The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making significant changes to the Livestock Indemnity Program, providing additional financial protection for livestock producers who suffer eligible animal losses. Administered through USDA’s Farm Service Agency, the Livestock Indemnity Program, or LIP, helps compensate producers when livestock deaths exceed normal mortality because of eligible weather events, disease, or predator attacks. One of the biggest …
U.S. Peanut Federation Supports Securing Ag Workforce Act
The U.S. Peanut Federation has been working with the chairman of the House Ag Committee on the labor legislation that will provide some help at the farm level or all across the industry. It’s called the Securing Ag Workforce Act, which addresses key challenges for the peanut industry, such as broadening eligible H-2A activities to include the following key industry …
StoneX Report Shines Light on Prices Under Pressure
StoneX Commodities released an 80-page report recently providing insights in how they see markets performing in the third quarter. StoneX third quarter outlook shows corn and soybean prices remaining under pressure, especially later in the quarter with ample supplies heading into harvest. Wheat, they say, can be firm to a bit higher amid tight supplies here and also in Europe. …
Northwest Territory Settlement Opened the Door to American Agriculture
The settlement of the Northwest Territory marked one of the most significant turning points in the history of American agriculture. Following the American Revolution, the young United States looked westward for opportunities to expand farmland, establish new communities, and strengthen the nation’s economy. The organization and settlement of the Northwest Territory laid the foundation for agricultural growth across what would …
Monthly Crop Report Affected by Weather
Tomorrow’s monthly crop report could be pushed aside by changing weather forecasts. The July report historically can be a non-factor, always squeezed between the quarterly stocks and final acreage numbers that come at the end of June, and the August report that for the first time is based on actual field surveys and not computer models. That report, by the …
Midwest Barns Grew Alongside America’s Expanding Family Farms
Early Midwest Farms Evolved Beyond Survival As settlers established permanent farms across the American Midwest during the 1850s and 1860s, their priorities shifted from simply surviving on the frontier to building prosperous, long-lasting agricultural operations. According to Mark Oppold’s American Agriculture History Minute, once a farm became firmly established, many farm families invested in constructing newer and larger homes that …
How Eli Whitney’s Cotton Gin Revolutionized American Agriculture
A Simple Conversation Sparked One of America’s Greatest Agricultural Innovations Innovation has always played a vital role in American agriculture, and few inventions transformed farming more dramatically than the cotton gin. What began as a simple conversation between a struggling farmer and a mechanically gifted college student ultimately changed the course of American agriculture forever. According to Mark Oppold’s American …
Peanut Crop Condition Update
The National Ag Statistics Service, the USDA, says the U.S. peanut crop condition is 1% very poor, 6% poor, 34 fair, 54 good, and 5 excellent as we get to July the 7th. Checking on the states, Georgia is showing 62% of their crop is pegging down. That’s the five-year average at 63. They said the peanut crop has improved …
ACA Looks Forward to Upcoming July Meetings
We caught up with Erin Beasley of the Alabama Cattlemen’s Association (ACA) to hear more about their upcoming meetings. “Well, we want our membership to know that we’ve got another set of summer regional meetings that will be taking place this month. We have July the 9th, that will be our Black Belt regional meeting right there in Valley Grand, …
Weather Forecast Up for Debate
Weather forecasts front and center in the grain trade here at midweek, but U.S. and European weather models disagree going forward. Bottomline grain analysts suggest that commodity fund traders have been looking for any reason to go long in this market, and weather was the reason this week. Now, there’s a catch. European weather models show a hot, dry August …










