Author: staff

By Joana Colussi, Nick Paulson, Gary Schnitkey, and Silvina Cabrini South American countries, which together produce about 55% of the world’s soybean supply, are on track to set a record in the 2024-2025 crop season, despite localized drought challenges in some regions. Brazil’s soybean production is expected to reach an all-time high, Argentina’s production is projected to remain steady compared to last season, while Paraguay’s soybean output is forecast to decline from last year’s record harvest. In this article, we analyze the latest forecasts for South America’s harvest season and how record production in the coming months should keep downward…

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has proposed an unconventional approach to tackling the bird flu epidemic plaguing U.S. poultry farms: allowing the virus to spread naturally through flocks. Instead of culling birds upon detection of the virus, Kennedy suggested that farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds that are immune to it,” he said in a recent interview on Fox News. He has repeated this stance in other interviews on the network. Although Kennedy…

Manufacturers come to mind when talking of the pantheon of tractor pioneers include J.I. Case, Hart-Parr, Huber, Holt, International Harvester, John Deere, and Massey Harris. Yet deserving the same status – if not primary standing among these American giants of industry – is a European manufacturer that not only advanced the concept of mobile horsepower on that continent but also deserves credit for: Manufacturing the first diesel engine in the world.Building the first tractor to be powered by a diesel engine.Creating an engine ignition system that would lead to the success of Bosch.Being among the first manufacturers to introduce a…

The Mississippi Board of Animal Health has confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic avian influenza H7N9 in a commercial broiler breeder chicken flock in Noxubee County for the first time in eight years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratory verified the positive test results. While low pathogenicity avian influenza H7N9 has been previously detected in wild birds through surveillance efforts, this marks the first documented case of highly pathogenic H7 in U.S. commercial poultry since 2017. The strain, of North American wild bird origin, is unrelated to the Eurasian H5N1 virus that has been circulating in the…

What Happened The release of the USDA World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) report on March 11 was “much ado about nothing.” There were little changes made to U.S. expectations and only slight changes to world expectations. It appears the USDA kicked the can down the road, waiting for more crop progress information from the Southern Hemisphere before changing production estimates. Potentially, the quarterly Grain Stocks and Prospective Plantings reports — both released on March 31 — will be more impactful and provide the next direction for grain markets. Why This Is Important Last month at the annual Agricultural…

Tariffs, budget cuts, and other actions of the second Trump administration have made the words “farmers” and “farming” a regular occurrence in media headlines. Across industry publications and mainstream outlets, these supersized words — such as Tariffs are not ‘fun’ and farmers are frustrated or Funding freezes and staff cuts pull the rug out from under farmers — attempt to corral American growers into a single identity. Not only is that impossible to do, but it also does a disservice to unique and nuanced components of U.S. food production. And farmers hate when that happens. Wait, I mean, some farmers hate…

Just after 9:00 a.m. CT, May corn was up ¾¢ at $4.59½ per bushel. May soybeans were 1¢ weaker at $10.11¾ per bushel. Angie Setzer, Partner with Consus Ag Consulting said, “While the flow of news seems to be slowing, the uncertainty over what happens these next few weeks when it comes to global trade remains present.” Wheat markets were mixed starting off halfway through the week. CBOT wheat was up ¾¢ at $5.65¾ per bushel. KC wheat dropped 6¢ at $6.00¼ per bushel. Minneapolis wheat rose 3¼¢ at $6.17¼ per bushel.  April live cattle were up $1.67 at $202.67 per…

Reuters’ Leah Douglas reported that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture will on Wednesday begin accepting applications from farmers affected by low commodity prices for economic aid passed by Congress last year, an agency official said on Tuesday.” “The stop-gap government funding package passed by Congress last December included $10 billion for economic assistance, a supplement to existing farm subsidy programs that support U.S. crops,” Douglas reported. “U.S. farmers are struggling with slumping prices that have made some crops more expensive to plant than sell, and are expected to plant more corn this year in a bid to eke out a…

By Heather Schlitz CHICAGO, March 18 (Reuters) – Overdue loans and mounting interest payments often weigh on Montana barley grower Mitch Konen as he bales hay and loads trailers at his remote farm overlooking the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. As spring sunshine warms the fields, Konen, 65, and other barley farmers worry tariffs will take away crucial export markets and increase the cost to grow the grains, even as sinking U.S. beer consumption has slashed demand for barley. “Down here on the farm we’re already stretched pretty thin financially,” said Konen, who is also vice president of the National Barley Growers Association. “It…

1. Wheat Futures Higher in Overnight Trading Wheat futures were higher in overnight trading amid worries about dry weather and deteriorating crop conditions in the U.S. southern Plains. About 28% of Kansas, the biggest producer of winter wheat, was suffering from drought conditions as of March 11, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. That’s up from 25% a week earlier.  Forty-eight percent of the Kansas hard red winter wheat crop was rated good or excellent as of Sunday, down from 52% a week earlier, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in a report yesterday.  Topsoil moisture in the state was…