News
Today’s agriculture headlines and expert perspectives serving farmers, ranchers, crop consultants, livestock nutritionists and the entire U.S. ag community.
Are your internal financial conditions still structurally intact?
Soybean futures were fueled by demand news.
The latest Rural Mainstreet Index (RMI) is revealing a drop in farmers’ financial conditions, sinking to the lowest level since December 2016. The index remained below growth neutral, a sign that shows financial pressure continues to prevail on farms and ranches.
A CFO can help your farm get to the next level financially.
An Agriculture Department employee and two staff members on the House Agriculture Committee were injured Thursday in a car accident south of El Campo, Texas.
As harvest nears, Machinery Pete is also watching tillage trends. Small use tillage equipment prices are strong, whereas sales of larger equipment have been challenging. “If you’re looking at buying a 60-foot field cultivator, I’ve been seeing those values starting to hold,” he said.
The NWS’s forecast for above-normal temps means some areas could be in need of spring-time rains.
Fires continue to rage in the Northwest portion of the country. New numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the cost of fighting wildfires topped $2 billion in 2017, a new record. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue is using the new figure to stress the need to revalue the budget of U.S. Forest Service, which falls under USDA’s umbrella.
Commodity analysts live by the mantra “Big crops only get bigger,” and that appears to be the case in 2017. USDA boosted corn, soybean and cotton yields as well as production numbers this week. The revised numbers came in above the average trade guess and larger than August’s crop production numbers. Despite the report initially sending bearish waves through the markets, grain prices turned a corn mid-week, posting green on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME). Jim Bower of Bower Trading is deeming 2017 as a “very unusual year” on U.S. Farm Report this weekend, while Standard Grain’s Joe Vaclavik says this is typically what happens as harvest heats up.
AgLaunch365 is a farm-centric program that will assist in field trials and attracting investments for ag startups.
These machines sold on Sept. 1 in Ohio
The Texas Farm Bureau is working to raise funds to help farmers and ranchers devastated by Hurricane Harvey.
Following a 5.3% decrease in 2015, cash rents in Minnesota declined by an average of 1.8% in 2016.
Learn Angie Setzer’s commodity marketing philosophy, advice for selling your crops and the most underappreciated marketing tool.