JULY 31, 2020 • VOLUME 23 • ISSUE 15
Farm Bureau Press A PEEK INSIDE
ArFB Board | Members of the Arkansas Farm Bureau board of directors paused for a group picture July 23. This was the first in-person meeting for the board since the COVID-19 pandemic.
ARKANSAS FARMERS, RANCHERS RECEIVE MORE THAN $86 MILLION IN COVID ASSISTANCE Arkansas farmers and ranchers have received more than $86 million in Coronavirus Food Assistance Program direct payments, according to a report released. The payments are designed to provide relief to eligible farmers and ranchers facing financial losses due to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. The payments are part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s $16 billion financial aid package to farmers. Arkansas’ share was 1.5 percent of total payments made nationwide. Arkansas ranks 22nd among the recipients of CFAP money. As of June 15, Iowa was the top recipient of CFAP funds from all categories with $318.99 million. Alaska received zero dollars in funding.
USDA Launches New Farmers.gov Features, page 2
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COVID ASSISTANCE Continued from page 1
Lion’s share to livestock Scott Stiles, extension economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said that nearly 75 percent — $64.66 million — of the approved CFAP payments in Arkansas went to livestock producers, while nearly 23 percent, or $19.61 million, went to nonspecialty crops, which include spring wheat, soybeans, cotton and corn. Rice and winter wheat were excluded from the program. Specialty crop producers received $1.27 million, while dairy farmers accounted for less than $1 million, at $807,587.
Leadership Award | Gene Pharr (right) of Lincoln recently received the Leo Sutterfield Leadership Award after concluding his tenure on the Arkansas Beef Council board of directors. Chairman Caleb Plyler of Hope presented the award.
Livestock producers in Arkansas also submitted the most applications to the program, more than 11,000. The livestock category includes cattle, hogs and sheep. In 2018, the latest figures available, Arkansas cattle and calves were a $480 million business and the state ranked No. 10 nationally. COVID has not been gentle on beef producers, hitting production facilities early on and backing up cattle sales. “What’s mainly behind the high number of applications is that anyone who sold or owned inventory of cattle between Jan. 15 and May 14 of this year is eligible for some kind of direct payment under CFAP,” said John Anderson, head of the Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness department for the Division and the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences. “Basically, every cattle operation in the state is eligible.” Deadline Aug. 28 Eligible farmers and ranchers may apply for CFAP direct payments through county USDA Farm Service Agency offices until Aug. 28. More information on the CFAP program and the application process may be found at farmers.gov/cfap. Monday’s report is part of the Division of Agriculture’s weekly analyses of the impact of COVID-19 on the economy. See them at https://bit.ly/AR-Ag-EcoImpacts2020.
Carroll County Scholarhip | Carroll County Farm Bureau President Rusty Butler (right) & agent John Fowler (left) presented the 2020 scholarships to Taylor Swofford and Kourtney Granger on July 17. 2
A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION
ARKANSAS 2020 YF&R AWARDS
Winners of the YF&R contests were announced during ArFB’s virtual 2020 Officers & Leaders Conference. These contests are a chance for Arkansas Farm Bureau to recognize young farmers for their accomplishments in agriculture and their leadership abilities. Hog Trap | (Left to right) Agency manager Coy Mason (left), state board member Chase Groves and Miller County Farm Bureau Vice President Bruce Ferguson (right) were on hand for the delivery of the county office’s feral hog trap July 9. Farm Bureau’s Feral Hog Committee held a virtual meeting July 21. The committee received an update on the pilot farm bill funded feral hog control program and developed policy recommendations for state board consideration.
USDA LAUNCHES NEW FARMERS.GOV FEATURES U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue today announced new features on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers.gov website designed to help facilitate the employment of H-2A workers. “My mission from the beginning of my time as Secretary was to make USDA the most effective, most efficient, most customer-focused department in the entire federal government – these changes to Farmers.gov are doing just that. USDA’s goal is to help farmers navigate the complex H-2A program that is administered by Department of Labor, Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department so hiring a farm worker is an easier process,” said Secretary Perdue. “President Trump knows how essential these workers are to our farmers and America’s food supply chain. We will continue working to streamline these and other processes to better serve our customers across the country.” The primary new H-2A features on Farmers.gov include: • A real-time dashboard that enables farmers to track the status of their eligible employer application and visa applications for temporary nonimmigrant workers; • Streamlining the login information so if a farmer has an existing login. gov account they can save multiple applications tracking numbers for quick look-up at any time; • Enables easy access to the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Foreign Labor Application Gateway (FLAG); • Allows farmers to track time-sensitive actions taken in the course of Office of Foreign Labor Certification’s (OFLC) adjudication of temporary labor certification applications; • Allowing for farmers to access all application forms on-line. All information can be found at www.farmers.gov/manage/h2a.
Drew and Laura Davis of Craighead County were this year’s Achievement Award recipient. The Davis’ farm 1900 acres of rice, soybean and corn. They also partner in a cattle operation and provide contract hauling. They have two children, Kate and Luke. Achievement Award applicants must be actively engaged in farming and/ or ranching, with the majority of their net income coming from production agriculture. Excellence in Agriculture Award was given to Monica Paskewitz of Izard County. Monica works for the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Izard County. Along with her husband Michael and two daughters, Maddie and Maylee, the Paskewitzes have a cow-calf operation of Anguscross cows. Excellence in Agriculture applicants are judged on their involvement in agriculture, leadership ability, and participation/ involvement in Farm Bureau and other organizations. They should not have the majority of their net income subject to normal production risk. Cody Rose of Poinsett County was the winner of the Discussion Meet. Originally from Quiln, Mo., Cody is an E-4 specialist in the Arkansas National Guard. He has been a sales agent with Eagle Seed for over two years and is currently enrolled at ASUNewport.
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MARKET NEWS as of July 30, 2020 Contact Brandy Carroll 501-228-1268 brandy.carroll@arfb.com
Cattle Last Friday’s USDA Cattle Inventory report showed some herd liquidation, with the beef cow inventory pegged at 99.3% of last year’s total, surprising many in the industry who were expecting a lower total based upon June’s slaughter totals. Beef exports this week hit a marketing-year high of 29,500 metric tons, up 89% from last week and 81% from the four-week average. Japan and South Korea were major buyers. The weaker dollar is supportive. October live cattle futures are trading at four month highs, but have so far been capped by resistance at $107. October feeders are chopping along below resistance near $145, but are still trending higher. Price action late in the week looks negative, with August charting a bearish reversal on Thursday, indicating the recent rally has run out of steam. Futures are currently trading a large premium to cash prices, and that could result in additional weakness. Hogs Hog futures continue to struggle to build upward momentum. October was attempting to build support at $49, but prices have now moved back below that level, leaving the contract low of $46.47 as the only level of support. Resistance will be found at $52 on a rebound. Weekly exports of 39,600 metric tons were up 24% from last week. China purchased 17,800 metric tons of that total, which accounts for the country’s largest purchase in 12 weeks. 4
Corn Corn futures continue to see weakness. Confirmation of an historically large drop in the U.S. GDP for the second quarter is impacting markets across the board. The market is now consolidating just above support at $3.30. New-crop exports have been strong for the past two weeks, with this week’s total coming in at 23.9 million bushels. Additional sales to China and unknown destinations were reported today. Nationwide, 72% of the crop is rated good to excellent, and the outlook remains positive for the corn crop in many areas. On Monday, December gapped lower, and has now closed below previous support at $3.30 two days in a row. That makes the chart look even more bearish than before, with little support above the contract low of $3.22. The chart gap between $3.42 and $3.43 ¾ will be the first level of resistance in the event of a rebound.
for cotton. The USDA June acreage report added strength, as U.S. acres were estimated at only 12.185 million. USDA currently rates 49% of the U.S. crop as good to excellent as the Texas crop is dry and not in great shap,e with only 31% rated good to excellent. In Arkansas, 87% of the crop is rated good to excellent. Weekly export sales were disappointing, but better than the net cancellations last week. 128,200 bales for delivery in all marketing years were sold to foreign buyers last week. 22,000 of those bales were sold to China. Shipments of 320,800 bales added something positive to the report. The weaker dollar should help support cotton demand somewhat, but global retail demand is still a huge factor for cotton. Technically, the December contract charted a bullish key-reversal on Thursday, setting the stage for more positive price action. Overhead resistance at 65 cents is the upside target.
Soybeans Soybean futures have been on a wild ride the past couple of weeks. Exceptionally strong export sales for the second week in a row are providing some underlying support. New crop export sales were 132.4 million bushels, well above last week’s total and above the highest industry estimate for the week. A weaker dollar has facilitated strong sales. 72% of the crop nationwide is rated good to excellent. In Arkansas, that total is 69%. In recent days, November has tested the waters above resistance at $9, but a failure to close above that level has resulted in renewed weakness. A close above that level could see a retest of the recent high of $9.12½, but so far that hasn’t happened. Major support at $8.60 looks solid for the time being.
Rice Rice futures have this week resumed their wild swings and wide trading ranges. Futures sold off hard early in the week, with September setting a new contract low of $11.21½ in the process. On Thursday, however, prices soared to retest resistance at $11.90 (which has capped the market for a couple of weeks now) before backing off to close near the middle of the day’s trading range. Weekly exports were disappointing with 23,700 metric tons sold for 2019-20 and only 6,000 for 2020-21. Shipments were also poor, with only 12,000 metric tons. In Arkansas, 71% of the crop is rated good to excellent. Nationwide, that total is 76%.
Cotton The cotton market has been making a slow and steady recovery since the pandemic decimated demand
A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION
EDITOR Ashley Wallace ashley.wallace@arfb.com