Ag News

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, cattle futures ended the day higher ahead of widespread direct business in advance of Friday’s Cattle on Feed report. October live cattle closed $.62 higher at $113.07 and December contracts [Read More…]

An extension crops educator who toured storm-damaged southeastern Minnesota says strong winds caused heavy lodging in corn fields. Dave Nicolai with the University of Minnesota tells Brownfield he traveled from Wright County east to Nerstrand [Read More…]

Southeastern South Dakota farmer Dave Poppens looks forward to harvest but will have a longer wait on his farm near Sioux Falls. “We’ve had about six inches of rain in the last two days here,” [Read More…]

The USDA’s latest round of cattle on feed numbers was very close to pre-report expectations. Placements into feedlots during August were 2.070 million head, up 7% on the year, and mostly cattle weighing less than [Read More…]

I’m going to get all nostalgic here, recalling fondly the heyday of the House Blue Dog Coalition, a self-proclaimed caucus of conservative Democrats – consistently fiscally conservative, but verging moderate to liberal on some social [Read More…]

A corn and soybean farmer ready to begin harvest in south-central Minnesota was turned away by another bout of wet weather. Speaking to Brownfield Thursday, Bryan Biegler of Lake Wilson says excessive moisture has been [Read More…]

  Severe weather is responsible for some farm damage in southeastern Minnesota. Minnesota Ag Commissioner Dave Frederickson says thunderstorms moved from the Waterville area up through Northfield Thursday night, leaving a wake of destruction. “We’re [Read More…]

A southern Minnesota farmer in his sixth year using cover crops is seeing good growth this fall. Lake Wilson corn and soybean grower Bryan Biegler says he used a high-clearance sprayer to broadcast cereal rye [Read More…]

The return of wet weather to parts of the Upper Midwest could create late season problems for soybean farmers. University of Minnesota Extension soybean agronomist Seth Naeve says many bean acres have yet to reach [Read More…]

The USDA forecasts strong fiscal 2019 U.S. agriculture exports to all Asian countries except China.  The agency projects China’s imports of U.S. agriculture products to be down $7 billion from the 2018 forecast, but all [Read More…]

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, cattle futures closed mostly lower in a narrow range on light trade activity.  There has been some position squaring ahead of the Cattle on Feed report.  Feeder cattle were also [Read More…]

North Carolina’s state veterinarian says the loss of livestock from Hurricane Florence is minimal, “Ninety-nine percent of the animals in our state of North Carolina under production are healthy and well.” Dr. Doug Meckes says [Read More…]

U.S. red meat production during August was a new all-time high for the month 4.766 billion pounds. That’s up 3% on the year, with a 1% increase in beef production to 2.430 billion pounds and [Read More…]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated its Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) website Thursday to increase transparency surrounding the program, according to a news release from the agency. “For the first time, EPA is providing [Read More…]

An agronomist says recent hot, dry weather is speeding up the pace of corn silage harvest in the Eastern Corn Belt. “When we have this type of weather, the corn tends to dry faster than [Read More…]

The head of the Organic Trade Association says a private, industry-led organic checkoff will allow more flexibility within a program. CEO Laura Batcha tells Brownfield a mandatory organic checkoff was estimated to collect between $35 [Read More…]

The National Farmers Union is against the USDA’s proposed reorganization and relocation of the Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). In a letter to Sonny Perdue, NFU President [Read More…]

The USDA reports corn and soybean export sales for the week ending September 13th were above most pre-report estimates, while soybean products and wheat were generally within analysts’ expectations. Physical shipments of corn for 2018/19 [Read More…]

An agronomist says Indiana and Ohio are faring much better than Michigan when it comes to crop conditions in the Eastern Corn Belt. “Unfortunately in Michigan, we had areas that saw just a couple of [Read More…]

Top U.S. and Canadian negotiators are meeting again today as they try to resolve NAFTA trade differences. Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland described yesterday’s meetings with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer as “constructive”, but [Read More…]