Lingling Wei and Bob Davis reported in today’s Wall Street Journal that, “The U.S. and China have agreed to high-level talks on Aug. 15 to assess Beijing’s compliance with the bilateral trade agreement signed early this year, according to people briefed on the matter. “The trade pact has emerged as one of the few remaining avenues for the two countries […]
Farmer sentiment in July was virtually unchanged from a month earlier as the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose just one point to a reading of 118. The small change in the barometer left it 30 percent below its February 2020 peak and 23 percent below its level a year ago. Although there was little change […]
The following is a condensed version of an AEI Premium article published in early July. Not a subscriber yet? You can access the full story – and much more – by starting a free trial here. There’s been a lot of chatter about the pace of corn and soybean export sales activity for the 2020/21 marketing […]
Bloomberg writers Elizabeth Rembert and Michael Hirtzer reported last week that, “China took another step toward meeting agricultural commitments made in the phase one trade agreement with the U.S. with its biggest-ever purchase of American corn. “The U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday that exporters sold 1.937 million metric tons of corn, the third-largest deal for the grain to any destination. This purchase tops the previous record sale […]
Since 1973, US farm program payments follow a process of moving from one regime or plateau to another, with the move occurring in a one to two year period. Two times since 1973 farm payments have increased to a higher plateau. The increase was preceded by an increase in ad hoc payments made outside of existing farm […]
The U.S. cattle herd is known to cycle through periods of expansion and contraction roughly every 10 years or so. High feed prices from 2007 through 2013 contributed to one of those contraction phases with beef cow numbers reaching a low in 2014. Of course, low supplies translate into higher prices, motivating producers to expand. […]
The Creighton University Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) increased to a weak level from June’s frail reading. According to the monthly survey of bank CEOs in rural areas of a 10-state region dependent on agriculture and/or energy, July’s reading represented the fourth straight month with a reading indicating recessionary economic conditions. Overall: The overall index for […]
Last week, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) released its “2019 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook,” that provided “a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports to the world and the United States’ primary trading partners.” With respect to China, the update indicated that, “In 2019, U.S. agricultural exports to China totaled $13.8 billion, up from $9.1 billion in […]
Soybean yield forecasts contained in May, June, and July WASDE reports from the USDA provide important information to market participants. The forecasts are based on a crop weather model developed and maintained by the World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB). In a recent farmdoc daily article (July 9, 2020), we described the WAOB crop weather model for soybeans […]
In an update last week from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (“Agricultural Lending Consistently Slower“), Nathan Kauffman and Ty Kreitman stated that, “Agricultural financing activity slowed in the second quarter, according to the Survey of Terms of Lending to Farmers. The volume of total non-real estate loans declined for the fourth consecutive quarter, decreasing about 13% from a year ago. Over the […]