Higher ag productivity may be cheapest way to reduce carbon emissions
The least expensive way to attack greenhouse gas emissions on the farm may be larger investment in agricultural research and development, said University of California professor Aaron Smith in a blog on Tuesday. He cited a 2010 study that estimated agricultural R&D reduced carbon emissions through higher productivity at a cost of $15 per ton, "a much lower cost" than some commonly suggested practices, such as cover crops and conservation tillage.
Value of U.S. corn, soy, and wheat crops slips
The farm-gate value of this year's U.S. corn, soybean, and wheat crops would be nearly 8 percent lower than the 2023 crops due to the continuing decline in commodity prices, according to USDA estimates of season-average prices.
Solar storms a potentially costly risk for GPS agriculture
The solar storms that knocked out GPS networks in early May — prime planting time in the Midwest — cost farmers a "nontrivial" amount of revenue that depends on how long their equipment was sidetracked, said Terry Griffin, a Kansas State University professor.
U.S. farmers lean into soy but pull back on corn and wheat in 2024
Farmers are expected to plant an estimated 86.5 million acres of soybeans this year, up 3 percent from last year, and dial back their corn acreage by 5 percent and their wheat acreage by 4 percent, according to the USDA’s annual Prospective Plantings report, released Thursday.
Study: Climate change will drive up food costs, threatening political stability
Global warming may drive up food inflation by as much as 3.2 percentage points a year, based on temperature increases projected for 2035, according to a paper published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment on Thursday. Warming is also projected to cause an overall rise in inflation of up to 1.2 percent annually during that period.
Big crops and lower prices for U.S. farmers in 2024
American farmers will harvest monster corn and soybean crops this year, including the largest soybean crop ever, at 4.5 billion bushels, and the third corn crop in four years to top 15 billion bushels, projected the Agriculture Department on Thursday. Season-average prices for the crops would fall for the second year in a row from the spike in commodity markets created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Incentive payments help farmers start with cover crops, says report
Nine out of 10 farmers say they definitely or probably will stick with cover crops after the expiration of financial incentives to add the crops to their operations, said a report based on a survey of 795 farmers nationwide. Half of the participants in the National Cover Crop Survey said they had received some sort of payment for cover crops in 2022.
Hot, dry, windy events on the rise in Kansas wheat fields
It’s been a record-breaking year for hot, dry, windy (HDW) events in the Midwest, with Kansas — the nation’s largest winter wheat producer — hit worse than any other state. The events, in which all three conditions occur simultaneously for a prolonged period, inevitably lead to drought and lowered grain yields. (No paywall)
Climate change threatens large portion of U.S. cropland – report
Three of every 10 acres of U.S. corn and winter wheat are under increased threat as climate change boosts temperatures and makes rainfall more erratic in the Midwest and Plains, said new report on Tuesday. Commissioned by the American Farmland Trust, the report said the 2023 farm bill should embrace climate mitigation and provide the money to help farmers adapt to global warming.
Climate change will lower Farm Belt yields ‘as soon as 2030,’ says report
For decades, farmers in the Midwest and Plains have reaped ever-higher yields per acre, but “climate change threatens to slow or reverse this productivity as soon as 2030,” said the Environmental Defense Fund on Wednesday. The “climate burdens” would worsen through 2050, the nonprofit group said in a report.
As war disrupts supply chains, U.S. wheat crop is smaller than expected
U.S. growers reaped their second-smallest wheat crop in 20 years due to drought in the Plains, said the Agriculture Department. The smaller-than-expected harvest would delay any American role in restoring grain flows disrupted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Surge in yields brings biggest U.S. soybean crop ever
The U.S. soybean hit parade, with record production in 2016, 2017, and 2018, will continue this year with the largest crop ever, the government forecast on Tuesday with the harvest in full swing. A late-summer surge in likely yields per acre prompted the USDA to say the crop will be 2 percent larger than its previous estimate.
USDA projects record-setting corn and soybean crops
U.S. farmers will respond to high commodity prices by harvesting their largest soybean crop ever and a corn crop that could tie the record set in 2016, projected USDA on Friday. Delivered to a hungry world recovering from the pandemic, the 2021 corn and soybean crops would fetch some of the highest farm-gate prices in years.
Study: U.S. commodity farmers imperil biodiversity for ever-lower yields
In less than a decade, U.S. corn, soybean and wheat fields wiped out an expanse of native grasslands and other ecosystems larger than the state of Maryland, according to a new analysis, destroying crucial wildlife habitat and spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The new fields produced lower crop yields than existing farmland.(No paywall)
Derecho blows away expectations of a record-setting U.S. corn crop
The windstorm that blasted across Iowa — "basically a 40 mile-wide tornado," in the words of Gov. Kim Reynolds — wiped out 9 percent of the crop in the nation's No. 1 corn state and obliterated the chances for a record-large corn harvest nationwide, said the USDA. Farmers will see notably higher season-average prices for the smaller, but still ample, crop that remains in the field.
‘Outstanding’ conditions point to bumper crops, huge corn and soy stockpiles
U.S. farmers are looking at their largest corn crop ever and a near-record soybean harvest, with huge stockpiles of both crops persisting into fall 2021, said the USDA on Wednesday. Some 2.8 billion bushels of corn would remain in the bin when next year's crop is mature, the largest carry-over since the Reagan era.
USDA outlook: Record corn crop to swell U.S. stocks, soy exports to recover
U.S. farmers will harvest their largest corn crop ever this year, fueled by the largest plantings since 2013 — growing so much corn that carry-over stocks will be the largest in more than three decades, according to USDA's projection at its annual Ag Outlook Forum. The soybean crop would be the fourth-largest on record, with exports recovering to pre-trade-war levels thanks to "increasing global import demand, particularly for China."
U.S. economy slows as corn and soy output soar, according to USDA projection
With a return to normal weather, farmers will expand vastly their corn and soybean plantings next year — enough to produce their largest corn crop ever and the fourth-largest soybean crop, according to USDA's agricultural projections. Bumper crops will drive down market prices in the near term and create huge stockpiles that will take years to whittle down.
Storms and hard freeze threaten corn and soybeans
A hard freeze is forecast across a significant portion of the western Corn Belt, with 14 percent of the U.S. corn crop and 5 percent of the soybean crop at risk of freeze damage, said forecaster Maxar on Wednesday.