Agricultural Risk Coverage at the Individual Level (ARC-IC) should be considered as a commodity title alternative for 2019 and 2020 in two special cases: 1) if a Farm Service Agency (FSA) farm has all its acres as prevent plant or 2) the FSA farm has low yields. Other cases may exist as well (see farmdoc daily, October […]
The Ag Economy Barometer drifted sideways in December, to a reading of 150 compared to 153 in November. Although the barometer changed little in December, there was a shift in producers’ perspective regarding both their farms’ and the production ag sector’s economic health. Producers expressed less confidence than a month earlier about current economic conditions as the Index […]
The USDA’s December Hogs and Pigs report indicates that producers continue to expand, with the December 1 inventory of all hogs and pigs coming in at 77.338 million head, a record for this quarter and up 3 percent from a year ago. The U.S. hog industry has been expanding since mid-2014, with the annual breeding herd growth […]
A recent report from the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) stated that, “Brazil is forecast to overtake the United States as the leading soybean producer in the world during the 2019/20 season.” More specifically, the report indicated that, “Post forecasts a record crop for the 2019/20 year, at 123.5 million metric tons (mmt). Brazil’s previous record crop was 122 mmt, recorded in […]
For many of us, the new year is a time to reflect on the year (or decade) behind us and consider what may lie ahead of us. What will 2020 have in store? Well, that is a daunting – if not impossible – question to answer in January. However, that doesn’t mean we are completely helpless in thinking […]
Craft breweries aren’t just a fun place to meet up with friends. They may be fueling an unprecedented geographic expansion of hop production across the U.S., according to researchers at Penn State and The University of Toledo. Their findings suggest that as more craft breweries emerge around the country, so may new opportunities for farmers. […]
Phase-One Trade Deal Set for January 15th Wall Street Journal writers Bob Davis, Andrew Restuccia and Lingling Wei reported on Tuesday that, “President Trump said he would sign the recently negotiated phase-one trade deal with China in Washington on Jan. 15—marking a formal truce in the U.S-China trade war—and would later travel to Beijing to negotiate a broader pact. “The […]
This is a presentation summary from the 2019 Illinois Farm Economics Summit (IFES) which occurred December 16-20, 2019. A complete collection of presentations including PowerPoint Slides (PPT) and printable summaries (PDF) are available here. It has been a year since Congress passed and the President signed into law the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 […]
This is a presentation summary from the 2019 Illinois Farm Economics Summit (IFES) which occurred December 16-20, 2019. A complete collection of presentations including PowerPoint Slides (PPT) and printable summaries (PDF) are available here. In 2019, much of the Illinois corn crop was planted in June, with many acres planted after final planting dates for crop […]
With the Christmas holiday just days away, this week’s post shares three facts about U.S. Christmas tree production. 1) Fewer Christmas Trees Harvested Figure 1 shows a trend of fewer Christmas trees being harvested in the U.S. Specifically, recent Censuses of Agriculture show that roughly 15 million Christmas trees were harvested in 2017, down from […]