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USDA sets spring crop insurance prices
As spring planting gears up across the country, the Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency has determined crop insurance prices for 2026. Faith Parum, an economist with the American Farm Bureau Federation, has details on three major crops. Parum said these are slight changes from what farmers saw in spring 2025. Parum said farmers have a stronger safety net this year, thanks in part to the updates in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act. For more information, visit...
Farmer’s Business Network helping farmers to secure crop inputs
Making a crop plan and purchasing inputs for next growing season can be a difficult task.Global supply chains were heavily disrupted during the Covid-19 pandemic, but those supply lines are making a slow recovery. In the agriculture world there are some ag inputs that...
Former USDA-FSA Director gives his take on Congressional shift
With the Midterm elections nearly a month behind us, we know that Congress will look a little different next January. Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and Democrats took outright control of the Senate. This means bipartisanship or continued...
Senators Ernst, Grassley push to bring E15 certainty to the pump
WASHINGTON ? U.S. Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), members of the Senate Agriculture Committee, joined a bipartisan group of Midwest senators on a push to expand the year-round sales of E15 nationwide. The Consumer and Fuel Retailer Choice Act...
Farmers need to be proactive when fighting tar spot
Tar spot has continued its invasion of Iowa in 2022. The invasive disease that was first found in the eastern corn belt several years ago has continued its westward trek into the state of Iowa and was found throughout the state this year.Rod Jurgens, a farmer from...
South American Weather and Crop Update (11-29-22)
Once again, the weather in South America is favorable for Brazil, but it is still very dry in Argentina. This means that Brazil is anticipating a great crop, while Argentinian farmers are hoping they can get a crop in the ground at all. Allendale commodity broker Greg...
Premium diesel helps farm machinery last longer
One of the secrets for a healthy life is to provide good fuel for your body. The same is true for machinery as well. Farmers depend on a lot of high-end machinery to get their jobs done every day, so they know the importance of having clean, efficient fuel that will...
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Grassley says US Navy should help ensure black sea grain traffic
A senior U.S. Senator says the U.S. should send part of its Navy to the Black Sea to ensure freedom of navigation for Ukraine grain shipments, now threatened by Russia since it pulled out of the Black Sea grain deal.Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says the U.S. should...
USDA: food inflation mostly lower in 2023 compared to 2022
Retail food prices increased 4.8 percent in the first six months of 2023, lower than the rate of midyear inflation in 2022, of 8.2 percent. USDA’s Economic Research Service reports the 20-year average for midyear inflation from 2002 to 2021 was 1.6 percent. All food...
New alliance promoting benefits of carbon capture for rural America
There are great debates happening about the environment and how we should proceed to make things better. That debate has gone on in the way we are managing our soil health, how we handle spraying the products we need to maintain our crop health. Now, there is a great...
Feenstra joins letter to USTR on Brazil?s ethanol tariff
Earlier this year, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Chamber reinstated an import tariff on American ethanol shipped to Brazil. Prior to this announcement, American ethanol exports to Brazil had been duty-free since March of 2022. Now, there is a 16% tariff rate on ethanol...
Feenstra joins letter to USTR on Brazil’s ethanol tariff
Earlier this year, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Chamber reinstated an import tariff on American ethanol shipped to Brazil. Prior to this announcement, American ethanol exports to Brazil had been duty-free since March of 2022. Now, there is a 16% tariff rate on ethanol...
