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Machinery Economics
Analyzes the cost of completing fieldwork and generates machinery costs.
Planting Decision Model
With this program, the user can: 1) estimate the costs of planting corn and soybeans by planting date, 2) estimate the net returns from replanting, 3) prevented planting payments, and…
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Latest farmdoc Daily Articles
Illinois Agricultural Credit Conditions: 2024 Q4
The data series in the Federal Reserve District Surveys of Agricultural Credit Conditions compiles selected statistics from quarterly surveys conducted by participating Federal Reserve Districts. These surveys collect responses each…
Additional Thoughts on 2025 Crop Insurance and Farm Program Decisions
The deadline to finalize 2025 crop insurance decisions is now less than a week away (March 17th). The harvest futures contracts for corn (December) and soybeans (November) have moved below…
The Financial Efficiency of Illinois Grain Farms: Interest Expense Ratio by Farm Size
While the ERS projects a 3.7% ($19.8 billion) rise in farm sector debt in 2025, anticipated declines in interest expenses and other input costs may alleviate pressure on farm balance sheets. Our analysis of Illinois grain farms reveals that while large farms have historically reported higher interest expense ratios, all farm sizes have shown similar trends over the past two decades. Larger farms tend to utilize debt more extensively, resulting in slightly higher interest expense-to-gross income ratios.
Contingency Planning with Cash Flow Shortages
A contingency plan is a course of action designed to help a business determine how to respond to possible future events. Common contingency plans used by a business relate to how to respond to the departure or absence of key personnel and how to respond to changes in projected cash flows. Given the expected drop in crop prices this fall, it would be prudent for a farm to examine the sensitivity of their cash flow and repayment capacity to changes in crop prices.
Consumer Concerns about Tariffs and Food Prices
Grocery prices play a large role in the public’s perceptions of inflation. In this article, we discuss public expectations for the impact of tariffs on food prices from the most recent wave of the Gardner Food and Agricultural Policy Survey and changes in tracked measures of public expectations about inflation. In summary, we find that the majority of respondents across political parties expect tariffs to raise their food prices and are worried about the impact on their grocery bills.
2024 Ethanol Production Profits: Regression to the Mean?
The U.S. ethanol industry entered 2024 coming off one of it’s best three-year periods of profitability since 2007. However, the price of ethanol plunged late in 2023, leading to questions about the outlook for profits in the coming year. The purpose of this article is to estimate the profitability of U.S. ethanol production for the 2024 calendar year and assess whether the industry returned to the lofty profits of 2021 – 2023 or regressed towards the long-run mean level of profits.
Latest Farm Policy News Articles
Canada May Hit US Ethanol With Retaliatory Tariffs
Reuters’ Jarrett Renshaw and Arathy Somasekhar reported Tuesday that “Canada could impose non-tariff measures such as restricting its oil exports to the United States or levying export duties on products…
Tariffs Threaten Shift to Higher Corn Acres in 2025
Bloomberg’s Kim Chipman reported late last week that “President Donald Trump’s slew of tariffs means American farmers may not make that big shift to corn after all. Growers were widely…
USDA Planning to Terminate Leases for Dozens of FSA, NRCS Offices
AgDaily reported last week that “the U.S. Department of Agriculture has begun listing planned lease terminations to impact 59 Farm Service Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service offices as part…
Trump Delays Some Mexico, Canada Tariffs, Lowers Potash Duty
Agri-Pulse’s Oliver Ward reported that “President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Thursday postponing tariffs for products arriving from Mexico and Canada that are covered by a North American…
USDA Ordered to Reinstate 5,000+ Probationary Workers
Bloomberg Law’s Courtney Rozen reported Wednesday that “thousands of Department of Agriculture employees terminated under the Trump administration will return to their positions for now, after an independent commission said…
U.S. Company BlackRock Buying Panama Canal Ports
Somewhat overshadowed by yesterday’s busy day of tariff news, the Associated Press’ Didi Tang and Alex Veiga reported that “a Hong Kong-based conglomerate has agreed to sell its controlling stake…