Michigan’s Corn Producers Vote Down Proposed Assessment Increase

Feb 29, 2024

Michigan’s corn producers have voted down a proposed assessment increase under the state’s Agriculture Commodities Marketing Act, the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development announced today which ran the referendum for the Corn Marketing Program.

MDARD received a total of 1,317 ballots with 107 of those ballots being disqualified as invalid. Of the valid 1,210 referendum ballots to determine whether to increase the assessment of Michigan corn by additional $0.01 per bushel, 583 producers voted yes (48 percent) representing 41,612,583 bushels of corn (43 percent) and 627 producers voted no (52 percent) representing 55,402,313 bushels of corn (57 percent).

For the amendment to pass, more than 50 percent of the producer votes cast, representing more than 50 percent of the total number of bushels represented on the cast ballots, must approve it.

The assessment remains at $0.01 per bushel of Michigan corn as supported by growers during the 2023 referendum.

Source : michigan.gov

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!

Rural renewables rise - $144M boost from Administrative clean energy plan

Ag recognizes Pink Shirt Day