Stronger export numbers and lower acreage boosted corn prices since the end of June. Concerns about demand weakness in ethanol production emerged recently. A recovery in economic activity helped ethanol plants ramp up production as gasoline demand increased. A resurgence in virus incidences threatens ethanol production over the short run and injects uncertainty into long-run […]
On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board released its July 2020 Beige Book update, a summary of commentary on current economic conditions by Federal Reserve District. The report included several observations pertaining to the U.S. agricultural economy. * Sixth District- Atlanta– “Agricultural conditions remained weak. Mostly drought-free conditions prevailed. On a month-over-month basis, June’s production forecast for Florida’s orange crop […]
Wet and warm conditions over some key soybean growing regions pressured soybean prices recently. The prospect of a good soybean crop places added emphasis on demand over the next year. Soybean consumption in 2020-21 shows a substantial increase driven mostly by expanded exports in the recent WASDE report. A robust recovery in domestic and world […]
Josh Zumbrun and Catherine Lucey reported on the front page of Saturday’s Wall Street Journal that, “President Trump damped expectations for a promised phase-two trade pact with China on Friday, saying the relationship between the countries has been too badly damaged by the coronavirus pandemic. “‘I don’t think about it now,’ Mr. Trump told reporters aboard […]
Farmer sentiment improved again in June as the Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer rose 14 points to a reading of 117. The barometer’s rise was fueled by improvements in both the Index of Current Conditions which rose to a reading of 99, 19 percent higher than a month earlier, and the Index of Future Expectations which climbed to 126, […]
The Acreage and Grain Stocks reports, released on June 30,produced some surprises for the corn market. The drop in acreage spurred a rally in corn prices and injected some optimism into the corn outlook moving into the 2020 marketing year. The market turns to weather forecasts and the upcoming WASDE report for price formation over the short term. Corn […]
Due to continued increases in demand for certified organic grains, crop farmers that have transitioned from conventional to certified organic grains report higher net returns per acre (McBride et al., 2015; Greene et al., 2017; Greene and Vilorio, 2018; Center for Farm Financial Management, 2020). Despite this, certified organic land accounts for less than 2 […]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is providing additional flexibilities for producers to file on acres with failed crops or crops that were prevented from planting because of extreme weather events. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is adding these flexibilities for Notice of Loss on both insured and uninsured crops to enable Service Centers to best assist […]
Earlier this week, Bloomberg News reported that, “China’s purchases of U.S. goods increased last month as the economy continued its recovery from the coronavirus shutdowns, but imports are still far behind the pace needed to meet the terms of the ‘phase one’ trade deal. “By the end of May this year, China had only bought about 19% of the […]
On June 29, the settlement prices were $3.35 per bushel for the December corn contract on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and $8.61 per bushel on the November CME soybean contract. These settlement prices suggest harvest-time prices near mid-2000 levels, much lower than what has been experienced in most recent years, particularly before 2018, when […]