The Labor Department plans to update the way it calculates the adverse effect wage rate (AEWR) used in the H-2A guest worker program, which could be good news for growers.
In a court filing, the American Sugar Cane League said the department had “signaled its intentions to engage in new rulemaking” on the AEWR methodology, which farm groups have complained about for years as H-2A wages have risen steadily.
The league is a plaintiff in a lawsuit that ended this week with a judge scrapping the Labor Department’s 2023 rule that reclassified some farm occupations in the H-2A program, resulting in higher wage rates.
The Office of Foreign Labor Certification said that in light of the ruling, it will use the methodology contained in the 2010 H-2A rule, which requires use of the USDA’s Farm Labor Survey (FLS), not the Labor Department’s Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.
The FLS is being challenged in a separate lawsuit brought by the National Council of Agricultural Employers.
Read more at Agri-Pulse.com.
Labor Secretary Lori Chez-DeRemer (Labor Department photo)
China dives in trade outlook
USDA is out with its latest trade forecast, and China, once the top destination for U.S. crops, is projected to drop to 6th among American ag export markets.
USDA estimates China will import just $9 billion in U.S. soybeans and other commodities in fiscal 2026, down from $17 billion in FY25 and nearly $26 billion in FY24.
Keep in mind: Soybean exports to China have stalled as President Donald Trump struggles to reach a deal with China on tariffs. Right now, Chinese tariffs are 20% higher on U.S. soybeans than those from Brazil. U.S. exports to China could improve significantly if Trump can get a deal, says economist John Newton, executive head of Terrain.
The $9 billion in exports to China estimated by USDA would be the smallest amount of exports by value to the Asian nation since 2007, Newton notes. In fiscal 2019, at the height of Trump’s last trade war with China, U.S. ag exports fell to $10.1 billion but then hit $33.4 billion in FY21 under the phase one trade agreement.
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USDA announces actions to address rural vet shortage
USDA is taking steps to address the shortage of rural veterinarians.
Speaking at Mississippi State University, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the department would make an additional $15 million available for the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program and streamline application processes for both that program and the Veterinary Services Grant Program.
USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, which runs both programs, says annual funding for the loan program reached $10 million in 2023.
“USDA is pursuing strategies to make federal service more attractive for our vets, to create a direct pipeline into public service,” Rollins said.
USDA accepts 800K acres into Grasslands CRP
The Farm Service Agency has accepted over 806,000 acres in the most recent Grasslands Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) signup, according to an agency notice.
About 25.9 million acres are currently enrolled in CRP, including 9.7 million in the grasslands option.
Take note: Unlike other USDA conservation programs, CRP’s authority is set to expire at the end of September since it was not included in the One Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year. The notice directed state and county offices to fulfill all obligations under the signup by Sept. 30.
Democratic rail regulator receives removal notice
A Democratic member of the Surface Transportation Board has received a termination notice from the Trump administration.
Robert Primus, a 4-1/2-year board member who was appointed during both the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, announced that he had received an email Thursday. In a LinkedIn post, he called the termination “legally invalid” and said it would “weaken the board and adversely affect the freight rail network in a way that may ultimately hurt consumers and the economy."
"With all of this in mind, I plan to continue to discharge my duties as a member of the board and, if I’m prevented from doing so, I will explore my legal options,” Primus said in the post.
Take note: Removing Primus would leave the five-member board with only three members, two of whom are Republicans. A fifth member, former Chair Martin Oberman, retired from the agency last spring.
Year-round E15 push will continue, corn, ethanol advocates say
In what has become an annual quest, representatives of the corn and ethanol sectors reiterated they will keep pushing for legislation to allow use of E15 throughout the year.
“We think there is no better time than now, given that we know we're going to be facing a mountain of corn this fall, to really push hard for E15 legislation,” Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper told Agri-Pulse’s Lydia Johnson at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois.
Legislation introduced in the House and Senate has got “strong support on both sides of the aisle,” Cooper said. “It's got strong support from leadership. It's just been a matter of finding the right vehicle to finally get that legislation across the goal line.”
National Corn Growers Association President Kenny Hartman Jr. was in sync with Cooper.
“We're trying to get that done here as soon as possible,” he said of the E15 legislation.
Hartman also said, “We’re looking at the higher-octane areas, trying to get eventually to 20, 25%, but, you know, E15 is the bill we got right now.”
USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service is projecting a record corn crop this year.
Final word
"Farm Bureau is pleased that the Department of Labor and a federal judge recognized that elements of the 2023 labor rule created an unfair wage structure that forced farmers to pay employees for jobs they may not usually perform. Farmers care about the men and women who choose to work on their farms, and they support paying good wages for their employees, but the rule did not align compensation with work performed." — American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, in a statement on the H-2A court ruling.
Noah Wicks and Philip Brasher contributed to this report.
