Your Pro Farmer newsletter (May 18, 2024) is now available

President Joe Biden unveiled tariffs on a range of Chinese imports totaling $18 billion, potentially escalating trade tensions as Beijing pledged retaliation. The list did not contain any ag-related products, including used cooking oil, despite the recent surge in shipments from China and concerns some of the supplies may be tainted. While the Congressional Budget Office has still not released scoring for either the House or Senate farm bill proposals, Senate priorities are expected to exceed the $1.51 trillion farm bill baseline by $20 billion and possibly more. And the Senate version is tilted far more to conservation and nutrition, which would make it less farmer friendly. Corn planting fell further behind the average pace as of May 12, which our research shows greatly reduces chances of a record yield this year, making summer conditions more critical. That will put greater focus on summer weather conditions, which need to be favorable. On the economic front, U.S. consumer prices eased in April. But the price data for meats showed a potential red flag for beef demand. We cover all of these items and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.