**Beef supplies in cold storage were 8% higher in June, compared to the same period last year.

According to agweb.com, in USDA’s monthly cold storage report, released last week, total red meat supplies in freezers were up 5%, and total frozen poultry supplies were up 6% over last year.

Growing surpluses of red meat and poultry in cold storage raises anxiety for the U.S. meat industry that increasingly depends on exports.

**The U.S.-China trade war could drag on for years, but a U.S. agreement with Mexico rewriting the North American Free Trade Agreement could happen as soon as this month.

That’s according to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer at a Senate hearing Thursday.

Agri-Pulse reports, while the question of whether the painful Chinese tariffs on U.S. farm goods would also last for years was unanswered, lawmakers were dismayed about the prospect of a long-term dispute with China that’s impacting U.S. exports of grains, oilseeds, seafood, meat, nuts and produce.

**The Republican chairmen AND senior Democrats on the Senate and House Ag Committees, known collectively as the “Big Four,” agreed last week “to get a farm bill finished as quickly as possible.”

Senate Ag Chair Pat Roberts brushed aside a question about whether the Senate would prevail over the House on the issue of work requirements for SNAP.

Agriculture.com reports, Roberts won’t say it’s gong to look either way, only that “We’re going to work it out. We have to do that.”

 

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