Agriculture News
Federal Reserve: Observations on the Ag Economy- January ’17
Illinois Farm Policy News | Posted on January 22, 2017Richmond– “Reports on agricultural activity in recent weeks were mixed. A South Carolina farmer indicated that improved weather conditions after Hurricane Matthew allowed crops to dry out enough to be harvested; yields, however, were down markedly from historical averages. A Maryland contact said that the fall harvest finished early, which allowed grain farmers to get moderately better prices than growers in the Midwest. Dairy farm consolidation continued and milk production was stable due to technology enhancements. Agriculture investments rose slightly for light equipment while large equipment sales remained weak.”
Atlanta– “Agriculture conditions across the District were mixed. By the end of November, much of the District was categorized as experiencing severe to exceptional drought conditions. December rains brought some relief, although parts of Alabama and Georgia remained classified in severe or extreme drought categories and dry conditions expanded through most of Florida. The USDA again designated many counties in the District as natural disaster areas due to damages and losses attributed to the drought. Florida’s December orange forecast was unchanged from November, remaining below last season’s production. On a year-over-year basis, prices paid to farmers in November were up for cotton, soybeans, and broilers, but down for corn, rice, beef, and eggs. In light of poor pasture conditions caused by the drought, livestock producers using corn for feed benefited from low corn prices.”
Beef Checkoff Suit Could be a “Test Case”
Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation | Posted on January 22, 2017A lawsuit in Montana is grabbing the attention of checkoff boards across the country. The Rancher-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund sued the Montana state beef checkoff council in May, asking a federal court to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting the council from spending federal checkoff dollars on advertising unless the state cattle producers paying the fees agree to it. This past fall, a magistrate heard arguments from both sides, and in December he made an official recommendation to the federal judge to stop the council's advertising spending without cattlemen approval. The checkoff council filed objections to the magistrate’s recommendation for preliminary injunction on December 23, 2016. R-CALF replied on January 5, 2017. The federal judge will make the official ruling after reviewing the relevant pleading and the magistrate’s recommendation.
Utah ranchers forming LLC in innovative grazing plan
Capital Press | Posted on January 22, 2017Ranchers in northern Utah are consolidating their grazing permits and livestock to implement rest rotational grazing across 10 allotments and 136,000 acres. The project aimed to demonstrate good stewardship, switching to rest rotational grazing across 136,000 acres, consolidating 3,200 cows into two herds of 1,600 and facilitating three summer bands and four winter bands of sheep. The allotments allow 17,218 AUMS, and the plan is to rest about 20 percent of range annually. An AUM is the amount of forage needed to sustain one cow and her calf, one horse, or five sheep or goats for a month. The management principles incorporate duration of grazing, season of use and grazing intensity, focused on animal and plant health. Most of the fencing to facilitate a large-scale pasture system already existed, but improvements to the water system were needed.
Purdue's 2017 Agriculture Outlook Not Encouraging
Purdue.edu | Posted on January 22, 2017Welcome to our 2017 Agricultural Outlook. It’s a new year that will bring opportunities and challenges for agricultural industries. While no one can accurately predict the future, it is our mission to help you understand the major economic drivers of the agricultural economy in 2017. That begins with a new administration in D.C., which is expected to immediately pass an economic stimulus package to accelerate economic growth. That should have some positive impacts for U.S. agriculture but what about the strength of the U.S. dollar, and expectations for higher interest rates and higher inflation? Speaking of the new administration, there was more anti-trade rhetoric this election season than has been around for a long time. Trade is a foundation of the U.S. agricultural economy. Are we moving into a more protectionist era and shifting away from globalization? Farm incomes are depressed and the theme of the 2017 outlook is for a continuation of low farm incomes from both crop production as well as the animal industries. In these articles we give you a commodity-by-commodity evaluation. How long will this downturn last? What does it mean to the financial position of the Ag sector? It’s all right here for you to read
Perdue invests $12 million investment in composting
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on January 22, 2017Perdue Farms announced it has expanded its $68 million investment in nutrient recycling on Delmarva with the addition of a $12 million capital investment in a composting operation. The AgriSoil composting facility, which started operation next to Perdue AgriRecycle’s organic fertilizer plant in Blades, Del., increases the company’s capacity to handle surplus poultry litter from Delmarva chicken farms and adds the capability to recycle other agricultural by-products that were previously land-applied.
To win Trump's deal backing, Bayer made a new $8B-plus pledge. But how new is it?
Fierce Pharma | Posted on January 19, 2017Bayer’s $66 billion Monsanto takeover has plenty of critics. But thanks to an $8 billion R&D pledge, it has one key backer: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. On Tuesday, Bayer and Monsanto said that their respective CEOs—Werner Baumann and Hugh Grant—had a “very productive” meeting with Trump and his team, resulting in a pledge to promise $16 billion or more in agriculture R&D over the next six years, with at least half of that coming in the U.S. Analysts are skeptical that the companies' promises offer much in the way of new investment; after crunching some numbers and checking facts, Bernstein analysts don't think so. But Trump's ability to take credit for those promises can't hurt the companies' chances at winning antitrust approval for their controversial deal. Some of those pledges sound familiar to analysts, though—including Bernstein’s Jeremy Redenius, who told the news service that “St. Louis to remain the headquarters of the North American seeds business has been the plan from the start.” Redenius questioned the R&D vow, too, noting that, broken down, $16 billion over six years is about $2.7 billion per year—or what Bayer and Monsanto together spend in that field already. And half of it is likely already happening in the U.S., he figures, with Monsanto spending the majority of its annual $1.5 billion in its home country and Bayer chipping in some stateside R&D investments, too.
Manitoba announces historic investment in food processing
Manitoba News release | Posted on January 19, 2017The Manitoba government and Roquette today announced a historic investment in the province’s food-processing industry, confirming the France-based company’s plans to build a new, $400-million pea-processing facility near Portage la Prairie. Premier Brian Pallister and Agriculture Minister Ralph Eichler were joined by Edouard Roquette, Roquette’s chairman and Jean-Marc Gilson, Roquette’s CEO, as well as many industry partners for the announcement made at the Legislative Building on Global Pulse Day. Once open, the facility is expected to create approximately 150 jobs with an estimated annual payroll of around $9 million, the premier noted. The facility will help to better serve customers in North America and globally with high-value nutritional choices including vegetarian foods and high-protein sport nutrition products, he added. Construction is expected to begin in the Rural Municipality of Portage la Prairie before the end of 2017, Roquette said. Roquette is committed to working with local contractors, skilled trades and professional service providers, with approximately 350 full-time jobs anticipated during the project’s two-year design and construction phase, he added.
Rural Mainstreet Index Highest in Six Months:
Creighton University Economic Outlook | Posted on January 19, 2017Survey Results at a Glance: For a 16th straight month, the Rural Mainstreet Index remained below growth neutral though the index advanced to its highest level since June 2016. Farmland prices declined for the 37th straight month. Bank CEOs expect loan defaults to rise by 5.6 percent over the next 12 months. This estimate is up slightly from 5.4 percent recorded in July of this year. Bankers expect holiday sales for Rural Mainstreet retailers to expand by a scant 0.4 percent over 2015 levels. States with December Rural Mainstreet expansions: Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota; States with December Rural Mainstreet contractions: Colorado, Kansas, Illinois, Missouri, North Dakota and Wyoming, and Minnesota.
As Pot Prices Plunge, Growers Scramble to Cut Their Costs
Bloomberg | Posted on January 19, 2017The increasing supply of legal marijuana is turning into a major buzz kill for growers as prices plunge -- and an opportunity for companies that can help cut production costs. Prices are tumbling as formerly illicit cultivators emerge from the shadows to invest millions of dollars in massive pot factories. In Colorado, the average price sought by wholesalers has fallen 48 percent to about $1,300 a pound since legal sales to all adults started in January 2014, according to Cannabase, operator of the state’s largest market. Supply is surging as growers expand and install the latest agricultural technology. “Anybody that is investing in this sector or starting a business in this sector needs to be doing so with the understanding that the price of cannabis is going to drop precipitously,” said Troy Dayton, chief executive officer of Oakland, California-based Arcview Group, a marijuana investor consortium. “The agricultural technology space is already booming, and now they get to lay their hands on the cannabis industry.”
Mink Fur Crime: Nicole Kissane Lands In Prison For Freeing Animals From Farms
International Business Times | Posted on January 19, 2017
An animal rights activist in Southern California was sentenced to 21 months in prison Tuesday for performing an anti-fur crusade throughout the country that included vandalizing clothing stores with the word “murderer.” Nicole Kissane, 30, began sweeping the country on her anti-fur campaign on July 14, 2013, in San Diego, California, when she and her boyfriend vandalized a clothing store named Furs by Graf. After painting the word “murderer” on its façade, the couple shattered its windows, sprayed acid inside of it and jammed its door locks with glue. They then went to the Graf family home, where they sprayed painted similar phrases and destroyed the family’s vehicle with paint stripper and acid. Kissane and her partner in crime, Joseph Buddenberg, later took to the rest of the country, where they performed other acts of vandalism associated with animal rights in Montana, Idaho, Minnesota, Iowa, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Their transgressions included freeing one bobcat and roughly 5,700 minks that were held captive on farms. U.S. District Judge Larry Burns for the Southern District of California sentenced Kissane to a prison term three months longer than what the prosecutors recommended because he found the offenses to be a “calculated, premeditated campaign of terror.” Buddenberg was sentenced to 24 months in prison in May 2016 after striking a plea deal with the court. Attorneys involved in the case told local reporters that Buddenberg received a longer prison sentence after the court learned he played a larger role in the nationwide campaign than Kissane.