Need a quick catch up on the news? Here are seven agricultural stories you might have missed this week.

1. Net farm income for 2016 is forecast to drop to $66.9 billion, a 17.2% decline from 2015. If realized, this will be the lowest net farm income since 2009. Net cash farm income is projected to fall 14.6%. The drop is attributed to a decline in commodity prices. – Farm Futures

2. An accounting manager for Cargill at the Port of Albany admitted Monday she stole more than $3.1 million from the company over the past 10 years. – timesunion

Last Feedback from the Field for the season, speculation continues on who will be next agriculture secretary and Cargill employee admits to wrongdoing.

3. Agricultural companies are waiting to see if President-elect Donald Trump continues the rapprochement with Cuba that began under President Obama. Many see market potential in the communist nation. – Farm Futures

4. China introduced its newest ag data series in July, but the government still doesn't release numbers on some key areas of China's agricultural sector, such as the size of its corn and soybean stockpiles. – The Wall Street Journal

5. Chinese investors are pouring money into commodities as they look for better returns than other assets. – Farm Futures

6. Who will be the next agriculture secretary? Sam Brownback, the governor of Kansas; Chuck Conner, president, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives; Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner; Sonny Perdue, the former governor of Georgia, are among those being considered. – modern farmer

7. The final Feedback from the Field for 2016 found farmers reporting record yields. Yields, however, showed great variability, ranging from 75 to 275 bushels per acre for corn and from 16 bushels per acre to 79 for soybeans. – Farm Futures

Your bonus is collection of links on highly pathogenic avian influenza, which is spreading across Europe and Asia.

-Egypt reported its first highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak of 2016 on Nov. 30.  It's the third country in the Middle East to report the new H5 clade, which was first identified in Russian migratory birds in June. – CIDRAP

-India has reported several cases of the H5N8 strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza. – The Disease Daily

-The avian flu has been identified in Europe, with birds killed in the Netherlands, France and Finland. – Yahoo News

-The first outbreak of H5N6 avian influenza was first confirmed at two South Korean farms on Nov. 18. – ContagionLive

-Japan is in the midst of the worst avian influenza outbreak since 2011, with 326,500 poultry killed at two northern Japanese farms. – Farm Futures

-Deputy Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health says that farmers in United States should prepare for outbreak. – Nature World News