The USDA’s March Hogs and Pigs report holds some bullish albeit mostly modest surprises, as most statistics are smaller than a year ago and below pre-report expectations of unchanged to higher. The March 1 inventory of all hogs and pigs is 74.5 million head, down about 0.5% from last quarter and almost 0.24% below a year ago, compared to pre-report estimates averaging 1.2% higher. The market hog inventory is also about 0.2% smaller than a year ago compared to expectations it would be 1.1% larger.

In the farmdoc daily of March 3, 2025, we documented the importance of the 1991 Farm Bill policy decision to give US farmers the freedom to make planting decisions less constrained by government commodity programs. In this article, we extend the analysis to other 1991 farm program crops as well as hay, the third largest US field crop in acres. These crops have evolved, with corn and soybeans becoming the Foundational Crops of modern agriculture, while hay and wheat are legacy large acreage crops.

As discussed previously, water laws in western states arguably pose the second greatest challenge or quandary for conservation policy (farmdoc daily, February 27, 2025). This quandary is magnified by that…

Livestock production is vulnerable to extreme weather. For dairy cattle, one of the main points of vulnerability is heat stress. High heat and humidity decrease appetites, increase thirst, increase agitation, and increase vulnerable to illness among dairy cattle. These changes can cause significant losses for dairy producers, especially in herds on farms without infrastructure to manage heat. This article covers the new research on the cost of extreme heat in terms of milk yield for Midwest dairy producers.

The American Relief Act of 2025 authorized $10 billion in economic assistance payments to partially offset economic losses suffered by producers of eligible commodities during the 2024 crop year. The Farm Service Agency recently announced the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) application process and the per acre payment rates for each commodity. The FSA has provided an ECAP website that outlines the application process, eligibility requirements and payment rates.

The USDA’s monthly WASDE reports sometimes appear uneventful, but they systematically track agricultural commodity supply and demand changes. Despite some seemingly quiet updates, these reports provide important periodic insights into crop production, use, and stocks across various agricultural markets.