US Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing Sector NAICS 11

Jul 16, 2025 - Wheat Production in Decline

• US wheat production is declining as farmers from Texas to Montana abandon more fields before harvest, Reuters reported in June. As wheat prices sink to five-year lows, some farmers are scrapping plans to harvest wheat for sale in favor of planting corn or soybeans, grazing cattle, or erecting windmills, according to Reuters. With prices hovering around $5 per bushel, wheat is less profitable than other crops and farmers struggle to break even. Severe drought across the Great Plains has lowered yields and historically low prices have led US farmers to abandon between a fifth and a third of the winter wheat crop each year since 2020, Department of Agriculture data show. Moreover, plentiful global supplies have kept benchmark US prices stuck at lows that discourage farmers from growing wheat. The termination of the Food for Peace program is the latest blow to US wheat growers.
• In July, the US Coast Guard announced the renaming of its operational districts from numerical to geographic designations, according to a press release. The change is the first since the numbered system was established during World War II. Updating operational districts to regional names aims to more clearly align districts with their areas of responsibility, facilitate collaboration with interagency partners, and ensure the American public and maritime stakeholders can easily find and understand the districts in which they live, recreate, and operate. The new geographic names, approved by the Department of Homeland Security, are: District 1: USCG Northeast District; District 5: USCG East District; District 7: USCG Southeast District; District 8: USCG Heartland District; District 9: USCG Great Lakes District; District 11: USCG Southwest District; District 13: USCG Northwest District; District 14: USCG Oceania District; District 17: USCG Arctic District. This change will not impact operations or change existing geographical district boundaries, per the USCG.

• Migrant workers appear to be braving the threat of deportation by continuing to show up for work, The Wall Street Journal reports. WSJ noted that while data covering immigrants lacking permanent legal status is fragmentary, what’s available shows no broad pullback from the labor force, including on farms. A spokeswoman for the American Farm Bureau Federation said that while some farmers report employees afraid to come to work, “We are not aware of widespread interruptions in farm operations due to employees’ absenteeism.” To allay concerns about a shortage of agricultural workers President Trump in April said he was looking into allowing undocumented farm and hospitality workers to voluntarily leave the country for a short time before reentering the country legally, Bloomberg reported. Nearly half (45%) of all agricultural workers in the US – 950,000 of an estimated 2.2 million farmworkers – are "unauthorized" migrants working illegally on farms and ranches.
• Prior to the US-China truce to lower import taxes, US soybean exports faced a 115% tariff entering China, Farm Journal reports. While American soybean exports to China have been falling since 2018, China remains the top destination for US soybeans. During the first Trump administration’s 2018 trade war with China, US agriculture suffered over $27 billion in losses, with soybeans accounting for 71% of those losses, according to the American Soybean Association (ASA). Since then, China has been reducing its purchases of US farm products, including corn and soybeans, and purchasing more from other countries, notably Brazil. China isn’t the only market soybean farmers are worried about. “The announcement of 10% baseline tariffs on all countries and additional, individualized tariff rates on approximately 60 countries impacts all of US soy’s top 10 export markets," according to ASA, adding "This includes No. 1 export market China.”