Full Story As of last Saturday night, corn and soybeans are both 100 percent planted on Greg Liechty’s 3,000 acre farm in northeast Indiana. In our HAT Field Update, the Adams county farmer said finding dry days to plant hasn’t been an issue for them. In fact, it’s been the exact opposite. “It has been [...]

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The National Corn Growers Association was pleased to see the progress made on the farm bill Thursday and the priority placed on the vital legislation’s passage. But NCGA President Pam Johnson says the group was disappointed with the passage of the Durbin-Coburn amendment to reduce premium support for crop insurance participants through an Adjusted Gross [...]

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The Senate will not hold additional votes on amendments to the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 until they return from the Memorial Day recess. That means the next vote is scheduled for Monday, June 3rd. On Thursday – Senators voted on three crop insurance amendments. An amendment to end crop insurance subsidies [...]

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Indiana Farm Bureau members have clearly supported through policy that “We believe it is important to maintain a legal guest worker population for agriculture” and that “immigration issues should be handled on the federal and not state level.” That is why we are pleased that the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee has passed a balanced immigration [...]

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fertilizer restock issues The Rabobank Food and Agribusiness Research and Advisory Group recently put out a report about the cool, wet conditions in much of the Midwest – and concerns regarding future weather delaying the normal cycle of fertilizer restocking. Sterling Liddell is the Senior Vice President of the RaboBank group that released the findings. [...]

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As the Senate continued to debate the farm bill Wednesday – an amendment to repeal the nutrition entitlement programs and establish a nutrition assistance block grant program was defeated 36 to 60. Oklahoma’s James Inhofe offered the amendment – noting that people in his state are shocked to find that a high percentage of farm [...]

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A new Government Accountability Office report looks at the federal government’s efforts to conduct surveillance activities for animal diseases in livestock and wildlife. More specifically – it examines USDA’s new approach to disease surveillance in livestock and poultry and the extent to which the approach is guided by a strategy with measurable goals and supports [...]

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Financial Major downside reversals in stock indexes with Dow closing 80 lower, NASDAQ down 37 and S&P off 14 The trade has become too comfortable in the assumption that the Fed’s bond buying program would push into 2014, but the minutes of their last meetings showed a greater possibility of beginning to phase out the [...]

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Senate Farm Bill Floor Debate Plods On Senate Ag Committee Chairman Debbie Stabenow launched the debate by stressing what the Farm Bill does, “We get rid of unnecessary subsidies, like the Direct Payments program that sends a check out to people regardless of whether they’re even farming a crop. We are streamlining programs to cut [...]

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The Senate has rejected an effort to increase the cut in food stamps in the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013 from four-billion dollars to 31-billion.  The vote was 40 to 58. Kansas Senator Pat Roberts offered the amendment that would have ended the use of energy assistance as a basis for food [...]

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