News

K-State grain market economist Dan O'Brien talks about the USDA's latest U.S. grain production report, which featured surprisingly friendly numbers for the corn and soybean markets, and he comments on the possible corn market impact from year-round sales of E-15 ethanol, during his weekly segment on the grain price trends.

K-State agricultural economist Gabe Sampson reports on his new analysis of the peer effects on irrigation adoption...in other words, how a neighbor's commitment to crop irrigation would potentially influence a producer's decision to adopt irrigation practices as well:  this study was based on detailed irrigation data in Kansas dating all the way back to the mid-1940s.

K-State agricultural economist Jisang Yu talks about his new analysis of the Risk Management Agency (RMA)'s insurance program for pasture and forage managers, called Rainfall Index Insurance Program for Pasture, Forage and Rangeland (PRF-RI)...he and his colleagues examined how well the RMA’s rainfall indices explain the individual forage yield.

K-State agricultural economist Beth Yeager discusses her new study of the persistence of farm financial performance...using Kansas Farm Management Association data, she looked at the stability of individual farm income over a five-year span and the factors that allowed farms to consistently remain profitable over time.

K-State risk management specialist Art Barnaby offers his take on who gains, and who doesn't, from the USDA's Market Facilitation Program...the trade tariff relief payments that producers can apply for this fall:  he has run a comparative price analysis for corn, sorghum, soybeans and minor oilseeds as the basis for his observations.

The state director of the Farm Service Agency, David Schemm, covers the details of the new Market Facilitation Program, as part of the USDA's trade tariff relief which was announced this week He lists the payment rates for the 2018 commodity production that is eligible, and the procedure for producer to follow in obtaining those payments.

The keynote speaker at the Risk and Profit Conference, a professor of agricultural trade at Virginia Tech University, Dr. Richard Crowder, who served as the U.S. Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the U.S. Trade Representative's Office in the mid-2000s:  he talks about the new "playbook" that's now guiding agricultural trade negotiations, and about what he sees as a long path to resolving the current trade issues.

K-State agricultural economist Jesse Tack and graduate researcher Noah Miller report on their new study which looked at the historical response of grain sorghum yields to warming temperatures in Kansas over the last 40 years...they determined the point at which higher temperatures start to erode yields, and examined the impact of planting sorghum earlier than normal on yield results.