The Mid-South Ag Finance Conference will be here soon. Producers in Tennessee and surrounding states will want to mark their calendar for Wednesday, August 5, 2015 for the Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference. This annual conference will once again be held in the Boling University Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin in Martin, Tennessee. For more information go to Mid-South Ag Finance Conference .
Producers in Tennessee and surrounding states will want to mark their calendar for Wednesday, August 5, 2015 for the Mid-South Agricultural Finance Conference. This annual conference will once again be held in the Boling University Center on the campus of the University of Tennessee at Martin in Martin, Tennessee. Continue reading
Hemp is an agricultural crop grown worldwide and prized for its ability to be used for paper production, building components, products for human and even animal consumption through the seed, and health and beauty products based on hemp oil. (Hemp oil is a major by-product from crushing hemp seed.) Continue reading
On Tuesday June 30th the USDA surprised the market releasing decidedly bullish estimates for corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat. The Acreage report provided the primary catalyst for corn and cotton price increases. The Quarterly Stocks report keyed the increase in soybean futures. Weather remains on everyone’s mind as excessive rain in many areas has: delayed wheat harvest; prevented corn, soybean, and cotton plantings; and adversely affected crop conditions. As we move forward, weather will be the primary market driver. The question to be determined is which direction will the market (and weather) go from here? Continue reading at USDA Acreage & Quarterly Grain Stocks Report. This includes an Profitability Outlook update.
Tennessee cotton is finally ‘growing off’. Still, here on the 3rd day of July, it appears few farms will reach the coveted ‘bloom by the 4th’. Although the environment has played a dominate role in maturity up to this point, management decisions emphasizing earliness have been particularly useful in 2015. This marks the third consecutive year in which managing for earliness has a marked effect on crop maturity by early July. 
On the heels of last year’s delayed crop, Dr. Owen Gwathmey and I began discussing potential benefits of managing a cotton crop for earliness and the management practices which encourage timely maturity and harvest with colleagues both within and beyond the University of Tennessee. We have summarized these thoughts in the attached Guide to Earliness Management in Short-season Cotton Production (PB1830). Continue reading
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2015 – U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that eligible producers may now formally enroll in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for 2014 and 2015. The enrollment period begins June 17, 2015, and will end Sept. 30, 2015. Continue reading at USDA Open Enrollment.
June 10, 2015 – USDA World Supply and Demand Estimates
Corn The outlook for 2015/16 U.S. feed grain supplies is raised slightly this month with increases in corn and oats beginning stocks outweighing a decline for barley. Projected corn production for 2015/16 is unchanged at 13,630 million bushels, 4 percent below last year’s record level. Continue reading at Monthly Crop Outlook and Profitability Update.
This time of year as wheat harvest is getting ready to start, I get calls on what is the custom rate for combining wheat. In Tennessee, we have a few producers who derive a fair amount of their farm income from custom farming, whether it is harvesting, planting or some other aspect of the production system. Continue reading at Southeast Farm Press.