PODCAST: An Economic Point of View - Will Sawyer of CoBank

This week on Market Digest Laura speaks with CoBank Lead Protein Industry Analyst, Will Sawyer. Will brings his expertise to the plate as they discuss holiday demand for protein items, protein supply, the beef complex, corn and soy inflation, and...

Delaying Commoditization of Plant Proteins 

One of the leading hurdles in maintaining and growing an agri-food business is that farmers and processors are inherently limited in their ability to differentiate food items purchased by the consumer. If someone presented you with two glasses of milk from completely different farms your ability to separate the two by taste, smell, or visual perceptions is generally quite limited. When producers sell homogeneous products like fluid milk, corn, or soybeans these products become categorized as commodities where market shifts affect all sellers irrespective of farm level operations. For this reason, producers of commodity goods must accept downstream prices which often offer extremely tight or “non-existent” margins. Therefore, the incentive to differentiate or de-commoditize products to...

USTR and USDA Release Report on Agricultural Trade Between the United States and China

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued a report highlighting the progress made to date in implementing the agricultural provisions in the U.S.-China Phase One Economic and Trade Agreement, which is delivering historic results for American agriculture.

Since the Agreement entered into force, the United States and China have addressed a multitude of structural barriers in China that had been impeding exports of U.S. food and agricultural products. To date, China has implemented at least...

Cargill to Advance Regenerative Farming Practices 

Cargill is supporting farmer-led efforts to adopt practices and systems foundational to regenerative agriculture practices across 10 million acres of North American farmland over the next 10 years.

The initiative will focus primarily on row crop rotations that include corn, wheat, canola and soybeans and other staple crops. Cargill expects these regenerative agriculture practices to benefit the long-term profitability and resiliency of farmers while simultaneously advancing the company's progress against its science-based climate commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in its global supply chains by 30 percent per ton of product by 2030. The initiative will also...

PODCAST: Go With the Grain – Glenn Smith on Feed Ingredients

Glenn Smith, Director of Feed Ingredient Procurement at Wayne Farms, returns this week to Market Digest! Laura and Glenn discuss the increased demand for protein items as...

Storm Impacts U.S. Corn Market

A derecho wind storm swept across the US Midwest on August 10, affecting millions of cropland acres in Iowa and surrounding states. At the same time, the western part of Iowa experiences a drought. The storm caused and/or will cause significant local/regional price volatility, quality issues, and storage challenges for this year’s Iowa corn crop. Local and national impacts vary greatly due to large stocks and bumper corn crops in states bordering Iowa and beyond. The derecho and the ongoing drought have put a bottom in the market and point to higher corn prices than the USDA’s projections for the 2020/21 crop year.

Derecho Crosses the Entire US Corn Belt

On August 10, a derecho storm ripped across the Midwest, travelling 770 miles in 14 hours from South Dakota to Ohio. The worst damage was reported in Iowa, where the USDA reported that 57 counties, representing 14.0m acres, incurred...

Study Quantifies Value of Red Meat Exports to U.S. Corn, Soybeans

Since 2015, indirect exports of corn and soybeans through beef and pork exports has been the fastest-growing category of corn and soybean use, delivering critical returns for corn and soybean farmers. These producers support the international promotion of U.S. beef, pork and lamb by investing a portion of their checkoff dollars in market development efforts conducted by the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF).

USMEF has released an updated version of the independent study aimed at quantifying the value red meat exports provide to U.S. corn and soybean producers. The original study was conducted in 2016 with updates also released in 2018 and 2019. Key findings from the latest version, which utilizes 2019 export data, include...

Weather Poses Significant Risk to U.S. Corn Crop Entering Critical Pollination Phase

After last year's delayed start to the season, planting of the 2020 U.S. corn crop brought with it quite a bit of optimism for producers across the Heartland. Now, according to Planalytics AgriBusiness Weather group, that optimism may have tempered somewhat as a combination of hot, dry conditions have taken hold from the Dakotas south to Missouri and east to Ohio.

"No sooner did seed get in the ground when an unusually cold pattern set up that continued through the first two weeks of May", says Jeffrey Doran, Planalytics AgriBusiness Meteorologist and Director, Specialized Support and Services. "Sub-freezing temperatures were reported as far south as the Missouri Valley and Mid-South regions that slowed crop development. By the end of May, the pattern reversed itself bringing surges of strong heat that have continued into June. Unfortunately, precipitation has been hit or miss with...