Written By Erick Johnson

HARWOOD, N.D (Inside Agriculture) – Senator John Hoeven, chairman of the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Committee and a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, brought USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue to North Dakota on Saturday April 27th to meet with ag producers and state officials.

The first event was held at Peterson Farms Seeds near Hunter, ND.  For about 90 minutes farmers and industry leaders got to ask questions and give input on several different topics including the 2018 Farm Bill, trade, and other issues to Secretary Perdue.  Most of North Dakota’s political delegation was there including: Sen. John Hoeven, Sen. Kevin Cramer, and Gov. Doug Burgum.

At a press conference after the meeting Secretary Purdue announced that the 2018 MFP deadline will be extended by the USDA to May 17th.  Stating that there were to many farmers that had not gotten there corn or soybeans off the field to qualify for the payments.   The USDA officially extended the MFP deadline this morning.

According to a press release from Senator Hoeven’s office: “The extension will help ensure producers who have yet been unable to harvest last year’s crop due to weather and trade uncertainty will be able to benefit from the administration’s trade assistance program. To date, the assistance has provided more than $430 million in payments to nearly 16,000 producers in North Dakota.”

The US Ag. Secretary also gave an update on the US-China trade negotiations.  He was not optimistic that a deal would get done in the next 30 days.  Hear his comments below.

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