On Wednesday of this week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) will release its “score” of the farm bill baseline. That is the cost projection of the farm bill programs to date and their continuation. It will be a fundamental driver for the federal budget and a benchmark of how much money will be allocated for the 2023 farm bill. Farm bills authorize programs in two spending categories: mandatory and discretionary. While both types of programs are important, mandatory programs usually dominate the farm bill debate. Programs with mandatory spending generally operate as entitlements, and the farm bill provides mandatory funding for programs based on multiyear budget estimates (baseline).
Mandatory funding provides fu...
What You Need to Know Today: Crude oil prices extended their rally today, supported by several developments, including escalating Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian oil infrastructure and growing concerns about supply disruptions. The Trump administration is reportedly preparing to remove 50 perc...
Key Takeaways: The agricultural trade surplus has become a sizable deficit: the balance swung from a $40.1 billion surplus in 2011 to a $40.7 billion deficit in 2025. Imports kept growing while exports lost momentum: between 2020 and 2025, agricultural imports increased 45 percent, compa...
USDA released its October Cattle on Feed report Friday, showing 11.4 million cattle in feedlots with capacity for 1,000 head or more, slightly below last year. September placements were the lowest for the month since records began in 1996, marking the third consecutive month of placements sett...
Total Red Meat & Poultry September 2026 total red meat and poultry stocks totaled 1.97 billion pounds, down 1.4 percent from August despite typically increasing 0.8 percent during the month, and were 1.5 percent below September 2025 levels. The decline pushed total inventories to a new five...
