News

The director of the Livestock Marketing Information Center, Katelyn McCullock, discusses what's going on in the cattle markets:  she points to the boxed beef trade as the lead influencer in the markets in the weeks ahead, and he goes over the LMIC's new analysis of the hay market, and where hay prices may be headed as winter approaches.

The senior economist with the IGP Institute at K-State, Guy Allen, offers an in-depth view of current international grain trade, and where U.S. grain sales stand in that global market. He considers the new USDA world grain supply and demand numbers which were released last Friday, and couples those with his own observations on developments abroad from his extensive contacts around the world, as he talks about the outlook for U.S. sales of corn, soybeans, grain sorghum and wheat.

On the latest edition of FSA Coffee Talk, farm program specialist Todd Barrows of the Farm Service Agency relays some of the finer details of the USDA's Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, phase 2...especially with regard to program eligibility and payment limitation rules. He also talks about changes in the commodities that qualify for CFAP 2 benefits.

Also, Robin Reid follows up with a preview of a special webinar from K-State on October 8, in collaboration with the Kansas FSA, which will provide participants even more in-depth information on CFAP 2. She also talks about the now-finalized farm program payments levels for 2019 crop production from the Price Loss Coverage program option, as those payments are now being distributed to enrolled producers.

K-State agricultural economist Jisang Yu and Ed Perry talk about their recent study, which linked increases in growing-season temperature to yield risk for corn and soybeans, and then tied that to the potential impact on crop insurance premium rates...they used local crop insurance "cause of loss" data to arrive at their findings.

K-State agricultural economist Terry Griffin talks about a new tool that he has developed for estimating farmland value for a given year using the current value of that land...using annual value indexes for every year since 1950, the user can determine the tax liability of farmland transactions.

K-State agricultural economist Gregg Ibendahl and Terry Griffin talk about a new online tool that farmers can use to calculate farm machinery costs...as input for making machinery purchase decisions, as a basis for comparing lease vs. purchase options, or for weighing the choice of custom hiring an operation instead of investing in equipment...they say it's an easy-to-use tool that can provide very useful information.

K-State agricultural policy specialist Jenny Ifft talks about current trends in non-traditional agricultural financing...an aspect of agricultural lending that she says deserves greater attention in the farm management arena. She spoke on this topic at the recent K-State Risk and Profit Conference.

K-State agricultural economist Gregg Ibendahl reviews his new outlook on Kansas net farm income for 2020 and 2021, as presented at K-State's Risk and Profit Conference last week...he talks about changes in farm revenue and expenses this year, compared to the 2019 Kansas Farm Management Association numbers, and he outlines why 2021 could be a better year for farm income in the state.