The Hagstrom Report

Agriculture News As It Happens
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Reaction mixed to crop insurance premium news

Is someone besides the Risk Management Agency and its administrator, Bill Murphy, responsible for the announcement Monday that RMA will update its methodology to set crop insurance premiums, leading to lower premiums for many corn and soybean producers in the 2012 crop year? Read More...

RMA reducing corn, soybean crop insurance rates

In a move that could affect the 2012 farm bill debate and presidential election as well as save farmers and the government money, the Agriculture Department’s Risk Management Agency announced today that it will update the methodology to set crop insurance premiums, leading to lower insurance premium rates for many corn and soybean producers in the 2012 crop year. Read More...

Battle continues over farm bill safety net

The battle over the next farm bill continued today, with the American Soybean Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the National Farmers Union sending Congressional agriculture leaders a letter formally stating their support for a “revenue-based risk management program” to replace parts of the existing farm safety net. Read More...

Corn Growers back simplified crop producers program

The National Corn Growers Association has praised a proposal to create a simplified program for crop producers called the Aggregate Risk and Revenue Management (ARRM) program as part of the next farm bill. The legislation has been authored by Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, John Thune, R-S.D., Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Richard Lugar, R-Ind. Read More...

Farmers Union, corn and cotton growers release farm bill proposals

With concern rising that Congress might write a farm bill quickly in the midst of deficit reduction negotiations, the National Farmers Union has released its policy ideas, following recent press releases from the National Corn Growers Association and the National Cotton Council. Read More...

Polymer exec backs bio-based products at hearing

Bio-based products are competitive with petroleum-based products at current petroleum price levels, a key polymer executive told the Senate Agriculture Committee today. Read More...

NASS reports high corn acreage; will resurvey in July

Following a crop report today that showed an unexpectedly high number of acres planted to corn despite wet weather problems, the Agriculture Department’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) announced that it will collect updated information on 2011 acres planted to corn, soybeans, durum and other spring wheat in four states in July. Read More...

Ethanol groups back variable tax credit bill

In a signal of increasing trouble for the ethanol industry’s tax breaks, the Renewable Fuels Association, Growth Energy and the National Corn Growers Association all issued news releases Monday opposing the amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and endorsing the bill introduced by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., to make the ethanol tax credit dependent on the price of oil beginning July 1. Read More...

Governors say USDA corn reports misleading on ethanol

The Agriculture Department's monthly corn supply and demand reports are distorting perceptions of how much corn is being used for ethanol and should be changed, a 33-member coalition of governors told Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a letter sent Tuesday. Read More...

Corn growers back ethanol reform, possible changes to direct payments program

TAMPA, Fla. — In breaks with past policy, the National Corn Growers Association has passed resolutions urging reform of ethanol and an “investigation” of changes to the direct payments program. Read More...

Corn growers struggling with ethanol policy

TAMPA, Fla. — Delegates to the National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Congress struggled today to come up with a policy on the ethanol tax credit and protective tariff or an alternative while a key American Soybean Association official said that group would seek an extension of the biodiesel tax credit. Read More...

President Clinton urges balance in food-vs.-fuel debate

CRYSTAL CITY, Va. — Former President Bill Clinton seemed to join the food-versus-fuel debate today, saying that a balance should be struck in the use of corn for food and ethanol to avoid food riots, a statement that won quick retorts from the Renewable Fuels Association and the National Corn Growers Association. Read More...

Battle begins over deregulation of amylase corn

The Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced today its decision to deregulate corn genetically engineered to produce a common enzyme called alpha-amylase that breaks down starch into sugar. It is used in ethanol production. Read More...