On Wednesday 4 March, USDA Secretary Perdue testified before the House Agriculture Committee on the state of the farm economy, following are a few highlights:
Production and input expenses (adjusted for inflation) are expected to increase year over year for the first time since 2014.
Farm debt is projected to grow to $425 billion, with about 62 percent ($265 billion) in real estate and about 38 percent ($160 billion) in non-real estate.
Debt to equity forecast to be at 13.59 in 2020 – the highest level since 2003.
Cash income is expected to drop in 2020; but that is based in part on higher cash income levels in 2019 from marketing crop inventories due to lower production.
In all, it is a tenuous economic...
What You Need to Know Today: Commodities were mostly lower across the board today after yesterday’s Federal Reserve meeting hinted at a potential interest rate hike later in 2026. The dollar index reached its highest level in over a year, and a strong dollar makes U.S. agricultural expor...
Tomorrow is the Juneteenth federal holiday, and the USDA, along with the rest of the federal government and the CME, will be closed, so the monthly Cattle on Feed report was released a day early. The total number of cattle on feed in feedlots with 1,000 head or more capacity on 1 June amounted...
