Ag Insights

July 22, 2024

Terrain analysts dissect news topics important to agriculture and weigh their significance for the sectors relevant to our Farm Credit customers. In this issue, our analysts

July 9, 2024

By Don Close, Chief Research & Analytics Officer In my conversations with cow/calf producers over the past year, they have voiced three primary explanations or concerns

July 9, 2024

Milk production has been essentially flat for the past three years, and 2024 is on track for another year at the same level, if not less.

July 9, 2024

“Milk production has been essentially flat for the past three years, and 2024 is on track for another year at the same level, if not less.

July 5, 2024

Juiced-Up Prices After many years of low returns for processing tomato growers, the combination of higher at-home food spending during the pandemic and lower-than-typical inventory pushed

July 2, 2024

After a slow start to the year, milk prices got a welcome boost after bottoming out in April. These prices are a big improvement from earlier

June 27, 2024

Situation The 2024 new-crop corn market rode a strong run from early March through May that was partly fueled by two types of weather concerns: not

June 27, 2024

Situation Avocado demand has seen an incredible boost in the last decade. Most of this increased demand, however, has been fulfilled by a surge in imports.

June 27, 2024

Persistently tight milk supply created an opportunity for strong exports to drive prices to new heights for the year. But the new price level could be

June 27, 2024

Following a period of steady expansion in the mid-2010s, vineyard values have flattened throughout much of the North Coast in recent years. Over the past year,

June 27, 2024

Situation Carcass weights began to climb during the first quarter of 2024 as Midwest cattle feeders held cattle to replace the weight lost during severe weather

June 27, 2024

In September, I wrote a Quarterly Outlook titled “Brazil Is Cotton’s Heir Apparent” that described the merits of Brazil overtaking the U.S. as the world’s largest

June 27, 2024

Situation: The realities of “higher for longer” interest rates have significantly added to the cost to carry inventory (inputs and outputs like grains). At the same

June 27, 2024

Situation Weekly barrow and gilt slaughter totals continue to trend lower from the peak set in late January. By late May, they were smaller by about

June 27, 2024

Election Won’t Erase Trade Volatility With China U.S. government policy has an important influence on grain and other agricultural markets. Take, for example, the ethanol boom

June 20, 2024

The Rural Economist – Spring 2024 One of the benefits of working in the Farm Credit System is working closely with and for American farmers. Since