Author: staff

1. Corn, Soybeans, Wheat Plunge in Overnight Trading Corn, soybean, and wheat futures all plunged in overnight trading after President Donald Trump said the U.S. would impose tariffs on several trading partners.  The president said at an event at the White House Rose Garden yesterday that the U.S. would put a 54% tariff on goods imported from China, the world’s largest buyer of soybeans, which will take effect on April 9.  Tariffs were imposed on many countries including a 24% levy on goods from Japan, 36% on items from Thailand, and 20% on products from the UK.  Canadian and Mexican…

By Cami Koons Iowa senators amended and advanced on Wednesday a House bill aimed at protecting private property rights from eminent domain. House representatives passed the proposed legislation last week which combines a series of bills aimed at reforming the Iowa Utilities Commission and preventing the Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline from using eminent domain in the state.  Sen. Mike Bousselot, R-Ankeny, said the Senate subcommittee meeting on the issue was “long awaited.”  Bousselot said his goal “has always been” to pass legislation that protected “all landowners” and not just those affected by certain projects, which he alleged House legislation over the past…

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has made good on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s threat to freeze federal funding for educational programs that it considers violates Title IX.  Today, the USDA announced that it would be pulling funding from Maine’s educational programs, pressing pause due to “blatant Title IX violations.” Title IX is the federal civil rights law that “prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.” The move is part of an effort by the Trump Administration to scrutinize how tax payerdollars are used, and to push back against what the USDA is calling…

Last July, Extension specialists in southwest Missouri started to notice strange symptoms in their corn crop: purpling in the leaf tips, stunted plants, and abnormal ears.  Then, they started to notice the corn leafhoppers.  “We estimate from the time we first found them in July to the end of the season, 90% of the state was covered by corn leafhoppers,” said Mandy Bish, an Extension crop pathologist at the University of Missouri.  A DNA analysis of diseased plants confirmed suspicions: Missouri had its first documented case of corn stunt.  What Is Corn Stunt? First identified in Argentina in the 1990s,…

Over a decade ago, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation were studying whether farmers should be required to have a commercial driver’s license (CDL) when operating larger trucks. Fortunately, due to input from a number of state legislators and farm organizations, no new rules were implemented. That doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t benefits to having a CDL or to getting it sooner rather than later. As a general rule, most states currently allow a farmer, farm family member, or an employee of the farm to transport their own agricultural products, farm machinery, and…

On Sunday evening, a fire swept through Leuze Dairy Farm in the small town of Philadelphia in upstate New York, killing roughly 200 animals. According to local news sources, the fire broke out around 9 p.m., leaving significant structural damage.  The farm’s co-owner, Matt Leuze, told reporters that the fire was a major setback for the business, stating it has lost about two-thirds of its herd of dairy cattle. Out of the cattle lost in the fire, most were heifers and steers, expected to amount to damages ranging from $2 million to $3 million.  Cleanup efforts had been delayed until…

Carbon Robotics has introduced the Carbon AutoTractor autonomous system, a retrofit kit for John Deere 6R and 8R tractors, designed for 24/7 use without stopping. The system will autonomously perform ground preparation tasks, including tilling, plowing, cultivating, ripping, discing, listing, mulching, and mowing — all without a driver in the cab. The system is also integrated with Carbon Robotics’ LaserWeeder. The autonomous tractor will adjust speed to optimize weeding performance based on the weeds’ type, size, and density. “Too often, autonomy in agriculture has been overpromised and underdelivered,” said Paul Mikesell, CEO and founder of Carbon Robotics. “We built Carbon…

President Donald Trump revealed sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs Wednesday afternoon, imposing a minimum 10 percent tariff on all foreign imports, with additional tariffs based on the rates charged by other nations on American goods. Tariffs that kicked in a few hours later, at midnight, are levied on major U.S. trading partners like China, the European Union, and Vietnam up to 46 percent. Tariffs are paired with a 25 percent duty on foreign cars, leaving it unclear whether the tariffs will be stacked. The White House calculates the tariffs will yield up to $600 billion annually, though economists question the forecast based…

Just past 9 a.m. CT, May corn was down 3¼¢ at $4.54½ per bushel. May soybeans were down 19¼¢ at $10.10¼ per bushel. May wheat contracts were also lower. CBOT wheat was down 6¼¢ at $5.33 per bushel. KC wheat was down 2¢ at $5.66½. Minneapolis wheat was down 1¼¢ at $5.91¼. “The marketplace did not leave much doubt about what it thought of ‘Liberation Day’ yesterday,” said Matt Zeller, senior market intelligence analyst at StoneX, earlier this morning. “Dow Jones futures are down more than 1,200 points as of the time of this writing, and S&P and NASDAQ shares…

By Scott Irwin The March 31st Prospective Plantings report from the USDA was much anticipated and indicated that U.S. producers will shift a significant amount of acreage to corn in 2025. An important constraint on shifts in acreage for individual crops is the total size of crop acreage in the U.S. Our previous work shows that total crop acreage fell sharply from 2014 through 2020 (e.g., farmdoc daily, June 10, 2021). The purpose of this article is to update our earlier estimates of total crop acreage for the U.S. through 2024 and make a projection for 2025. Analysis We have outlined the process of estimating total U.S.…