September 24, 2025

Chinese Trade Negotiator Meets U.S. Midwest Delegation

Analysts predict the U.S. Midwest’s food exports will play a big part in any deal between the U.S. and China. Political and business leaders from around the Midwest recently met with senior Chinese trade negotiator Li Chengang to discuss commercial ties between the two countries. Those ties featured in talks on Monday, but few details were released. China is the world’s biggest buyer of soybeans. However, the country hasn’t bought any soybeans from the U.S., most of which come from the Midwest. U.S. News says analysts expect President Donald Trump to want China to commit to buying more agricultural goods, among other items, to end the current tariff war. David Purdue, the U.S. Ambassador to China, recently told reporters that he thought negotiations over China buying more Boeing aircraft had entered their last days or weeks. Soybean futures recently hit five-year lows after no progress was reported on agricultural commodities. 

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U.S. Soybean Harvest Starts With No Chinese Purchases

America’s soybean harvest began in September with no orders from China, the world’s largest soybean buyer. USDA says that farmers will harvest 4.3 billion bushels, with no indication of when shipments to China will resume. In a typical year, Farmdoc at the University of Illinois says China buys more than half of all U.S. soybean exports. Meanwhile, Brazil set an export record for shipments to China from January through August. In 2024, the U.S. shipped almost 985 million bushels to China, accounting for 51 percent of the nation’s total soybean exports. This year, U.S. soybean exports to China from January through August totaled 218 million bushels, 29 percent of the total exports during that time. In June, July, and August, shipments to China were effectively at zero. While U.S. farmers wait for an agreement, the overall Chinese duty rate on U.S. soybean imports is 34 percent in 2025. 

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No One Wins With a State Patchwork of Sow Housing Laws

Every pig farmer in the U.S., whether large or small, stands to lose when faced with a patchwork of differing and ever-changing state sow housing laws spurred by California’s Prop 12. The issue goes beyond animal welfare to the root of the Constitution’s interstate commerce regulations and how bending them can break farmers. National Pork Producers Council Vice President Pat Hord testified before the House Agriculture Committee in July and stressed the need for patchwork prevention, even for those like him who have chosen to retrofit their barns to be Prop 12 compliant. Hord said, “Whatever steps we take today for California’s regulations could have to be changed when a new state decides they want a different housing standard.” NPPC recently submitted comments on the adverse effects of extraterritoriality, which is the legal concept that a state’s laws can apply to people or actions outside its borders.

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Corn Growers Launch Input Cost Task Force

Citing near-record production costs in a low-price environment, the National Corn Growers Association launched a task force to identify solutions to bring costs more in line with today’s commodity prices. Corn growers are in their third consecutive year of net negative returns, with 2026 projected to be the fourth. “Corn growers have sounded the alarm that on-farm economics don’t work,” said Kenneth Hartman, Jr., NCGA President. “It’s time to look at all pieces of the farm profitability picture.” The organization said low prices contribute to one side of the equation, but we must also look at the extremely high prices growers are paying for essential inputs on the other side. Recent analysis from NCGA economists shows that input prices remain at near-record highs despite the precipitous drop in per bushel corn prices in the last three years. Production costs have dropped three percent since 2022, while corn prices dropped over 50 percent. 

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Study Finds Many Farmers Drop Conservation Practices

A new study from Iowa State University sheds surprising light on the evolving landscape of agricultural conservation in the state. It found that many farmers who adopted two key conservation practices, including cover crops and no-till, didn’t continue using those practices over time. The research explored farmers’ self-reports of whether they adopted, continued, or abandoned the conservation practices between 2015 and 2019. Most conservation adoption research operates under the assumption that once a practice has begun, it will remain in use. The farmer survey shows that almost 20 percent of farmers who used cover crops in one year had stopped using them by the following year. For cover crops, 192 farmers moved to an adopter status during the study period. However, 142 shifted out of the adoption category, leaving a net gain of 50 people. That’s an overall adoption increase of 1.9 percent. The no-till adoption gain was only 26 individuals.

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August Milk Production Rises, Egg Production Drops

During August, the 24 major milk-producing U.S. states produced 18.8 billion pounds, up 3.3 percent from August 2024. Production per cow in the 24 states averaged 2,068 pounds for August, 28 pounds above last August. The number of milk cows on farms in the 24 states was 9.08 million head, 172,000 more than in August 2024, and 7,000 head above July 2025. Also, U.S. egg production totaled 8.9 billion eggs in August 2025, down two percent from 2024. Production included 7.59 billion table eggs and 1.3 billion hatching eggs. The average number of layers during August 2025 totaled 364 million, down one percent from last year. August egg production per 100 layers was 2,444 eggs, one percent below August 2024. Total layers in the U.S. on September 1, 2025, totaled 366 million, one percent below last year. The rate of eggs laid per day on September 1, 2025, averaged 78.6 eggs per 100 layers.

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