Rollins Nominated for Ag Secretary and Reactions to Tariff Threats

**President-elect Trump has nominated former White House aide Brooke Rollins to be his Secretary of Agriculture.

Rollins would take over for Tom Vilsack, and oversee the USDA that controls policies, regulations and aid programs related to farming, ranching, food quality and nutrition, and forestry.

The 52-year-old Rollins, CEO of the American First Policy

Institute, is an attorney and longtime Trump associate who served as White House domestic policy chief during his first presidency.

**The USDA’s Cattle on Feed Report shows cattle and calves for the slaughter market totaled 12 million head on November 1, slightly higher than a year earlier.

October placements in feedlots totaled 2.29 million head, 5% above last year.

Fed cattle marketings during October were 1.85 million head, 5% above 2023.

In poultry, U.S. egg production totaled 9.19 billion during October, down 4% from last year.

**Officials in China, Mexico and Canada are criticizing a pledge made by President-elect Trump to impose new tariffs on all three of the nation’s largest trading partners on the first day of his presidency.

Trump said the move, which appears to violate the terms of a free-trade deal Trump signed into law in 2020, is aimed at clamping down on drugs and migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally.