Soybeans were higher on short covering and technical buying, pulling contracts to a weekly gain. Beans and bean oil had some help from the broader market, especially crude oil, and global vegetable oils. Soybean meal futures finished Friday mixed on bull spreading. U.S. planting is ongoing, while Brazil’s record harvest is nearly over and Argentina’s much smaller harvest is a third complete. Brazil continues to control the export market, but […]
Signup for the USDA’s Rice Production Program will begin the week of May 8 for farmers who experienced losses in the 2022 growing season. The program will provide up to $250 million to rice farmers based on planted and prevent plant acres for the one-time program. Types of rice that are eligible are short, medium, and long-grain rice, including japonica, temperate, and sweet rice. Industrial and wild rice aren’t eligible. The […]
Several dairy products had more production in March. USDA’s National Ag Statistics Service says total cheese output was 1.23 billion pounds excluding cottage cheese. That’s 11.7% higher than in February but 0.2% less than a year ago. Italian-type cheeses totaled 512 million pounds, up 11.5% from February but 1.5% below March of last year. American-type cheese production totaled 499 million pounds, 12.5% higher than in February and 3.2% higher than […]
Rural residents often face barriers to accessing mental healthcare. Rural Minds Executive Director Chuck Strand says the organization is working to address those challenges. “We’d like to give people the resources, the information, the training for being able to not only understand and be capable of tackling these tough situations on their own,” he says. “But then also encouraging them to share that information.” Compared to urban counterparts, rural Americans […]
An Environmental Protection Agency Regional Director says anaerobic digesters are a solution for waste management and capturing farm emissions. EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore tells Brownfield the agency, along with USDA, is working to accelerate anaerobic digestion capacity to reduce methane emissions and divert food waste from landfills while generating a renewable energy source, “I think this model with an independent operator and manager so the farmer can focus on […]
Global food prices are increasing for the first time since 2022. Maximo Torrero Cullen is the chief economist with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. “The expectation is that prices will go into a plateau, and they will stabilize, but at a high level for one year or two.” The latest FAO Food Price Index showed an increase of 0.6% for April, the first jump since […]
Planting conditions are steadily improving in southern Minnesota. Tim Waibel of Courtland says it was extremely wet and cold in April. “So we didn’t start planting until this week Monday, but we’ve made tremendous progress since then.” Speaking to Brownfield Friday, he said corn planting should be done in about two days. “And then we’ve got all of our beans (to plant), so we’re in pretty good shape. ...
A farmer in east-central Iowa is wrapping up planting. Billie Danner of West Liberty says he finished planting corn Thursday and should be done with soybeans this weekend. “Timing is all good (and) it looks like we’re off to a good start.” He tells Brownfield crops planted the second week of April endured a lot of cold. “They were in the ground close to three weeks before they came out, […]
JBS USA has created a new company to provide internal sanitation services. JBS says it is immediately transitioning 10 facilities to JBS Sanitation, an in-house endeavor that will also provide services at Pilgrim facilities. In press release, the company said the move was made following the troubling allegations that have occurred in the food sanitation sector. JBS previously terminated contracts with third-party sanitation provider PSSI at numerous locations, including Grand […]
