A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

*LAST VAN TRUMP REPORT UNTIL THURSDAY, JAN 2, 2025 – Due to the Christmas and New Year holidays, as well as the abbreviated trading sessions, I will not be issuing another morning report until Thursday, January 2nd. If something dramatic happens or I make a sizable adjustment to my portfolio or cash marketing strategy, I will update paid subscribers via a live ...
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Cocoa futures have had the best run of just about any asset class this year. Since the start of 2024, prices have climbed from around $4,200 to over $12,000, or more than +185%. That even beats Nvidia stock and Bitcoin! With global cocoa supplies at a 36-year low, poor outlooks for upcoming harvests, and consumers undeterred by sticker shock, some ...
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Kevin Van Trump and Andy Daniels sit down with Tom Willis to discuss current thoughts regarding the government shutdown, administration changes, trade war, biofuel, and policy changes for agriculture in 2025. There are also lots of other great topics discussed. This is an episode you don't want to miss before the New Year! ...
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A hatchery in Iowa recently celebrated the first chicks hatched from a batch that were sexed “in ovo.” The Hy-Line North America Iowa hatchery is said to be the first to use the non-invasive technology from Agri Advanced Technologies GmbH (AAT). Chicks from the hatchery were expected to go to their first customer – NestFresh Eggs – by Dec. 13, 2024, putting ...
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A nasty, nasty pest that poses a severe threat to the livestock industry has been working its way northward from South America. Eradicated from Central America, Mexico, and the U.S. over 30 years ago, the pest has made a rapid comeback in just the last couple of years. Known as "New World Screwworm" (NWS), the pests infest living tissue of ...
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Knowing more about your soil typically means more samples, more time, and lots more money. That is unless you see soil differently. You can thank the U.S. heading into outer space to retrieve some soil samples for the fact that EarthOptics is now at the forefront of transforming soil measurement and analysis. Back in early 2018, co-founders, Todd Martin and ...
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It’s an infuriating but accepted fact of farming that some amount of grain is going to be lost during harvest. Despite being ripe for improvement, new technologies designed to bring more efficiency to the farm had mostly overlooked this area, something that wasn’t lost on Marcel Kringe. With a background in ag engineering and agronomy, he came up with the ...
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The “Grain Weevil” is a life-saving piece of machinery designed to keep farmers out of grain bins. The company’s mission statement, “No Boots in the Grain,” is made possible with the Grain Weevil robot that does the dirty, dangerous work of managing stored grain.Grain Weevil has been creating buzz in the ag community since father-son team Chad and Ben Johnson ...
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The business of Christmas tree farming is like any other crop production operation, in that the opportunity to turn a profit revolves around a once-a-year harvest. Christmas tree farming carries some unique risks, too, not least of which is the seven to fifteen years between planting and maturity, an investment that can be wiped out in an instant by drought, ...
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Rural America is isolated from the outside world in a variety of ways, something that a lot of its residents no doubt consider a “perk.” That does not mean they are uninterested in what’s going on and how it’s impacting their communities, though. Often, real local news can only be found on the AM radio dial, including emergency alerts. But ...
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