Politico says the month-plus government shutdown has left U.S. Department of Agriculture officials with quite the backlog of commodity reports. They also have a lot of other numbers waiting to be crunched for future reports. Those numbers include the 2017 Census of Agriculture, which is a major survey taken every five years and includes every state and county which shapes a lot of future national policy and rural programs.

The National Ag Statistics Service announced this week that the survey results won’t be released on February 21st as originally scheduled. However, the agency didn’t announce a new release date. The first of many delayed reports came out on Thursday, which covered agricultural prices. Reports covering peanut stocks and poultry slaughter will come out on Friday.

The Foreign Agricultural Service also laid out a new release schedule for its backlog of weekly export sales announcements. The FAS reports got a lot of attention in December as China began to once again make large purchases of U.S. soybeans after Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reached a temporary truce at the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires.

Many industry experts say it’s a “when not if situation” in terms of African Swine Fever reaching U.S. soil. Pork producers at the recent Illinois Pork Expo all agreed that ASF hitting the U.S. would be a disaster.

Mike Haag is the current past president of the National Pork Producers Council who says the U.S. pork industry is being proactive on keeping the virus out of American pork herds. “At this point, ASF in other countries has benefitted our industry from a demand standpoint,” he says. “However, if it does come to America it’ll be just the opposite. It will be devastating.”

Illinois pig farmer Dereke Dunkirk says he doesn’t think ASF in America is inevitable because America does a pretty good job with biosecurity. The Illinois Pork Producers message to their members at the Illinois Expo included preparedness. While it’s important to implement solid biosecurity protocols, Haag told producers it’s also vital to make sure their premise ID numbers are correct.

“Make sure your addresses and barn locations are correct,” Haag says. “If the industry does ever get shut down by a foreign animal disease, it’s vital to have the correct information because that’s how all livestock will move through a state.”

House Ag Committee Chair Collin Peterson says he’s worried the new farm bill won’t be able to provide adequate benefits to U.S. agriculture. While he admitted to those worries on Monday, he also said, “It is what it is.” The Hagstrom Report says Peterson first expressed those same concerns in December, just before the bill passed through Congress.

At that time, Peterson said his specific concern was that the benefits wouldn’t be generous enough for farmers during a period of low commodity prices compounded by trade conflicts. Peterson also says bankers are telling him they are also “concerned,” but he also said agriculture is just “going to have to live with it.”

While farmers were able to overcome the problem of low prices thanks to big crops, Peterson said that farmers in part of his district weren’t able to do that because of poor crops. The House Ag Chair says he believes the new dairy provisions in the bill are “adequate.” Peterson also discussed climate change this week, saying he would consider the issue “if anyone comes up with effective ideas.”

He also discussed biofuels policy, noting that agriculture had allied with environmentalists to write legislation on biofuels and ethanol. However, because cellulosic ethanol hasn’t taken off, environmental support for biofuels has diminished.

Wednesday was the first of two days that the U.S. and China would be face-to-face for high-level talks aimed at ending the trade war between the two countries. A Bloomberg article says the dispute is starting to cast a growing shadow over the two largest economies in the world. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tells the Fox Business Network that he expects significant progress in the talks this week.

Bloomberg says administration officials and others close to the talks say there are still several big issues that the countries remain far apart on. Sources also tell Bloomberg that U.S. officials are still working through an internal debate on how to proceed from this point forward and are ill-prepared for the talks. This week’s negotiations come after a period of turmoil in markets that has left both governments wanting to be able to point out progress and settle the nerves of worried investors.

U.S. demands still include structural reforms in Chinese economic policy and America still wants concessions on issues like intellectual property. The talks will also cover Beijing’s recent pledge to buy more American goods, including large amounts of agricultural products. Sources familiar with the discussions say that President Donald Trump appears to want to strike a deal soon.

As Chinese officials are in Washington, D.C. this week for trade negotiations, the National Pork Producers Council is urging the two countries to resolve their differences quickly. A Farm Journal’s Ag Web Dot Com article says the NPPC is also asking China to purchase a minimum of $3.5 billion in pork products over the next five years.

China is the world’s number one pork consumer. That fact has made it a top destination for U.S. pork exports for the last several years. In 2017, the U.S. pork industry shipped $1.1 billion worth of product there, which made it number three on the list of the top pork export destinations. Industry experts say pork represents approximately 15 percent of China’s Consumer Price Index and could almost singlehandedly make a large dent in the U.S.-China trade imbalance.

NPPC President Jim Heimerl says China has been a “tremendous market” for U.S. pork. “Without numerous trade barriers, they would likely be our number one export market,” Heimerl says. “Even without the preexisting barriers on U.S. pork, the 50-percent punitive tariffs have slowed our exports to a trickle.” U.S. pork producers now face tariffs of 62 percent on exports to China. An Iowa State University report says producers have lost $8 per hog, or more than $1 billion on an annualized basis, because of the 50 percent punitive tariffs.

The European Commission made a couple of announcements important to U.S. soybean farmers. Conservation practices required for U.S. soybean production now meet European Union standards. Also, biodiesel produced from U.S. soybeans can now be used in the EU. The European Union requires biofuels to meet a set of sustainability criteria outlined in its Renewable Energy Directive.

The U.S. soy industry has its own sustainability guideline called the Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol. With this week’s announcement, the EU formally acknowledges that the SSAP meets its rigorous sustainability requirements. Davie Stephens, a Kentucky soybean grower and American Soybean Association President, says, “U.S. farmers have long prided themselves on adopting newer and better methods for producing high-quality soybeans that are grown responsibly and sustainably. We’re pleased that the EU Commission has recognized our efforts by opening the door for SSAP-certified soybeans to be used in EU biodiesel.”

The United States is the leading soybean supplier to the EU. While this announcement only applies to soybeans exported specifically for biodiesel production, the ASA sees this as a positive step toward enhancing its share in the EU marketplace. The EU’s decision will be in place until at least July 1 of 2021.

House Agriculture Committee Chair Collin Peterson is trying to get out in front of another possible government shutdown. The first government shutdown temporarily shuttered Farm Service Agency offices across the country. Politico says Peterson, a Minnesota Democrat, is exploring possible ways to keep the FSA running in case government leaders can’t come to a budget agreement.

Peterson says he didn’t know that agency staff in charge of getting the mandatory farm bill programs up and running didn’t get to continue working on that during the funding lapse. Peterson is also trying to figure out if it’s possible to get arrangements in place for certain FSA workers to remain on the job during a potential shutdown.

Peterson says farmers were asking him, “What’s going on? NRCS offices are open but FSA isn’t?” He was referring to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which was able to keep full staffing during the partial government shutdown, thanks to leftover money from fiscal 2018. “That’s hard to explain,” says Peterson.