Archive - 2019

posted by Decision Innovation Solutions on Thursday, December 5, 2019 2018 ARC and PLC payments were issued in early October. Very few Iowa counties received any ARC-CO payments again this year. Final 2018/19 MYA prices were $3.61 for corn and $8.48 for soybeans, which resulted in a final 2018 PLC payment rate of $0.09 for corn but $0 for soybeans.

posted on Monday, December 2, 2019 Milk has been a staple beverage in American diets for decades. But has milk consumption changed in recent years? With the help of technology and automation in the dairy industry, U.S. milk production more than doubled since 1930.

posted on Tuesday, November 26, 2019 I recently read an article in Morning AgClips regarding a county in Missouri attaining the designation of “Agri-Ready”. Morning AgClips is a news service that I use to stay informed about agricultural activity in nine states. I also have a long-time connection to Nebraska being born in Wayne County and raised on a farm in Platte County.

posted by David Miller on Wednesday, November 20, 2019 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.

posted by Decision Innovation Solutions on Wednesday, November 6, 2019 According to the October 28th USDA Crop Progress report, Iowa still only had 26% of corn harvested and 66% of soybeans, which are both well behind the 5-year averages of 53% and 80%, respectively. Last year was an exceptionally wet fall with many rainfall records in September and October across Iowa, but this year has been another extremely wet fall which is causing harvest delays.

posted by Jing Tang on Sunday, September 8, 2019 As in the last article we talked about the common modes of transportation for agricultural commodities in the State of Missouri are truck, rail, ship, and multiple mode, with descending order, which multiple mode is defined as multiple modes and by parcel delivery services, U.S. Postal Service, or couriers by Freight Analysis Framework.

posted on Tuesday, September 3, 2019 What do rope, shoes, plastics, food and beverages, animal feed, auto parts, fuel, sails, textiles, paper, canvas, building supplies, body lotions and salves have in common? They can all be made with the fiber, seeds or oil of hemp.

posted by David Miller on Tuesday, September 3, 2019 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.

posted by Spencer Parkinson on Tuesday, September 3, 2019 2019 has been a very busy, productive year for the DIS team. From long-term additions to the team, an intense, short need from six interns and a bit of churn, we have had a great ¾ of 2019. At any one time, the DIS team could be working on 20-25 different projects – some big, some small, some short-term, some long-term. I often say that getting laid off in 2009, while difficult at the time, has turned out to be a rather enjoyable ride in the ten years since I've been working with the company. I

posted by Jing Tang on Thursday, August 29, 2019 Many midwestern states, like Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, etc., are reliant upon infrastructure to move agricultural and agricultural related commodities to markets. There are thousands of miles of state highways and paved county highways that are integral to the farm and grain handling facilities.

posted on Thursday, August 1, 2019 Have you ever wondered what your members are thinking and talking about on social media? Or what trends are occurring in different groups of people all across the country? The DIS Social Cultivator (DISSC®) allows you to gain and leverage deeper insights on your membership or other influential audiences with the added benefit of understanding what trends and topics they are talking about.

posted on Friday, July 19, 2019 In the past year, Decision Innovation Solutions has completed research for the United Soybean Board regarding protein sources in animal diets. In this research, DIS completed an analysis for every state in regards to how soybean meal (SBM) is used for feed and consumed in the United States

posted by S. Patricia Batres-Marquez on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 In the latest USDA's WASDE report posted July 11, 2019, the 2019/20 soybean production forecast was down 305 million bushels to 3.845 billion bushels month-over-month (Figure 1). This forecast reflected lower planted and harvested area indicated in the June 28, 2019 Acreage report and lower expected yields. Soybean planted acres for 2019 was estimated at 80.0 million acres, down 4.6 million acres from last month. This would be the lowest acreage since 2013; however, this estimate might change.

posted by Jing Tang on Tuesday, July 16, 2019 “Planting progress has been slowed by relatively frequent and relatively heavy rains throughout April and May.”, said DIS chief economist, David Miller, on May 24, 2019. (Blog is originally posted here) These abnormal weather events affected a number of rivers with flooding in the Midwest area, which led to delays in the corn planting process.

posted by Jing Tang on Monday, July 8, 2019 The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) published Monthly Biodiesel Production Report on June 28th. In this article, we will conduct a descriptive analysis of pure biodiesel (B100) production and its feedstocks usage back to 2014. EIA reported 152 million gallons pure biodiesel was produced in this April, which was 11 million gallons more compared with March 2019, and 9 million gallons more compared with April 2018.