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

This week corn continued its upward trend. Since December 15, 2017, De-cember 2018 corn futures have increased from $3.79 ¼ to $3.97, up 17 ¾ cents. The rally has been fueled by recent strong export sales and weather concerns in Argentina. The increase in harvest futures prices is a welcome development as we are in the spring crop insurance price determination period – higher crop insurance prices will increase the revenue guarantees for producers. Continue reading at Tennessee Market Highlights.

If you still need dicamba certification, there are 14 training opportunities in the coming week. In-person trainings will be offered in Chester, Coffee, Crockett, Franklin, Grundy, Hardin, Haywood, Henderson, Henry, Madison, Robertson, Smith and Weakley counties at the following times and locations:

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Seed Cotton has recently been designated as a covered commodity eligible for Price Loss Coverage (PLC) and Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) programs in the 2014 Farm Bill beginning with the 2018 crop. Additional information can be found in this 2018 Seed-Cotton-Summary  from the National Cotton Council. Landowners with a generic base on their farm will have decisions to make within the next few months. The National Cotton Council is sponsoring a webinar on the 2018 Seed Cotton Program on Monday, February 19th from 1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. UT Extension has  3 locations currently set up for producers and landowners to view, discuss, and learn about this new program. These locations are :

Veterans Museum, 100 Veterans Dr. Halls, TN 38040 Contact Chuck Danehower 731-635-9551. Co-sponsored by Tennessee Farm Bureau

UT Research & Education Center Ag Museum,  3 Ledbetter Rd, Milan, TN 38358 Contact Danny Morris 731-855-7656. Co-sponsored by Tennessee Farm Bureau

Haywood County Extension Office, 100 S. Wilson Ave., Brownsville, TN 38012 Contact Lindsay Griffin 731-772-2861. Co-sponsored by Nunn Cotton Company and Tennessee Farm Bureau.

Make plans to attend one of these webinars and learn how this new program will affect your farm operation. Additional information and decision aids will be coming out and available in the weeks ahead.

The National Cotton Council released their annual cotton acreage survey results on February 10, 2018. Tennessee cotton acreage for 2018 was estimated at 350,000 acres up 5,000 acres or 1.5% from 2017. Nationwide, all cotton acres are expected up 3.7% to 13.078 million acres. Additional information can be found at this Delta Farm Press article with individual state’s planting intentions for 2018 in this NCC Report.