This article compares economic loss with safety net payments for the nine large acreage crops that USDA, ERS reports a cost of production. 2024 crop safety net assistance is estimated to reduce the nine crop’s collective economic loss from 17% to slightly more than 3% of total economic cost. Coverage of individual crop economic loss varies widely, ranging from 180% (payments exceed economic loss by 80 percentage points) to 45% (payments are 55 percentage points less), raising fairness issues.

The Apiculture Rainfall Index Insurance program (API) is a crop insurance product underutilized by Illinois beekeepers. According to USDA estimates, fewer than 2% of Illinois colonies were enrolled in API in 2023. Like other Federal crop insurance programs, API is heavily subsidized. Since 2009, API has returned an average of $2.11 in payments for each $1.00 in U.S. beekeeper-paid premium. There is no minimum number of colonies required to buy an API policy.

Between 2021 and 2023, prices of new agricultural equipment increased by over 20%, resulting in similar increases in machinery costs on farms. To remain competitive, farmers may wish to reassess machinery management strategies, particularly when older machinery needs to be replaced. Combines typically represent the single largest investment on farms. Harvesting over 3,000 acres per combine will lower costs. The number of tractors, tillage implements, and planters also significantly impact costs.

Since 2020, the renewable diesel boom has disrupted longstanding soybean pricing relationships. Soybean oil’s share of crush value jumped from 25-35% to 35-50% and values and crush margins became significantly more volatile. Historical models predicting soybean prices based on oil and meal values have broken down, making price forecasting more difficult.

In our previous article (see farmdoc daily, October 1, 2025), we found that most farms maintained healthy solvency ratios, with debt-to-asset levels remaining relatively stable or improving over the past…

Cash storage of corn and soybeans after June is generally not profitable as price declines on average and in a majority of years. Net return to cash and futures hedged storage of corn and soybeans that ends no later than June does not differ statistically from $0. On average, returns just cover the total cost of storage. The preceding finding nevertheless is consistent with building on-farm storage since on-farm storage provides other opportunities to improve farm profitability.