Ag News

Demand For Brazilian Soybeans Remains High

IARN — Demand for Brazilian soybeans remains high, despite civil unrest sparked by the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Ben Kasch, of Bower Trading, offers additional insight.

“They have some ballooning cases, and the president doesn’t seem to care much,” Kasch said.  “He was quoted this weekend basically saying, ‘what do you want me to do about it’ on this coronavirus, so there’s a lot of concern. There could be some social unrest between the citizens and government, so things are ramping up. It’s not unheard of to have port strikes and that is something that could be pretty serious going forward here.” Read more

Senator Grassley Watching For Any Abuse Of Government Aid To Farmers

IARN — While the Senate is on their Memorial Day break, Senator Chuck Grassley kept up on his 99 County Tour. The Senator said he heard from farmers on a multitude of problems that they are concerned with. Grassley says that while he is pleased to see those direct assistance payments to farmers, he is going to keep an eye out for any abuse of the program’s payments. Read more

ISU Talks Changing Diets For Hogs To Counteract Processing Backlog

IARN — The processing situation for hogs is better than it was, but nowhere near where it used to be. The backlog has led to the euthanizing of many perfectly healthy animals that cannot be slaughtered before becoming too heavy for the processors’ equipment. Many producers have been looking at ways to change the diets of their hogs in hopes of slowing their growth until such a time as they can be processed. Thursday night, Iowa State University (ISU) released some findings that they have on the subject. Read more

Food Box Distribution Draws Praise And Skepticism

IARN — We have so much focus on the $19 billion dollars that USDA has brought out to assist farmers and the Ag industry. Sometimes, we have been hyper-focused on the $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers to alleviate the financial strains of this pandemic. However, there is a second component to this money. That is the three billion going to commodity purchases and food distribution. There are a lot of good things happening because of these programs, but they have not been without their criticisms and intrigue. Read more