On Friday, April 8th, USDA released an updated World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report. The monthly report provides annual forecasts for supply and use of U.S. and world wheat, rice, coarse grains, oilseeds, cotton, and other major a
Read More
On Tuesday, April 5th, a group of nearly 100 republican House members sent a letter to President Biden urging action towards lowering the cost of fertilizer for American farmers. The letter offered some specific recommendations, including utilization of e
Read More
The Ag Economy Barometer, maintained by Purdue University and the CME Group, showed a significant decline in farmer optimism in its March report due to rapidly increasing input costs and market uncertainty due to the war in Ukraine and other ongoing marke
Read More
The Little Rock District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently announced that it was investing $92.6 million towards improving navigation along the Arkansas River by working to deepen sections of the river to meet its goal of providing a 12-foot ch
Read More
On Monday, April 4th, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) issued an updated Crop Progress Report. The latest report indicated Arkansas lagging its five year average largely due to soil moisture issues. The report showed Arkansas farmers w
Read More
On Tuesday, April 5th, the U.S. House Agriculture Committee held another farm bill hearing with the focus this time on the energy title. The hearing focused on rural energy and the role of agriculture and rural communities in developing and providing ener
Read More
On Thursday, March 31, the U.S. Senate approved its version of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which is aimed at relieving congestion at U.S. ports and improving efficiencies in trade related to ocean shipping. The House has previously approved a similar v
Read More
On Friday, March 25th, the Arkansas Ag Hall of Fame recognized a new class of 6 inductees at its awards luncheon. The 34th class of inductees included Rick Cartwright; Joe Don Greenwood; Russell Roy Reynolds; Randy Veach; Mark Waldrip; and Andrew Wargo II
Read More
The Ag Council of Arkansas will hold its next board of directors meeting May 10th in Helena at the Beth El Heritage Hall. The meeting will feature a range of guest speakers who will cover various topics of current interest. Included in the list of speaker
Read More
On March 30th and 31st, the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Finance Committee hosted hearings that featured U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai who presented the Biden Trade Policy Agenda for 2022. The meetings included discussion on China a
Read More
The Arkansas Soybean Promotion Board recently announced that Robert Petter of De Valls Bluff was appointed by the USDA to serve on the United Soybean Board (USB). Petter will represent Arkansas during a three-year term as a newly appointed farmer-leader o
Read More
On Monday, April 4th, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a response to requests seeking to expand agricultural production in the United States by opening acreage currently reserved under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In the response, Secretary Vi
Read More