A recent farmdoc daily article discussed a number of automation and precision agriculture technologies that will be increasingly used in production agriculture. The adoption and use of these technologies will require additional expertise and skills of managers and the workforce…

The USDA released the 2021 Prospective Plantings report on March 31st. The report indicated that U.S. farmers this year intended to plant 91.444 million acres of corn, 87.6 million acres of soybeans, and 316.2 million acres for all principal crops.…

Agricultural carbon markets exist through privately and publicly owned companies with aim to reduce carbon emissions through trade of carbon units sequestered at the farm level. The sale of carbon credits presents an opportunity for farmers to receive financial benefits…

Brazil’s corn production has increased over the past two decades because of the increased production of second crop corn, also known as the safrinha, or “little harvest” in Portuguese. Over the past 20 years, the second crop corn production has…

Recent farmdoc daily articles have discussed the importance of new technologies to crop agriculture, the value and role of information in the adoption of technologies, and possible payoffs for precision farming. This article explores trends in automation and robotics in…

Farm bills, like most legislation, contain policy experiments.  Usually they are small pilot programs or a variation on existing programs.  Some experiments evolve into larger programs or become the standard program.  A current farm bill experiment is the price of…

Los Angeles Times writer David Lauter reported last week that, “President Biden, saying the U.S. has ‘significantly underinvested in core public services,’ will ask Congress for a 16% boost in annual spending for a range of domestic programs, the White…

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve Board released its April 2021 Beige Book update, a summary of commentary on current economic conditions by Federal Reserve District. The report included several observations pertaining to the U.S. agricultural economy.

Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that, “China imported a record amount of meat in March on supply concerns as hog herds in the world’s biggest pork consumer struggled to recover from African swine fever.”

Last week, Bloomberg writer Andy Hoffman reported that, “Agricultural commodities are poised for a “mini supercycle” as China’s rampant demand keeps supplies tight, according to the head of a key Cargill Inc. trading unit that’s seeing its best results in…

Last week, Reuters News reported that, “Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday reduced pork import tariffs as the government seeks to address a domestic shortage by ramping up purchases from abroad.”

This week, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) released its 2020 U.S. Agricultural Export Yearbook, a statistical summary of U.S. agricultural commodity exports.  Today’s update includes highlights from the report, with a focus on soybeans, corn and pork.