Brownfield News

At the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, live and feeder cattle ended the day lower watching corn and waiting for the rest of the week’s direct business to develop.  August lives closed $.95 lower at $172.25 and October lives closed $.92 lower at $174.70.  August feeders closed $.45 lower at $238.65 and September feeders closed $.80 lower at $241.47. 

Direct cash cattle trade activity was relatively quiet on Thursday.  There was a very light round of business in the South at $185 live. 

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A dairy economist from Illinois says his state’s milk producers had heavy financial losses during the COVID pandemic.

Dr. Mike Hutjens tells Brownfield Illinois, unlike their cheese-making neighbors to the north in Wisconsin, has fewer and smaller farms, with most of their production not used for cheese. “We’re a very high milk market because one of our major co-ops provides almost all of the fluid milk to school programs and a lot of the grocery stores as well, so certainly, we’re fairly high into fluid so then the price differential really hammered us a year, year and a half ago.”

And Hutjens says the Illinois herd is down two and a half percent to about 79-thousand cows.

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Maintaining crop insurance remains the top request from farmers for the 2023 Farm Bill.

El Paso, Illinois farmer Rob Schaffer tells Brownfield that was a hot topic during a recent meeting of Representative Darin LaHood’s Ag Advisory Committee.

“I would suggest that all the farmers that use crop insurance or bankers and input suppliers let their Congress people know that we need crop insurance to stay the way it is. We are lucky enough to be one of the only industries that can get insurance on our business.

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Lack of precipitation in Ohio has drastically reduced the hay crop for many farmers and is adding pressure to already tight supplies.

Jeff Magyar is in northeast Ohio near the Pennsylvania border.  “I’m hearing from most guys it’s down 50 to 60 percent,” he says.  “And hay was already expensive and $6-7 for small square bales.  With the prospect of no second cutting, hay is going to be a very tight commodity.”

Northwest Ohio farmer Nathan Eckel says yields have also been down in his part of the state.

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Jul. corn closed at $6.10 and 1/4, up 6 cents
Jul. soybeans closed at $13.63 and 1/4, up 2 and 1/2 cents
Jul. soybean meal closed at $404.00, down $1.20
Jul. soybean oil closed at 52.50, up 203 points
Jul. wheat closed at $6.26 and 1/4, up 9 and 1/2 cents
Jun. live cattle closed at $178.77, down 22 cents
Aug. feeder cattle closed at $238.65, down 45 cents
Jun.

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The soybean crush plant being built by Cargill in southeastern Missouri is on pause.

A Cargill spokesperson tells Brownfield the hold is due to many shifting market dynamics.

Last spring, Cargill announced it would build a soy processing facility in Pemiscot County producing 62 million bushels of soybeans each year.

The estimated completion date was 2026 and Cargill says there’s no updated timeline to share on the project.

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Soybeans were higher on short covering and technical buying. The near-term supply is tight and there are concerns about dry weather in parts of the Midwest. The critical month for most soybeans is August, but any early stress would have some impact on yield. Weekly old crop U.S. soybean sales were up from the previous week, but barely over 7.5 million bushels, mainly to Japan and Germany, with new crop at less than 10 million bushels, primarily to China and Mexico.

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The president of the Michigan Soybean Association says it hasn’t rained on her farm since finishing planting last month.

“We are extremely dry to the point where we’re getting a little nervous about what the crops are going to look like.”

Heather Feuerstein tells Brownfield things have changed drastically after a very wet start to spring.

“We have not received rain in a very long time at this point, so we need a significant rain event,” she says.  

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Missouri’s feral hog population is creating additional challenges for the state’s cattle producers.

Kevin Crider is a feral hog outreach educator with the University of Missouri Extension.  “Feral hogs and cattle operations do not mix,” he says.  “The reason is feral hogs are notorious rooters. They will root up a hay field in a matter of hours. If you have a large enough group of hogs, then that hay field is out of production.”

Hay stocks in Missouri are already tight as drought conditions continue and yields have been impacted. 

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The International Dairy Foods Association says the economic impact of the dairy sector in the U.S. increased by more than $40 billion the past two years.

Matt Herrick tells Brownfield the organization’s biannual report Dairy Delivers showed growth at the end of last year for all sectors with a total economic impact of nearly $794 billion.

“Our sector is just an engine for this U.S. economy,” he says.  “We are just a significant contributor to GDP, to jobs, to wages, to the tax base in states and the national economy.

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