economy

In 2016, many farmers were able to break even only because they had such large yields, record yields in some cases.   USDA Chief Economist Rob Johannson says that will likely be the case for 2017 as well, and it’s hard to keep relying on that.   “...

USDA Deputy Undersecretary for Trade Ted McKinney just completed a week-long trip to Colombia and Panama to survey how U.S. ag exports have succeeded in the two countries.   He said free trade agreements five years ago have brought U.S. e...

USDA’s forecast of agriculture exports is showing a little bit of drop from fiscal year 2017 to 2018.   Deputy Chief Economist Warren Preston says the primary cause of a $500 million expected drop is corn.   “We are projecting the value to be down from 2017 at $8.5 billion versus almo...

The fifth round of NAFTA renegotiations wrapped up last week and will now take a break through the holidays with the next meeting in late January in Montreal.   U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has been very frustrated with the process so far.  ...

A new report by the National Farmers Union says that farmers will take only 11.4 cents out of every dollar, on average, spent on Thanksgiving food.   The data was released in the Thanksgiving edition of NFU’s Farmers Share publication, and includes turkey farmers getting just five cents of every dollar spent on turkey, wheat farmers getting six cents on every dollar for rolls and dairy producers g

Farm labor issues have plagued many throughout the industry and the future of getting workers onto fields and farms is murky.   Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue said he’s optimistic and understands how important this issue is to producers.   “...

A survey by the American Bankers Association and FarmerMac of 350 lenders involved in agriculture held some dire and troubling results.   They were similar to what Doug Thiessen of Alabama Ag Credit told a Congressional Committee.  ...

The U.S. Trade Representatives has released a list of objectives for NAFTA renegotiations, including maintaining reciprocal duty-free markets for U.S. farm and food goods, eliminating non-tariff barriers to U.S. ag exports, updating and strengthening rules of origin, and greater regulatory compatibility...

Concerns over low commodity prices have hurt not only the farmer, but the farm lending industry as well.   Nathan Kaufman of the Federal Reserve Bank spoke to a Senate Ag Committee last week.   “Alongside the reductions in farm income the past four years, agricultural credit conditions have weakened steadily and farm real estate values have trended lower.”   Profi...

Agriculture exports from the U.S. had declined for three straight months prior to March which saw a $1 billion bump in value over February.   USDA Trade Economist Bryce Cooke said March saw $12.4 billion in ag exports, and the first half of the fiscal year is up 15 percent versus last year.  ...