Author: staff

This week, John Deere announced more layoffs in the Quad Cities. The company announced that 287 employees will lose their jobs at Harvester Works in East Moline, 80 at Davenport Works, and seven from Moline Seeding. Deere’s ongoing workforce reductions have led to more than 900 layoffs in the Quad Cities this year, with the company clarifying that none of the cut jobs will be moved overseas. In July, Deere also cut salaried positions, affecting an estimated 4,500 to 6,000 employees. Additional layoffs this year include: 134 at Seeding and Cylinder in Moline 211 at Davenport Works 279 at Harvester…

Farmers in Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota are grappling with the fallout from the sudden closure of Pure Prairie Poultry, an Iowa-based poultry processor that shut its doors in early October. The company’s closure has left over 1 million chickens without care and many contract farmers in dire financial straits, as they are now responsible for feeding birds that can no longer be processed. Pure Prairie Poultry filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, leaving behind not only unpaid employees but also 1.3 million broiler chickens across 14 Iowa farms and more across other Midwest states. The situation has been described as particularly…

What happened Corn and soybean prices have plunged over the last two weeks, providing an opportunity for end users to more aggressively seek longer-term needs. In both the corn and soybean markets, prices recently rallied on a lack of farmer selling, dry weather in Brazil, short covering by funds, and the thought that a contract low may be in place. Since then, rain has materialized in Brazil, energy prices have weakened, fund selling has returned, and harvest pressure has advanced — all of which are now providing buyers a second opportunity. Why this is important End users (feed buyers, ethanol…

Travel can be an eye-opening experience that grows our perspectives, and that’s one of the reasons I love doing it. I recently returned from a two-week trip adding Denmark to the list of European countries I’ve visited (Great Britain, Scotland, and Ukraine, also grace the list, if you’re wondering). I also spent a few days in London checking off some must-see places (Buckingham Palace included!) that I missed on my first trip. Although my vacation was far from a comprehensive study of the entire European Union, there were certain observations I made that make sense of the agriculture policies I’ve…

Nearly four dozen climate-smart commodities, from beets and bourbon to corn and yogurt, are on the market two years after the USDA launched the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities project, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. The $3.1 billion public-private initiative, with 135 demonstration projects, is meant to encourage farmers to adopt climate-mitigating practices on working lands while creating a market for the products. “In fact, speaking of climate-smart commodities, today we have more than 40 of the commodities within this program that are already being sold in the marketplace to a variety of buyers — buyers that include universities,…

Soybean, grain futures lower overnight; broiler egg, chick placements improve Gil Gullickson 1. Soybean, grain futures lower in overnight tradingSoybean and grain futures declined in overnight trading as the U.S. harvest rolls on and amid some positive weather in South America. About 67% of U.S. soybeans were harvested as of Sunday, up from 47% a week earlier and the prior five-year average of 51%, the Department of Agriculture said in a report earlier this week. Forty-seven percent of the corn crop was in the bin at the start of the week, up from 30% seven days earlier and the normal 39% for…

Twenty-five years ago, former high school teachers Joe and Christy Tomandl started dairying on a shoestring near Medford, Wisconsin. “We started with 40 cows and 80 acres,” Joe Tomandl says. “From day one, we practiced managed grazing of the dairy herd. We were attracted to the economic and environmental benefits of grass-based dairying. One important consideration was that we didn’t have to invest in a lot of equipment.” But the Tomandls invested plenty of energy and creativity in making their dairy the most efficient it could be, gradually building the main farm to encompass 320 acres of managed pasture and…

Americans are spending a greater share of their income on food than they did before the pandemic, but the increase is less dramatic than some commentators are making it appear in an election year, said two think tank analysts on Wednesday. Food is the second-largest consumer expense, accounting for about 13.4¢ of the consumer dollar. During the inflationary surge that followed the pandemic, the wealthiest U.S. households spent an additional 0.5 percentage points of their income on food, and the lowest-income households spent an additional 1.3 percentage points. In 2022, the highest-income households spent 11.2% of their income on food…

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced expanded guidance on Oct. 15 for inspections in the animal slaughtering and processing industry, superseding previous guidance that applied only to poultry establishments. OSHA says that this updated Inspection Guidance for Animal Slaughtering and Processing Establishments aims to significantly reduce injuries and illnesses stemming from occupational hazards through a combination of enforcement, compliance assistance, and outreach. The guidance outlines a comprehensive focus for OSHA inspections, which will now prioritize hazards associated with sanitation and cleanup operations, ergonomics, hazardous energy control, machine guarding, and more. Image by Craig Chandler /…

By Ryan Hanrahan United States corn and soybean farmers could lose billions of dollars in annual production value in the event of a potential new tariff-induced US-China trade war, according to a new economic study commissioned by the American Soybean Association and the National Corn Growers Association and conducted by the World Agricultural Economic and Environmental Services. The study found that “U.S. soybean farmers (could) lose an average of $3.6 to $5.9 billion in annual production value” while “U.S. corn farmers (could) lose an average of $0.9 to $1.4 billion in annual production value” depending on how China would respond to increased…