Agricultural credit conditions in Illinois remain under strain, but there were some signs of improvement in the second quarter of 2025. Loan demand trends diverged between the state’s two Federal Reserve districts: the Chicago district continued to report net growth in demand compared to a year earlier, though at a slower pace, while the St. Louis district remained below the neutral level, indicating ongoing weakness.

Distiller’s dried grains are an important feedstuff in the U.S. DDGs often substitute for both corn and soybean meal in livestock rations. Because DDG prices are not as readily available as corn and soybean meal prices, it can be difficult to gauge the impact of DDG prices on projected feed costs. This article examines fluctuations in DDG prices since 2007, and related movement in DDG prices to movements in corn and soybean meal prices.

It’s been forty years since the Food Security Act of 1985 introduced conservation compliance to discourage wetland conversion to cropland and 35 years since the 1990 Farm Bill allocated funds for restoration of wetlands under the Wetland Reserve Program. Today, we will review a recent analysis of the impact of three decades of government-supported wetland restoration. The paper is the first large-scale empirical analysis of how the program has benefited local water quality and economies.

The analysis presented in this article demonstrates that the EPA’s recent trilogy of RFS decisions will have a substantial impact on D4 RIN generation requirements for 2026-2027. We use a balance sheet approach to project a 22 percent increase in D4 RIN generation — from an average of 7.84 billion gallons over 2023-2025 to 10.56 billion gallons for 2026-2027 — a large increase by any reasonable standard.

The harvest price discovery period for Federal crop insurance for corn and soybeans in the Midwest concluded on October 31st, 2025. Harvest prices are $4.22 per bushel for corn and $10.35 per bushel for soybeans. Both are below their projected prices. The corn harvest price is 10.2% lower; the soybean harvest price is 1.8% lower.

When thinking about the adoption of conservation practices, like cover crops, it is important to note two things. First, adoption rates have ebbs and flows. Second, sometimes conservation practices are disadopted. This article examines trends in the adoption of cover crops, cover crop experience, and percentage of acres planted to cover crops using data from the September Purdue University-CME Group Ag Economy Barometer (AEB) surveys for the last five years.

A new stopgap spending bill that would reopen the government includes a one-year extension of farm bill programs that were left out of a budget reconciliation bill earlier in the…

China will suspend retaliatory tariffs on U.S. imports, including duties on farm goods, after last week’s meeting of the two countries’ leaders, Beijing confirmed on Wednesday, but imports of U.S.…