Mexico raised tariffs on U.S. cheese exports last week in response to the long-standing dispute over access by Mexican trucks to U.S. roads. For more detail click
here.

Hilmar Cheese is asking the Dallam County Commissioners Court to endorse the issuance of up to $24.5 million in bonds to finance part of an expansion of its plant outside Dalhart. The expansion, which will roughly double the plant’s capacity and allow it to produce 640-pound blocks of natural American-style cheese, will cost more than $100 million. It will house more milk storage and additional production lines.

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Fresh U.S. government data rattled corn markets on Wednesday, sending futures prices
soaring 9% and raising questions about the precision of earlier estimates.
Corn futures prices, which just a day earlier reached a nine-month low, jumped after the U.S.
Department of Agriculture said stockpiles were much lower than the market expected.
The government on Wednesday also said the acreage now dedicated to planting corn for the
coming crop is below forecasts.
The news was especially surprising because the USDA has in the past few months been
sending bearish signals to the market, announcing in January that the most recent crop was a
record.

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Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn., says he’s in favor of shifting current direct farm payment
funding into an expanded crop insurance plan, and then getting rid of payment limitations in
the 2012 farm bill.
The Minnesota Democrat told attendees of a National Farm Business Management
Conference June 14 in Fargo, N.D., that he needed their help in more big policy shifts for the
new farm bill. He talked about the need to make sure the safety net for agriculture should “fall
on production,” rather than trying to pick winners or losers on the basis of farm size.

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