Connect on Social Media
Crop Insurance Decision Tool
This program calculates premiums, evaluates insurance payments, and provides historical data useful when making crop insurance decisions for multiple crops. Estimates are for crops in midwest and southeast states.
Recent Features
Visit farmdoc Sections
Planting Decision Model
Farm Projection Tool
2019 Budgets For All Regions
2020 Budgets For All Regions
Latest farmdoc Daily Articles
Trends in Working Capital
Introduction Working capital represents the liquid funds that a business has available to meet short-term financial obligations. The amount of working capital a business has is calculated by subtracting current liabilities from current assets. Current assets include cash, accounts receivable,…
Hog Inventory Down but Breeding Herd Up from Last Quarter
The USDA’s June Hogs and Pigs report places the June 1 inventory of all hogs and pigs at 72.5 million head, down just slightly from last quarter and almost 1% lower than a year ago, consistent with pre-report expectations. Likewise,…
Effective Reference Price – Past and Future
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 initiated an escalator clause for the farm safety net’s reference price. We evaluate how this escalator would have influenced payments by the Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program from 2014 forward, the first crop year…
Are Illinois Agricultural Retailers Increasing their Margins for Anhydrous Ammonia Over Time?
Periods of high nitrogen fertilizer prices bring scrutiny to firms who make nitrogen fertilizer and retailers who sell nitrogen fertilizer. There are four major nitrogen fertilizer companies in North America (see farmdoc daily, April 5, 2022). Typically, agricultural retailers and…
What Do We Know About Revisions to USDA Planted Acreage Estimates?
The USDA released the 2022 Prospective Plantings report on March 31st. The report indicated that U.S. farmers this year intended to plant 89.5 million acres of corn, 91.0 million acres of soybeans, and 317.4 million acres for all principal crops. …
Public Perception of USDA Spending: Gardner Survey Results, Part 4
The US Department of Agriculture funds a wide range of programs in the food and agricultural system – from food assistance to crop insurance. Most of USDA’s programmatic budget (80%) is mandatory, required in statutory provisions reauthorized roughly every five…
Latest Farm Policy News Articles
Wheat, Corn Prices Tempered- Easing Global Food Cost Concerns
Yusuf Khan and Will Horner reported in today’s Wall Street Journal that, “Fine farm weather and a rush of Russian grain ships through the Black Sea have taken the sting out of global wheat prices, a welcome sign for vulnerable countries…
Grain Markets at a “Pivot Point,” Global Food Security Could “Take Years” to Return, as War and Weather Hurt Supplies
Bloomberg writers Kim Chipman, Eleanor Song, and Tarso Veloso Ribeiro reported yesterday that, “Global grain markets are at a pivot point, with prices finally starting to ease after a dizzying surge earlier this year.”
Policymakers Ponder Russian Sanctions that Minimize Food Inflation, as Some See Improving Ag Supply Outlook, Lower Prices
Alan Rappeport reported in today’s New York Times that, “As the United States and Europe contemplate their next rounds of sanctions to starve Russia of the revenue that is funding its war, there is growing concern that the fallout is…
Diplomats Address Deepening Food Crisis, While Romanian Agriculture in Focus; Egypt Trims Wheat Imports
Missy Ryan reported in Saturday’s Washington Post that, “Top diplomats urged swift global action on Friday in the face of a mounting food crisis, as the war in Ukraine worsens conditions that have pushed millions of people into hunger.”
Ukrainian Farmers “Feeling the Heat” of Fighting as Harvest Begins
Thomas Grove reported in today’s Wall Street Journal that, “The wheat on Pavlo Sergienko’s 7,400-acre farm is ready to harvest.”
Russian Forces Targeted Two North American-Owned Grain Terminals in Ukraine
Alistair MacDonald, Bojan Pancevski and Drew Hinshaw reported in today’s Wall Street Journal that, “Russian forces targeted at least two large North American-owned grain terminals in the Ukrainian port of Mykolaiv on Wednesday, as part of what Kyiv and Western…