Author: staff

By Ryan Hanrahan CNN’s David Goldman reported Wednesday that “President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he could re-impose ‘reciprocal’ tariffs on some countries in as soon as two or three weeks, a potentially significant re-escalation of the global trade war that has already raised fears of a U.S. and global recession.” “‘In the end, I think what’s going to happen is, we’re going to have great deals, and by the way, if we don’t have a deal with a company or a country, we’re going to set the tariff,’ Trump said in an Oval Office ceremony,” according to Goldman’s reporting.…

By a vote of 207–69, Illinois wheat producers approved a measure to bring a wheat check-off program to the state. The referendum goes into effect Jan. 1, 2026 and will implement a voluntary wheat check-off program with a 1.5¢-per-bushel assessment. The proposed assessment rate is less than the Kansas voluntary 2¢-per-bushel rate but less than those of Ohio (half of 1% [0.005] of the net market price) and Kentucky (one-fourth of 1% [0.0025] of the gross marketed price). Both Ohio and Kentucky’s assessment rates are voluntary. The referendum result was announced April 17 after the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA)…

Illinois Democratic Senator Dick Durbin announced his retirement on Wednesday, signaling the end to a 44-year career in Congress after 2026. Durbin is the Democratic Whip in the upper chamber of Congress and was first elected to the Senate in 1996. As a senator in a major farm state, Durbin has been a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee since 2018.  While on the Ag Committee, Durbin urged for the passing of a new Farm Bill to replace the current bill passed in 2018 and encouraged Illinois farmers to enroll in conservation programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.  As…

Ahead of 9 a.m. CT, July corn was up 2¢ at $4.86 per bushel. July soybeans were down 2½¢ at $10.59½ per bushel. July wheat contracts were mixed. CBOT wheat was unchanged at $5.44½ per bushel. KC wheat was down 1¼¢ at $5.49½. Minneapolis wheat was up 2¢ at $6.09¾. This morning, USDA announced Mexico is buying 235,000 metric tons of corn — 130,000 for the 2024/2025 marketing year and 105,000 for the 2025/2026 marketing year. June live cattle were down 15¢ at $207.85 per hundredweight (cwt) ahead of 9 a.m. CT. August feeder cattle were up 8¢ at $292.78…

This week, North Dakota’s governor signed HB 1318 — a bill that reaffirms the federal authority in pesticide labeling — into law. The bill passed on Wednesday with overwhelming bipartisan support in both the state and senate. HB 1318 ensures that pesticides approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, when labeled in accordance with federal law, also satisfy North Dakota’s state requirements for health and safety warnings. The measure protects companies from excessive litigation when they follow EPA guidelines, reducing legal uncertainty and helping stabilize the agricultural marketplace. “Enacting HB 1318 into law is a resounding win for farmers and…

What Happened in the Market After posting a new high of $4.79 in February led by demand, traders took profits in March ahead of Trump tariff announcements. December corn bottomed out at $4.36 March 31, traded sideways, then rose to $4.70 on wet spring planting.  November beans hit $10.64 in late February, chopped sideways to lower, then tanked to a low of $9.71 April 9 due to an intensified trade war with China.  In the last week, beans rallied back to the top of the range with resistance to nearly $10.40 due to wet weather and increased demand for bean…

Motion-activated field cameras, GPS collars, wolf scat analysis and cattle tail hair samples are helping University of California, Davis, researchers shed new light on how an expanding and protected gray wolf population is affecting cattle operations, leading to millions of dollars in losses. Long believed extinct in California, a lone gray wolf was seen entering the Golden State from Oregon in 2011, and a pack was spotted in Siskiyou County in 2015. By the end of 2024, seven wolf packs were documented with evidence of the animals in four other locations. As wolves proliferated, ranchers in those areas feared they…

Illinois farmers are experiencing a mixed start to the 2025 planting season, with corn planting behind historical pace while soybean progress is slightly ahead of schedule, according to the latest USDA Crop Progress Report released April 21. Corn Acres: Behind the Curve Corn planting in Illinois reached 7%, a 6% increase from the previous week, but still lagging the 5-year average of 11%. This was a 6% jump in planted corn acres from the previous week.  Ryan Gentle, Wyffels Agronomy Manager, saw nearly close to perfect field conditions in West Central Illinois.  “Almost every field had some sort of activity…

By Clark Kauffman A Cedar County farmer is suing a manufacturer of wind turbines, alleging three turbine fires scattered debris over hundreds of acres of land, damaging his crops. Alan Weets of Mechanicsville is suing the Chicago-based company Nordex USA, which does business as Acciona Windpower North America and Anchor Wind, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Weets alleges that in 2010, he entered into an agreement with Acciona that gave the company an easement on his property for the installation of two wind turbines. Acciona, the lawsuit claims, was aware of “serious problems” with the…

1. Soybean, Corn Futures Higher Overnight Soybeans and corn rose in overnight trading on optimism about de-escalation of the trade war with China, the world’s largest importer of the oilseeds.  President Donald Trump said late Tuesday that the 145% tariff rate the U.S. has imposed on Chinese products will come down “substantially” though he also said it wouldn’t be zero.  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said yesterday that the U.S. and China have “an opportunity for a big deal here” and that the countries with the two largest economies in the world should work together.  Officials from China, which has imposed…