Corn Acres May Not Fall As Much As Forecast
USDA's last Crop Progress report shows 92% of corn is now planted and 77% of soybeans. Farmers from across the midwest are weighing in on those numbers asking what 92% really means.
During an interview with AgDay's Clinton Griffiths, Sam Hudson of Cornbelt Marketing stressing that planted acres are an unknown.
"Well until we see an actual printed number from USDA you almost have to focus on just the production potential in general," says Hudson. "As opposed to [here's] what I think acres are and that's where I think yield could be."
What Will Happen to Corn Acres?
Arlan Suderman: USDA Should Have Never Released June Acreage Report
The hype leading up to USDA’s June Acreage Report was met with a bearish reaction in corn on Friday. USDA published a corn acreage number of 91.7 million acres. The farmer survey results were higher than the acreage number USDA released in its last crop production report, coming as a shock to the trade.
However, analysts say the late-planted crop means acreage surveys as of June 1 are already out of date.
“This report probably never should have been published due to the extenuating circumstances,” said Arlan Suderman of INTL FCStone on U.S. Farm Report.
USDA admitted the numbers are out of date. Buried in Friday’s report was USDA announcing it will resurvey corn acres in 13 states, planted acreage of soybeans in 14 states and cotton in Arkansas. Those findings will be released in August.
What Will the August Report Say?
New Wind Farm to Operate in Southeastern New Mexico by 2020
A new wind power generating farm is coming to southeastern New Mexico, bringing turbines and transmission lines.
San Diego-based EDF Renewables recently announced that construction on the Oso Grande Wind Project will start this year and the farm will fully operate by the end of 2020, the Carlsbad Current-Argus reports .
The project by EDF Renewables and Tucson Electric Power between will consist of 61 turbines in Chaves, Eddy and Lea counties.
Learn About the New Project.
Louisiana Cotton Acres Shrinking
The 2019 USDA-NASS Prospective Plantings Report estimated cotton acres in Louisiana would increase from 195,000 acres in 2018 to 260,000 acres this year.
Planters started rolling in fields across the Bayou State the last week in April, and by the middle of June, the majority of producers had finished — or so they thought. “Like so many other parts of the country, Louisiana has endured an excessive amount of rainfall so far this year,” says Dr. Dan Fromme, professor, state specialist, cotton, corn, and grain sorghum, Dean Lee Research and Extension Center, in Alexandria, La. “Replanting was prevalent across certain parts of our state because of all that rain, and the problem was compounded by all the water making its way toward us from the north via the Mississippi River.”
What Does the Future Hold for Cotton?
Jerry Gulke: USDA Reports Provide More Questions than Answers
To say there was a surprise in the June 28 Acreage report is best depicted in the December corn chart below. For the week ending June 28, corn was down 21¢ and soybeans were down 5¢.
Last week’s chart showed the completion of the weather market right on schedule, the turning negative technically with even the 3-5-9 moving average turning over negatively.
The USDA report Friday initially came out first with a stocks figure in corn that looked bullish but it was only part of the story reporting first the on-farm stocks, NOT total on and off-farm stocks sending corn 17¢ higher only to see the rest of the story of the report showing intentions of 91.7 million planted acres versus the average trade guess of 86.7 million acres. It was the 86.7 guess that lead me to believe a train wreck was coming and that traders knew not what they were talking about.
Read Jerry's Thoughts.
ASFMRA Joint Comments to ASC Regarding ND Waiver Request
ASFMRA joined the Appraisal Institute, the American Society of Appraisers, the Massachusetts Board of Real Estate Appraisers and the Northstar Chapter of the Appraisal Institute in a letter to the Appraisal Subcommittee (ASC) urging the ASC to deny the State of North Dakota’s request for a waiver of appraisal credentials. The ASC has set a hearing date on the waiver request on July 9th. You can read the joint letter
here.
House Reviews State of Appraisal Industry
On June 20, 2019 the House Financial Service Subcommittee on Housing Community Development and Insurance held an oversight hearing entitled: What’s Your Home Worth? A Review of the Appraisal Industry. Witnesses were David Bunton, President of the Appraisal Foundation, Stephen Wagner on behalf of the Appraisal Institute, Jeff Dickstein on behalf of the Real Estate Valuation Advocacy Association, Andre Perry with the Brookings Institute and Joan Trice with Collateral Risk Network. You can read their written testimony
here and watch a replay of the hearing
here. A significant portion of the hearing focused on Mr. Perry’s work on discrimination in the housing market.
Residential Appraisal Threshold Reminder
A reminder that the proposal by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to increase the residential threshold from the current $250,000 to $400,000 for residential mortgage transactions has not been implemented to date. The proposal was issued in January of this year and comments were provided on the proposal in February. To date, no action has been taken by the financial institutions to finalize their proposal.
House Passes Agriculture Appropriations Bill
Last week the House passed its second minibus of bundled appropriations bills. Agriculture was on that bus and there were no harmful floor amendments to crop insurance offered or considered. The House expects to complete most FY 2020 spending bills with one exception, Homeland Security.
The Senate has done nothing so far with regard to FY2020 appropriations. It is waiting on a spending agreement to occur between the White House and Congress. That agreement is not close, although discussions are ongoing.
The federal fiscal year ends September 30. That basically leaves 3 weeks in July and 3 weeks in September when Congress is in session for Congress to complete the 11 spending bills. The likelihood of timely completion is very low at this point. In the past,
Congress has passed a Continuing Resolution to avoid a government shutdown. At this point, that appears to be the likely outcome for FY 2020 appropriations.
Additional Cover Crop Guidance Released for 2020
The 2018 Farm Bill mandated changes to the treatment of cover crops for USDA programs to add more flexibility when cover crops must be terminated while remaining eligible for crop insurance.
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Risk Management Agency (RMA) developed new guidelines and policy provisions to enact these changes, which will be available beginning with the 2020 crop year. RMA issued
MGR-19-017 to implement the cover crop changes.
NASS Releases 2017 Census Data by Congressional District
The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released summarized 2017 Agricultural Census data last week by Congressional district. A set of
tables shows the ranking of the various Congressional districts by different sets of criteria. For example, Nebraska’s third congressional district (Rep. Adrian Smith) ranks first in
total farm producers and number of farms, followed by Iowa’s fourth district (Rep. Steve King). You can view the Congressional district maps by State
here.
Farm Service Agency Announces CRP Signup
Farmers and ranchers with expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts may now re-enroll in certain CRP continuous signup practices or, if eligible, select a one-year contract extension. The Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) 52nd signup for CRP runs from June 3 to August 23.
FSA stopped accepting offers last fall for the CRP continuous signup when 2014 Farm Bill authority expired. The 2018 Farm Bill reauthorized the program this past December. This year’s CRP continuous signup includes such practices as grass waterways, filter strips, riparian buffers, wetland restoration and others.
View a full list of practices approved for this signup. FSA is still planning a CRP general signup in December 2019, with a CRP Grasslands signup to follow.