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White House Economist Dodges NAFTA Withdrawal Questions

Kevin Hasset, Chief White House Economist, attacked the integrity of past and present government officials who have negotiated U.S. trade agreements. However, he declined to say if the U.S. would be better off economically should President Trump withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement. The question at a White House briefing was, “Would it be a good thing for the U.S. economy” if Trump walks away from the deal, which he’s threatened to do numerous times. Hasset, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, answered the question by referring reporters to the trade chapter of the newly-released annual economic report of the president. The report doesn’t actually discuss the costs or benefits of withdrawing from NAFTA. A Politico report says Hassett, a former economist with the Federal Reserve Board, says he is, “surprised at how right the president has been about trade in one sense: America’s trade deals are asymetric. The U.S. charges pretty much no tariff at all on imports, but many of our trading partners have either high tariffs or high non-tariff barriers.” He says the president is right to prioritize improving those deals. The seventh round of the NAFTA talks start this weekend in Mexico City.

Northwest ag school to host Agriculture and Food Literacy Summit

Maryville, Mo. – In an effort aimed at helping middle-school-aged students better understand and appreciate the food system, Northwest Missouri State University will hold its 2018 Agriculture and Food Literacy Summit.

According to a press release from Northwest, featured speakers will include Chris Chinn, the director of the Missouri Department of Agriculture, and a representative of the Center for Food Integrity.

Additionally, Michael Foust, the owner and operator of The Farmhouse, will lead a lunch time conversation. The city of Maryville recently announced The Farmhouse, a farm-to-table restaurant in Kansas City, as a new restaurant tenant at the Conference Center.

The summit is sponsored by Northwest’s School of Agricultural Sciences. It is funded, in part, by a grant it received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, as well as the Mozingo Conference Center.

The public is invited to attend the 2018 Agriculture and Food Literacy Summit at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, March 14, at the Conference Center at Mozingo Lake Recreation Park.

Registration is $25 and due by Thursday, March 1. Registration may be completed online.

For more information, contact Jill Brown, partnership coordinator at Northwest, at [email protected] or (660) 562-1195.

Friday’s closing grain bids

February 23rd, 2018

 

St Joseph

 

Yellow Corn

3.41 – 3.44

White Corn

no bid

Soybeans

9.83 – 9.90

LifeLine Foods

 3.41

 

 

Atchison

Yellow Corn

 3.56

Soybeans

 9.86

Hard Wheat

 4.14

Soft Wheat

 3.62

 

 

Kansas City Truck Bids

 

Yellow Corn

3.51

White Corn

no bid

Soybeans

10.06

Hard Wheat

4.64

Soft Wheat

 4.08

Sorghum

5.65


USDA Cash Grain Prices

For more information, contact the 680 KFEQ Farm Department.
816-233-8881.

Perdue Promotes “Harvest Box”

Ag Secretary Sonny Perdue wants people who don’t like the idea of “America’s Harvest Box” to know that they are very serious about the idea. He says House Ag Committee Chair Mike Conaway is open to considering a small-scale pilot program in the 2018 Farm Bill. The Secretary has faced a lot of criticism since the proposal came out last week as part of President Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget. However, Perdue and his team are defending the idea. A Pro Ag report says they might be finding some open minds on Capitol Hill as well. “We think it’s our responsibility to create new, innovative ideas of delivering food to the people who need it,” Perdue says, “and this is one area.” During a recent tour through California, he did say there are some logistical concerns to the idea but called it “a real idea, not a sham.” Conaway has a great deal of the House Farm Bill already written, but he’s not ruling out the idea of a pilot project in the program. A committee aide says, while Conaway is open to the idea, no decisions have been made yet. Perdue says that’s encouraging because new ideas often need to be introduced on a small scale to see if they’ll work as intended.

NCGA Responds to Cruz Speech on RFS

Texas Senator Ted Cruz spoke this week before workers at the bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery. He says the bankruptcy was caused by the law requiring refiners to purchase Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs, mandated by the Renewable Fuels Standard. A Delaware Dot Com Article calls the RINs a “receipt that shows gasoline sold at a filling station contains an ethanol mix.” However, Kevin Skunes (Skoo’-nehs), National Corn Growers Association President, says Cruz is way off base. He says most of the nation’s oil refiners are showing double-digit profit increases, but the problems of Philadelphia Energy Solutions are self-inflicted. “That company’s investors put their interests ahead of their workers’ interests,” he says, “and it’s disingenuous for Cruz to say he’s looking out for refinery workers when he’s really looking out for the Wall Street investors who made bad business decisions yet still ensured they got their payouts first, putting refinery jobs at risk.” He adds that the Environmental Protection Agency, university experts, and financial analysts all confirm that refinery owners aren’t facing a RIN price impact because they recover any costs through the price they get for their refined products. “Cruz is trying to upend the RFS to bail out refiners who opted not to invest in blending infrastructure,” Skunes says, “so they could blend renewable fuels and get free biofuels credits.”

Mexico Buying More Brazilian Corn as NAFTA Negotiations Continue

Mexico purchased ten times more corn from Brazil last year than it had previously. Reuters says that’s due to the uncertainty regarding the potential outcome of the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations. Mexican government data and top grain merchants all say they fear supply distruption from the U.S. if the White House ever followed through on its threat to withdraw from the pact. Mexico is already on track to buy more corn from Brazil in 2018. That’s a move that hurts an already struggling U.S. ag sector faced with low commodity prices and rising South American competition. U.S. farmers, food processors, and grain traders have spent months trying to make sure relationships don’t fall part if the NAFTA negotiations suddenly fall apart. They’re trying to protect over $19 billion in sales to Mexican buyers of corn, soybeans, poultry, and dairy. Despite that, Mexican corn imports from Brazil are climbing, totaling over one-half million metric tons in 2017. That’s a more than 900 percent jump over the previous year. The purchases all came in the last four months of 2017.

Thursday’s closing grain bids

February 22nd, 2018

 

St Joseph

 

Yellow Corn

3.42 – 3.45

White Corn

no bid

Soybeans

9.74 – 9.84

LifeLine Foods

 3.42

 

 

Atchison

Yellow Corn

 3.55 – 3.57

Soybeans

 9.82

Hard Wheat

 4.15

Soft Wheat

 3.61

 

 

Kansas City Truck Bids

 

Yellow Corn

3.52

White Corn

no bid

Soybeans

10.02

Hard Wheat

4.66

Soft Wheat

 4.07

Sorghum

5.66


USDA Cash Grain Prices

For more information, contact the 680 KFEQ Farm Department.
816-233-8881.

Canadian Ag Minister Promoting Ag Trade in California

Canada’s top agriculture official is promoting trade between the U.S. and Canada in California this week. Canada says Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Lawrence MacAulay is traveling to California to promote the Canada-California economic partnership, and to highlight the strengths of Canada’s agriculture trade with the United States. Minister MacAulay previously visited the United States in January, speaking at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s annual convention. The visit comes as negotiations continue regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement. MacAulay is using the trip to California to promote the importance of NAFTA business on both sides of the border. In a news release announcing the trip, MacAulay said: “We’re keen to continue working with our NAFTA partners to deepen our economic relationship and strengthen trade between our great nations.”

USDA Projected Spring Plantings

(Reuters) THe USDA is estimating that U.S. farmers will plant 90.0 million acres of soybeans this spring, down from 90.1 million last year, and reduce corn acres to 90.0 million acres from 90.2 million in 2017, projected on Thursday. The USDA at its annual Agricultural Outlook Forum projected U.S. wheat plantings for 2018 at 46.5 million acres, up from 46.0 million a year earlier. A Reuters poll of analysts estimated that soybean plantings would rise to 90.6 million acres and corn seedings would drop to 89.9 million acres. Some analysts were surprised that the government projected a drop in soybean acres. The price ratio between new-crop November soybean futures SX8 and December corn CZ8 futures on the Chicago Board of Trade is near 2.6-to-1, high enough they believe to encourage farmers to plant more soybeans than corn.

Wednesday’s closing grain bids

February 21st, 2018

 

St Joseph

 

Yellow Corn

3.41 – 3.46

White Corn

no bid

Soybeans

9.76 – 9.86

LifeLine Foods

 3.41
scales will be closed  Tuesday

 

 

Atchison

Yellow Corn

 3.55 – 3.56

Soybeans

 9.84

Hard Wheat

 4.10

Soft Wheat

 3.57

 

 

Kansas City Truck Bids

 

Yellow Corn

3.51

White Corn

no bid

Soybeans

10.04

Hard Wheat

4.61

Soft Wheat

 4.03

Sorghum

5.64


USDA Cash Grain Prices

For more information, contact the 680 KFEQ Farm Department.
816-233-8881.

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