JANUARY 7, 2022 | VOLUME 25 | ISSUE 1
Farm Bureau Press A PEEK INSIDE
ArFB FOUNDATION OFFERS $20,000 LEAD GIFT The Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation has announced a $20,000 lead gift for tornado relief in Northeast Arkansas and has encouraged county Farm Bureau organizations, and others, to contribute financially to those relief efforts as well. All ArFB Foundation Disaster Relief Funds will be distributed to local relief efforts in Craighead, Mississippi, Poinsett, and Woodruff counties. An intense supercell spawned a series of tornados in Northeast Arkansas on the evening of Dec. 10, including one that has been rated as EF-4 by the National Weather Service. It’s considered the strongest tornado in Arkansas since the Roland/Mayflower/ Vilonia EF4 in April 2014. “The loss of life from these storms is tragic,” said Amanda Williams, director of the Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation. “The communities affected by the storms are largely agricultural based, and the needs in those communities are significant. We are encouraging the 76 county Farm Bureaus in Arkansas – and others supportive of this effort – to add to this lead gift so the impact can be even greater.” A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, the Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation’s mission is to further understanding of agricultural and rural issues, and to support the agriculture and rural community through financial support for education, research, litigation and disaster relief. Donations are tax-deductible. Online giving to the Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation is available online.
Poinsett County Farm Bureau Leader Selected as President of American Soybean Association, page 2
USDA Launches Loan Guarantee Program, page 3
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ARKANSAN SELECTED AS PRESIDENT OF AMERICAN SOYBEAN ASSOCIATION Brad Doyle of Weiner was elected as 2022 ASA president. Doyle previously served as ASA vice president, secretary and as an atlarge member of the ASA Executive Committee. He has been on the ASA board of directors since 2017 and is president of the Poinsett County Farm Bureau. Doyle operates Berger Farms/Eagle Seed Co. with his wife, Joyce, a second-generation soybean breeder.
ArFB 2022 YF&R CONFERENCE The Arkansas Farm Bureau Young Farmer & Rancher and Collegiate Conference will be held Feb. 4 – 5 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Hot Springs. Registration will begin Feb. 4 at 4 p.m. The conference will kick off with a reception Friday evening. The Saturday agenda includes addresses from Arkansas Farm Bureau leadership and south Texas farmer Jay Hill. Workshops will cover several topics including advocacy, leadership development, and crop and livestock markets. The conference will conclude Saturday evening with dinner and entertainment at the Mid-America Science Museum. An outing to the Mid-America Science Museum will be provided for children five and up during the day Saturday. A block of rooms has been secured for Friday and Saturday nights. For registration forms, please contact your county office. Deadline for registration is Jan. 21. If you have any questions or need assistance, please contact Jennifer Craig at jennifer.craig@arfb.com or (501) 228-1269. 2
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY 2022 AGRIBUSINESS CONFERENCE The 28th annual Arkansas State University Agribusiness Conference will be held in person Feb. 16, with a portion available online. The conference will focus on climate policy and agriculture, the outlook for agricultural and trade policy, and commodity markets. The conference will end with the noon luncheon. The general session features three presentations: • Dean Mickey Latour will make announcements from the College of Agriculture. • Chelsie Keys, a senior professional staff member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, will discuss climate issues and their impact on agriculture and the next farm bill. • Agricultural policy and political analyst Jim Wiesemeyer will discuss the outlook for the 2022 election and the implications for agricultural and trade policy. Following the general session there will be three concurrent commodity sessions available in person only: • The rice and grain markets session features Grayson Daniels from Riceland Foods, Inc. and Michael Klein and Sarah Moran with USA Rice. • Jeff Johnson from Allenberg Cotton Co. will discuss the cotton market and industry issues. • Arkansas State University professor David Newman and Senate Agriculture Committee senior professional staff member Chelsie Keys will discuss animal agriculture issues. The luncheon will begin at noon and features A-State alumnus and retired Deere & Company chief economist J.B. Penn. Online registration for the luncheon by Feb. 4 is requested, however day-of walk-in registration will be available. For questions or more information, contact Abigail Jorgenson Coleman at 870-972-2416 or ajorgenson@ astate.edu.
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GRAIN BIN RESCUE AND SAFETY TRAINING
Grain bins can be a hazard for farmers, their employees, and for everyone involved in the event that someone has to be rescued. With this in mind, Arkansas Farm Bureau will be sponsoring a public grain bin safety program on Feb. 22 in Stuttgart.
Farmers, their employees, firefighters and emergency response teams are encouraged to attend. The course will consist of a one-hour classroom session followed by a two-hour, hands-on rescue simulation. The instructors for this course will be from Mississippi Farm Bureau and this course is approved for continuing education credits by the Arkansas Fire Training Academy. The program will take place Feb. 23 at the Cross B Arena, 2219 Highway 63 N, in Stuttgart, next to Mack’s
Prairie Wings. Lunch will be provided at 11 a.m. and the classroom portion will start at noon. Please dress for winter weather, the classroom and hands-on portions will both be outside. Due to facility capacity, attendance will be limited to 300, with a maximum of five people per farm, fire department, organization, etc. Please note attendance will be based on a first-signed-up, first -service basis. Please RSVP to Myra Moix, myra.moix@arfb.com, by Jan. 31. If you are attending as a group, please list all your group members’ names together in your RSVP. Please contact Brock Roberts at 501-912-0147 with any questions or concerns.
USDA LAUNCHES LOAN GUARANTEE PROGRAM U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack announced USDA is deploying $100 million under the new Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program to make available nearly $1 billion in loan guarantees. These loan guarantees will back private investment in processing and food supply infrastructure that will strengthen the food supply chain for the American people. USDA is making the funding available through the American Rescue Plan Act. The program is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to address food system challenges dating back decades and further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. These investments will help essential processing and supply chain infrastructure, with a goal of ultimately delivering more opportunities and fairer prices for farmers, they will give people greater access to healthier foods, and they will help eliminate bottlenecks in the food supply chain. “The pandemic exposed vulnerabilities and created extreme disruptions in America’s food supply chain. The reduction in meat processing capacity is just one example of the supply chain bottlenecks that affect small and midsize farmers,” Vilsack said. “Under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris, USDA is investing in ways to improve America’s food supply chain. The funding we’re announcing today will leverage approximately a billion dollars in public
and private-sector investments that will significantly expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance critical food supply chain infrastructure.” Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program Through the Food Supply Chain Guaranteed Loan Program, USDA will partner with lenders to guarantee loans of up to $40 million to help eligible entities expand meat and poultry processing capacity and finance other food supply chain infrastructure. Lenders may provide the loans to eligible cooperatives, corporations, for profits, nonprofits, Tribal communities, public bodies and people in rural and urban areas. USDA Rural Development (RD) will administer the loans. Funding may be used to: • start-up or expand food supply chain activities such as aggregating, processing, manufacturing, storing, transporting, wholesaling or distributing food. • address supply chain bottlenecks. • increase capacity and help create a more resilient, diverse and secure U.S. food supply chain. USDA is accepting electronic applications from lenders through the Food Supply Chain Online Application System until funds are expended. Paper applications will not be accepted. To access the online application system, lenders must submit a request to rdfoodsupplychainloans@usda.gov. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov/ foodsupplychainloans or see the notice published in the Dec. 9 Federal Register.
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MARKET NEWS as of January 5, 2022 Contact Brandy Carroll 501-228-1268 brandy.carroll@arfb.com
Corn The chart picture for corn has been a confusing one over the past few days. Most active March gapped higher on Dec. 27 and broke through long-term resistance at $6.16 on Dec. 28 before charting a bearish outside day. Prices headed sharply lower until Monday when the market charted a bearish outside day. On Tuesday, and the market closed at its highest level in six sessions and back above the key $6 price level. The market has resistance at the recent high of $6.17¾, and if we see a breakout above that level, the market could retest the June 2021 high of $6.33. From a fundamental perspective, brisk ethanol production has been supportive, as have worries about the potential for Argentina’s corn crop as drought conditions are expanding and the crop is under stress. Export sales have been strong, with last week’s total coming in at 51.5 million bushels, blowing trade expectations of 1929 million bushels out of the water. The market is, of course, already looking ahead to the 2022 crop. High input costs are a factor for farmers to consider, but the market is currently not expecting corn acres to decline significantly. Soybeans Soybean futures have been on a roll, with old-crop March futures putting over a dollar back on the market in the past couple of weeks. 4
The market continues to falter at the key $14 area, which has capped the market since last July. A break above $14 could signal a retest of resistance at $14.33. New-crop November is The recent rally has been driven by sharp gains in soy oil prices. Strength in both crude oil and palm oil prices have been supportive, as have ideas that diesel demand continues to improve. Exports have also been supportive, although last week’s total of 22.1 million bushel was at the low end of trade expectations. The previous week’s sales were 29.8 million bushels. Shipments of 63.3 million bushels were down from 68.1 million the previous week. Cotton After a selloff at the end of November, March cotton futures have established an uptrend and have filled the gaps left on the way down. They are now in position to test resistance at the contract high of 118.50 cents. The 10-year high of 121.67 set last fall would be the next upside target if the market moves above the contract high. New crop December futures have already set a new high of 94.02 cents after breaking through previous resistance at 93.10 cents. Strength in crude oil futures and expectations for improving demand for cotton have been supportive. Last week’s export sales totaled 192,200 bales, which was solid but down 40% from the previous fourweek average. China bought 69,000 bales last week. Shipments were an impressive 162,200 bales, up 45% from the previous four-week average. Rice Ric futures have staged an impressive rally in recent days, with March putting a dollar back on the market in just a few days after
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breaking out of the downtrend drawn off the November high. That high of $14.91 is proving to be tough resistance, though, as the market continues to falter at that price level. The main support in the market is coming from uncertainty about the 2022 crop. Extremely high input costs could impact the size of the crop, both domestically and internationally. This should underpin the market until we know more about the size of the crop. Concerns about inflation and food security are also supporting rice prices. Export demand has been solid, last week’s sales totaled 69,500 metric tons. Shipments were a bit disappointing at 31,200 metric tons. Hogs February hog futures have turned lower again after failing to break through resistance at $84.67½ in the recent rally. The June contract, however, has moved to a new high of $99.65 this week. A stronger composite pork cutout value was supportive thanks to a big jump in pork belly values. Today’s slaughter is expected to be down 6,000 from a week ago and 18,000 from a year ago. Cattle February live cattle futures have charted losses in recent days. Nearby chart support begins at $136.88, with further support at the December low of $135.50. Light trade has been reported this week. Uncertainty surrounding the Omicron variant of Covid and its impact on demand continues to pressure the market.
EDITOR Ashley Wallace ashley.wallace@arfb.com