National Ag News for July 4, 2025
Congress Passes Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’ and its Farm Provisions
After enduring nearly 12 hours of House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries’ “Magic Minute” filibuster, the U.S. House passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill” Thursday afternoon. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall applauded the bill’s passage, now on its way to President Donald Trump’s desk for a final signature. Among key ag provisions, the bill strengthens the producer safety net by investing in modifications to the Agriculture Risk Coverage and Price Loss Coverage commodity programs that are more responsive to the current economic environment. “Improvements to farm safety net programs that reflect today’s agricultural economy and maintaining important tax provisions will directly benefit farm families,” Duvall said, adding that prices being paid to farmers continue to fall, while expenses remain stubbornly high. “The combination is taking a toll — America lost more than 141,000 farms in a five-year period, leading to more consolidation of family farms. Increases to reference prices as well as investments in conservation, research and trade are desperately needed, especially since it’s been seven years since passage of a new farm bill. Farmers will stand a better chance of enduring tough times so they can plant for another season.”
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USDA to Scale Back NEPA’s Role in Agency Actions
The USDA will adopt new regulations on evaluating the environmental effects of grazing and other agency-approved activities, saying the rules will follow directions from President Trump and the U.S. Supreme Court. The regulations will guide the agency’s execution of the National Environmental Policy Act. The rules will be published soon and will take effect immediately, the agency said June 30. The regulations are intended to eliminate unnecessarily long and cumbersome environmental reviews, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said in a statement. “We have been hamstrung by overly burdensome regulations for decades,” she said. “Overreguation has morphed the NEPA process into bureaucratic overreach on American innovation.” NEPA, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1970, requires federal agencies to consider the environmental consequences of their actions, such as funding farmland conservation or permitting logging or grazing on federal lands. NEPA applies to more than 100,000 federal actions a year and routinely provides the basis for allegations the government has failed to do an adequate environmental review.
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Dairy Supply Management Could Sour Canada-US trade talks
Canada canceled a digital service tax on U.S. technology companies this week in order to preserve trade talks with U.S. President Donald Trump, but another irritant, in agriculture, could be a bigger thorn in the ongoing negotiations. Analysts said ditching the digital services tax was politically easy for Prime Minister Mark Carney compared to even discussing Canada’s supply management system that since the 1970s has tightly controlled supplies of dairy, eggs and poultry by restricting production and limiting imports through onerous tariffs. When Carney met with Trump, he said the two leaders were aiming for a new economic agreement by July 21. Trump, however, threatened in a Truth Social post to derail talks and impose new tariffs due to the digital service tax, which had been scheduled to take effect on Monday. In the same post, Trump also attacked tariffs on dairy products. Carney and Trump both confirmed negotiations had restarted with the removal of the tax.
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Bunge Completes $8 Billion Merger with Grain Trader Viterra
Bunge Global SA completed its takeover of Glencore Plc-backed Viterra, a move that will help the combined businesses better compete with larger rivals like Cargill Inc. and Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. as the crop-trading sector faces a downturn in profits. First announced about two years ago, Bunge had initially sought to close the deal by mid-2024, but was held up as it awaited antitrust approvals from various regions. The transaction now is closed, weeks after receiving crucial support in China. Bunge, the world’s biggest oilseed processor and the B in the quartet of agricultural powerhouses known as the ABCDs, has been pressured as ample world harvests weigh on commodities prices, while US President Donald Trump’s trade disputes threaten demand. Viterra’s vast network of storage facilities, port terminals and vessels should broaden Bunge’s trading opportunities. The terms of the merger announced in 2023 includes Viterra shareholders receiving about 65.5 million shares of Bunge stock valued at around $6.2 billion along with about $2 billion in cash.
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Congress Plans to Scrap USDA Climate Hubs, Following Trump Guidance
The Ames, Iowa-based Midwest Climate Hub, which along with the other 10 regional climate hubs under the USDA, is slated to be cut from the federal agriculture budget. The U.S. House appropriations bill that sets the 2026 fiscal year budgets for agriculture, rural development, food and drug administration, and related agencies includes no funds for climate hubs or climate corps. The summary of the bill says it safeguards American taxpayer dollars and preserves core functions by eliminating funding for climate hubs, among other changes. Eleven regional climate hubs were established as interagency departments by USDA in 2014 with the goal of coordinating across USDA agencies, and with U.S. producers, on climate resiliency strategies. This season’s abundant rainfall has left pastures rated at least 80% good to excellent in several southern states, including Alabama, Kentucky, and North Carolina. However, frequent showers have also slowed many southern farmers’ fieldwork.
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Kansas Wheat Yields, Quality Take a Hit from Disease Complex
Mother Nature took a toll on Kansas winter wheat this season, with USDA rating the crop – at the harvest halfway mark earlier this week – at only 48% reaching good to excellent quality. Beyond inclement weather, it was a small, cigar-shaped pest – the wheat curl mite – that delivered one of the harshest yield blows to the crop this year, according to Romulo Lollato, wheat and forages Extension specialist, Kansas State University. The small pest is a vector of Wheat Streak Mosaic Virus, one of the most destructive wheat disease complexes in the U.S. and around the world. The disease complex can be caused by several viruses, including wheat streak mosaic virus, Triticum mosaic virus, and wheat mosaic virus (High Plains). The issue is widespread, well beyond Kansas. Other top wheat-producing states have the pest and WSMV, as well, including Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas. There are farm fields out here that got completely decimated, he says.
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