Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns resigned from office on Sept. 20, reportedly to seek an open U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska.
In announcing the resignation, President George Bush said Johanns “brought focus and energy to the department,” but was “serious about going home and possibly serving the nation in a different capacity.”
Bush announced Johanns’ resignation at a Rose Garden ceremony. He said Deputy Agriculture Secretary Charles Conner would assume the duties as acting secretary.
Several state officials said that Johanns is expected to seek the Senate seat being vacated at the end of next year by Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE).
Several officials criticized the departure of Johanns prior to Congress’ completion of the new farm bill, a goal he said he wanted to reach by the end of the year. The current version expires Sept. 30.
At what point do we punt the December Hogs and Pigs Report? That is the question that is weighing on the minds of both market analysts and producers as hog slaughter numbers remain far below expected levels and weights show no signs of "backed up" hogs. I realize there are performance issues, so let's discuss the report, what it suggested for this spring, and the forces that could be driving numbers in various directions.
Friday's Cold Storage report was not wildly bullish, but was certainly good news regarding the status of frozen meat and poultry inventories. Stocks for every species were well below year-ago levels and lower than the already-low levels reported in the December report. Data for all meat and poultry species appears in Table 1 and the monthly species totals are shown in Figure 1 to provide a historical perspective.
