Released: March 29, 2018

Tennessee producers to plant less burley tobacco, soybeans in 2018

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) released the Prospective Plantings report today, showing Tennessee farmers intend to set less burley tobacco and plant fewer soybean acres, but increase cotton acreage in 2018.

“Prospective plantings gives us the first indication of producers’ plans for row crop acreages,” said Debra  Kenerson, Tennessee State Statistician. “In addition to farmers intending to set 2,500 fewer acres of burley tobacco and 90,000 fewer soybean acres, this release indicates that growers intend to plant 5,000 more acres of cotton this season, an increase from the 345,000 planted in 2017.” Continue reading at MarchPP18_TN.

Corn, soybeans, cotton, and wheat were down for the week. Concerns over potential retaliatory tariffs and trade disruptions were a hot topic in agricultural markets this past week. Currently, there is more smoke than fire however, in the past, agricultural commodities have received retaliatory tariffs when trade disputes occur. Posturing is always a part of trade negotiations but, the more trade rhetoric remains at the forefront of news headlines the more volatility will continue to be a concern in agricultural markets. One thing is certain, for the sake of US agricultural prices, strong export sales are vital. Continue reading at Tennessee Market Highlights.

Corn, cotton, and wheat were down; soybeans were up for the week.

This week, on Wednesday, December corn peaked at $4.12 the highest offering, for the December 2018 contract, since August 10, 2017. However, prices declined 8 ¼ cents on Thursday and Friday. Futures prices above $4 per bushel represents a good opportunity to start / increase pricing on the 2018 crop. Securing a price on up to 50% (depending on pricing method) of anticipated production should be considered prior to planting.

This week November soybeans continued to exhibit volatility. For the week daily trading ranges on the November contract were: 12 ½ cents, 8 ¾ cents, 17 ¾ cents, 14 ¾ cents, and 8 ¼ cents. In the near future volatility is likely to continue due to uncertainty about the Argentinian crop, U.S. planted acreage, and export sales / trade negotiations. Continie reading at Tennessee Market Highlights.

Corn: Since Monday’s market open, May corn futures have declined by $0.05 while September futures have only decreased by $0.02. Corn futures hit a seven month high earlier this week before they began to decline. Corn exports have been excellent due to a lack of competition from South America. Last week’s export sales of 103 million bushels set a marketing year high for the 2017/2018 marketing year. Hopefully, farmers were proactive in marketing their crop and captured some profitable sales while corn futures were at these recent highs. Locally, new crop corn basis averaged -$0.12.

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