David Miller, Chief Economist, contracts with Decision Innovation Solutions to provide economic analysis and business development services. He is responsible for building, maintaining and enhancing business relationships, developing new product lines and service offerings, and collaborating with the Decision Innovation Solutions team on project development and fulfillment, and identifying prospective clientele. David Miller grew up on a northwestern Indiana dairy, hog and grain farm. Miller returned to the farm in 1972 with his father and expanded the dairy herd from 35 cows to 150 cows. Hog finishing was expanded to about 3,000 head per year and crop land expanded to about 1,000 acres. The farming operation was moved to north-central Missouri in 1979 with a focus on hog production and grain production. While in Missouri, David finished up a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture, completed an MBA in finance at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He also completed the course work towards a PhD in Ag Economics at Missouri. David was on the staff of the University of Missouri as an Extension Farm Management Specialist and then worked as an Extension Grain and Livestock Marketing Research Specialist. In 1991, Miller began a 28+ year career with the Farm Bureau organization, working nearly 8 years for the American Farm Bureau Federation as a Grain Policy Specialist and then as the Livestock Policy Specialist and Commodity Program Coordinator. Miller joined the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation in 1998 as the Director of Research and Commodity Services where he coordinated the research programs of the Iowa Farm Bureau and the various commodity services offered by the Federation. He provided economic analysis on a wide variety of agricultural issues Miller served on several state, regional and national boards or committees including the National Institute of Animal Agriculture, the Extension Section of the American Agricultural Economics Association, the Executive Committee of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, the Offset Committee of the Chicago Climate Exchange, The Midwest Governor’s Association Greenhouse Gas Accord committee, and the Iowa Climate Change Advisory Council. Miller is active in production agriculture. In 2003, he began active ownership and operation of a grain farm in southern Iowa which now has grown to 770 acres. Primary crops on the farm are corn and soybeans. David joined DIS as Chief Economist after retiring from the Iowa Farm Bureau. Areas of expertise include ag policy, commodity market analysis, economic modeling, and international trade.
According to the USDA-FAS PSD database, reported world consumption of soybean meal was 243.67 million metric tons (mmt) in the 2022/23 marketing year.
The 2023 U.S. corn and soybean harvest is nearing its midpoint in terms of harvested acres and farmers are now getting a better sense of crop yields following a growing season characterized by extended periods of dry weather across much of Iowa and other parts of the Corn Belt.
David Miller, Chief Economist here at DIS completed a comparison of Brazilian and U.S. exports. Brazil and the U.S. are two of the largest suppliers of corn, soybeans, and meat to China.
Check out the latest Soybean crush update!
There are roughly 580 grain buyers in Iowa who post their daily bids on-line (on their own websites and/or on other grain marketing news and information websites).
There are those who say “the market is never wrong” regardless of how current prices relate to historical fundamentals. That could be at play in the current corn and soybean markets.
Iowa has 42 ethanol refineries with 4.6 billion gallons of annual production capacity. In 2021, Iowa ethanol production hit an all-time high of 4.4 billion gallons up from an estimated 3.7 billion gallons of production in 2020. There are plants in all portions of the state with the largest concentration in the northwest quadrant
The U.S. Census has released the data from the 2020 census. As the map below shows, a significant number of rural areas between the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains lost population during the past decade. Much of this population loss occurred even though many of those counties are in states that had net population gains – meaning the population concentrations in metropolitan areas continue to increase...
One of the very real questions for agricultural and food policy regarding GHG emissions is, “Do we want to cut emissions by cutting crop production and food supplies? Or should the emphasis be on continued improvements in factor use efficiency, such as improved N use efficiency in the major crops while continuing to increase overall agricultural output and increased food, feed and renewable fuel production?”
There is likely to be some slaughter backlog yet in July 2020, but much of that backlog should be worked through by Labor Day. The amount of slaughter-ready hogs increases for much of September, October, and much of November. Nevertheless, the number of backlogged hogs in the third and fourth quarters of 2020 are expected to be less than 30% of the levels seen in the second quarter of 2020.
The spread of COVID-19 has created disruptions in livestock slaughter facilities. At the first of April, hog slaughter facilities began to operate at less than capacity. The first hog plant to close was the Tyson plant at Columbus Junction, IA which closed on April 6, 2020. It was closed for two weeks.
The spread of COVID-19 has created disruptions in livestock slaughter facilities. At the first of April, hog slaughter facilities began to operate at less than capacity.
In March of 2020 I had the privilege to be one of the leaders of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation 2020 Market Study Tour to Brazil. I serve as a consultant to Iowa Farm Bureau through Decision Innovation Solutions. Twenty-three of us travels to the heart of the Amazon and other areas along the Amazon River and in Mato Grosso to look at agriculture, transportation and grain handling infrastructure.
Agriculture in Iowa is constantly changing. Every 5 years we get a snapshot of those changes with the Census of Agriculture by USDA. Earlier this year, USDA released the data from the 2017 Census of Agriculture. Here are 5 insights on Iowa Agriculture from that data.
Through Decision Innovation Solutions, I provide consulting services on international programs and activities to the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation. One of my recent activities involved a trade mission to China and Taiwan.
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