Dec corn up 1 ¼ at $3.68 Jan beans up 3 ¼ at $9.0825 The DOW is down USD is weaker Crude oil up $.37 at $57.38 Good morning, Corn  prices continue to trade in an extremely tight and narrow range. Last week the MAR19 contract traded in a six-cent range the entire week, essentially […]

Dec corn up 1 at $3.6875 Jan beans up 3 ¼ at $9.135 The DOW is up USD is stronger Crude oil down $.77 at $56.28 Good morning, Corn  bulls continue to struggle as the U.S. harvest moves beyond 75% complete, the weather appears more cooperative here at home and in South America. At the […]

Bloomberg News reported last week that, “Tang Jie, who works on a pig farm, says he used to get pork from the wet market near his home every day. But he hasn’t bought any in two months. And his favorite dish, stewed pork ribs with lotus root, has been cut from the menu at his local […]

After the USDA and White House announced the 2019 MFP program, we noted that direct government payments were set to soar in 2019. The USDA’s most recent estimate is for $19.5 billion in total direct farm payments is more than $5.5 billion higher than 2018. For context, the USDA’s initial estimated 2019 direct payments $2.5 billion […]

A Purdue University Extension specialist is warning livestock owners that forage they harvested earlier this year likely has lower-than-usual nutritional quality. Without proper supplements, there could be serious consequences for their animals. “This is a very unusual year, and the quality is extremely low for this late-harvested forage,” said Keith Johnson, a professor of  agronomy  and  […]

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) today announced it will continue to defer accrual of interest for 2019 crop year insurance premiums to help the wide swath of farmers and ranchers affected by extreme weather in 2019. Specifically, USDA will defer the accrual of interest on 2019 crop year insurance premiums […]

Overall returns on Illinois grain farms are projected to be much lower in 2019 than recent years, resulting in more consumer about managing input costs. Fertilizer, seed, and pesticide costs represent a large portion of the total cost of producing corn, with fertilizer costs historically larger than seed and pesticide per-acre costs on high-productivity farmland […]

Despite the corn crop dropping by 118 million bushels in last Friday’s WASDE report, a 100 million bushel reduction in 2019-20 corn use muted any positivity.  While expected by most market observers, the slow pace of corn exports to begin the marketing year saw the forecast drop by 50 million bushels.  The potential for a […]

Throughout its history, conservation policy can be understood, in part, as representing attempts at achieving balance.  Policies have involved balancing the demands for producing crops with the limits of, and impacts on, natural resources; they have also tried to achieve different balances within production and among crops and land uses.  This article continues the discussion […]

Dec corn up ¼ at $3.715 Jan beans down 1 ¼ at $9.17 The DOW is up USD is weaker Crude oil down $.43 at $57.29 Good morning, Corn  traders and producers alike are considering another week of lower highs and lower lows. Technically, the DEC19 contract has traded sideways to lower for the past […]