Ag Policy
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Ethanol is XX% of Corn Production
I always find it curious that ethanol use is quoted as being about 35% of corn production (about 5 billion bushels divided by 14 billion bushels plus or minus). What always seems to be missed in the equation is the amount of dried distillers grain (DDG) that is produced as part of the ethanol process. […]
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Senator Wyden Indicates Tax Reform Must Include Flow Through Entities
Senator Ron Wyden of the Senate Finance Committee indicated on Friday at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor that any comprehensive tax reform must include flow-through entities. As we have discussed in posts before, tax reform is primarily based on getting the top corporate tax rate down closer to 25% to be competitive with other […]
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Has Anything Changed?
Tomorrow is the last day to sign up for ARC/PLC under the new Farm Bill. We have not heard any rumblings about another extension, but if there will be one, it will likely be announced today. Grain prices have not been extremely volatile over the last few months, so it is extremely likely that nothing […]
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PLC Payments for Wheat and Soybeans Highly Unlikely for 2014
Art Barnaby of Kansas State University prepares a monthly update of where he estimates the MYA price will be on corn, soybeans, wheat and sorghum. KSU just released yesterday an updated report based on price information just released on that day. Wheat would need to have an average price of lower than $2.70 for the […]
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FSA Extends Deadline (But Only a Week)
As expected (but not necessarily hoped for), the FSA announced today an extension of one week to sign up for ARC or PLC. Instead of March 31, the new deadline is now April 7. The FSA essentially did the same thing with the Dairy Margin Program with an one week extension, so this was not […]
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1,400 Joint Operations to Lose $50 million of Program Payments?
The FSA just issued proposed Regulations yesterday regarding the active involvement of non-family members in a farm operation. The Farm Bill had required FSA to come up with these new rules within six months of the passage of the bill. And as usual, they are late. These new rules do not apply to a farm […]
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Where Do They Get These Numbers?
The Washington Post had an editorial on Sunday blasting the Farm Bill for being more costly than the old farm bill in some cases. However, in my opinion, their view is very slanted toward just this year and clearly reflects wrong numbers in their analysis. They indicate that many corn farmers in Ohio, Iowa, Minnesota […]
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Don’t Forget Those Generic Acres
I was on the Farm Journal Farm Bill webinar yesterday and one of the subjects I covered was the cotton generic acres. Because of the WTO rulings, the new farm bill does not have a cotton program (other than a special crop insurance STAX program). However, for those farmers with old cotton base, they are not allowed […]
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Farm Bill Webinar
I will be doing a farm bill webinar for Farm Journal Media tomorrow, March 10 at 11 am CST. There will also be two more planned webinars on March 17 and March 24. If you still have questions about the new farm bill, I would certainly recommend listening in on these webinars. Tomorrow’s primary topic will be […]
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What is Your Current RP Guarantee
Last Friday was the last day of the discovery price period for corn, soybeans, spring wheat and some other crops. We now know that the corn price should be $4.15 (2014 – $4.62) and soybean price should be $9.73 (2014 – $11.36). Spring wheat price should be $5.85 (2014 – $6.51). These lower guarantee prices […]