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October 14, 2019
Fertilizer prices dramatically increased last Spring. After anhydrous ammonia spent most of 2018 around $500 per ton, prices jumped to more than $600 per ton in early 2019. Prices remained mostly unchanged until late summer. This week’s post reviews the latest fertilizer price data.
October 7, 2019
Winter wheat planting has started for many producers across the county. While the 2020 acreage debate won’t reach a fever pitch until sometime in March, wheat acres are a critical first mover. Wheat acres, of course, have been in a downward spiral in recent years, pushing more corn and soybean into production. What does wheat […]
September 30, 2019
by David Widmar Continuing our line-up of posts reviewing changes for the 2018 Farm Bill enrollment, this week’s post takes a look at an easily overlooked element of program, yields. While lower commodity prices are an obvious change since producer last picked between ARC-CO and PLC, comparing back to 2014 sign-up decisions, producers will […]
September 23, 2019
by David Widmar & Brent Gloy After our earlier post about the USDA’s latest farm income estimates, we got numerous emails from readers. Their questions, broadly speaking, were variations of “is the farm economy really improving?” and “why doesn’t it feel like things have improved?” In this week’s post we provide additional context, including two […]
September 16, 2019
As producers begin to think about their 2018 Farm Bill election (ARC vs. PLC), it can be helpful to reflect on the 2014 Farm Bill and how those decisions played out. Specifically, which program- ARC-CO or PLC- had the highest payout? This week’s post considers county-level estimates for the corn, soybean, and wheat programs.
September 9, 2019
Over the next 6 months, producers will need to, again, decide between the ARC and PLC programs. These programs were first introduced in the 2014 Farm Bill and have been reauthorized – with a few changes– by the 2018 Farm Bill. Back in 2014, ARC-CO was favored for corn (93% of program acres), soybeans (97% […]