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Perdue addresses farmer concerns at Farmfest

U.S. Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue visited Farmfest in southwest Minnesota where he addressed a number of farmer concerns. 

House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson invited Secretary Perdue to participate in a listening session in his district Wednesday.

Perdue took several questions on trade, and disagreed with a comment about losing the China market.

“China is going to buy from where they see the best value once we get the trade resolution done.”

The Secretary was also asked about small refiner exemptions and says he was in the oval office Tuesday.

“The President and I were talking about the small refinery waivers and working with EPA on that. So hopefully we can make some progress.”

A Minnesota farmer expressed frustration about the USDA acreage report June 30^th, saying it took the wind out of the corn rally.

Perdue defended his agency.

“What I’ve found is that (USDA) numbers in the end are more likely than what I heard (from farmers). That happened in 2018 as well.”

Perdue touched on the harvest dates on Prevented Planting acres as well.

“The dates are provided by our Risk Management Agency and we’re talking with them (about) whether there should be a permanent change in dates or not.”

Because of planting delays this spring, USDA moved the harvest date on prevent plant acres from November first to September first.