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A crop insurance agent says volatile futures prices for hogs and cattle have more producers looking into Livestock Risk Protection. Jon Strohl with Farm Credit Illinois tells Brownfield recent shifts in the market have more producers interested in protecting their bottom line from uncontrollable factors. “Here this last week with the uptick in the futures on the fat cattle side, guys are taking advantage of those, especially for next April. […]

A severe weather system that swept through a large section of central Illinois Thursday damaged some crops while bringing much needed rain to others. Marty Marr grows corn and soybeans in Sangamon, Morgan and Logan counties and tells Brownfield an isolated section of their farm was hit by a derecho. “We had several acres that were pretty well flattened and tossed around, twisted up, snapped off. It was a hard […]

The USDA says farmers planted more corn and fewer soybeans than expected. 2023 corn planted area is the third largest on record at 94.096 million acres, 2.096 million above the prospective planting report and up 5.52 million from 2022. 93% of that is biotech, unchanged from last year. The 2023 total includes 2.491 million acres of corn that were not planted as of June 1st. Harvested area is seen at […]

The president and CEO of CountryMark says liquid fuels shouldn’t be counted out as energy transition and carbon reduction policies are shaped to address climate challenges. Brownfield spoke with Matt Smorch during the recent Indiana Climate Summit. “Liquid fuels are still a viable part of any (climate) solutions that could happen, and it seems like there are more and more policies like those in California trying to get rid of […]

Photo courtesy of Jeff Jorgenson Some farmers in southern Iowa were impacted by Thursday’s round of severe storms. Jeff Jorgenson of Sidney says strong winds knocked down most of his corn crop. “There is lean, twist, uprooting, and I think there is some broke off,” he said. “We’re going to know a lot more by the middle of next week.” He tells Brownfield, “It changes what your outlook is on […]

A principal atmospheric scientist with Nutrien Ag Solutions says the line of storms that moved through the Midwest damaging crops and farm buildings on Thursday is a confirmed Derecho. The National Weather Service says a Derecho is a line of intense, widespread and fast-moving windstorms that moves through. It must be at least 240 miles with wind gusts of at least 58 miles per hour to be considered a Derecho. […]

Looking ahead, the 6- to 10-day outlook calls for the likelihood of above-normal temperatures across much of the western, eastern, and southern U.S., while cooler-than-normal conditions will dominate the nation’s mid-section, including the northern and central Plains and upper Midwest.  Meanwhile, below-normal rainfall in parts of the Southwest and Pacific Northwest should contrast with wetter-than-normal weather across much of the remainder of the country, especially the central Plains and southern […]

Southwestern Indiana Farmer Mark Seib says many early-planted soybeans had to be replanted this spring. “We planted some soybeans and corn in the first part of April. That soybean crop stayed in the ground for somewhere near three weeks before it emerged. We got into that cold, wet weather after we planted, and we ended up replanting about 600 acres.” Seib tells Brownfield the corn also took some time to […]

Colombia recently resumed imports of U.S. poultry products following joint efforts by the USDA and U.S. Trade Representative. On June 1, Colombia’s Ministry of Agriculture instructed all ports to deny import permits of these products on concerns of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. The temporary ban cost the U.S. nearly $1.1 million in export value between June 3 and June 8. Colombia is the 10th largest export market for U.S. poultry […]