Brownfield

The legal action by the biofuels industry against the EPA over Small Refinery Waivers and biofuel blending obligations continue. Geoff Cooper with the Renewable Fuels Association tells Brownfield that additional court briefs were filed Thursday.  He says the new EPA administrator has taken steps to revoke his predecessor’s exemptions, but EPA has failed to account for the 1-point-4 billion gallons of biofuels that were supposed to be blended for 2018. […]

A South Dakota farmer says her background in the law is a good skill in commodity board work. Heather Beaner enjoyed a career as an Air Force lawyer until coming home to take over the family farm a decade ago. Beaner, who farms in northeastern South Dakota’s Spink County, says her military and law career cultivated a skillset useful in her current position on the South Dakota Soybean Checkoff Board. […]

A cold April could delay planting in many parts of the Midwest. Mark Mueller grows corn and soybeans in northeast Iowa. “This will not be an early spring, soil temperatures are not coming up (and) I’d say we’re about 20 degrees cooler than normal.” He tells Brownfield it’s also been abnormally dry. “We have no reserves in the soil. We’ll have enough to get the crop started, and they do […]

Photo property of University of Minnesota Farmers are looking to stretch every dollar spent on fertilizer this year. University of Minnesota Extension nitrogen management specialist Fabian Fernandez says one option is polymer-coated urea. “That’s one type of nitrogen source that can be beneficial to minimize the potential for loss, but it is more expensive than urea.” Polymer-coated urea protects granules from early season N loss, meaning farmers might not need […]

A Northwestern Missouri farmer says it’s too cold and too dry to start planting. Richard Oswald tells Brownfield he wanted to start planting next week. “I took the soil temperature in the field I wanted start at, and it was 40 degrees at two inches.  Things aren’t really warming up.” He says he’s received a couple of quarter-inch rains, but that hasn’t added up to much. “We aren’t really seeing […]

The chief risk officer for Compeer Financial wonders how much the conflict in Ukraine might shift the scales of grain trade. Bill Moore tells Brownfield Ukraine represents about 15 percent of global corn exports. “While most of that is to Africa, the Middle East and China, we all know corn is a global commodity and like water, if you drain it in one place it will just flow and equalize. […]

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live and feeder cattle ended the day mixed, adjusting spreads.  June live cattle closed $.27 lower at $133.82 and August live cattle closed $.25 lower at $135.85.  May feeder cattle closed $.10 lower at $159.37 and August feeder cattle closed $.72 lower at $173.55.  It was a quiet end to the week for direct cash cattle trade activity following several days of light to moderate […]

May corn closed at $7.68 and 3/4, up 11 centsMay soybeans closed at $16.89, up 43 and 1/2 centsMay soybean meal closed at $468.20, up $8May soybean oil closed at $75.12, up 210 pointsMay wheat closed at $10.51 and 1/2, up 31 and 1/2 centsApr. live cattle closed at $137.82, down 17 centsJune lean hogs closed at $114.57, up 42 centsApr. ...

Planting is underway for an Eastern Kansas farmer. Lance Rezac says he started today. “(We) started planting corn. Our insurance date is here.  The ground is really dry and mellow and it’s working well.” He tells Brownfield there’s adequate soil moisture. “We got a couple of good snows in March that actually gave us moisture and we have some moisture to work with now,” Rezac says. “It is really dry.  […]