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.

Farmers are expressing more concerns regarding the future as the monthly Ag Economy Barometer drifts lower. Released this week, the March survey fell to 133 down from 136 a month earlier. Organizers say increasing concerns about future economic conditions drove the barometer lower as the Index of Future Expectations declined to 139 in March compared to an index value of 145 in February.

The current conditions measure was unchanged compared to February at 120. The Barometer surveys 400 agricultural producers monthly. A rating below 100 is negative, while a rating above 100 indicates positive sentiment regarding the agriculture industry. Producers expressed more concern regarding farmland values, as 25 percent of farmers surveyed expect farmland values to drift lower over the next 12 months.

Survey results from January and March 2019 suggest that five to as much as seven percent of U.S. farms are suffering from some financial stress, using the need to carryover unpaid operating debt as an indicator of financial stress.

Leaders of the House and Senate are warning against any border shutdown. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell agreed this week that closing the southern U.S. border to stop migrants from entering the U.S. is a bad idea that would backfire on the U.S. economy, according to Politico.

Trump is vowing to close the border, despite the major trade ramifications such a move would make, saying “security is most important.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is calling the potential move “incredibly destructive.” The move would halt trade of agricultural goods and lead to a shutdown of the U.S. auto manufacturing industry within days, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

Earlier this week, the National Pork Producers Council warned the pork industry “cannot afford a total loss of the Mexican market.” Mexico accounted for more than 20 percent of total U.S. pork exports last year. A border closure would also halt the movement of legal migrant workers who tend to agricultural operations near the border.

A new study released this week from the USDA shows that greenhouse gas emissions from corn-based ethanol are 39 percent lower than regular gasoline. The study also shows that when ethanol is refined at natural gas-powered refineries, the greenhouse gas emissions are even lower, coming in at 43 percent less than gasoline.

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue says the new findings provide even further evidence that biofuels from America’s heartland reduce greenhouse gases even more than first thought. “It also shows our farmers and ethanol plants continue to become more efficient and effective,” Perdue says. “Expanding the sale of E-15 year-round will provide consumers with more choices when they fill up at the pump, including environmentally friendly fuel with decreased emissions.”

Perdue also says he appreciates Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler moving quickly to finalize the E-15 rule before the start of the summer driving season. The study was published in the trade journal Biofuels and it supports findings of other research that ethanol has a significantly better greenhouse gas profile than previously thought.