Farm Credit Services of America

Our team is at the National Pork Industry Conference this week, speaking with pork producers and others in the industry.   Teammates Chris Ford and Matt Erickson shared their expertise on Monday – discussing the financial health of the industry and economic factors to watch for in 2024, respectively.

We joined Nebraska beef producers and other donors to mark the completion of University of Nebraska-Lincoln's feedlot innovation center – one of the largest research feedlots in the world. We’re proud to support this science-driven facility that will help innovate for a more sustainable beef industry while supporting local ag education.

Our summer interns gathered in Omaha last week and participated in a group volunteer outing with three local nonprofits – Nebraska Diaper Bank, Access Period and Whispering Roots. While volunteering, they packed: ✔ 18,000 diapers ✔ 175 three-month period packs ✔ More than 1,200 containers of soup Volunteering is one of many ways we serve the communities we and our customer-owners call home. We’re proud to include such an impactful event as part of our summer internship program.

We stand in solidarity with the communities impacted by recent flooding. As we continue to monitor and evaluate this evolving situation, we’re committed to actively supporting affected communities as part of our overall community giving activity. Our thoughts are with everyone during this challenging time.

The first year Sue and Terry connected precision data to their crop insurance, they appreciated the convenience. With each subsequent year, they have seen the benefit of applying their data from the field to their policy. Their insurance officer, Chad Loecke, pulls data from his customers’ monitors after they finish planting and again after harvest. From the monitors, he gets the plant date, crop type and number of acres planted. These aren’t government acres that producers have submitted at their FSA office, Loecke said. “These are actual acres that they have planted in the field and that they feel are a much more accurate number.” “It reduces their premium in the short run. This might not be a big number because generally you’re decreasing your acres by 5-10 acres. But for some producers that can be a very big number. The bigger thing is when you are insuring fewer acres against higher production. That gives you a higher production number per acre, so the producer is insuring more bushels and getting to insure more revenue dollars per acre.” Link to full story in the comments.

More than 100 nonprofit organizations received funding through our Working Here Fund grant program in Q1 of 2024. These grants support agriculture and rural communities by helping fund projects and purchases like greenhouses, rescue equipment, food pantries and agriculture education materials. To view a full list of recipients or learn more about our grant program, visit our website. https://lnkd.in/gtN_tYEy

Jim Knuth, SVP of lending, recently joined a panel at Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual economic summit to speak about the high-cost, low-margin environment impacting grain producers. He shared various proactive measures producers can take like focusing on risk management, marketing and cutting costs when possible.

Grand Farm invited us and other supporters to Fargo for the grand opening of its Innovation Shop, held in conjunction with AgTech Week and the Cultivate Conference. Innovation is critical to our Association and customer-owners. Seeing a hub of innovative solutions for ag made for a grand celebration. Several members of our leadership team spoke at the week’s events, with our CEO Mark Jensen giving a keynote on the importance of innovation and collaboration in the ag industry. “By working together, we can share knowledge, resources and data to accelerate solutions to our most challenging problems.”

We talked with one customer-owner about his operation and how he utilizes Livestock Risk Protection (LRP). ⬇ As a cattle operator, Tyler naturally wants today’s strong prices to continue. Realistically, he knows they will come down, and possibly, he said, sooner than some might expect. Tyler’s family is in growth mode to make room for the next generation. Insuring “everything we can” with LRP and crop insurance gives the assurance needed to keep investing for the future. “Whether it’s a breakeven, or even a little less, at least it keeps a guy in the game of farming and ranching instead of having a bad year that wipes you out and you don’t have any recourse or income to offset the loss.”

USDA continues to see a grain market largely driven by high production and stocks and lower demand and use. Our economist Matt Erickson looks at the changes in usage and yields required to change the current supply scenario. https://lnkd.in/gq3FYQm8 #WASDE