The National Biodiesel Board is grateful that several representatives in the House introduced legislation that would provide a two-year extension of the biodiesel and renewable diesel tax incentive. The NBB says the Biodiesel Tax Credit Extension Act will provide certainty for 2018 and 2019 to biodiesel producers and their employees.

“NBB and its members are grateful to the representatives for their leadership to extend the expired biodiesel tax incentive,” says Kurt Kovarik, Vice President of Federal Affairs. “We continue to appreciate the strong bipartisan support in Congress for biodiesel and renewable diesel industry workers.” He says biodiesel companies and their workers are facing a lot of uncertainty in their future because the biodiesel tax incentive has been expired for 15 months.

“The economic pressure is building and it’s threatening the future of the industry,” he says. “It’s putting good-paying, blue-collar jobs and production of a low-carbon, domestic fuel at stake. It’s also adding economic pressure to farmers who’ve already been hit hard from both sides by unfavorable weather and trade disputes.” Kovarik adds that this bill will provide the agricultural economy some certainty and relief for 2018 and 2019.

Mexican President Obrador pledges to help make sure the nation’s Senate will overhaul labor laws to enforce workplace standards. Politico says that’s a major sticking point for American lawmakers as they look at possibly ratifying President Trump’s signature trade achievement. During a press conference, Obrador said, “We don’t want there to be any excuse to reopen the negotiations for the deal.”

The good news is that Mexican officials are optimistic the new laws will be passed soon. However, they’re less sure of the legal time frame needed to implement the changes. Congressional Democrats aren’t sure the current rules in the USMCA agreement are secure enough to enforce labor standards. Many have called for reopening the deal to strengthen that language. That’s an idea that Mexico, Canada, and the Trump Administration all oppose.

Vice President Mike Pence says the White House wants Congress to get the deal ratified by this spring. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she won’t bring the pact up for a vote until she sees evidence of the revised Mexican labor laws in effect. Last Thursday, the Speaker said she won’t try to use the trade pact as a bargaining chip to achieve Democratic policy priorities.

The Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service will release the 2017 Census of Agriculture results on Thursday, April 11, at noon ET. The full Census report will include millions of data points, including number of farms, land in farms, total value of production, demographics, and more at the national, state, and county levels.

The report, along with a number of related publications, will be available on the NASS website at www.nass.usda.gov. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue says the date “will help inform decisions about ag education, research, farm programs, rural development, and much more over the next several years.”

The 2017 Census report will include new information on military service, food marketing practices, and on-farm decision-making. USDA says these additions help better capture the roles and contributions of beginning farmers, women farmers, and others involved in running a farm enterprise. The first Census of Agriculture was conducted in 1840 in conjunction with the decennial Census.

March runoff in the upper Missouri River Basin above Sioux City, Iowa, was a record 11.0 million-acre feet, surpassing the previous record of 7.3 million-acre feet set in 1952. The average March upper basin runoff is 2.9 million-acre feet, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Missouri River Basin Water Management Division.

Division Chief John Remus says the record high runoff in March was caused by 2-4 inches of rain falling on heavy plains snowpack causing the snowpack to rapidly melt on frozen, saturated soils. Pool levels have increased in flood control reservoirs, capturing some of the runoff. The Corps plans to increase Gavins Point releases to 55,000 cubic feet per second by early next week. Gavins Point releases will be above average for the next several months, and possibly as late as November.

Typical releases during the spring season are between 20,000 and 30,000 cubic feet per second. The releases increase anxiety along the Missouri River as the March flooding event left more than 50 levee’s breached between Kansas City, Missouri, and Council Bluffs, Iowa, leaving vast areas of farmland without flood protection.

A new report from CoBank shows three threats to the agriculture supply sector for 2019. Poor weather last fall and so far this spring have combined with stressed farm financials to pressure ag retailer margins and impact farmer decisions that could reduce sales volumes.

Increased costs in the form of operating expenses for ag retailers, including labor, equipment and other expenses, will potentially rise due to a compressed spring planting season. The report says that as commodity prices have declined, farmers are increasingly price shopping and looking to cut costs. Variable costs like fertilizer, seed and crop protection products are key targets. Delayed farmer decisions can also be linked to weak farm financials.

The report says stressed farm financials combined with a decrease in prepays, ag retailers are facing greater inventory risk and more difficult inventory decisions. Accounts receivable risk for ag retailers will likely increase as cash farm income dropped nearly ten percent in 2018.

Japan has detected African swine fever in a sausage an airline passenger from China brought to the country. Japan has in the past detected genes of the African swine fever virus in food brought from overseas, but never before has the virus been confirmed as being at an infectious stage, according to meat industry publication Meatingplace.

The finding has prompted Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture to strengthen measures against illegal imports of livestock products. The finding also serves as a reminder of the need for increased detection efforts at airports and other ports of entry. The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently intercepted a shipment that included illegal pork from China.

However, U.S. policy dictates that the prohibited products must be destroyed, and because of that, the U.S. did not test the pork for African swine fever. USDA does not allow importation of pigs or fresh pork products to the U.S. from regions of the world where ASF outbreaks have or are occurring.