Even Donald Trump admits that his tariffs are hurting farmers. Yesterday the USDA announced just how much they think they need to compensate farmers for Il Duce’s reckless trade war, based on amounts per commodity:
- Pork: $8.00 per head
- Soybeans: $1.65 per pushel
- Sorghum: 86¢ per bushel
- Wheat: 14¢ per bushel
- Milk: 12¢ per 100 lbs.
- Cotton: 6¢ per lb.
- Corn: 1¢ per bushel
This first round of farm welfare payments, scheduled to start September 4, total $4.7 billion and will be applied only to half of each eligible applicant farmer’s production. If the Trump Administration decides to issue another round of payments (and remember, Trump’s initial farm welfare promise was $12 billion), USDA will apply new reimbursement rates to the other half of each applicant’s production. Farm welfare payments will be capped at $125,000 per person or legal entity and limited to farmers who made an average Adjusted Gross Income in 2014, 2015, and 2016 of less than $900,000.
Update 17:54 CDT: The USDA is planning to spend just over $6 billion, half of the promised $12 billion, in the first round. The USDA lists $1.24 billion it plans to spend buying 29 commodities—$558.8 million on pork, $93.4 million on apples, $85.2 million on pistachios, $84.9 million on dairy, $15,000 on figs…—plus another $175 million on almonds and sweet cherries, to be distributed to the states for use in food assistance programs. Trump’s USDA also plans to spend $200 million on “Agricultural Trade Promotion Programs”—i.e., marketing and P.R.
It’s gonna get worse too. The Wall Street Journal says that trump’s fakey deal with Mexico is empty and worse than NAFTA. Farmers, you all better wake the hell up before the roses you smell will be https://fourrosesbourbon.com/bourbon/single-barrel/ as your final price for your working farm. If you think that Comrade NOem is gonna do any good as governor, take a look at Washington. If you think that Comrade Dusty is gonna do any good in Washington, take a look at Washington. New blood is what is needed, new blood that will actually be able to accomplish something other than stupid and corruption.
How does a gas station owner entice a customer to drive from the other side of town, past several other gas stations, to shop at his/her gas station? Every gas station in town buys gas from the same refinery at the same price.
BUILD THAT MALL! BUILD THAT MALL! That was the chant by Mexicans when trump called them with his “deal”, Mexico took him to the cleaners. The dude is such a phony baloney that even the liberals loves him to put him in his place, he is that easy.
It”s sad that soybean producers have promoted their own product to over seas markets and their own government took only a few months to throw it away. USDA, keep your damn money and let us market our own grain.
The latest blurbs from NOem and Rounds show just how far up trump’s arse these fakes have gone. They speak as though they are winning, fat chance. With mutt’s like these, who needs liberals to browbeat. Republicans, rejoice, you have met the enemy and it is your ownself. Can’t even blame Mexicans now as trump sold you all out with his public meaningless call yesterday. trump still has his trademarks making a fortune while ag producers have the skidmarks losing their fortune. Whenever a rich fake comes along to fix a working system they perceive as broken, you will then have a really broken system.
Meanwhile, the corrupted NOem, is on board with this list of known corrupted deals that trump and the rest have pulled. Yet they won’t investigate them. They cry and say that if those mean Democrats get elected, they will want law and order. Hey NOem, if you know about a crime, investigate it. Oh yeah, as 96 Tears says, you would be the perfect storm as governor. “More murders and more corruption, NOem/Rhoden in ’16” new republican election banner.
Here is the list that NOem does not want to investigate https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/8/27/17785990/house-republicans-trump-investigation
Better start dumping this corrupted bunch before soybeans are down to $.25 per bushel. Hey, its your farming operation, how far down the crapper do you want to be flushed?
I am sure happy that China owned Smithfield will get $8 per hog they produced. We wouldn’t want to cause any hardship on Smithfield. Of course that will not cost much being they are the largest hog producer in the U.S.
Mr. Lansing, people who own chains of gas stations come up with ways, such as really good pizza and selling cheap beer and having a friendly, polite staff. Regardless of the rack price, having a fine polite young lady pouring your customers a beer will always bring in more customers.
All your goats are belong to us.
Markets dropped again
The $1.65 isn’t helping, it’s a slap in th face
Elevators haven’t sold their own beans a month. Agt rumored only taking contracted.
It means your sht out of farming and stuck w beans if y don’t didn’t contract …,
Know of many that didn’t that were holding out for higher prices, yes drumf voters
U tell me how the $1.65 is going to help w lo prices and when you can’t sell ….,
It should be stipulated for this years crop only as well otherwise the bins might be cleaned out for some with a $125,000 cap
Just say n this is a farce with tax payer dollars
The $125,000 is per individual…..
U watch how many family members are talking about selling beans…. the rules so far
Are a joke with vague stipulations
No doubt this isn’t over and will be hard to dig out for a lot of us
Very good, Grudznick. Up until recently, USA gave China incentives and discounts to come to the other side of the world (bypassing many other sellers at the same price) to buy our food. The new President viewed these incentives as an poor deal for our farmers and America. He labeled them “unfair trade” and he ended these discounts and incentives. To punish China (just for using the incentives and discounts USA honestly offered them to sweeten the deal and entice business) Trump has added burdening tariffs.
-Don Trump was a builder and a usurper of government programs not a seller. (The only product he actually sold was the Trump brand on various, low grade retail items.)
-As it stands now. – We’ve lost China’s business. North Korea isn’t denuclearizing. Mexico just got a sweeter trade deal and so will Canada. There isn’t and will never be a wall.
-Who’s tired of winning, yet?
Trump is Osama bin Laden!
Bin Laden forced USA to find new sources of energy and it’s nearly bankrupting OPEC. Trump is forcing China to find new sources for food. Will it nearly bankrupt USA’s farmers?
and who do you think we are borrowing all these billions from?? GUESS…yep….China.
Well said, Kathy. We don’t here Republicans bemoaning that fact, since Trump.
These numbers are a drop in the barrel for the crops I raise. A stinking penny for corn? Talk about an insult. Corn prices are down about 70¢/bu since Trump decided to go to war. Prices are down about $2.50/bu for soybeans, Wheat prices have been fluctuating wildly but are currently trading down about 50¢/bu.
Face it we have a president that pulled this tariff idea out of his nether regions without consulting anyone who actually knows anything about trade.
Tangerine Wankmaggot is a complete and utter failure as a human being. He has failed in all areas: Physical, emotional, mental, etc.
I think the scope of the worldwide celebration when he is gone will dwarf the global millennium party.
America first, who is kidding who here. Corrupted republican government doing what it damn well pleases while the hopeful governor helps it along with her crooked comrades in the senate, Rounds and Thune. Change it or lose it further as trump’s war on the west continues unabated, making Russia “great again”. Farmers and ranchers are just pawns to these 3 crooks who only come around and lie when they need a vote to keep up the corruption. Vote Sutton to clean the mess up here as well as sending a law and order judge to Washington as in Mr. Tim Bjorkman.
Trump puts Trump first, not America. His inability to mean what he says matches his inability to do Nick’s math, to negotiate real trade deals, and to practice thoughtful and strategic diplomacy.
Prices are also down because of supply and demand Nick and Cory.
Scouts Measure Bumper Crop.
All seven states showcased soybean crops that should produce higher yields than 2017, as scouts measured some of the most heavily podded beans ever seen on Crop Tour. The story was the same in corn, except for Minnesota, which showed a nearly 7% drop compared with yields in 2017.
Projected corn and soybean yields in South Dakota toppled recent history. Tour results jumped an impressive 20.3% for corn and 13.9% for soybeans, both due to ear length and ear counts. The average ear length was 7.16″ compared with 6.79″ in 2017 and a three-year average of 6.74″. This year’s ear count average was 93.22, which is well above 2017’s count of 84.35 and the three-year average of 84.82. Several drowned-out spots were recorded in fields, but disease pressure was dismal.
https://www.agweb.com/article/scouts-measure-bumper-crop-naa-top-producer-editors/
The grain buyers priced this in already in the past couple of months.
How many of these farmers, who will be getting large payments from the government, complain when poor people get SNAP (food stamps) or medicaid (healthcare)?
I don’t know anything about grain prices, so can someone educate me? If the government will pay you your market losses of $1.65/bushel of soybeans BUT they will only pay you that rate for one out of every two bushels you produce… Doesn’t that mean they are in truth only paying you $0.825/bushel? Don’t you have all the same costs for production for that second bushel as you did the first? Will they let you just not harvest half your crop so that you can at least save the harvesting costs?
And we don’t even need to go into the caps. Which I presume are in place to add extra protection to the small family farmer.
Seems to me the prices being offered are artificially inflated to make it look like the goverment is offering more to farmers than reality would suggest.
Hi, Veronica … welcome to the Cory’s political blog. :0)
Jason, pull your head out of your arse. Supply is always rising but so is demand. Trump killed the demand for our soybeans. In a few short months Trump has turned trade upside down. What don’t you get? It’s ok for a republican to say Trump doesn’t know what the hell he is doing.
Thank you, Porter.
Jason grain prices do fluctuate but not this much and fluctuation implies up and down movement, this movement is down. The drop this summer has been extreme, it began when Trump started the trade war and long before the crop tour determined there may be higher yields this year the prices were in free fall. In fact the price drop began before the crop was all planted.
But then maybe you are right and tariffs have no impact on prices. If that is the case please tell Trump tariffs don’t work so they might as well be withdrawn.
It’s always something. “Sonny money” will come in extra handy if Chinese bean demand drops seriously because of a bout of African swine fever that’s getting hard to control there. Not looking pretty for the world
bean trade. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2161870/china-warns-there-may-be-more-african-swine-fever-outbreaks
Veronica, you are absolutely right a $1.65/bu payment on half my soybean production is actually a payment 82.5¢/bu. The corn payment will amount to .5¢/bu and wheat will be 7¢/bu. Maybe at some point the decision will be made to apply the payment to 100% of production, the tariffs affected 100% of production.
The headlines reporting this payment all say “Farmers to receive payment of $1.65/bu”. It looks like a bigger deal than “Farmers to receive payment of 82.5¢/bu.” It’s all about publicity and perception.
NIck,
Where have I said tariffs never had an impact on the prices?
Are you saying prices will never increase if the tariffs are not taken off?
Let’s set the argument for/against tariffs aside for a moment.
What goes up must come down. Most commenting here seem to prescribe to the contradictory idea that supply as well as demand can increase infinitely.
All businesses have ups and downs days, months, years when production increases and decreases. Yet, can anyone name another industry the government subsidizes every time there is a loss?
It seems that most here want a conservative government and low taxes. That is impossible when the government is subsidizing an industry’s losses every time the market does the opposite of what the soothsayers are telling Wall street.
I am not a farmer and I want to understand better so can anyone tell me what would the price of Soybeans be without the tariffs and how it would prevent the market from going lower?
When I look at this graph it seems to me that the price of soybeans is pretty normal in comparison to the last 45 years (maybe even a little high).
I’m no expert, but I’m willing to learn if someone would like to help me understand how this seems to be worse than say 1994 under Clinton or 2005 under Obama?
Even with tariffs the price seems to be equal or higher than around Nov. 2008 with Bush as exiting president.
Is Trump Just a scapegoat here?
Without further information that’s kind of what it looks like to me. According to this graph the price of Soybeans is extremely volatile and could sky-rocket or tank by tomorrow at this time.
https://www.macrotrends.net/2531/soybean-prices-historical-chart-data
Geesh, you sure are not a history dude Jason Hill. 2005 President Obama, as Greg says pull your head out of your arse. W. Bush was president in 2005, educate yourself.
Excellent link John T., thanks. You’re correct, this could devastate soybean and corn production even further. I see now that Spain and Denmark have more pigs than humans, that is amazing with both now being major suppliers of pork to China.
One thing though, if the virus does not cause human problems, maybe the culled pork could still be consumed. Interesting that the virus seems to have come from Russia.
I am saying as long as the tariffs are in place crop prices will remain depressed because of them.
One aspect of the ag tariffs that is not being addressed is the idle grain loading ports in the Pacific Northwest. Over a generation as farmers cultivated markets in China and other Pacific Rim nations more and more US grain was exported through the PNW ship loading facilities were developed in the PNW and unit train loading elevators were built in the upper Midwest. Those ports are now idle, a valuable asset sits unused. The workers will be laid off if they haven’t already been, that trained workforce will be hard to replace.
If the tariffs were removed tomorrow, the effects of them will be felt for quite some time. we have completely disrupted the grain movement to the PNW. Trump will be out of office before it could ever return to what we had for markets. Our congressional people should have fought Trump to the bitter end on this. Instead they wrote Trump a letter.
Good points Mr. Nemec, check out Louisiana two months ago.
“To understand what a trade war means for America, go to the Mississippi. Follow the mud-brown river past Louisiana’s chemical plants, oil refineries, granaries, ports, and the rail networks and highways that spring from its fingers.
Over centuries, trade on the winding waterway hailed as the great spine of the United States built hundreds of communities. Most U.S. grain, nearly a quarter of its coal and much of its petrochemicals pass through here. But the river carries not only goods — it also carries consequences.
Although Donald Trump garnered more votes from Louisianans in 2016 than any other presidential candidate in history, his promise to put America first targets the heart of its commerce.” https://www.ttnews.com/articles/louisiana-port-feels-effects-trump-trade-war
Greg, they should have tweeted. These three are as worthless as skin tags.
Nick,
“We can cover our demand until November. But for December and January, we are a little short of beans,” he said, declining to be identified by name. China’s total U.S. purchases in December and January should total at least 13 million tonnes, he said.
After the conference in Kansas City, Missouri, the delegation will travel to the U.S. East Coast to tour the port of Norfolk, Virginia, operated by Perdue AgriBusiness.
Another delegation member from a top-ten crusher in China said he is unsure of how long the trade war will drag on but that Chinese buyers will return to the U.S. market as Brazilian supplies run low and prices there rise in response.
That, said the soy buyer, may already be starting to happen.
“Since last Friday, the (South American) sales basis is starting to rally by around 20 cents per bushel. That means commercial stocks are getting tighter,” said the trader, who also declined to be identified.
https://www.agriculture.com/markets/newswire/chinese-soy-buyers-tour-us-farm-as-trade-war-drags-on
I will bet Nick contracted some of his beans. Want to let us know the price you contracted them at?
Read your link dummy “But despite the farm tour and scheduled meetings with soy suppliers, the annual gathering is lacking a key element this year. Organizers said that unlike previous years the China delegation will not be signing billions of dollars’ worth of purchase agreements. There will be no elaborate ceremony that is normally a highlight of the event, as a tariff war between the United States and China has escalated between the long-time trading partners.”
So they visited a farm and then they left. Nothing to see here, nothing.
Here are the latest Karl Plume reports…All show China just visited and looked around…no purchases…period. Your boy trump has screwed over the ag producers royally. Now we wait to see if Canada will be bullied by trump into some kind of revision of NAFTA, which may be the same thing with a different name, while the Mueller noose tightens around his fat neck.
I wonder if there is going to be a land grab by Koch and their ilk. Feudalism may be coming back.