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Details on farm assistance package on the way

Details on farm assistance package on the way

USDA hopes to have the program running after Labor Day

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

Details on a federal assistance package to help farmers through difficult economic times could be released next week.

Yesterday, USDA secretary Sonny Perdue told farmers the Office of Management and Budget is reviewing the specifics of the US$12 billion package. The information could be made public on Monday.

The package, which could include between US$7 and US$8 billion of direct cash relief, won’t please all farmers, Perdue said.

“It’s not going to make everybody whole. It’s not going to make everybody happy,” he said during a visit to a dairy farm in Schodack Landing, N.Y., Reuters reported.

Soybean producers could stand to benefit the most from the assistance programs.

A preliminary report suggested the USDA would pay US$1.65 per bushel of soybeans and one cent per bushel of corn.

Based on the USDA’s forecast of a 4.586-billion-bushel soybean crop, that would equal about US$7.6 billion in federal aid for the soybean industry.

“We will acknowledge that dairy and pork and soybeans will be the commodities that are most dramatically affected by the tariffs,” Perdue said, DTN reported.

Dairy producers are worried the government’s help isn’t enough as they face an oversupply of milk nationwide.

And in New York, dairy farmers aren’t exempt from the state’s increasing minimum wage, which sits at US$10.40 per hour.

“We go to work every day losing money,” Stephen Winsor, a fourth-generation dairy farmer from Harpursville, N.Y., said yesterday, WRVO reported. “By the time we provide for our family, make sure our employees are paid and pay the bills, at the end of the day, there’s nothing left.”


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Funds Ditch Ag Commodities, Chase Stocks Amid an End to Middle East War, & Trade Deal Buzz

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The 12-day war between Iran-Israel came to an end sending crude oil futures plunging as the big fund speculators removed the war risk premium.

The weather risk premium in the Ag complex is sending corn, wheat and soybean futures lower on month-end selling ahead of the market moving USDA quarterly grain stocks and acreage reports on June 30th.

Instead, funds were chasing and sending tech stocks higher with the S&P 500/NASDAQ indexes setting new all-time record highs!

June 1 USDA Hogs and pigs report was slightly bearish while the U.S. $ Index traded to new contract lows as the de-dollarization that began in 2014 continues.

Feed in the form of soybean meal futures for livestock producers got cheaper, trading to new contract lows.

The Stats Canada seeded acreage update was bullish canola and wheat.