MN Wheat Weekly Wheatsource

September 30, 2020

MN Wheat Weekly Update

Wheat Harvest 2020 (Erica Oakley, US Wheat Associates)

• The HRS harvest is winding down and northern durum harvest is nearly 90% complete. HRS currently grades as U.S. No. 1 Northern Spring (1 NS) and northern durum grades at U.S. No. 1 Hard Amber Durum (HAD).

US Wheat Price Report (Claire Hutchins)

Technical selling pressured all wheat futures prices week-over-week. CBOT soft red winter (SRW) futures dropped 31 cents to end at $5.44/bu. KCBT hard red winter (HRW) futures fell 29 cents to close at $4.75/bu. MGE hard red spring (HRS) futures lost 21 cents to end at $5.30/bu. CBOT corn futures fell 13 cents to close at $3.65/bu. CBOT January soybean futures lost 41 cents to end at $10.06/bu. Commercial Sales U.S. Drought Monitor This week, extreme drought spread in eastern Washington and Nebraska Panhandle. Much of the High and Northern Plains are now abnormally to extremely dry. Looking ahead, dry windy conditions are expected to advance the wheat harvest across the Norther Plains and scattered rain is expected across the Southern Plains which could benefit early winter wheat development.

National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Update: Caitlin Eannello

• House Passes CR with CCC Authorization and Nutrition Aid

On September 22, 2020, the House passed a continuing resolution to fund the government through December 11 including provisions to allow the Agriculture Department to use the Commodity Credit Corporation to make payments to farmers with no interruption and to fund the Pandemic EBT program. The Fence Post did a good summary of the politics around this vote.

• Agri-Pulse Becerra Argues Glyphosate Should Get Prop. 65 Warnings

As published in Agri-Pulse on September 16, 2020, the “Attorney General Xavier Becerra is challenging a recent federal court decision barring Proposition 65 cancer warnings for glyphosate-based herbicides. The judge in the case called it misleading to consumers for the state to list the ingredient under the disclosure law, as well as a violation of First Amendment rights for Monsanto. He ruled that the warning was not “‘purely factual and uncontroversial.’” Read more in Agri-Pulse.

Industry News – MN Farm Bureau Federation Weekly Impact Update

CFAP 2

• USDA announced details of the new $14-billion-dollar Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, or CFAP2, that will provide direct payments to farmers and ranchers to partially offset COVID-19-related losses for producers. This follows an estimated $10 billion in support provided to cattle, hog, dairy, non-specialty crop, specialty crop and other producers to offset COVID-19 related losses experienced through mid-April 2020. Sign-up for CFAP2 began Sept. 21 and runs through Dec. 11 at USDA’s Farm Service Agency county offices.
• Additional details about requirements for program participation can be found on USDA’s CFAP website, www.farmers.gov/cfap.
• Market Intel Update

Congress Includes CCC Funding

• The U.S. House has passed a continuing resolution (CR) that funds the government through December 11, 2020 and replenishes the USDA Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) anomaly. The U.S. Senate is expected to vote on it early this week.
• Since 1987, the CCC has been replenished annually at $30 billion to fund many programs farmers rely on, such as Agriculture Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage, Dairy Margin Coverage and the Conservation Reserve Program. Without an immediate replenishment of the CCC in a continuing resolution (a provision referred to as an “anomaly”), farm bill programs and payments expected to go out in early October would likely exhaust CCC resources by November.
• Minnesota Farm Bureau appreciates the leadership of our members of Congress that advocated for the inclusion of the CCC anomaly in the Continuing Resolution.
• Read the full AFBF Statement here.
• Read more about CCC funding in this Market Intel.