Survey Gauging Impact of COVID-19 on Ohio Agriculture

COVID-19 has caused many disruptions to daily life, agriculture and the entire food chain. The global pandemic has resulted in negative consequences for every sector of Ohio’s food production system in a vast amount of ways.

With the help of insightful conversations with members about what they are experiencing on their farms as well as what they are seeing in their agricultural community, Ohio Farm Bureau has left no stone unturned. Those discussions have shed light on immediate issues members are realizing, as well as their concerns about the long-term burdens their livelihoods may shoulder because of the coronavirus outbreak. Farm Bureau has put in countless hours on many fronts to find answers for those affected.

To take efforts a step further, Ohio Farm Bureau created a Farm, Food and Agribusiness COVID-19 Impact Survey. The goal of this survey is to gauge, in a broader scope, the uncertainties and concerns being felt across Ohio agriculture. Continue reading

Soybean and Corn Export Outlook

By: Todd Hubbs, farmdoc daily (10):68, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

As the focus turns to the planting season and markets adjust to the new realities associated with the pandemic, export markets continue to reveal consumption information relevant to price formation during 2020.  Exports will play a significant role in determining prices in both corn and soybean markets moving forward.

Continue reading

OSU Extension Farm Office is Open!

Ohio State’s campuses and offices are closed. But we are all working away at home, and our virtual offices are still open for business. Starting April 6, the OSU Extension Farm Office Team will open our offices online and offer weekly live office hours from 8:00-9:30 pm EST.

We’ll provide you with short updates on emerging topics and help answer your questions about the farm economy. Each evening will start off with a quick 10- to 15-minute summary of select farm management topics from our experts and then we’ll open it up for questions and answers from attendees on other topics of interest.

Who’s on the Farm Office Team? Our team features OSU experts ready to help you run your farm office:

Peggy Kirk Hall — agricultural law
Dianne Shoemaker — farm business analysis and dairy production
Ben Brown — agricultural economics
David Marrison — farm management
Barry Ward — agricultural economics and tax
Each office session is limited to 500 people and if you miss our office hours, we’ll post recordings on farmoffice.osu.edu the following day. Register at https://go.osu.edu/farmofficelive. We look forward to seeing you there!

Ohio Receives Malt Barley Endorsement

Source: Ohio Corn and Wheat

Ohio Corn & Wheat is excited to announce that efforts for Ohio to receive a Malt Barley Endorsement (MBE) have been successful. We are pleased to share that the Malt Barley Endorsement was voted on, and approved, by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation to include 35 counties in the state of Ohio. Eligibility begins starting with the 2020-2021 crop.

Counties included in the Malt Barley Endorsement include: Allen, Butler, Champaign, Columbiana, Crawford, Darke, Defiance, Delaware, Erie, Fairfield, Fayette, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Knox, Licking, Lorain, Lucas, Madison, Mahoning, Marion, Miami, Ottawa, Pickaway, Preble, Putnum, Ross, Sandusky, Shelby, Trumbull, Union, Wayne, Wood, and Wyandot. Continue reading

Age of US Farmers: Is the Wrong Issue Being Addressed?

By: Carl Zulauf, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics, Ohio State University

The older age of US farmers remains a topic of interest (Kurtzleben; Stone).  This article thus revisits the farmdoc daily article of October 23, 2013, updating it with 2017 Census of Agriculture data.  It is also a condensed, more focused version of a forthcoming article in the Handbook of Rural Aging.  A key point is that US policy should focus more on helping older farmers remain active, high performers.

Average Age:  As of the 2017 Census of Agriculture, US farmers averaged 57.5, 9.7 years older than the first average age reported in the 1945 Census.  The 2017 average is however 0.8 years younger than in the 2012 Census.  Only the 1978 Census also had an average age that was more than 0.1 years younger than the prior census (50.3 vs. 51.7 in the 1974 Census).  Both declines are associated with multiple-year periods of farm prosperity (1973-1980 and 2007-2013).  (See Data Note 1) Continue reading

Farm Bill Decision Deadline Fast Approaching

By: Chris Zoller, Mary Griffith, Ben Brown, OSU Extension

Enrollment in the 2018 Farm Bill programs (PLC, ARC-CO, and ARC-IC) ends on March 16th.  If you do not enroll by this date you will default to the election you made in the previous Farm Bill and receive NO PAYMENTS for the 2019 program year.  This same election holds true for 2020.

As a reminder, PLC is a price protection/income loss option that covers declines in crop prices and the ARC-CO program is an income support option based on county-level benchmark revenues and guarantees compared to actual revenues.  For those with prevent planted acres, the ARC-IC program may be worth consideration.  ARC-IC issues payments when individual crop revenue is less than the guarantee and uses individual yields, rather than the county yields. Continue reading

2020 Soybean Price Prospects

By: Todd Hubbs, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics University of Illinois. farmdoc daily (10):29

Soybean prices put in a moderate rally last week. An outlook for a large South American soybean crop and uncertainty of the impact on economic growth associated with the evolving coronavirus situation hang over U.S. soybean demand scenarios moving forward.  Expanding soybean acreage in 2020 looks to test the prospects for lower ending stocks despite stronger Chinese buying. Continue reading

Strategies for Using ARC-IC

By: Gary Schnitkey, Krista Swanson, Nick Paulson, Jonathan Coppess, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics University of Illinois; Carl Zulauf and Ben Brown, Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics Ohio State University

Strategies for evaluating Agricultural Risk Coverage at the Individual level (ARC-IC) are discussed in this article given that 2019 farm yields are known and can aid in making decisions.  We suggest estimating 2019 ARC-IC payments for each FSA farm and then ranking them from the highest to lowest payment level.  Since combined farms may not have the same payment as separate farms, we suggest evaluating combining farms beginning with the highest level and working the way down the list.  This procedure focuses totally on 2019 payments and ignores 2020 payments.  The decision to enroll in ARC-IC based on what is known for 2019,  introduces the risk of receiving a 2019 ARC-IC payment while not getting a 2020 payment that may occur when choosing ARC at the county level (ARC-CO) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC). Continue reading

Corn Consumption Showing Improvement

By: Todd Hubbs, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics University of Illinois

Uncertainties regarding the potential trade deal and coronavirus outbreak remain as negative forces for commodity markets.  Corn prices came through the difficulty relatively well over the last couple of weeks.  March corn futures prices continue to bounce around in a range between $3.75 and $3.95 seen since mid-December.  Over this same period, consumption in some key use categories for corn picked up substantially and corn basis remains strong.

Corn exports remain behind last year’s pace.  A recent uptick in export sales offers the promise of increased exports in the second half of the marketing year.  In the previous three weeks, net export sales came in at 39.6, 48.6, and 49.1 million bushels, respectively.  These net sales totals mark the first time all marketing year of three consecutive weeks over one million metric tons.  Total commitments as of January 30 sit at 897 million bushels. Continue reading

USDA Issues Third Tranche of 2019 MFP payments

Source: USDA, Ohio Ag Net

At the direction of President Donald J. Trump, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced the third and final tranche of 2019 Market Facilitation Program (MFP) payments aimed at assisting farmers suffering from damage due to unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations. The payments will begin to show up in farmers’ bank accounts by the end of this week.

“It’s been a great start to 2020 for American Agriculture with the signing of the historic Phase One Deal with China and the signing of USMCA,” said Secretary Perdue. “While these agreements are welcome news, we must not forget that 2019 was a tough year for farmers as they were the tip of the spear when it came to unfair trade retaliation. President Trump has shown time and again that he is fighting for America’s farmers and ranchers and this third tranche of 2019 MFP payments is proof. President Trump is following through on his promise to help and support farmers as he continues to fight for fair market access just like he did with China.” Continue reading