McLean County Farm Bureau

FarmDoc Daily

• Buying Inputs in the Current Business Climate
  Grain farmers are facing significantly lower crop prices and incomes in 2025 compared to previous years which have resulted in intense pressure to lower costs through negotiations on cash rents and purchased inputs. Much of this negotiation has focused on price – farmers are asking for price reductions, but suppliers of fertilizer, seed, and chemicals […]
• Self-Insurance by US Farmers
  Self-insurance is an important tool businesses use to manage the financial consequences of their risks. Sources of farm self-insurance include financial assets, crop stocks, and animal inventories. Since 2012, however, self-insurance has declined as use of subsided insurance has grown. This negative relationship raises the policy questions, “Are Federal subsidies crowding out self-insurance?” and “What […]
• Estimating Total Crop Acres for the U.S. over 1998-2025
  In this article, we project total crop acreage of 337.8 million acres for 2025 using the estimate for principal crop acreage in the March 2025 USDA Prospective Plantings report and other assumptions. This is 3.0 million acres less than the total for 2024 and tied with 2022 for the lowest total crop acreage over 1998 […]