Deciding what to plant the last several years has been easy, but it will be quite different in 2014 based on the current market outlook.I was at a farm management meeting in central North Dakota early this week and one of the topics was the 2014 crop budgets. Obviously, the bottom line for most farmers in 2014 will not be nearly as good as what we've had the past three-four years for several reasons including:
Much lower new crop prices Steady or, in fact, still rising land and cash rent values Some moderation in input costs, but nothing significant yet
Deciding what to plant the last several years has been easy. Every crop showed big returns per acre. What to plant came down to rotational issues, planting dates, etc. It will be qui...
As predicted, the Federal Reserve held rates steady at the last meeting before the midterm elections, likely in part because of the election (see WPI 19 October and 22 September). The decision comes at the tail end of a midterm election cycle that has been marked by the two parties campaigning...
Key Takeaways: WPI’s new EU rapeseed crushing margin models point to weaker processing returns over the next four months due to higher rapeseed procurement costs and weaker product values. Statistical forecasts call for German crushing margins to decline from €181/MT to €...
Key Takeaways: The tariff burden rose sharply in 2025 and 2026: the effective rate on imports in HTS Chapters 1–24 increased from 1.53 percent in 2024 to 6.11 percent in 2025, before averaging 5.68 percent in January–August 2026. Headline rates tell only part of the story: exemptio...
