Planting delays start to add up as the calendar rolls past mid-May. This week View From the Cab farmers talk about planting progress.
The week of May 19 we'll be summarizing the 2024 hard red winter wheat tour, keeping a close eye on the continuing spread of bird flu in dairy herds and watching another active weather pattern move across the central Corn Belt.
Overall, after scouting 449 fields across Kansas this week -- and some into neighboring Nebraska and Oklahoma -- the total weighted average yield for the 2024 hard winter wheat tour was estimated at 46.5 bushels per acre, a 55% increase from 2023 and the fourth-best predicted average in the past decade.
The GPS-battering solar storm that interrupted planting 2024 last weekend may soon return. But if farmers watch for alerts, there are things they can do to manage its impact.
The House Republican farm bill raises reference prices more, allows all producers to obtain new base acres and makes other, bigger improvements to the farm safety net than the Senate framework that has been released. The House will push to markup the bill in committee next week. The 942-page bill outlines programs and authorities at USDA for roughly $1.4 trillion in spending over the next decade.
Mental health services are often fewer and farther between in rural areas than in urban areas, but they can still be found with some extra effort and knowledge of how to navigate the system.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission filed a civil enforcement action against Texas-based Agridime. The company allegedly conducted a $191 million Ponzi scheme that included fraudulently selling securities in cattle contracts.
Nationwide, corn planting reached 49% complete and soybean planting reached 35% as of Sunday, May 12. Winter wheat conditions were rated 50% good to excellent, unchanged from the previous week.
Average retail prices for six of the eight major fertilizers were slightly higher the last week of April 2024 compared to last month. Two fertilizers, potash and anhydrous, were slightly lower in price. No fertilizer saw a significant price move.
Overall ethanol production in the United States averaged 954,000 barrels per day (bpd) in the week ended April 19.