano, Vice President of Global Government Affairs and Counsel for NPPC, says hog producers were the first to be hit hard by the trade war with China.

“Hog farmers were there at the tip of the Chinese retaliation spear,” he said. “Trade retaliation from two key markets, Mexico and China, in 2018 and 2019, took $20 off the prices that producers received for every hog.

‘Unlike a lot of the other segments in our economy that came into the COVID-19 outbreak with record profits and a full head of steam, our producers were already hurting. This has made a bad financial situation infinitely worse.”

How far have things fallen across the industry? Iowa State’s Dr. Hayes says in just one month, from March 10 to April 10, the pork industry has lost $5 billion in value. Something has to change.

April 15, 2020April 15, 2020

Organic farmers get to give their opinions to MDA

Organic farmers, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture wants to know what’s been on your mind lately. Feels a little like a rhetorical question but let’s go with it. There’s a survey on the way to your mailbox and it’s a great chance to tell the state’s Ag Department wants going on out there on the ground.

The state currently has 800 certified organic operations and they’re all getting a survey in the mail this month. The survey will ask Minnesota’s organic farmers to share both their opinions and experiences in the business these days. The survey will include 27 questions about several important topics, including profitability, production costs and challenges, research needs, marketing, and your overall outlook.

“The insights that organic farmers share helps us to focus programs and resources on areas that will make a difference in their bottom lines,” says Assistant Commissioner Patrice Bailey. “Organic market demand is very strong, and we want to do all we can to help existing and new organic farmers to capitalize on that fact.”

Minnesota’s organi farmers have an opportunity to share their opinions and insights in a survey coming from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. It’ll land in the mailboxes of the 800 certified operations in the state very soon. (Photo from allianceforscience.cornell.edu.)

Organic products just continue to grow in popularity, and not just in Minnesota. The U.S. organic market hit a new record high in 2018, topping out at $52.5 billion in sales. The 2019 Organic Industry Survey from the Organic Trade Association says that’s up 6.3 percent from the previous year.

If you’re a certified organic farmer that doesn’t see a survey show up in the mailbox, contact MDA’s Organic Specialist Cassie Dahl at 651-201-6134 to get a copy of the survey. It’s your chance to tell the MDA what’s going on in the world of organic farming, as well as a chance to offer some opinions on how things can be even better.

The MDA says the survey results will be available on their website this fall.

April 4, 2020April 4, 2020

Careers continue to grow across the Ag sector

High school seniors are typically looking toward future career possibilities at this time of year. The sheer number and variety of careers in the agricultural sector of the economy might come as a shock. Erika Osmundson is Director of Marketing Communications with AgCareers.com. She says they posted a whole lot of job opportunities in 2019.

“Last year, we posted 50,000 open positions within agriculture on the site. While production agriculture is key to the world, there is more to agriculture in terms of careers than production, that ‘cows, plows, and sows’ is what we always say.”

The career options in the Ag sector are both blue collar and white-collar jobs.

“Sales and marketing always tend to do quite well. We do a lot of agronomy and research. Animal health is always a good area and tends to have a lot of opportunities. And then, when you look at what really entices young folks to get excited, I think we really have to play up all the technologies growing and evolving within the industry.”

Like most other sectors in the economy, the Ag sector is seeing an explosive growth in technology careers, which is creating demand for a lot of skilled workers.

“The Ag-Tech sector is huge when you start looking at GPS, drone technology, the plant genetics side, some of the traceability stuff. There are just opportunities for a new variety of people. Software developers, IT, process engineers, that type of thing. So, it’s really just expanding.”

AgCareers.com, in conjunction with the Farm Service Agency, put together profiles of more than 250 agricultural careers on the site, just to help career-seekers better understand what was out there in agriculture. Those profiles talk about things like responsibilities with each position, what the future holds for a particular job, and some of the profiles even deal with salaries. She says the salaries for agricultural positions may come as a surprise to some job seekers.

“Even some of those skilled trade jobs, we’re seeing those salary levels continue to rise, just because of the demand. Even in some of those traditional ones where people might not think that the salary would be good, they’re mistaken. But then, you look at some of the business-focused type of roles, the IT, the finance, we’re competitive with other industry sectors out there, and we work in a pretty great industry that’s pretty viable, I mean, we’re even seeing this through the COVID pandemic.”

Agriculture has been deemed an “essential service” by government officials, which means most of the people in the sector can continue to go to work and maintain their careers.. Osmundson says that means the demand for skilled workers is going to be there for the long term.

March 19, 2020March 19, 2020

H-2A Workers Help from USDA/Dept. of Labor

H-2A workers have been hard to find consistently in agriculture as long as I’ve been covering it, which is the better part of my adult life. I don’t have enough day-to-day experience dealing with this to know why on Earth we can’t seem to figure this out? Any ideas? Please leave a comment and let me know the whole story? And does this news from the USDA and Department of Labor actually help?

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced a partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to help facilitate the identification of foreign and domestic H-2A workers that may be available and eligible to transfer to other U.S. agricultural sector employers to fulfill critical workforce needs within the U.S. under existing regulatory authority during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For as long as I can remember, we’ve been struggling to get enough H-2A workers into the country consistently enough to make sure all our farmers can get their work done. Why can’t we figure this out? (Photo from agnetwest.com)

“Ensuring minimal disruption for our agricultural workforce during these uncertain times is a top priority for this administration,” Secretary Perdue said. “President Trump knows that these H-2A workers are critical to maintaining our food supply and our farmers and ranchers are counting on their ability to work. We will continue to work to make sure our supply chain is impacted as minimally as possible.”

“American farmers and ranchers are at the frontlines of maintaining the nation’s food supply,” Secretary Scalia said. “In these unprecedented times, it is critical for them to have the workforce they need. This new partnership between USDA and DOL will help support our farmers, ranchers, and American families.”

Background:USDA and DOL have identified nearly 20,000 H-2A and H-2B certified positions that have expiring contracts in the coming weeks. There will be workers leaving these positions who could be available to transfer to a different employer’s labor certification. The data, available on www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a, includes the number of certified worker positions, the current employer name and contact, attorney/agent name and contact, and the worksite address. This information will be a resource to H-2A employers whose workforce has been delayed because of travel restrictions or visa processing limitations. Employers should be aware that all statutory and regulatory requirements continue to apply. Employers are encouraged to monitor www.travel.state.gov for the latest information and should monitor the relevant Embassy/Consular websites for specific operational information.