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Whether it's any indication of President Donald Trump's thoughts on farming, Sonny Perdue's appointment as US agriculture secretary was one of the last positions to be filled in the new US administration.
However, despite the delay in Perdue's appointment, farmers in rural America are quietly nodding in approval on Trump's selection to lead the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) for the next four years.
The ag man behind Trump
Perdue is the former governor of Georgia and deemed to be a man with farming interests at heart. In Washington DC, the changeover from the Obama administration to President Trump's new regime could best be described as chaotic.
Sonny Perdue is only now being officially sworn into office as agriculture secretary as he's had to wait to sit before the US senate's confirmation committee, a process all US cabinet appointees must go through.
As such, the USDA is in standby mode right now. Sonny Perdue may be the new face of US agriculture but he will be bringing with him over 300 new staff to the USDA.
These positions are at a high level in the USDA and are currently sitting empty, having been vacated by Obama's people in early January.
When Perdue gets in place later this month, his first task will be to fill these empty positions with his own people.
Speaking to permanent USDA staff, it will take some time for Perdue to fill these 300 positions as each selection will also have to go through a fairly stringent background check for potential conflicts of interest and be sworn into their respective roles.
Officials are being optimistic when they say these appointments may be in place by early July. The reality is it could take a lot longer.
The talk among people in US agriculture circles is that it could be 2018 before we see the USDA back to full operating capacity and get a real idea of what agriculture policy may look like under the Trump administration.
Issues facing US agriculture
While it’s still early days into the Trump administration, there are some definite challenges facing Sonny Perdue and US farmers given Trump's vocal attitude to global trade deals and immigration policy.
For farmers, there are two key issues. Firstly, migrant labour is essential to the competitiveness of US farming. In dairy, immigrants make up 50% of the labour.
Finding farm labour is extremely difficult for many US farmers as most Americans don't want to work in farming and Mexican migrants are the only option. Maintaining access to migrant labour will be a key challenge for Perdue.
Protectionism and Mexico
US farmers are also voicing concerns around Trump's protectionist agenda when it comes to international trade.
Mexico is the most important for US agriculture exports and the current noises emanating from the White House in terms of renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) are a worry for farmers, particularly wheat and corn growers.
However, there are those in Washington that see Trump's standoff with Mexico as a guise, where the real target for President Trump is China.
The Chinese are moving huge amounts of exports into the US via Mexico, where basic components originated in China are further assembled and shipped into the US under the NAFTA free trade rules.
In terms of Europe, USDA officials are extremely cold on TTIP, saying they remain sceptical on the negotiations, particularly as they believe just 2% of the important issues in agriculture have been negotiated.
Competition from the US
It’s clear that the major focus for the US is now on completing a bilateral trade deal with the UK following Brexit.
The Irish Farmers Journal has learned that delegations from the UK have already been to Washington.
Worryingly for Irish dairy, the US dairy sector is eyeing the UK's deficiency in cheese production and feels they can quickly take a foothold in that market with cheddar exports.
For the 67,000t of Irish cheddar sent to the UK every year, the US may be about to emerge as a serious trade competitor in our closest market in the coming decade.
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