This Week’s Top Five
#1 | Christmas Bonus Time
After a chaotic week of headlines out of D.C., Senators voted to pass a slimmed-down, 118-page third version of a stopgap spending bill in the wee hours of Saturday morning.
The bill was signed by President Biden yesterday, keeping the government funded for another three months.
While notably smaller than the initial 1,547-page bill, American farmers will still get an unexpected Christmas bonus as the $10 billion FARM Act made the final cut, providing direct payments to producers per acre of crops grown in 2024 (estimates from the House Ag Committee):
« Corn $44/ac
« Soybeans $31/ac
« Wheat $32/ac
« Cotton $85/ac
« Link to the full list HERE
Breakdown of all $31 billion allocated for ‘farmer assistance’:
Glad we are spending $3 million on molasses testing…
Calvin Coolidge said it best:
"Nothing is easier than spending the public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody."
Two other items worth noting:
The current Farm Bill was extended for one year
Year-round, nationwide E15 did NOT make the final bill
I think I speak for the majority of the producer crowd when I say they would rather have the prospect of more corn demand vs a government handout.
Now, that’s not to say they won’t gladly accept their $125,000 ‘Christmas bonus’… that’s a nice alternative to the Jelly of the Month Club.
Funny story from my merchandiser days
Grain swaps are quite common among farmers, where a producer delivers bushels to the elevator and has the check made payable to a dealership in exchange for a new pickup (a way to avoid tax liabilities on those sales).
I have had customers attempt to swap for other items… including boats and UTVs. My personal favorite, however, was when someone attempted to do a grain swap for a swimming pool.
#2 | A lackluster performance
Clark is right, or it feels like it anyway as bean futures made new contract lows last week, trading below $9.50 for the first time since August 2020.
On an indexed basis, soybeans are the soy complex’s worst performer this year, followed by meal who also made >4 year lows last week.
Although it has had a rough past few weeks, closing down 8 of 10 days, soybean oil continues to hold its own year-to-date compared with beans and meal.
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