Agriculture Shorts

The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported farm workers in the Northern Plains Region (Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota) numbered 42,000 in October, down 2% from October 2023. Workers this year received an average wage of $20.48 per hour, up 6% from October 2023. Field workers received an average of $21.16 per hour and livestock workers earned $17.51 per hour . . . Agriculture Dive reported that Senate Democrats Cory Booker, Bernie Sanders, and Peter Welch are urging the Environmental Protection Agency to deny applications to re-register dicamba . . . The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service said Nebraska feedlots, with capacities of 1,000 or more head, contained 2.59 million cattle on feed on November 1 up 2% from last year . . . According to Dee-Ann Durbin, a business writer for the Associated Press (AP), an AP VoteCast survey showed that "about 7 in 10 voters-including 70% of women and 63% of men-said they were very concerned about the cost of food and groceries."