Illinois crop budgets for 2020 have been revised with lower corn and soybean prices: $3.30 for corn and $8.30 for soybeans. Given trend yields, these prices will result in negative returns. At this point, projected corn returns are lower than…

The Prospective Plantings report, released on March 31, indicated producer intentions to plant almost 97 million acres of corn in 2020. Under current planting intentions and consumption trends, a massive corn supply appears feasible during the 2020-21 marketing year.

A contingency plan is a course of action designed to help a business determine how to respond to possible future events.  Contingency plans are often referred to as “Plan B”.  One of the most common contingency plans used by a…

On Friday, March 27, 2020, Congress passed, and President Trump signed into law, the 3rd FY2020 Coronavirus Supplemental Appropriations Act. At a reported appropriation of $2 trillion, the bill is the largest federal economic relief measure ever enacted. This article…

The previous articles in this series have highlighted the current landscape of nontraditional lenders in agricultural credit markets and provided estimates of the magnitude of credit held in the category. Nontraditional lenders serve a wide swath of agricultural borrowers; however,…

Reductions in the sales value of unpriced grain likely will be the first place where grain farms feel the impacts of COVID-19 control measures. Overall, old-crop sales likely will be reduced from expectations prior to COVID-19 concerns. Some farms will…