Agriculture News
New Iowa Law Makes Keeping Farm Together Easier
DTN | Posted on September 6, 2018No family wants to end up in court arguing over how inherited farmland will be divided. It's even more discouraging when one owner wants to keep the land, but the court orders all the owners to sell. Iowa just passed a law in 2018 that allows a way to equalize the property without a sale. The result: Person(s) wanting to sell can get cash out, while owner(s) preferring to keep the family farm are not forced to sell. Only 10 other states have a similar law: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and South Carolina.In most states, disputes between owners who inherit land and cannot agree on how to split the property often end up with the court ordering a "partition by sale." Then the proceeds from the sale are proportionally divided among all the owners.Alternatively, a more congenial way to divide property is "partition in kind" where the parcels are physically divided to carve out a separate piece for each owner. Then each owner can do what he or she wants to do with the individual pieces of land. However, it is difficult sometimes to divide the land into equal portions or the parties are opposed to the land being divided this way.
Bayer vague on lawsuit strategy
Daily Yonder | Posted on September 6, 2018It’s been two weeks since the merger between Bayer AG and Monsanto officially began its integration, two months since the deal closed and nearly two years since the planned deal was announced. Despite that, newly appointed Bayer officials are vague on how they plan to handle the mountain of lawsuits inherited from Monsanto over pesticides such as glyphosate and dicamba. These lawsuits have plagued Monsanto, most recently in an August 10 court decision that ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages. But at the Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa, Wednesday, Brett Begemann, Bayer’s new chief operating officer and former Monsanto executive, was non-committal on the newly integrated company’s approach. “First of all, remember we’ve been together eight days,” said Begemann, referring to the mandate by the U.S. Department of Justice that disallowed the two companies from making any plans until August 16. “We continue to learn, just like any company, from feedback from our customers. We’ll continue to listen to that feedback, engage in that conversation, look at additional research, and move on from there.”
Agriculture Uncertainty
OFW Law | Posted on September 6, 2018The agriculture industry in the U.S. is dealing with a lot of uncertainty. Falling prices and trade wars top the list. We expect our exports to grow faster than our imports. However, for 3 years in a row, that has not been happening. We are losing ground. Looking to 2019, pork exports are expected to decline by $300 million and beef by $100 million.A little bit of good news – poultry will be up slightly, and also wheat. Net farm income is forecast to drop $9.8 billion. Pulling everything down more than anything else – you guessed – soybean exports, which are expected to drop $800 million.Yes – the trade war has been very disruptive for our industry. But part of the price decline problem is self-inflicted. We are expecting a record crop of corn and soybeans. Our feed lot supplies of beef have jumped up almost 8%. Hog numbers are up 3.4%. Who is going to consume all of this food if we can’t expand exports?
Bayer says more Americans are alleging Monsanto weedkillers cause cancer
Wall Street Journal | Posted on September 6, 2018Bayer said the number of American plaintiffs alleging its recently acquired weedkillers cause cancer has risen sharply, adding to concerns about potentially lengthy and costly litigation stemming from its acquisition of Monsanto. The German chemicals company on Wednesday also lowered its full-year earnings outlook because of delays in closing its $63 billion purchase of Monsanto, which included a portfolio of herbicides that contain glyphosate, notably flagship product Roundup.Bayer said it faced some 8,700 plaintiffs across the U.S. as of late August—mainly cancer patients who claim to have fallen ill after being exposed to the glyphosate-containing Monsanto herbicides. As of late July, the number of plaintiffs stood at about 8,000, up from 5,200 a few months earlier.
US dairy struggles to keep Chinese market under tariffs
Agri-Pulse | Posted on September 6, 2018U.S. dairy exporters are losing money as they try to maintain their hard-won footholds in the Chinese market amid the rising tariffs resulting from President Donald Trump’s trade war. Some U.S. exporters – sellers of relatively low-cost nonfat dry milk powder – have already had to give up, but many who depend on China to buy whey, cheese and other pricier products are hanging on for now, says U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) President and CEO Tom Vilsack.It’s a tough situation that’s only degrading as U.S. companies lose ground to competitors in Australia, Europe and New Zealand.
Fifteen states want Supreme Court to rule on state livestock standard laws
The Progressive Farmer | Posted on September 5, 2018The attorneys general of 15 states are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a pair of cases by Missouri and Indiana against California and Massachusetts over what they see as a violation of interstate commerce by trying to regulate agricultural production in other states. Missouri and Indiana both led court challenges against laws in California and Massachusetts that seek to stop the sale of livestock and poultry products from other states based on farm standards set within their own state lines.California's law involves standards for egg-laying hens on eggs to be sold within the state. Massachusetts law blocks the sale of eggs, pork and veal in the state based on confinement standards set by Massachusetts law.Whatever way the nation's high court treats the cases, the two cases and state laws will help determine whether the federal government has final say on food and animal-welfare standards and whether states have authority to regulate the treatment of animals outside their borders when it comes to food sold in their states.
U.S. farm group would support supply management in NAFTA
The Food & Environment Reporting Network | Posted on September 5, 2018Agriculture amounts to a small part of NAFTA trade volume but it is a major sticking point for U.S. and Canadian negotiators who are scheduled to resume negotiations on the new NAFTA on Wednesday. The second-largest U.S. farm group said the White House ought to adopt the dairy supply management system that it reportedly is trying to eliminate in Canada and reinstate country-of-origin labeling on beef. Canada is unlikely to yield on supply management, which has broad domestic political support, wrote associate professor Michael von Massow of the University of Guelph. “If a concession is made, it is likely to be in increased access. Canada had already provided an increase in access in the TPP negotiations. This would seem to be an area of potential concession that would provide Trump with a ‘win’ for farmers and allow the Canadians to sustain their domestic program. It would not be without pain for the Canadian industry, but may be the path to an agreement.” President Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact within days of taking office.The National Farmers Union, after blaming NAFTA for favoring corporations, called for updates that would strengthen the rural economy. “However, improvements on behalf of American farmers and ranchers should not occur at the expense of farmers across the border,” said the NFU. “Indeed, the United States should take a page from Canada’s book and establish similar (supply management) policies to support American dairy farmers, who have been enduring chronic oversupply and critically low prices for a number of years.”
With industry in decline, wild blueberries sing the blues
AP | Posted on September 5, 2018The Maine wild blueberry industry harvests one of the most beloved fruit crops in New England, but it’s locked in a downward skid in a time when other nutrition-packed foods, from acai to quinoa, dominate the conversation about how to eat. And questions linger about when, and if, the berry will be able to make a comeback. The little blueberries are touted by health food bloggers and natural food stores because of their hefty dose of antioxidants. They’re also deeply ingrained in the culture of New England, and they were the inspiration for the beloved 1948 children’s book “Blueberries for Sal.” But the industry that picks and sells them is dealing with a long-term price drop, drought, freezes, diseases and foreign competition, and farmers are looking at a second consecutive year of reduced crop size.At Beech Hill Blueberry Farm in Rockport, this year’s harvest was off by about 50 percent, said Ian Stewart, who runs the land trust that manages the farm.North America’s wild blueberry industry exists only in Maine and Atlantic Canada, and an oversupply of berries in both places caused prices to harvesters to plummet around 2015. Recent years have brought new challenges, such as particularly bad spells of mummy berry disease, a fungal pathogen, and difficulty in opening up new markets.
Facing a glut, cranberry farmers want to dump part of the harvest so prices can rise
The Boston Globe | Posted on September 5, 2018Cranberry farmers buried under a glut of the tart fruit are seeking permission for a radical way to dig themselves out: destroying millions of pounds of their crops. After struggling with an oversupply of the berries for nearly two decades, growers around the country are asking the Department of Agriculture for authorization to sell 75 percent of the supply and discard the rest.With only a few weeks left before the Massachusetts harvest, the Cranberry Marketing Committee, made up of growers and handlers, is waiting for a USDA decision on whether the industry can cap the amount of berries produced.“It’s been tough. Overproduction is the bane and has been for cranberries in the last few years, and consequently we’re not getting much money for our crops,” said Jack Angley, owner of Flax Pond Farms in Carver, which is a member of the Ocean Spray growers’ cooperative. Angley is one of more than 300 growers in Massachusetts, which trails only Wisconsin in cranberry production. He and the rest of the industry are trying to reverse the painful cycle of rising inventories, lower prices, and disappearing profits.If the government approves their request, farmers would hold back 25 percent of the berries grown, or roughly 100 million pounds.
Corn to wheat, agriculture prices enduring near-perfect storm
Bloomberg | Posted on September 5, 2018Despite another bin-busting U.S. corn-belt production year, trade tensions and the plunging Brazilian real, grain prices are relatively stalwart. For prices to sustain lower, it appears the near-perfect bear-market storm conditions need to endure — that’s unlikely. Led by wheat, the Bloomberg Grains Spot Index is up almost 2% in 2018 to Aug. 28. Broad agriculture is down almost 5% on the back of a 20% slump in the softs and real. Total returns are lower due to steep contangos but indicating improvement. The wheat one-year future curve leads major commodities moving toward backwardation. Even with the best U.S. corn yields ever, prices are down only slightly from a year ago, and the annual average price is higher. Soybeans are the sore spot, but global trade should adjust. The worst appears near for softs with record shorts.Is this as bad as it gets for corn, soybeans and wheat prices?Grain prices may be indicating the worst is over, showing resilience despite another U.S. bumper crop, trade tensions and the plunging Brazilian real. Some adverse weather is supporting wheat, offsetting weak soybeans on trade tensions, yet netting out to a Bloomberg Grain Spot Index up almost 3% in 2018.