By the middle of June, all Iowa corn had emerged compared with 95 percent emergence at this time last year and 99 percent on average. Crop spraying was constrained because of strong winds in most of the state. Also, scattered heavy rain and hail in central and northeast Iowa resulted in isolated reports of crop damage during the third week of June. As of June 24, the crop conditions remained stable, with 79 percent of the corn in good to excellent condition and only 4 percent rated poor to very poor. For soybeans, planting is ahead of normal and was completed in the middle of June compared with 90 percent planted this time last year. By the end of the month, almost all soybean acreage had emerged, with 75 percent of the crop rated good to excellent and only 4 percent in the poor and very poor categories.

Australia exports approximately 60 percent of its beef production and New Zealand exports 85 percent. Because they depend on a diverse set of export customers, these countries are developing quality assurance programs that differentiate their beef in domestic and global markets and assure that the product is safe and meets individual customers’ needs. Whereas most U.S. producers think of quality in terms of USDA grades (Prime, Choice, Select), Australian and New Zealand supply chains strive to meet the mark of quality as defined by their customers. To break out of the commodity market, supply chains in the two countries typically provide additional information about their products and strive to differentiate them from those of their competitors.

The new farm bill and the Agricultural Risk Protection Act (ARPA) provide us with good insight into Congress’s farm policy objectives. When all was said and done, Congress felt no need to justify the billions in farm aid as fulfilling some broad public purpose. Rather, the actions of Congress have revealed a simple objective: to support per-acre revenues of a chosen few commodities—corn, cotton, wheat, rice, peanuts, soybeans (and minor oilseeds), barley, oats, and sugar. Heavily subsidized crop insurance protects farmers against per-acre yield (and revenue) shortfalls, and the combination of the new countercyclical payment program and the marketing loan program protects farmers against price declines.