In major U.S. livestock regions, some ranchers have slowly begun taking the first steps to boost cattle production after the nation’s inventory shrank due to a years-long drought that dried up pasture land used for grazing and hiked feeding costs.
Smithfield Foods raised its annual operating profit forecast on Tuesday as its hog business rebounded from losses and the biggest U.S. pork processor said it resumed U.S. exports to China that had been crippled by tariffs.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend up to $750 million to build a sterile fly production facility in Texas to fight the flesh-eating livestock pest New World screwworm, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said on Friday, Aug. 15.