Collected Publications for November 2013 • farmdoc daily

Insurance Coverage of Corn and Soybean Production Cost since 1980

November 27, 2013
Carl Zulauf

Since 2006, crop insurance has been the dominant crop safety net program. However, the prosperity that has characterized this period may be coming to an end. Thus, crop insurance may…

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Weekly Farm Economics

Management Implications of Non-Decreasing Interest Rates

November 26, 2013
Gary Schnitkey

Since the mid-1980s, interest rates generally have been decreasing. This downward trend is not likely to continue as it is difficult to see how interest rates can decrease from their…

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Weekly Outlook

Corn Market Functioning as Needed?

November 25, 2013
Darrel Good

Corn prices managed a small rally following the USDA's November 8 Crop Production report that contained a corn production forecast that was not quite as large as feared. Since then,…

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The Bioenergy Farm Lease, Part 4: Incorporation of Evolving Standards

November 22, 2013
Elise C. Scott, Lauren D. Quinn, and A. Bryan Endres

As the bioenergy industry in the United States expands to meet increased demands for transportation fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard and electrical power under state Renewable Portfolio Standards, farmers…

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Big Picture View of the Crop Safety Net Debate

November 21, 2013
Carl Zulauf

The farm bill is currently in Conference to determine if compromises can be reached over differences in the House and Senate farm bills. A tendency at this stage in the…

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Proposed Rules for 2014 RFS – A Volume of Uncertainty

November 20, 2013
Seth Meyer

The EPA's 2014 proposed rule for the RFS sets large volumes of biofuel use across several broad categories of fuel types but represents a significant reduction in mandated volumes from…

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Weekly Farm Economics

Lower Crop Insurance Guarantees in 2014

November 19, 2013
Gary Schnitkey

Futures prices on December 2014 corn and November 2014 soybean contracts are considerably below 2013 projected prices. This suggests that crop insurance guarantees will be considerably lower in 2014 as…

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Weekly Outlook

Hogs Provide Near $7 per Bushel Corn Value

November 18, 2013
Chris Hurt

Grain farmers are looking for new corn uses now that ethanol is not big enough. Low corn prices are encouraging end users to seek ways to add value to corn,…

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Expense Election (IRS Code Section 179): Where are we going and where have we been?

November 15, 2013
Brandy M. Krapf, Dwight D. Raab, and Bradley L. Zwilling

The Internal Revenue Code Section 179, or Expense Election, will fall to $25,000 indexed for inflation in 2014. This is a drastic change over the last four years that have…

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2013 Farm Bill Update – November 2013

November 14, 2013
Carl Zulauf and Jonathan Coppess

The House and Senate are beginning to conference the farm bill. Conference is a committee of key farm bill senators and representatives appointed to resolve differences in the bills passed…

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Debt Use by Farms with Crop Insurance

November 13, 2013
Kevin Patrick, Todd Kuethe and Jennifer Ifft

There is a growing concern over the recent rise in farm debt use, largely based on the role farm debt played in the sector-wide boom and bust of the 1970's…

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Weekly Farm Economics

Break-Even Soybean Prices: History and Projections

November 12, 2013
Gary Schnitkey

For farmland that is cash rented near average rent levels, break-even soybean prices have increased from near $5.00 per bushel in 2004 to around $10.70 per bushel in 2013 and…

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Weekly Outlook

Corn Used for Ethanol Production

November 11, 2013
Darrel Good

In the monthly WASDE report released on November 8, the USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board estimated that 4.648 billion bushels of corn were used to produce ethanol and co-products during…

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Large Corn and Soybean Crops Confirmed

November 8, 2013
Darrel Good

Today, the USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released new forecasts of the size of the 2013 corn and soybean crops. In addition the USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board released…

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How Long Should We Expect Corn and Soybean Prices to Remain Above or Below Average?

November 7, 2013
Scott Irwin and Darrel Good

In a 2008 report and in subsequent articles we argued that corn, soybean, and wheat likely entered an era of higher prices beginning in late 2006. The "new era" of…

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EPA Authority to Reduce the RFS

November 6, 2013
Jonathan Coppess

A recent farmdoc daily post exploring options for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) raised a question about the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to reduce the RFS requirements below what…

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Weekly Farm Economics

Break-Even Corn Prices: History and Projections

November 5, 2013
Gary Schnitkey

For farmland that is cash rented near average rent levels, break-even corn prices have increased from $1.67 per bushel in 2004 to the mid-$4.00 range in 2013 and 2014. Mid-$4.00…

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Weekly Outlook

Strong Pace of Corn and Soybean Exports

November 4, 2013
Darrel Good

In the September WASDE report, the USDA forecast 2013-14 marketing year exports at 1.225 billion bushels for corn and 1.37 billion bushels for soybeans. The strong pace of exports and…

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Legal Uncertainties Plague Carbon Foot Printing of Biomass Energy

November 1, 2013
Jody M. Endres

The threat of climate change has spurred governments to take action to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from transportation and power generation. An important part of this policy design…

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