Farmers Being Targeted by Phony USDA Requests

Farmers around the nation, including some in Indiana, have recently been targets of a scam in which they are being contacted via mail or in-person visits by someone who claims to be a USDA official and requests personal and financial information.  More information on what to look out for and how to tell between phony and authentic USDA contacts, see the recent article from Hoosier Ag Today. 

Old Books and Bugs

That rite of the post-winter season - spring break - has come and gone. Again! This year we visited Arizona. We didn't attend a spring training baseball game but did do some other things.

We toured a copper mine at Bisbee. We stayed overnight at the Shady Dell. Our accommodation was a restored 1950s vintage travel trailer, complete with '50s music on the radio. We walked a bit in the Saguaro National Park, west of Tucson. We stopped at Patagonia Lake State Park, an area frequented by Geronimo some years back. <Read More>

Weekly Outlook - March USDA Reports and Beyond

Corn and soybean prices continue to be influenced by a wide range of fundamental factors. Currently, those factors include prospects for the rate of economic growth and commodity demand in China, prospects for the size of the current South American crop, and prospects for the 2012 growing season in the Northern Hemisphere.

The USDA’s March 30 Grain Stocks and Prospective Plantings reports will also provide important fundamental information for both markets. Anticipating the level of March 1 stocks has become increasingly difficult over the past year or more. For corn, the difficulty lies in the erratic levels of implied quarterly feed and residual use since the spring of 2010. Stocks reports since then have provided a number of surprises. In the newsletter of March 5 some estimates of corn consumption during the December-February quarter this year and implications for March 1 stocks were outlined. A case can be made for stock levels in a wide range, but inventories within a few million bushels of 6.35 billion bushels would be consistent with the USDA’s projection of feed and residual use for the year.  <Read More>

Weekly Outlook - Corn Yield Prospects

With 2011-12 marketing year-ending stocks of U.S. corn expected to be near pipeline levels, the size of the 2012 crop has substantial price implications. Acreage intentions will be revealed in the USDA’s March 30 Prospective Plantings report, but much of the current discussion centers on prospects for the U.S. average corn yield.

Widely differing views of yield prospects for 2012 have emerged. A number of factors may contribute to the diverse views, but four have received a lot of attention. These include (1) the timing of planting, (2) the magnitude and potential change in the trend yield, (3) expected summer weather conditions, and (4) the location and magnitude of acreage changes. A brief discussion of these factors follows, with more detailed analysis to be provided in upcoming posts at farmdocdaily.  <Read More>