Soybean farmers in both countries have little control over the prices they receive. Because individual farms sell in the same global market, their ability to compete depends largely on how much it costs them to produce a crop. This article compares what nine typical farms in the U.S. and Brazil spent on seed, fertilizer, and pesticides over five years, showing where input costs differ between the two countries and discussing factors that may explain those differences.

A recent article examined differences in liquidity and repayment capacity for different sized crop farms (Langemeier, 2026).  This article examines trends in the operating profit margins, asset turnover ratios, and…

Non-real estate farm loan volume at commercial banks fell 25.0% year-over-year in the third quarter of 2026. A sharp contraction in average loan sizes drove the decline, even as the total number of loan originations increased. Average maturities shortened across categories, most notably for farm machinery and equipment financing, while interest rates on these loans eased modestly from 2025 levels yet remained well above what they were in 2020.

USDA recently released an updated version of its Feedstock Intensity Calculator (FD-CIC) for the 45Z Clean Fuel Production Tax Credit (USDA, FD-CIC v.1.2; User Manual, September 4, 2026). The updated calculator changes the Carbon Intensity (CI) scoring in significant ways. It also includes more information for the user about the scoring process. This article reviews the CI for corn in Illinois counties, with explanations about how the changes in the calculator result in modified scores.

The commodity program decision deadline for program crops harvested in 2026 is December 11, 2026.  Current projections and expectations for prices and yields suggest that ARC-CO would be expected to trigger larger payments than PLC on corn and soybean base acres in most counties.  The comparison for wheat base acres is currently much closer and will depend on county yield expectations and the individual farm’s PLC yields. 

Mexico exported feeder cattle to the US until New World Screwworm caused officials to stop this flow in 2025. In this farmdoc daily article, we estimate the impacts on the US and Mexico going from baseline projections where live trade returns to pre-entry levels to an alternative case with less live trade. As expected, the shortfall in US supplies leads to higher feeder cattle, fed cattle, and beef prices, although US producer response moderates these impacts over time.