New data the Agriculture Department released Friday created serious doubts about whether China will really buy millions of bushels of American soybeans like the Trump administration touted last month after a high-stakes meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

A crop data blackout during the longest-ever U.S. government shutdown has led to the widest range of analyst estimates in a decade for corn and soybean yields, as an information vacuum at harvest time and during critical trade negotiations distorted the market for the country's two most valuable crops.

The biggest surprise came from the agency lowering corn yield less than a bushel and soybean exports by 50 million bushels.

The USDA projects the 2025/26 corn crop at 16.75 billion bushels, down from the agency’s previous estimate of 16.81 billion bushels, but still the most corn ever produced by U.S. farmers in a marketing year.

U.S. corn production was estimated at 16.752 billion bushels, September was 16.814 billion bushels. The average trade estimate was 16.557 billion bushels. U.S. soybean production was estimated at 4.253 billion bushels, September was 4.301 billion bushels. The average trade estimate was 4.266 billion bushels.

In a written response to a question about Mei’s firing, a spokesperson for the USDA said, “during a lapse in appropriations, furloughed USDA employees are not authorized to perform any official duties, including speaking on behalf of the Department.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture directed its staff to identify grants for possible termination in the early months of the second Trump administration by searching for more than two dozen specific words and phrases related to diversity and climate change,

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Thursday said the Trump administration is planning to have all Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) beneficiaries reapply for the program due

The back-and-forth legal battle over the nation's largest food assistance program has come to an end now that the shutdown has finished.

The United States Department of Agriculture is opening a new sterile fly dispersal facility to combat the spread of New World Screwworm (NWS).

The two Congress members are demanding that the federal worker be reinstated in a letter to the Department of Agriculture.

Ellen Mei, a federal employee who works on SNAP benefits, said she is being fired after she gave an interview to MSNBC about her and her coworker's experiences during the government shutdown.