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 […]
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 […]
Last week, Bloomberg’s Mike Dorning reported that, “U.S. health and agricultural authorities issued thinly veiled criticism of new demands from China for food-exporting companies to sign documents stating that they comply with safety standards to prevent transmission of Covid-19. “‘Efforts by some countries to restrict global food exports related to Covid-19 transmission are not consistent with the known science of transmission,’ U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue […]
Donnelle Eller reported on the front page of Tuesday’s Des Moines Register that, “The Trump administration has sent $4 billion in payments to U.S. farmers to help cover losses due to the coronavirus, part of $16 billion that’s available to provide direct aid to offset losses for farmers and ranchers. “Iowa farmers have snagged $423.5 million of the pandemic payments, the […]
We developed a statistical model that projects the 2020 harvest price for soybeans, given a national soybean yield and average of May futures prices. This projection represents the harvest price used in crop insurance. The current U.S. yield estimate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is 49.8 bushels per acre. Given this yield estimate […]
The USDA releases the June 1 corn stocks estimate on June 30. Typically, the Acreage report published on the same day eclipses the quarterly grain stocks report. While the Acreage report remains crucial for price expectations this year, the grain stocks report looks to hold some essential information on feed and residual levels for the […]
Bloomberg News reported on Friday that, “China plans to accelerate purchases of American farm goods to comply with the phase one trade deal with the U.S. following talks in Hawaii this week. “The world’s top soybean importer intends to increase buying everything from soybeans to corn and ethanol after purchases fell behind due to the coronavirus, said two people familiar with […]
We developed a statistical model that projects the 2020 harvest price for corn, given a national corn yield and average of May futures prices. The harvest price is used in crop insurance. The current U.S. yield estimate from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is 178.5 bushels per acre. Given this yield estimate and average […]
In January, the U.S. and China ceremoniously signed the Phase 1 trade agreement. This was a positive development for U.S. agriculture, especially on the grains side. While there was ambiguity about the metrics and some doubt about China’s ability to meet those goals, the consensus was that China would be buying a lot of U.S. […]