Ag Policy
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Will Dairy Margin Protection Make Payments in 2015
Friday, December 19, 2014 was the last day to sign up for the new Dairy Margin Protection Program which insures coverage between $4 and $8 of margin. This margin is based upon the difference between the US All Milk Price and Feed Costs based upon corn, soybean meal and alfalfa hay. Earlier in the year, […]
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How Does County Yield Affect ARC-CO Payment
FarmDoc Daily issued a report yesterday on the amount of estimated payments for ARC-CO and PLC by covered crop for the 2014 crop year based upon the updated USDA price information from last week. It gives you a good idea of the types of payments for each crop based upon the low, medium or high USDA […]
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Senate Passes Tax Extender Bill 76-16
It is now final (other than the President signing it which he will). This gives farmers about two weeks to make purchases of equipment to take full advantage of Section 179, bonus depreciation and other business tax extenders. I just finished the last tax school in Ames, Iowa today. Over 300 in attendance with another […]
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Wednesday Optimistic – Thursday Pessimistic
The Hill is reporting that progress was made by the Senate yesterday in getting several nominees confirmed. These confirmations do take time and the estimated day of final passage of the Tax Extender Bill is either late Wednesday or sometime on Thursday. “Senators will vote to end debate and confirm Sarah Saldaña, Obama’s nominee to […]
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Tax Extender Bill Could Pass Today
The Hill (a site that tracks Congress and the President) is reporting that Senator Reid is trying to get the Senate to finish all of their remaining work today and go home for the holidays. However, there is always at least one Senator that likes to gum up the works. The Senate will begin voting […]
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Tax Extender Bill May Be Punted to Weekend
Anytime you deal with Congress passing legislation you have to become accustomed to possible delays. Earlier our expectations were that the Tax Extender Bill including Section 179 at $500,000 would be passed yesterday. However, Congress is also dealing with a major spending bill which is more important than the tax bill. Therefore, there is a […]
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Senate to Vote on Tax Extenders on Wednesday?
It appears that the Senate will vote on the Tax Extenders Bill on Wednesday of this week. Procedural matters will tie them up on Monday and Tuesday, thus the earliest the vote will take place is on Wednesday. It is expected that enough Democrats will vote with Republicans to pass the Bill and it appears […]
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Ethanol Industry Approaches 1 Million Barrels a Day Production
The Barrel is a blog done by Platts (a division of McGraw Hill) and their recent post indicated that Ethanol production is approaching 1 million barrels a day. This equates to about 42 million gallons a day. Ethanol margins have nearly doubled from 2013 and are approaching $1 per gallon. However, with the continued decrease […]
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House Passes HR 5771 Tax Extender Bill
The House of Representatives voted last night to approve a one-year retroactive extension of most the tax extender provisions by a vote of 378-46. The bill now heads to the Senate where indications are it will be approved. Among the tax extenders of particular interest for agribusiness that would be renewed through the end of […]
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USDA Extends Application Deadline for Dairy Margin Protection Program to Dec. 19
The Dairy Margin Protection program established by the 2014 Farm Bill application deadline will be extended until December 19 according to a release by the USDA. The previous deadline was December 5th. We wrote about the program’s details here in an earlier post. The online tools provided by the FSA are located here. Additional online […]