Grains

04Dec

Wheat Crop in Black Sea Region off to Strong Start

Favorable weather expected at the start of the Russian winter will help planted wheat, according to Commodity Weather Group. Currently, no major cold snaps are seen in southern Russia and Ukraine, while snow cover is projected to be adequate, insulating plants against potential damage from any frosts, said David Streit, a forecaster at the group. “We have a fairly snowy winter for the region, which should help to provide protection as we go deeper into the winter,” he said by email. “Winterkill...

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01Dec

Scrapping NAFTA Bad for Agriculture

Deliberations on the nearly 24 year-old free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. have gotten more contentious and ending the deal could spell trouble for agriculture domestically. The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was discussed during a panel conversation hosted by the World Trade Center - Kansas City and the Kansas City Chamber of Commerce. NAFTA 2.0 has been through several different negotiation meetings since the Trump administration went into office. The three way trade deal represents more than...

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01Dec

USDA: Equal Corn, Equal Soybean Acres in 2018

In 2017, farmers and the market thought soybean acres would overtake corn acres, but King Corn reigned supreme. Roughly 90.4 million acres of corn and a record high 90.2 million soybean acres were planted in 2017. For 2018, the USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist is expecting soybean acres to top 91 million acres, creating a new record. Corn acres are expected increase slightly to 91 million. In 2017, wheat plantings fell to their lowest in roughly a century, and that number...

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30Nov

Owning Corn Could Pay Off As World Stocks Fall 10 Percent

Commodity prices have been low and trading sideways, and 2017 wasn’t a great year for most farmers. Last month, the USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) released data that show the downturn in the ag economy has bottomed, and farm income could be on the rise. There’s been a lot of discussion amongst farmers if we can compare our current situation to that of the 1980s. As far as supply, Bill Biedermann, co-founder of Allendale, Inc., says its similar, but the policies...

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30Nov

Net Farm Income Inches Up 3% to $63.2 Billion

Farmers hoping for any sign of an economic bright spot for 2017 got a modest one yesterday. Net farm income is expected to inch up a slight 3% over 2016 and reach $63.2 billion this year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Economic Research Service (USDA-ERS) November Farm Income Report. The small improvement is the first farmers have seen in the last several years but is still less than half the amount farmers saw in 2013, when net farm income reached...

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