Changes in U.S. Grain Storage Capacity
11/26/2020
Grain storage infrastructure comes in many forms: bins, elevators, bunkers, and sheds. Storage infrastructure has at least two main uses. First, it enables farmers, commercial grain merchants, and end-users to hold commodity inventories over time. Storing grain to profit from differences in prices across time addresses variation in grain production and consumption within and across …
Factors Taming China’s Demand for Imported Pork, as Supplies Build in Europe
11/24/2020
Wall Street Journal writer Lucy Craymer reported late last week that, “China’s voracious appetite for imported meat is starting to wane, as domestic pork prices fall and consumer worries grow about the coronavirus lingering on food. “For more than two years, Chinese farmers have battled outbreaks of African swine fever, a highly contagious hemorrhagic disease that reduced the …
Chinese Demand, Dry Weather Help Spur Crop Prices
11/23/2020
Wall Street Journal writers Ryan Dezember and Kirk Maltais reported last week that, “Dry weather, China’s push to fatten its pigs and the lockdown-induced baking bonanza are lifting prices for U.S. row crops. “Futures prices for soybeans, corn and hard red winter wheat—the kind used for baking bread—have risen by about a third since a rally began Aug. 10. Soft red winter wheat, found in animal …
Managing Diseases Starts NOW with Seed Selection
11/23/2020
With harvest quickly wrapping up around the state, now is the perfect time to think about how you can minimize diseases next growing season. Reviewing diseases and the level they were present in your fields can help you select more disease-resistant corn hybrids and soybean varieties for the upcoming season. This is an important concept …
Amino Acid Helps Shore Up Defenses of Swine
11/19/2020
A third round of feeding trials conducted by a team of USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university scientists has again shown that a dietary supplement called L-glutamine can naturally promote growth and wellness in pigs. Jay S. Johnson, an animal scientist with ARS’s Livestock Behavior Research Unit in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his Purdue …
China’s Grain Buying Is “Rocking the Global Market”
11/19/2020
Late last week, Reuters writers Hallie Gu, Maximilian Heath, and Naveen Thukral reported that, “Chinese feed producers, pig farmers and traders are reshaping the global grain market as they scour the world for supplies amid a domestic shortfall that sent local corn prices to record highs and is expected to fuel global food inflation in 2021. “The country’s buying has put it on a trajectory to emerge as the top …
Ag Lender Survey: Liquidity, Income and Leverage Are Top Concerns
11/19/2020
A news release this week from the American Bankers Association (ABA) stated that, “As the farm economy continues to work through a prolonged downturn in the midst of an unparalleled, global economic dislocation, ag lenders remain focused on credit quality, according to the Fall 2020 Agricultural Lender Survey report produced jointly by the [ABA] and the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation, more commonly …
Want a Premium Price? Weed Control In NON-GMO Soybeans
11/19/2020
Many emotions set in on farmers that hear the word “non-GMO”, but it could help them in times like today when prices are low for many farm products in South Dakota. As some may already know, non-GMO soybeans are being contracted in South Dakota at Miller by the South Dakota Soybean Processors. What could this …
Federal Reserve Ag Credit Surveys-2020 Third Quarter Farm Economy Conditions
11/18/2020
Last week, the Federal Reserve Banks of Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis released updates regarding farm income, farmland values and agricultural credit conditions from the third quarter of 2020. Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago David Oppedahl, a Senior Business Economist at the Chicago Fed, explained in The AgLetter that, “The District observed a year-over-year increase of 2 percent in its agricultural land values …
11/18/2020
China’s corn imports have been a topic of intense speculation since the mid-1990s. China is forecast to import a historical high of 512 million bushels during the 2020 crop year, prompting the question: “Will China become a consistent, growing importer of corn?” Perspective on this question is provided by examining trends in China’s corn sector …