A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

What I've Been Hearing About the Locust... The UN's Food & Agriculture Organization said recently that the number of locusts in East Africa could expand 500 times by June. The desert locust may be the most dangerous yet. From what I understand, just a single small locust swarm, if it comes into a farmer’s field in the morning, by midday it ...

Corn traders have all eyes on the USDA Ag Outlook numbers. The trade seems to be looking for a planted acreage number between 93 and 95 million with an average yield of around 176 bushels per acre and total U.s. new-crop production north of 15 billion bushels. If you want to compare the numbers from this past year, we planted ...

USDA in late January closed the public comment period on its interim final rule for hemp production but there remains a great deal of confusion about the guidelines as the 2020 growing season quickly approaches. Many growers viewed 2019 as an "educational opportunity" on many fronts. And a lot of those lessons were quite painful, like the destruction of crops ...

If you're thinking it's in Texas, Kansas or South Dakota, you're wrong! Deseret Ranches is located in Central Florida and belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). It is located about 50 miles southeast of the Orlando International Airport and 19 miles west of Cape Canaveral, Florida and spreads over the three central Florida counties ...

Plant-based protein demand is growing and while most people think vegans are the driving force behind it we actually have to thank the "flexitarians", those who switch between eating both meat and meatless meat. Flexitarians have multiple approaches to their diets, meaning some limit their meat choices to items that meet certain criteria like high welfare, locally sourced, or 100% ...

Fertilizer prices here at home had been moving lower for several months, but I've started noticing a few ticking higher compared to last month i.e. anhydrous and UAN32. I'm not sounding any alarms, but I do think we need to take notice and pay attention for a moment, especially with the coronavirus still brewing inside China. Remember, China is the world's largest producer ...

The little bit of snow and 50 miles per hour wind is going to shut everyone down for at least a few days. I wanted to further report on what we are seeing. When the guys first got out there and started picking corn, the moisture was around 20-21% and the test weight ranged from 47 to 48 pounds. The ...

Stock bulls are extremely happy to see the 10th record close for the S&P 500 and the 12th record close for the Nasdaq already in this new year. Bears continue to question how much higher the bulls can run amid the large degree of global economic uncertainty being generated by China's coronavirus outbreak. There does seem to be some growing optimism surrounding ...

As I wrote back on January 23rd, "This is somewhat unseasonal as most of the major lows in the natural gas market are generally not posted until March-April or even later in the calendar year during August-September. This is why some traders wonder if there's still a lot more room to the downside?" Now, three weeks later, prices are still ...

The first death was reported in China on January 11. By January  24 the World Health Organization (WHO) said there had been 25 deaths in China from the virus. Fast forward 18 days and there are now over +1,000 deaths and close to 45,000 infected. There have been reports circulating that the spread of the virus is slowing inside China, but ...