President-elect Donald J. Trump announced yesterday his intention to nominate former Governor of Georgia Sonny Perdue as Secretary of Agriculture.


As the former governor of a state that produces billions in agricultural products each year, Sonny Perdue has embraced policies under which Georgia farmers have thrived, and he is ready to generate the same level of success on the national level. Having been raised on a farm and worked as a veterinarian, Perdue is deeply in touch with the concerns of American farmers and will fight for their prosperity.


"Sonny Perdue is going to accomplish great things as Secretary of Agriculture," said President-elect Donald J. Trump. "From growing up on a farm to being governor of a big agriculture state, he has spent his whole life understanding and solving the challenges our farmers face, and he is going to deliver big results for all Americans who earn their living off the land."


"I am proud and honored to be joining President-elect Trump's administration as his Secretary of Agriculture," said Sonny Perdue. "Beginning as a simple Georgia farm boy, making sure Americans who make their livelihood in the agriculture industry are thriving is near and dear to my heart, and I'm going to champion the concerns of American agriculture and work tirelessly to solve the issues facing our farm families in this new role."

Sonny Perdue was born in Perry, Georgia, to a lifelong farmer and a classroom teacher. He graduated from Warner Robins High School and earned a doctorate in veterinary medicine in 1971 from the University of Georgia. Following his service as a Captain in the United States Air Force, Perdue became a successful small business owner, concentrating in agribusiness and transportation. Today, those businesses have grown to include several locations across the Southeast. Perdue would later serve his home state as its governor after an 11 year stint as a state senator. He is a committed family man, living the past 44 years at his wife, Mary's, side.

Click here to read the full statement from the Trump Transition Team announcing Perdue's nomination to head the USDA.

As news spread across the country yesterday of Sonny Perdue's nomination as Secretary of the USDA by President-elect Donald Trump, ag groups from every segment of the industry chimed into the national conversation to offer their congratulatory support for the new presumptive leader of their shared vocation.

The National Corn Growers Association congratulated Governor Perdue on his nomination to lead USDA, stating that they, "look forward to his confirmation hearing, and learning more about his positions on issues important to corn farmers and the entire agriculture industry." Click here to read NCGA's full statement.

National Cotton Council Chairman Shane Stephens said, "It is encouraging to see a Secretary of Agriculture nominee with a strong production agriculture and agribusiness background and with experience, who comes from the second largest cotton-producing state." Click here to read NCC's full statement.

"His background as a veterinarian and direct connection to the farming community will help to enhance the relationship between the department and those on the ground in modern agriculture in every state who seek to make their voices heard," said Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CropLife America. Click here to read CLA's full statement.

"Georgia is the No. 2 cotton-producing state in the nation, so as growers, we appreciate the fact that Perdue is aware of the challenges facing our industry in particular," Plains Cotton Growers President Johnie Reed, a cotton producer from Kress, said. Click here to read PCG's full statement.

"Agriculture is the backbone of our nation," said House Ag Committee Chairman Mike Conaway. "I look forward to working with Sonny Perdue, especially on the committee's priorities as Congress begins its work toward the next Farm Bill."


House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson also released a statement expressing his confidence in Perdue's capability of fulfilling the duties of Secretary of Agriculture.


"Agriculture and rural America play such an important role in our economy," he said. "With the appointment of Perdue, who has a background in agriculture, I am hopeful we will get a better sense of the incoming administration's policy plans for rural America."

Click here to jump to the statements issued by the leadership of the House Committee on Agriculture.

Wednesday evening- several other groups- including the American Farm Bureau and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association praised the Trump choice to be Ag Secretary- click here for those earlier statements of affirmation.

At the end of this month, USDA will release its Cattle Inventory report, illustrating in comprehensive detail, just exactly how large our current cow herd is as of the first of the year. I reached out to OSU's Dr. Derrell Peel, to get his predictions on what the report might reveal about cow herd expansion this past year in 2016, and what clues there might be relative to what could be expected to come this year. He says that without a mid-year report for 2016, the first step is to confirm what we already suspect about last year.


"I think it was an expansionary year - slower than 2015, but I'm expecting at this point we'll see the beef cow herd, from the beginning of 2016 to the beginning of this year expanded somewhere in the range of 1.5 to 2 percent," Peel said. "That said, if you look at the way beef cow slaughter and heifer slaughter changed in the second half of 2016, it would certainly suggest that we are putting the brakes on that herd expansion."


In terms of future expectations for 2017, Dr. Peel says he would not be surprised to see little to no growth, potentially even some liquidation, although he really doesn't expect that to be the case. He says he will be looking in particular at replacement heifer inventory for clues as to how things may unfold over the coming months. However, Peel hypothesizes that should we see growth in the report, beef cow numbers are likely to start plateauing as we move through 2017.


"If we had an increased herd in 2016 as I expect, then that implies that we continue to see feeder supplies and ultimately beef production grow through at least 2018," Peel said. "We might be seeing some stability in the herd which would lead them to a plateau in beef production once we got passed that."


Listen to my full conversation with Dr. Peel as he makes his predictions about the next USDA cattle inventory report, on yesterday's Beef Buzz, by clicking here.

Dr. Kim Anderson is on SUNUP again this week, and we've got the scoop on his advice to wheat producers before the show airs in a couple days.

According to Dr. Anderson, producers have seen an increase of about a dollar in wheat prices after they bottomed out early last fall, resting now at about $3.15, plus an additional .03 of interest if taken from the loan. He says if producers took it all out now, they would save about three months storage cost of .12-.15 bringing a total expected price of roughly $3.53 - $3.60.

Under current conditions, now, Anderson advises, is probably a good time to start taking wheat out from the loan. If not all at once, then at least staggered slowly over the next few weeks and months.

Looking ahead, based on weather forecasts, Anderson says he expects an average crop in 2017.

He says that if producers can secure a good weight and protein in their wheat crops this year, we could expect to see rallies in the futures market, resulting in a higher cash price. His advice - sell your wheat at harvest.

For more of Anderson's advice, you can continue reading or listen to his breakdown of wheat markets in its entirety, by clicking here.

We did get some lessening of drought reported in the latest Drought Monitor released yesterday morning- but perhaps not quite as much as some folks were anticipating after the healthy amounts of rain received this past weekend (along with ice in parts of the state that eventually melted and gave us more liquid relief.)

According to Gary McManus, Oklahoma State Climatologist- "The U.S. Drought Monitor process discourages/frowns upon/nearly forbids (get the picture?) improving or intensifying drought by more than one category in a week. Upon rare occasions, in extreme circumstances, you can see drought jump back or forwards 2 categories, but again, very rare. And that's because drought is a very slow process, and its assessment relies upon its impacts, or the changes in those impacts from week to week."

The pale green is the one category improvement  that allowed the severe to extreme drought levels drop by almost 27 percentage points in a single week- which is pretty impressive. 

McManus points out that Drought has still a very strong grip on the state and shows itself in several ways:

A successful campaign to drive nationwide sales of fresh beef at retail has resulted in the confirmed movement of more than 270,000 units of fresh ground beef in less than two weeks. Yesterday, the Federation of State Beef Councils of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association approved an additional $300,000 to extend the partnership with the mobile rebates app Ibotta through the Super Bowl, giving consumers more reasons to purchase great tasting beef.

Ibotta is a consumer mobile app that has a subscriber rate of 19 million mostly-millennial consumers and growing. Consumers who download the app can browse the grocery category for rebates on fresh beef products, unlock the rebates and after reviewing educational information about beef buy the items at any grocery store nationwide to get cash back through Ibotta. Beef only pays for verified sales.

Initial results from the first few weeks of the campaign have been impressive. Nearly half of the redemption budget was exhausted in the first weekend. As of Jan. 16, more than 700,000 users unlocked ground beef rebates demonstrating the strong consumer demand for beef. Redemption rates for beef have been 35 percent, far surpassing the Ibotta average rate of 22 percent and delivering more than 14 million brand impressions for beef system-wide. In addition to increasing sales, more than 700,000 consumers received educational messaging about beef as a part of the campaign. These educational opportunities were delivered in the form of a beef recipe or an in-app task that helps consumers better understand nutritional benefits of beef.

Continue reading this article from the Federation of State Beef Councils, by clicking here.