INDUSTRY NEWS

May is the season of severe storms in Oklahoma. The week leading up to Memorial Day included numerous severe storms and several tornadoes in the state with lots of damage and, most regrettably, several injuries and fatalities. A bit more unusual this year is the persistent pattern of wet weather. 

Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Nebraska) and Jon Tester (D-Montana), along with 17 other co-sponsors from both parties, introduced the “Transporting Livestock Across America Safely Act,” a bipartisan approach to giving livestock haulers some relief from the hours-of-service rules and the electronic logging devices (ELD) mandate that poses a problem for transporting livestock effectively and humanely.

After months of negotiations, U.S. and Japan trade officials have reached an agreement that will give U.S. beef unrestricted access to Japan’s competitive meat market. 

The USDA recently released an implementation timeline for beefing up its disease traceability program by transitioning to a 100 percent radio-frequency identification (RFID) system by 2023.

Last week, China announced a retaliatory tariff increase on a revised target list of $60 billion worth of U.S. products in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff hike to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods. 

Cargill’s animal nutrition business is conducting a voluntary recall of select Southern States feed due to aflatoxin levels that exceed the FDA’s action levels.