Based on the most recent data on world egg production available from FAOSTAT, Statistic Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2014 the United States was the second largest egg producer (100.879 billion eggs) after China.
The lack of rain has caused Iowa's corn crop to continue to decline. As of the August 7th USDA/NASS Crop Progress and Condition Report, Iowa's corn crop was rated 64% Good/Excellent, 26% Fair, and 10% Poor/Very Poor. 95% of Iowa's corn crop is currently silking, and 42% is in the dough stage.
Agriculture research has driven major increases in input/output margins since the late 1940's. These increases have been clear to many farmers strictly looking at crop yields and revenue statements. However, it is economic data that provides quantifiable evidence of the value of scientific and technological advancements in agriculture.
USDA data indicates that from January to June 2017 the United States exported 22.8 percent of its pork production compared with 20.9 percent during the same period last year. U.S. total pork production rose 2.9 percent from 5.531 million MT CWE during the first half of 2016 to 5.691 million MT CWE in 2017 (January to June).
Ten years ago two partners formed a new company to leverage their financial modeling and decision support skills. Sterling Liddell and Spence Parkinson were both working in the Research and Commodities department at the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF). They had developed some highly sophisticated methods for financial modeling and risk analysis.
What can happen in ten years? Well, from personal experience, a family can move to Iowa from a place that has things called mountains with one child and have five by the time the decade's up. They could visit the Iowa State Fair ten, faithful times and come to respect the power of thunderstorms and the amount of water that can come from the sky. They could also learn that fireflies are indeed real and that agriculture is awesome everywhere.
The U.S. beef export volume so far (January to June 2017) is the second largest after the record high volume of 605,835 MT CWE in 2011. June 2017 registered the largest exports of the year with 108,230 MT CWE. Exports during June were up 12% year over year and 5.5% from the previous month.
The latest (August 30, 2017) and second USDA forecasts for the 2017 calendar year for U.S. net cash income (gross cash income minus cash expenses) and U.S. net farm income (total gross income minus total expenses), indicate an increase for both measures compared with 2016 estimates. Net cash income is forecast up 12.6 percent to $100.4 billion year over year, whereas net farm income is expected to grow by $1.9 billion (3.1 percent) to $63.4 billion compared with last 2016's estimate ($61.5 bil
The 2017 average Iowa cropland cash rent by county as reported by USDA/NASS was $231/acre, down $4/acre from last year. The county averages ranged from $144/acre in Lucas County to $273/acre in Benton County.
This spring I joined the Decision Innovation Solutions team as their marketing/communications intern. I wasn't 100 percent sure what expect for the day to day workings of an analytical company like DIS, but I was certainly excited to find out!
