An economist with CoBank is not expecting any relief from tight fertilizer supplies and high prices. Kenneth Zuckerberg tells Brownfield, “More questions than answers at this point for the global fertilizer complex.” Zuckerberg just released an analysis on the industry, and he tells Brownfield he’s expecting fertilizer supplies to be adequate for now. “As of now, we’ve spoken with a lot of CoBank clients, and the co-ops appear to be […]
Farmers are mindful of extreme volatility as they develop marketing plans. For corn and soybean grower Mark Enninga in southwest Minnesota, he’s offsetting input purchases with crop sales and locking in margins. “That’s the best way that I can do that.” The Nobles County farmer tells Brownfield he’s also preparing for an eventual downturn in commodity prices. “Conserving cash and making sure I’ve got my powder dry for opportunities to […]
More than a dozen Iowa farms sustained damage as severe weather moved across the state Tuesday night. Iowa State Climatologist Justin Glisan tells Brownfield there were four EF1 tornadoes, two EF2’s, and two EF0’s. “So on the less extreme scale, but those EF2’s are significant (because) you can have 111 to 135 mile-per hour winds. So we had one EF2 go through Gilmore City, and we had 13 farms that […]
At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live cattle were mostly lower and feeder cattle were lower on profit-taking, watching corn, and waiting for any clean-up trade to trickle in. June live cattle closed $0.45 lower at $136.42 and August live cattle closed $.32 lower at $138.32. May feeder cattle closed $.17 lower at $161.77 and August feeder cattle closed $.07 lower at $174.35. A quiet Thursday for direct cash cattle trade. […]
It will be at least another two weeks before Thumb-area farmer Dennis Gardner is able to do any fieldwork. “We’re a little bit heavy soils so it’s definitely wet here,” he shares. The Yale farmer tells Brownfield this is the week he prefers to start to planting sugarbeets but that’s not the case this year with still more rain in the forecast. “I think the majority of the beets are […]
An ag economist says global harvested acreage has been trending higher since 2020’s better prices. David Widmar with Ag Economic Insights tells Brownfield the world has added about an extra 70 million acres into production for 13 primary crops in just two years. “That’s a significant upturn,” he says. “The last two big expansions we had were during the 1970s and from the mid-2000s to about 2014.” For perspective, he […]
The CEOs of the four major US meatpackers have agreed to participate in an upcoming House Agriculture Committee hearing on cattle markets. Chairman David Scott says it is very important to hear the perspectives of the CEOs of Cargill, Tyson Foods, JBS, and National Beef Packing to understand the full picture of why prices have gone up for consumers and down for farmers and ranchers. The hearing will take place […]
Larry Lee will cover the University of Wisconsin River Falls Ag Day Tuesday, April 19, 2022 in River Falls. ...
Corn was the bright spot in the latest Export Sales report from the USDA. Net sales of more than 1.2 metric tons (MT) were up 70% from the previous week and up 26% from the prior 4-week average. Increases were primarily for China. Rice was also up noticeably from the previous week and up 33% from the prior 4-week average. Beef export sales for the week were up 23% from […]
