The Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute or FAPRI released its latest baseline outlook for U.S. agriculture projecting the USDA to pay out 3.9-billion dollars in ARC and PLC payments for the 2014 crop after Fiscal Year 2016 begins on October 1st this year. FAPRI projects those payments will decline to 3.4-billion by the 2018 crop year. FAPRI reports lower prices have resulted in a large decline in crop producer income and could result in significant federal spending under new programs established by the 2014 farm bill. Most livestock sector prices are expected to decline this year.

The National Milk Producers Federation says the results of a long-awaited FDA analysis of milk samples from nearly 2,000 dairy farms clearly demonstrate that regulations to keep drug residues out of milk are effective in protecting public health. In the analysis, made public March 5, FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine analyzed the milk samples for 31 different drugs. More than 99 percent of samples were found to be free of drug residues.

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