Senate to Vote on U.S. Farm Bill

Feb 03, 2014

By Amanda Brodhagen, Farms.com

The U.S. Senate will be voting on the nearly $1 trillion five-year 2014 farm bill this afternoon. If the Senate passes the farm legislation (it requires 60 votes for passage), then President Obama is expected to sign it into law. Congress has been in partisan gridlock for the past two years to pass an agreement on the food and farm legislation.

Last week, the House approved the bill, in a 251 to 166 vote. The bill ends direct payments for farmers, while expanding crop insurance. Is also offers livestock disaster assistance and a new program for dairy farmers. The bill also cuts about $8 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), also known as food stamps.

Most of the U.S. farm groups support the farm bill, with the exception of livestock groups who strongly oppose the wording of the country-of-origin meat labeling rule. The bill is expected to pass the Senate with strong bipartisan support.

Video: Is China Buying US Soybeans + USDA Nov 14th Crop Report could be “Game Changing”

After a week of a U.S./China trade truce, markets/trade is skeptical that we have not seen a signed agreement nor heard much from China or seen any details. There are rumors that China is buying soybean futures & not the physical. Trust in Trump?
12 MMT of U.S. soybean purchases by China by year-end is better than 0 but we all need to give it more time and give it a chance to unfold. China did lower the tariffs on Ag and is buying U.S. wheat and sorghum.
U.S. supreme court could rule against Trumps tariffs, but the Trump administration does have a plan B.
U.S. government shutdown is now the longest in history at 38 days.
But despite a U.S. government shutdown we will be getting a USDA November crop report next Friday and it could be “game changing.” If the USDA provides a bullish surprise with lower U.S. corn and soybean yields and ending stocks that are lower than expected both corn and soybean futures will break out above their ceilings at $4.35/bu and $11.35/bu respectively.
The funds continued their selling in live and feeder cattle futures on continued fears that the Trump administration want to lower U.S. beef prices. The fundamentals have not changed, only market psychology has.
Stocks markets continue to worry about a weak U.S. job market, but you can blame ChatGPT for that. In the future, we will have a more efficient, productive and growing economy with a higher unemployment rate until we have more skilled AI workers.
After 34 new record highs in the S & P 500 and 124 new records in the NASDAQ in 2025 we are back to a correction and investor profit taking as AI valuations may have gotten too stretched near-term ahead of NVDA’s 3rd quarter earnings announcement on Nov. 19th. But this is not an AI bubble.
75% of Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk!
It has rained in South America in the last 7 days, but both the American and European models agree that Central Brazil remains dry in the next 14-days!

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