Ag Policy
-
Columbia Basin Region Second to California in Diversified Crop Production
One of our local newspapers – The Tri-Cities Herald – is running a 29 part series on the various types of crops that are grown in the Columbia Basin region of Washington and Oregon. So far, they have run about 10 parts, but it is an excellent review of the various crops grown in the part […]
-
A Decelerating Trend in Farmland Prices
The Chicago Federal Reserve Bank issued their 2012 Second Quarter AgLetter last week and it indicated that the rapid acceleration in farmland prices over the last two years has moderated substantially. For the district, year-over-year prices had risen by 12% in Indiana to a high of 24% for Iowa. However, the increase in prices for the […]
-
USDA Shows Large Livestock Losses
As we discussed the estimated 2012 net farm income from the USDA report yesterday, the grain farmers are looking at a very good year at the expense of the livestock operators. USDA is predicting that dairy revenues will fall from about $40 billion to $33 billion and in connection with much higher feed prices, this […]
-
2012 US Net Farm Income At a New Record Even With The Drought!
In a report from the USDA issued today, they project that net cash income from farming will increase by 3.4 percent from 2011 to a new record of $122.2 billion. Net value added is expected to increase by $5.9 billion to $172.6 billion. Due to the market effects of the drought and the expected large […]
-
Mid-West Crop Tour Recap
My part of the Midwest Crop Tour started in Columbus, Ohio early Monday morning and finished up at the Iowa/Minnesota far eastern border around noon on Thursday. We traveled through Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and into Minnesota. The samples that our team took each day on route seemed to be a little bit better than […]
-
The International Flavor of the Crop Tour
Today we left Bloomington, headed north 50 miles and then went due west to Iowa City, Iowa. Joining us was a group of 8 that included one from England, one from Germany two for from Brazil. This group followed us for the whole day and was here on the tour to determine how this crop […]
-
Midwest Crop Tour – Day 2
We left Fishers, Indiana early this morning and headed northwest to the Illinois border and then turned due south to Paris (I told my wife that I always wanted to go to Paris, but did not realize it would be Paris, Illinois). We had lunch in Paris and then turned west for about 50 miles […]
-
Day 1 of the Crop Tour
We had our orientation meeting Sunday night in Columbus and got started on the crop tour first thing Monday morning. Our route took us on a northwesterly route through Ohio and then on a south westerly route down to Fishers, Indiana. Our first corn sample was a whopping 44 bushels, which ended up being a low […]
-
Off to the Crop Tour
I will off to the Midwest Crop Tour beginning tomorrow morning very early (even for me, out of bed at 3:15 to get to my flight in time). I am meeting up with Chris Barron (who write’s the Ask the Margin Expert column for Agweb) at the Cedar Rapids airport. We drive to Champaign, IL, […]
-
Expectations For Farm Income Dropping Rapidly
For those states comprising the Kansas City Fed District (Nebraska, Mountain States, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma), the expectations for farm income have dropped dramatically due to the drought. In a just released report on the second quarter agricultural credit conditions, several financial nuggets can be found. Due to timely rains, the wheat crop in Oklahoma […]