Soybeans

In 2020, the Illinois Soybean Association set out to reposition the organization with one goal: “To get back to our roots.”

Matt and I were married in 2012. On Oct. 11, 2013, Matt’s father took his own life. We had been married a mere 13 months and suddenly had to navigate both being young and newly married and taking over the family farm, hog and cattle operation.

With the last five or so days of July-type weather most all the crops got planted in a hurry and much has emerged looking great. Here, though, our organic corn and soybean seed is still in the bag.

Well, the grass and forage has really taken off. Last Monday, May 9, I clipped forage samples from the current lot and the field I would be going into. Everyone talks about the “spring flush” and its washy grass.

The Consumer Price Index, a gauge of inflation, hit a 40-year high last month, and most economists expected the same report this week to show an improvement. In fact, there was nary an economist or analyst that was not looking for some improvement and easing of inflation.

Field trials of a new cover crop, CoverCress, are in its third year at the Illinois State University Farm and multiple benefits are being realized as intended.

A decline in world and U.S. wheat stocks and an unexpected early move away from the trend-line corn yield provide some bullish fodder when the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s supply and demand estimates were issued.

A first look at the next marketing year balance sheets that included the potential impact of Ukraine crop production due to the Russian invasion was released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

One of the more confounding political riddles pundits love to debate is how Democrats “lost” rural America. If the past month is any indication, however, it looks less like the Dems lost rural America and more like they are just lost in rural America.

Farmers were encouraged by strengthened commodity prices, but are still worried about high cost inflation, according to the Purdue University/CME Group Ag Economy Barometer.

An old saying about the grain markets that can be etched in stone as being perfectly accurate is: “A corn crop is made or broken in July and a soybean crop in August.” A corn plant tassels in July and a soybean crop flowers in August.

Concerns over tighter margins despite higher crop prices were common across the Federal Reserve districts in the latest Beige Book survey.

The strength with most commodity markets early this week was wildly bullish. But the weakness seen with most of those same markets at the end of the week was bearish.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that incentivizes increasing blends of biodiesel. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Patrick Joyce, D-Essex, and Rep. Eva Dina Delgado, D-Chicago, extends the current B10 sales tax exemption until 2023.

Building soil organic matter is important to farmers for several reasons, including sequestering carbon and increasing crop yields.