U.S. Farm Income: Latest Projection for 2016

U.S. net cash income (gross cash income minus cash expenses) and U.S. net farm income (total gross income minus total expenses) in the 2016 calendar year are forecast to decline year over in response to low commodity prices. The latest USDA-ERS's Farm Income and Wealth Statistics data published on November 30, 2016, indicates that compared with the previous year, U.S. net cash income is expected to fall 14.6% to $90.1 billion.

Chinese Ethanol Production Outlook

The Chinese government recently indicated that the expected ethanol production will be 4 million tons (1.2314 billion gallons) per year for the next five years. Current ethanol production in China stands at 2.1 million tons (0.646 billion gallons) per year.

REAP Program Supports Energy Savings in Rural America

I was browsing through my seemingly endless stream of alerts and newsletters a few days ago and noticed a blog about the USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP). This program is part of the Farm Bill and it provides grants and loan guarantees for farms and rural businesses to improve or add energy saving systems.

Agriculture and Forestry – What’s it to Missouri?

Our reason for going to the conference was to report on the contribution of agriculture and forestry to the State of Missouri and each of its counties and federal congressional districts. The presentation I was able to give to the attendees was the culmination of about three months of pleasurable work in which we used many analytical tools...

U.S. Ethanol Production Sets New Record

According to the most recent Weekly Ethanol Plant Production report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), U.S. ethanol production reached 1.049 million barrels per day for the week ending January 6th 2017. Correspondingly, weekly ending stocks of fuel ethanol are at 20.009 million barrels as published by EIA's Weekly Supply Estimates report.

2016 Iowa Farmland Values

The average Iowa farmland value in 2016 decreased to about $7,183/acre according to the 2016 Iowa State University Farmland Survey. The average value of farmland in Iowa has been declining since it hit $8,710/acre in 2013, and it is down 5.9% from last year.

U.S. Biodiesel Industry Update

Biodiesel production in the United States in 2015 reached a volume of 1.263 billion gallons, declining 1.2% from the 2014 level (1.278 billion gallons) (see Figure 1). Production from January to September 2016 was up 19.7% to 1.128 billion gallons compared with the same period the previous year (0.943 billion gallons).

Daily Ethanol Prices Analysis

We have done an analysis to understand the relationship among monthly average ethanol prices versus ethanol ending stocks, corn prices, and gasoline prices. The major finding was that all of three predictors, i.e., ethanol ending stocks, corn prices, and gasoline prices, have statistically significant influences on monthly average ethanol prices.