Secretary of Agriculture at Farmfest

Secretary of Agriculture of Agriculture Sonny Perdue was at Farmfest on Wednesday. The Secretary of Agriculture sure did draw a crowd no matter where he went at Farmfest! Secretary Perdue stopped in at some of the commodity tents and of course was part of a forum in the Wick Forum Building.

Given the current political discourse I was wondering if it might get a little nasty or if there would be demonstrations trying to get a statement to President Trump. Well, it did get a little contentious a couple times but for the most part everyone was very respectful. That's not to say they had issues, an opinion or ideas about Farm Policy.

There was a lot of frustration with the USDA Supply Demand Report and the Acres Report. Remember in the July Report the USDA said farmers had planted or intended to plant over 91 million acres of corn this year. However, the USDA implied there were not or would not be 91 million acres of corn planted. Secretary Perdue took some heat for that from many farmers.

However, Secretary Perdue does not have anything to do with that part of the USDA. The USDA is a very large building in Washington D.C. One wing with the Secretary of Agriculture is the "political appointees." They directly or indirectly are appointed and confirmed by Congress. The other wing is the career employees like the statisticians  with the National Ag Statistics.