A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

We all know that the U.S. Midwest is the heart of farm country. In fact, in America’s midsection, nearly one-third of the population are farmers. Compare that to the coasts where only about one or two out of every 100 people work as farmers. Keep in mind, a farm is defined by the U.S. government as “any place from which ...
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Genetically modified mosquitoes are in the news again with new EPA permits making it possible the critters could be released in Florida and Texas this summer. Oxitec, the company behind the GM mosquitoes, was granted an experimental use permit to release millions of them into the Florida Keys and around Houston over the next two years in an effort to ...
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CORN bears are thinking the USDA could bump ending stocks higher in tomorrow's June report on another sizable reduction to ethanol demand. I've heard talk that the USDA will probably need to further reduce corn used for ethanol by -100 to -200 million bushels in the weeks ahead. Bulls are hoping that total U.S. production will eventually be adjusted lower ...
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Recently, the National Council of Real Estate Investment Fiduciaries (NCREIF) released its first-quarter 2020 results of the NCREIF Farmland Index, a widely relied-upon tool that includes data gathered from investment-grade U.S. farm properties. NCREIF uses the data to provide tools to institutional investors, giving them the ability to identify investment risks in the space, and the index has been increasingly ...
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Mink farmers in the Netherlands have been dealing with outbreaks of coronavirus but it's not the workers that are sick, it's the animals. Cases have been confirmed on at least nine mink farms since April and there are two instances where the mink may have passed the virus to humans. Of course the science is still out on all this ...
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Farmers have always helped their neighbors when needed and now some are putting acres towards helping out their communities after seeing long lines outside local food pantries and empty shelves at the stores as a result of the pandemic. There is a small but growing movement including several large row croppers who are not only bridging the huge gap between ...
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With record low-interest rates and a wave of fiscal stimulus in play the lack of new home inventory could spark a surge in new home construction. At the same time, timberland investments become a lot more interesting with lumber prices rebounding strongly and the housing market expected to hold up well the next few years as a greater number of ...
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Joel Ross began his career in Wall St. as an investment banker in 1965, where he handled public offerings, mergers & acquisitions, leveraged buyouts, and other corporate advisory matters for a variety of clients. During the seventies, he was CEO of North American operations for a UK based conglomerate where he acquired and oversaw six companies. He also sat on ...
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CORN bulls are pointing to a few uncertainties in the U.S. forecast and some companies using high-tech geospatial and remote sensing technology that are forecasting the early U.S. yield at between 172 and 175 bushels per acre vs. the USDA's current 178.5 yield forecast. Bulls also point to the continued talk of more unplanted acres shifting to soybeans or "prevent ...
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For the last six years, Nathan Verstuyft has been working on a top-secret crop project in Southwest Texas for America's top-selling hummus brand, Sabra. In partnership with seed breeding company Equinom, he's been working with Sabra to find a new sesame seed that can be grown in the U.S. to make the company's best-selling hummus. Now that they think they've ...
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