Calling today’s environment “money printing” oversimplifies what’s happening.
But three things are worth watching: the Fed has stopped shrinking its balance sheet, M2 is growing again, and inflation remains above the Fed’s target.
Bottom line for the corn belt: fertilizer budget unchanged, new equipment prices unchanged, dealer export sales modestly pressured. The inputs that matters most for corn-belt budgets were not touched.
Corn just hit a three-year high. That’s good news — and it doesn’t touch the cost side of your operation, which is still being set by policy decisions in three capitals.
Fertilizer prices have been falling this summer even as oil markets stayed jumpy on Hormuz and Bab al-Mandab risk — a paradox worth unpacking for anyone penciling out 2027 input budgets.
Last week, an oil contract hit over $100. It’s come down a touch since, but the bigger question is worth
A newer, lesser-discussed development is adding another layer of risk to prospective input prices, and may also provide increased revenue opportunities as well.
Energy is needed to produce our food and every other consumer product or service on the market. America is poised to win, and if energy becomes the defining commodity of the 21st century, our geopolitical advantage becomes even more pronounced.
Energy affects everything we do, especially as corn farmers. Fertilizer, fuel, utilities, and our grain itself are all subject to this geopolitical mess.
As geopolitical pressures and global uncertainty continue to influence agriculture, the most successful operations will be those that rely on disciplined analysis—not emotion or guesswork.
Markets tell the truth. Markets are efficient—meaning that when they close, the aggregated knowledge, expectations, and risk assessments of the world are reflected in prices.
Geopolitical tension discussed in Geneva will not stay in Geneva. More broadly, sustained U.S.–Iran tension reinforces a global shift: food and energy are no longer treated as neutral market outcomes, but as strategic assets. That pulls agriculture further into the realm of industrial policy, trade controls, and geopolitical signaling.
This year’s Munich Security Conference gathering confirmed that agriculture is no longer peripheral to global strategy. It is increasingly central to it.
Our philosophy is simple: better decisions don’t come from perfect conditions—they come from better information. Our goal is to give you clarity around your numbers so you can lead your operation forward with confidence.
We relaunched our agribusiness consulting business for one simple reason:
to help farming operations and agribusinesses improve cash flow by gaining deeper insight into their own financial information because better decisions start with better numbers.
When the U.S. administration recently announced it had taken a 10% stake in Intel, most headlines focused on the technology sector. But the real story goes deeper. This bold move highlights the return of industrial policy—a strategy that doesn’t just impact semiconductors but has far-reaching implications for U.S. agriculture.
The war in Ukraine has been a humanitarian tragedy—but it has also triggered profound disruptions in global agriculture. Those disruptions are reverberating all the way to rural America, reshaping how U.S. farmers think about markets, risk, and access to capital.
While we’re still early in the adoption curve, it’s clear that cryptocurrency—and particularly stablecoins—are poised to reshape parts of the ag economy. From improving price discovery to revolutionizing access to capital, the potential impact is real.
Geopolitics. Global trade. Inflation. Droughts in South America. Policy shifts in D.C.
Every one of these forces affects agriculture, and they’re changing at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. Most producers and ag professionals simply don’t have time to track it all. That’s where I come in.
