April 24, 2025

Death Taxes Threaten Farm Families
 
Many provisions in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are set to expire this year. The American Farm Bureau says that adds a big task to the Congressional to-do list: updating the tax code. Many of those expiring provisions provide important relief for farm families. AFBF Associate Economist Samantha Ayoub (aye-OOB) says while reductions in the corporate income tax rates were made permanent in 2017, income tax cuts for individuals began to phase out in 2022, with the biggest tax increases are coming with expirations at the end of this year. For some farm families, grieving the loss of a loved one comes with an additional burden, that being a hefty tax on everything their family member left to them. Without an act of Congress, the estate tax exemption will drop by 50 percent to $7.61 million on January 1, 2026, putting the future of thousands of family farms at risk. 
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Soybean Farmers Respond to Disaster Assistance

USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that $340.6 million in disaster assistance is available to help farmers and rural communities affected by natural disasters. The American Soybean Association is pleased that the funding has become available and applauds the administration for following through on its promise to help the many farmers and others who’ve been in need following extraordinary circumstances. “We appreciate the administration for seeing these devastating circumstances and coming to the aid of farmers and rural communities,” says Caleb Ragland, president of the American Soybean Association and a soy farmer from Kentucky. “When natural disasters strike, we have very little recourse to protect our livelihoods.” He also says this funding will help many people who are trying to rebuild their homes and businesses and hopefully restore some normalcy after enduring hurricanes, floods, and fires and the outcomes of these disasters. ASA thanks the USDA for its Rural Development Disaster Assistance Package 
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Argentina Corn Production Expected to Jump

The USDA’s attaché office in Buenos Aires is predicting corn exports from Argentina will climb to the third-highest level on record and will surge higher in the 2025-2026 marketing year. Shipments of corn will total 37 million metric tons in the upcoming season, which is an increase from 34 million tons during the previous year. The main destinations for corn exports from the South American country are Vietnam, Peru, Malaysia, South Korea, Chile, and Saudi Arabia. Argentina’s production will surge to 54 million metric tons, up from 49 million tons last year, which, if realized, would be the country’s fourth-largest crop on record. The planted area will rise almost 13 percent to 17.8 million acres. “Given current market conditions, farmers returns are projected better for corn than soybeans, similar to the combination of wheat followed by second soybeans on the same field in Argentina’s core production area,” USDA said. 
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Summit Trying to Salvage Pipeline in South Dakota

Summit Carbon Solutions faces a critical decision from regulators on April 22. The Des Moines Register says the company may have found a way to salvage its planned carbon capture pipeline in South Dakota if it’s given a chance to do so. Summit’s solution would avoid a legal or political battle against a new law that bars the company from using eminent domain to obtain the land easements it needs to build the pipeline. The company filing with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission says if it’s given enough time, it can plan out a route for its $9 million carbon capture pipeline. It would make a plan to eliminate pipeline segments that connect the ethanol plants where there is significant landowner opposition. “By reducing the number of participating plants, eliminating those more problematic line segments, and thereby minimizing the project’s footprint, we can reduce the overall number of opposed landowners,” the filing said.
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March Milk Production Up One Percent

Milk production in the 24 major milk-producing states during March totaled 19 billion pounds, up one percent from March 2024. February revised production, at 17 billion pounds, was down 2.4 percent from February 2024. The February revision represented an increase of 26 million pounds from last month’s preliminary production estimate. Production per cow in the 24 major states averaged 2,125 pounds for March, four pounds above March 2024. The number of milk cows on the farms in those states was 8.96 million head, 72,000 head more than in March 2024 and 9,000 above February 2025. Milk production in the United States during the January-March quarter totaled 56.7 billion pounds, down 0.3 percent from the same quarter in 2024. The average number of milk cows in the U.S. during the quarter was 9.4 million head, 36,000 head more than the October-December quarter and 58,000 head more than the same period last year. 
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Global Cotton Forecast at a Seven-Year High

The USDA’s cotton projections for 2024-2025 forecast global cotton production at 120.9 million bales, down slightly month-over-month but a seven percent increase from 2023-2024. It’s also the highest total since 2017-2018. The major cotton-producing countries are projected to be mixed in 2024-2025, as declines in India and Pakistan are offset by larger year-over-year increases in China, Brazil, the United States, and Australia. Global mill use is projected to increase slightly in 2024-2025 to 116 million bales, up 1.2 million bales or 1.1 percent from the previous year. Among the top spinning countries, however, only China is projected lower this season. World production in 2024-2025 exceeds the mill use estimate, with global ending stocks rising nearly seven percent. World cotton stocks are projected at 78.9 million bales, the second-highest level since the 2015-2016 marketing year. World imports are forecast at 42.4 million bales this season, down four percent from 2023-2024.

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