Farms.com Home   News

African Swine Fever to be Worse in 2020

With so much focus over the past couple of months on the impact of COVID 19 around the world, there's concern that a deadly hog disease is continuing to run rampant.
 
Some experts now say the African Swine Fever pandemic will be even worse this year than in 2019 as the disease, which only affects pigs, spreads to even more countries. Researchers say ASF is a much stronger virus than COVID 19 in that it can survive in the environment or in food products for weeks and even months. While it's been around for years, ASF arrived in China nearly 2 years ago, and in a short amount of time, killed off what is estimated to be about half of the pig population in China.
 
The numbers might actually be higher but those are the ones being given by China's communist government. The disease is also spreading across parts of Europe, mostly through wild boar which can also be infected. One positive side effect of the current pandemic is reduced international air travel. That's considered one of the prime vectors of introducing the disease to hog barns in North America, through tainted meat products brought from countries where the disease is present.
Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Is China Buying US Soybeans + USDA Nov 14th Crop Report could be “Game Changing”

Video: Is China Buying US Soybeans + USDA Nov 14th Crop Report could be “Game Changing”


After a week of a U.S./China trade truce, markets/trade is skeptical that we have not seen a signed agreement nor heard much from China or seen any details. There are rumors that China is buying soybean futures & not the physical. Trust in Trump?
12 MMT of U.S. soybean purchases by China by year-end is better than 0 but we all need to give it more time and give it a chance to unfold. China did lower the tariffs on Ag and is buying U.S. wheat and sorghum.
U.S. supreme court could rule against Trumps tariffs, but the Trump administration does have a plan B.
U.S. government shutdown is now the longest in history at 38 days.
But despite a U.S. government shutdown we will be getting a USDA November crop report next Friday and it could be “game changing.” If the USDA provides a bullish surprise with lower U.S. corn and soybean yields and ending stocks that are lower than expected both corn and soybean futures will break out above their ceilings at $4.35/bu and $11.35/bu respectively.
The funds continued their selling in live and feeder cattle futures on continued fears that the Trump administration want to lower U.S. beef prices. The fundamentals have not changed, only market psychology has.
Stocks markets continue to worry about a weak U.S. job market, but you can blame ChatGPT for that. In the future, we will have a more efficient, productive and growing economy with a higher unemployment rate until we have more skilled AI workers.
After 34 new record highs in the S & P 500 and 124 new records in the NASDAQ in 2025 we are back to a correction and investor profit taking as AI valuations may have gotten too stretched near-term ahead of NVDA’s 3rd quarter earnings announcement on Nov. 19th. But this is not an AI bubble.
75% of Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk!
It has rained in South America in the last 7 days, but both the American and European models agree that Central Brazil remains dry in the next 14-days!