Vilsack: We Continue To Look At Issues In The Livestock Sector

"It's an extraordinary set of complex factors to be examined when we talk about the livestock industry in the United States," Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack recently told House lawmakers as he addressed a review of the livestock industry, as well as current and future challenges.

"Our inventories are down in beef, and pork, and poultry for a variety of reasons. Whether it's drought or disease or disruption of the supply chain at the same time, we're seeing incredibly high demand domestically. And exports at a high level and in fact, setting a record."

Vilsack noted the USDA is also trying to address processing capacity issues.

"Establishing a $500 million dollar fund. We have solicited information and input from those who are interested in potentially utilizing this fund. We've received over 500 comments and we're now in the process of analyzing those comments in order to establish and structure the program. The expectation is that that structure will take place sometime before the end of the year and that we'll begin to make decisions and investments hopefully in the first quarter of 2022."

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