More than most industries, agriculture, because of its connection to the natural world, its essentiality to sustaining life, and its importance to the rural economy, is overseen by government policy the world over. In the United States, the institutions that may spring to mind in this context are most often Federal in nature, including entities…
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Every year, on March 31st the USDA releases its prospective plantings report – the first official glimpse into where acreage will shake out for the coming year. The report is based on grower surveys performed in the first two weeks of March and the timing of its release is a function of fairness, i.e. everyone…
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It is no secret that the US agricultural sector has undergone a difficult past few years. Going into 2018 prices were low as part of the natural ebb and flow of a commodity cycle that is largely dictated by market fundamentals of petroleum as well as the strength of the US dollar. While most seasoned…
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Since record-keeping began in 1851, the daily probability for a named storm being present in the Atlantic Basin peaks on September 10th. While that day has come and gone, and the state’s agricultural interests dodged a bullet in Hurricane Dorian the Atlantic hurricane season does not end until November 30th – making now a good…
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On January 6th, 1995 a man named McArthur Wheeler, wearing no mask, robbed two Pittsburgh area banks in broad daylight, along with an accomplice. Images captured by bank security cameras showed the would-be robber holding a gun to the teller and in April of that year were shared on the 11 o’clock news. Tips came…
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There are only four countries that export significant amounts of commodity soybean products – the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. Although Brazil recently surpassed the United States in terms of production, with a growing world population, hungry for protein, there is no getting around the fact that the world needs US soybeans. In summer…
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Looking at a map of soybean production nationally, it is clear that production is concentrated in the Midwest, Northern Plains and Mississippi Delta. In this same map, North Carolina stands out as an island of production, or, for those sticklers for geography – the southernmost part of an archipelago of production, on the Eastern Seaboard.…
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Driven, by historically tight stocks, the prospect of a third La Nina in South America and rapid inflation spurred by historically cheap money, CBOT soybean prices surged through the spring and settled into an elevated plateau marked by pricing volatility typical of the summer months. After reaching a record high of $17.69 per bushel on…
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The name of the game among producers in commodity markets is to support prices by winding down stocks. In this blog post we begin by exploring this relationship and then illustrate the lengths that producers, should, in theory, go to achieve tight stocks. In short, the relationship between ending stocks and price is often so…
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The last several months have ushered in some exciting developments for North Carolina soybean exports. In January, Scoular announced they would be building a high-speed container loading facility at Wilmington, a reflection of the compelling economics of containerized exports from NC, and the culmination of a series of meetings and conversations between the Nebraska-based company…
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For many years, the agricultural sector has tried to connect with its customer base by highlighting the ways in which scientific advancements and improved farming practices with the use of new technology like steam generator and energy-efficient emergency boilers, as well as conveyor systems from companies like cir.net/custom-manufacturing-conveyor-systems/ have contributed to a global food supply…
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Over the past two years, the US agricultural sector has been hit by a trade war with China (April 2018-present), the global disruption of African Swine Fever (August 2018-present), a series of hurricanes beginning with Florence (September 2018), and flooding in the corn belt (June 2019) all aggravated by a strong dollar that has made…
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