farm economy
Farmland values: Steady, with a risk of decline
Despite the dour mood in the agricultural sector, prices for good-quality farmland held steady in 2019, partly because less land than usual was on the market, said Farmers National Co., a farm management and real estate company.
Cautious farmers dim Deere’s outlook for 2020
The world's largest farm equipment maker, Deere and Co., expects sales of its agricultural equipment to decline by 5-10 percent globally in the year ahead due to lower demand for big machinery. "Lingering trade tensions coupled with a year of difficult growing and harvesting conditions have caused many farmers to become cautious about making major investments in new equipment," said chief executive John May.
Hemp farming may be more pioneer life than Wild West
For all its Gold Rush aura, hemp farming may be more like life on the frontier, where everything must be built from the ground up, said advocates of industrial hemp on Thursday. Hemp can require a lot of manual labor to keep weeds under control, it’s hard to find processors for the crop, and marketing networks are rudimentary.
Short on cash, some farmers will sell assets during winter
Low commodity prices and high costs are tightening the credit squeeze on the farm sector, with little expectation of improvement in the near term, according to ag bankers in the Midwest and Plains. Some farmers and ranchers will liquidate assets during the winter to stay afloat, and some highly leveraged operators will be forced out of business, they said.
When U.S. started trade war, ag competition was already rising
For years, the United States was the indisputable global leader for agricultural exports, partly because it had a comparative advantage in farm production. But the U.S. advantage in pork, beef, corn and soybeans is waning, say two university economists, who conclude "this may have been the worst time to enter into a trade war."
Although weaknesses persist, farmers borrow less money
Farmers and ranchers are taking out fewer loans from agricultural banks, and asking for smaller amounts of money when they need cash to pay for equipment, livestock or day-to-day expenses, said the Federal Reserve in its quarterly Agricultural Finance Databook. "Weaknesses in the sector persisted, continuing to pressure farm cash flows and agricultural credit conditions," reports the Fed.
USDA announces bonus payments for prevented planting
Farmers are in line for a “top-up” payment of up to 15 percent if they received a prevented-planting indemnity from crop insurers this year due to flooding or excessive rainfall, said the USDA on Thursday.
Farmer confidence plunges as trade war expands
Although most producers say Trump tariff payments will "completely or somewhat" relieve the impact of the Sino-U.S. trade war on their operations, farmer confidence is plummeting, according to a Purdue University poll released Tuesday. The Ag Economy Barometer, a gauge of the health of the agricultural economy, fell from a record high of 153 in July to the lowest reading — 124 — since May.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Retaliatory tariffs bite U.S. farmers, not the importers
For nine of the 11 commodities examined by ag lender CoBank, "U.S. producers — not the importing country or its consumers — paid the cost" of retaliatory tariffs. "U.S. farms are taking the brunt of the retaliatory tariffs placed on their products, reflecting the lopsided balance of power between U.S. producers and their importing customers," concluded three CoBank analysts, who said America will pay a price in the future, too.
As Trump’s trade agenda falters, Dems see rural America in play for 2020
After years of effectively writing off rural voters, based on their solid support for the GOP, Democratic candidates for the White House are suddenly turning up frequently in Iowa — where the primary season kicks off in February — and rolling out rural initiatives on everything from ethanol and broadband to crop subsidies and healthcare.
Digital divide persists, though 53 percent of farms conduct business on internet
More than half of U.S. farm operators say they do business over the internet, a 13-point increase in six years, as ownership of computers and access to the internet blossomed, according to USDA. Nonetheless, the Pew Research Center says rural Americans are much less likely than their city counterparts to have a smartphone or broadband service at home.
Ag sector ‘uncertainty’ pulls down sales for world’s largest farm equipment maker
Farmers are sitting on their checkbooks instead of buying new equipment because of the Sino-U.S. trade war and planting delays in the United States, said the chief executive of Deere and Co., the world's largest farm equipment manufacturer. Deere, which also makes construction and logging equipment, said overall sales fell 3 percent during May, June and July, led by a 6- percent drop in agriculture and turf, its largest division.
Profitability of many midwestern corn, soy farms ‘will almost surely fall’
Farmland values are falling for the fifth year in the Midwest, and one factor in the decline is “muted expectations for farm income” this year, said the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank on Thursday. “The profitability of many corn and soybean farms will almost surely fall from their 2018 levels — possibly by a lot for some.”
Rise in commodity prices slows decline in farm income, say bankers
Agricultural lenders expect farm income, which weakened in the spring, to continue to decline this summer, although a recent rally in corn, soybean, and wheat prices will act as a stabilizer, said Federal Reserve banks in Kansas City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis on Thursday.
Profits won’t sprout from shower of prevented-planting payments
Some growers may collect three or even four payments on land where they were unable to plant a crop this spring due to persistent rain and flooding, but no one is going to get rich off of it, said Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Wednesday.
How farmers will adapt to the prospect of a new, soggier normal
American farmers, having endured the wettest 12 months in well over a hundred years and facing predictions that this could be the soggy new normal for the nation’s midsection, are looking at a variety of ways to speed up their processes next year, according to Bloomberg.
USDA expects storm-related planting claims to top $1 billion
The USDA expects storm-ravaged farmers to file more than $1 billion in prevented-planting claims for fields they could not plant this year due to heavy rains and flooding, according to press reports.
Difficult choices when crop insurance, disaster aid and Trump’s bailout intersect
The farm safety net offers many strands of support to farmers swamped by a historically slow planting season, but the strands pull in different directions, says associate professor Bradley Lubben, of the University of Nebraska. "The complexity for producer decision-making is compounded," he said, when potential Trump tariff payments and disaster aid are woven into traditional crop subsidies and crop insurance.