Agribusiness Update for Wednesday 7/24/13

This is the Agribusiness Update...I’m Greg Martin...

During last week’s Senate Ag Committee hearing on the reauthorization of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission - two groups testified that a CFTC-proposed rule on margin requirements would negatively impact farmers and the businesses that serve them. One industry official said that two provisions of the rule proposed last November would dramatically increase customer risk. A House Ag Subcommittee is holding hearings on the CFTC reauthorization this week.

USDA received nearly 28-thousand offers on more than 1.9-million acres of land during the 45th Conservation Reserve Program general sign-up. U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday the department will accept 1.7-million acres. USDA has enrolled nearly 12-million acres in new CRP contracts under the Secretary’s leadership. Currently - more than 26.9-million acres are enrolled on 700-thousand contracts.

For the past several years, Egypt has been a key market for U.S. beef exports – especially for exports of livers and other variety meat. Through May, Egypt was this year’s fourth-largest beef export market by volume it increased 12 percent from a year ago.

That’s today’s Agribusiness Update from the Ag Information Network.