A Roadmap to Better Decision Making

Each year, I give myself and the others in the office two weeks off to spend time with friends and family. One week is between Christmas and New Year, the other is the week of July 4th. With that in mind, the last report we will issue this week will be today, Friday morning, June 30th. We will then re-start ...
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Indiana farmer and well-known “Ag-vocate” Brian Scott, who does a lot of work trying to bring the farmers and consumers together on topics of debate, once shared his collection of the most Game-Changing people in agriculture. Reading and reviewing the list makes me wonder what and who comes next? Will it have something to do with water, seed, soil health, ...
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Some produce lovers out there are willing to spend a surprisingly large amount of money on what’s been dubbed “designer” fruits and vegetables. From strawberries that run upwards of $5 each, to mini, seedless peppers that cost three times that of their full-sized cousins, these products have transformed produce aisles into one of the more pricey sections at many grocery ...
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Farmers in the US struggled through an overly wet planting season and are now facing unseasonably warm temperatures across a wide swath of corn and soybean regions. Heat is typically something that becomes a worry further along in the growing season but temps have already busted through the 100-degree mark in parts of the Midwest and are looking to maintain ...
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Wars can swing commodity prices widely. Certainly, this has been true in Ukraine. The question for readers of the Van Trump Report is how markets might react if hostilities in Ukraine were to cease and tensions in the Middle East subside, or conversely, should conflicts spread further into the Middle East and China Sea. In this fourth installment, we review ...
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Over the next five years, Indian households are predicted to become the biggest spenders among the G20 countries, a group composed of most of the world’s largest economies. Already, India has the largest population of any country in the world at an estimated 1.4 billion in 2023. According to the United Nations, that equates to roughly 18% of the total ...
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China started this year by unveiling big plans to boost its agricultural production and minimize imports. However, Mother Nature seems intent on derailing those plans, at least for this growing season, with China’s farmers battling drought and scorching heat in the northern half of the country and extreme flooding in the south.High temperatures and lack of rainfall have caused intense ...
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We have reached that time of year when it’s important to be scouting soybean fields for an array of yield-sapping pests and diseases. Catching problems early gives crops the best chance of minimizing yield loss, something that has become even more important amid razor-thin margins for many farmers. Just as important to identifying trouble in the field is understanding the ...
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A few years ago, Americans were warned about “Asian Giant Hornets” - aka “murder hornets” - that were spotted in Washington state. While that menace seems to be under control for now, a new Asian hornet species known for its penchant for murdering honeybees has snuck into the US. The “Yellow-Legged hornet” feeds on a variety of other native pollinator ...
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Russia has declared a series of federal emergencies recently amid crop-damaging frosts and drought that are denting the country’s wheat prospects. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its most recent June update trimmed Russia’s 2024-25 wheat production by -5 million metric tons (MMT) to 83 MMT. Other forecasters are even less optimistic, including local analyst Sovecon that pegs the ...
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