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OMAHA (DTN) — Responding to questions from the American Farm Bureau Federation, President Donald Trump’s campaign points to the administration’s support for farmers and agriculture in regulations, trade and labor, while former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign counters a Biden presidency would repair some of the trade relations that have affected agriculture the past 3-plus years.

For 40 years, AFBF has asked presidential candidates for responses to questions on major issues affecting farmers, ranchers and rural communities. The group on Wednesday released the unedited responses from the Biden and Trump campaigns. AFBF’s presidential candidate questionnaire comes with 55 days until Election Day and growing focus on rural issues, especially in a handful of battleground states.

President Trump has talked extensively about agriculture throughout his administration, especially in relation to trade and regulatory relief. He also has spoken the past three years at AFBF’s annual meeting. Trump was the first president to address the group’s annual meeting since George H.W

OMAHA (DTN) — President Donald Trump reportedly has ordered the EPA to reject 67 so-called gap-year small-refinery exemption requests weeks after Trump said he would speak directly to the agency.

In addition to a report by Reuters on Wednesday morning, one industry source told DTN on background Trump gave the agency marching orders. EPA did not respond to DTN’s request for comment.

“Our folks are confident the White House is rowing in the right direction, but we’re still waiting to learn if the EPA will fight its marching orders,” an ethanol industry source told DTN on background.

Though support for Trump remains strong in rural America, the retroactive waivers issue has been hanging over the president’s re-election campaign in some key ethanol-producing states.

Trump said Aug. 18 visiting storm damage in Iowa that he would talk to EPA officials about the small-refinery exemptions.

EPA received 67 requests from small refiners for retroactive waivers for 2011 to 2018.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — With Brazil’s tariff-free quota expiring on Tuesday leading to an increase to a 20% tariff on all ethanol imports from the United States, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue told DTN on Friday a deal between the two countries would be announced soon.

The Brazilians let the Aug. 31 deadline pass this week without announcing an extension of the tariff-free quota, essentially allowing a tariff increase. Some media outlets this week reported a tentative agreement has been reached to keep the zero-rate in place until a larger agreement can be reached.

“I’d love to tell you everything I know about that, but I think I want to calm the waters over some of the discussions,” Perdue said during a stop in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Friday.

Perdue spent Thursday touring storm damage in Iowa. On Friday, Perdue toured the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Innovation Campus, as well as joining Nebraska Gov.

RADCLIFFE, Iowa (DTN) — Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue used the trip to Iowa to declare 18 counties in the state as disaster areas for agriculture, allowing farmers hit by the derecho on Aug. 10 in those counties to access some special USDA programs for conservation and clean-up.

Perdue said there are still some considerations for adding counties depending on assessed losses.

“The rules say there have to be at least a 30% loss in the county and that’s what the difference is,” Perdue said.

Perdue toured Iowa storm damage by helicopter on Thursday with Iowa officials including Gov. Kim Reynolds, Sen. Joni Ernst and Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig. Perdue said the tour left him “sad, somber and sober” seeing the destruction crops so far into the growing season. “It’s very, very sobering.”

The disaster designation, however, does not include allowing farmers in those areas to use the USDA Wildfire and Hurricane Indemnity Program Plus (WHIP-Plus) to cover financial losses.

OMAHA (DTN) — Potential compensation for a handful of Missouri River Basin farmers who experienced repeated flooding over the years lies in the hands of a federal judge.

Based on post-trial briefs filed on behalf of the government and St. Joseph, Missouri, farmer Roger Ideker and two other farmers in recent days, those producers who claim property, crop and beneficial use losses on their land from repeated floods could receive tens of millions of dollars in compensation.

In early August, the second phase of a trial concluded in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C. Both sides submitted post-trial briefs just days ago.

Based on expert estimates filed in the plaintiffs’ brief, Ideker could receive anywhere from about $23.9 million to $26.2 million in compensation for damage on his 1,493-acre tract of land.

But in a court brief also filed in recent days, the U.S. government questions the calculations used to determine compensation.

OMAHA (DTN) — Despite the pandemic, or because of government response to it, the U.S. farm sector is projected to have stronger income for 2020 than a year ago.

The latest projections for U.S. net farm income for 2020 show a nearly 23% increase from 2019 levels due to higher government payments to farmers and lower interest expenses, USDA’s Economic Research Service reported Wednesday.

Net farm income, considered a broad measure of profits, is forecast to increase $19 billion in 2020 to reach $102.7 billion. If numbers hold, 2020’s net farm income will mark the first time since 2014 that the sector broke the $100-billion mark, climbing out from 2016’s low of $66.7 billion.

Looking just at cash receipts for farmers, government payments and subtracting cash expenses, USDA’s “net cash farm income” is projected to increase $4.9 billion in 2020 to $115.2 billion for 2020, a 4.5% increase from 2019.

Taking in a broader scope of income and expenses, USDA’s “net farm income” factors in cash receipts and government payments minus cash expenses, along with changes in value for farm inventory, depreciation and rental income.

OMAHA (DTN) — The next presidential administration needs to put more emphasis on competing with Europe for bilateral trade deals that will boost dairy sales as one way to bring back profitability for dairy farmers.

Competing with Europe, and selling more into Europe, were major themes for dairy and Wisconsin farm leaders Tuesday in a virtual event for the group Farmers for Free Trade.

Farmers for Free Trade is holding virtual town-hall meetings with leaders from different sectors and states voicing what they want to see for a trade agenda in the next administration, whether that’s under President Donald Trump or Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Farmers for Free Trade will provide an analysis and recommendations after the election.

EXPORTS REMAIN GROWTH MARKET

In Tuesday’s talk, dairy leaders stressed that exports now make up 15% to 17% of annual production, or roughly one day’s national production out of every week. Exports remain the growth market for U.S.

OMAHA (DTN) — Congress will need to decide whether to expand USDA’s disaster program to cover more recent disasters such as Hurricane Laura and the Midwest derecho storm, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said Monday.

Perdue addressed the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture on Monday through a video conference as NASDA holds its annual meeting virtually this week. Perdue highlighted USDA’s work on the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, the trade situation with China, food-aid programs and recent disasters.

During a question-and-answer session with state officials, Louisiana’s Agriculture and Forestry Commissioner Mike Strain talked about some of the disaster impacts in Louisiana from Hurricane Laura last week. The coastal area of Cameron, Louisiana, was left with almost 100% destruction from a tidal surge that reached 17 feet high, Strain said.

“Complete cattle herds are no longer there,” Strain said. “Then there was a lot of structural damage to barns and other equipment also.”

OMAHA (DTN) — With the prospects of considerably less crop drying in 2020 compared to last year, the propane outlook this fall looks to be favorable for buyers. Propane supplies appear to be plentiful, and prices are fairly steady before grain dryers begin to fire up again, according to propane analysts.

A wild card in production could be what happens if the COVID-19 pandemic pushes the U.S. to shut down again. Last spring showed that production of all crude oil products, including propane, would drop in a shutdown, thus limiting some supplies.

A DIFFERENT FALL

The crop-drying situation this year is completely different from last year, according to Mike Newland, Propane Education and Research Council (PERC) director of agriculture business development.

Crops planted in the spring of 2019 were delayed significantly in many areas because of too much moisture. The situation continued to slow crop development during the growing season, and many crops were harvested at extremely elevated levels of moisture, he said.

INDIANOLA, Iowa (DTN) — Cash rent negotiations between farm tenants and landowners will be tough again this fall as farmers face negative cash flows in 2021.

Ad hoc federal payments in 2019 and 2020 kept many farmers at or above breakeven, but it’s uncertain that aid will continue in 2021, explained ag economist Gary Schnitkey at the University of Illinois.

His profit projection for highly productive farmland in central Illinois in 2021 says farmers could pay $224 per acre in land rent and break even. However, rents in this area run $275 per acre on average.

“The trend in cash rents is to stay the same or be slightly lower,” said Schnitkey. Slightly lower means $10 to $15 per acre lower in some cases, explained Schnitkey. “However, there is a credible argument they should be $50 less, particularly in Iowa where yields will be lower. Most of Illinois is looking at good yields.”

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) — To see why the year 2020 may go down in history as the year of broken promises, look no further than Mother Nature.

After a sprightly planting pace and good early season moisture built up big yield potential throughout the U.S., heat and dryness has fried the hopes of record crops for many farmers in the western and north-central U.S.

“My corn crop is indicative of what 2020 has become — it started off great, it was hit with some uncertainty and adversity, it began to look better, then the impossible crept up on us,” said northeastern Colorado farmer Marc Arnusch. “Now I’m just over it.”

Arnusch is part of the DTN Agronomy Advisers, who report on field and crop conditions each month. This month, this group of producers told a tale of two crops. Many Midwest and southern growers expect average to above-average crops, thanks to the normal planting season and timely rains throughout the summer.

OMAHA (DTN) — Farmers may be receiving a second round of Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) payments sometime after Labor Day, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue said during a news conference Wednesday. USDA has about $14 billion available from funds allocated by Congress to the Commodity Credit Corp. starting in July.

A second round of payments would come at a time when agriculture producers continue to experience the fallout from the COVID-19 shutdown this spring.

Perdue told reporters USDA still is taking applications on the first CFAP round of funding. As of Aug. 24, USDA said it had distributed about $9 billion in CFAP payments to more than 500,000 producers.

On April 17, USDA announced $19 billion in relief from the first round of CFAP. That included $16 billion in direct support based on actual ag losses from falling prices and market supply chain disruptions from the COVID-19 economic shutdown and $3 billion for USDA food purchases.

OMAHA (DTN) — If damage to millions of acres of cropland and tens of millions of bushels of grain storage wasn’t enough for Iowa farmers to manage, growing drought conditions in the western part of the state are expected to further complicate an already challenging upcoming harvest season.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig said during a news conference on Friday the situation farmers in the state face hasn’t been seen before.

“We’re talking about an incredibly devastating event in Iowa,” he said.

It is an unprecedented situation with the combination of COVID-19 supply disruptions, storm damage and a growing drought.

“Some fields are considered a complete loss,” Naig said. “If nothing else was happening, we would be talking about drought that is the most widespread in Iowa since September 2013.”

What’s more, he said, it’s unsure how much propane will be available to Iowa farmers this harvest.

“I encourage farmers to take a look at their grain drying and home and livestock heating needs and formulate a plan with their propane suppliers to make sure their needs are covered and their tanks are full,” Naig said.

OMAHA (DTN) — Attorneys for EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asked a federal court this week to throw out a lawsuit challenging the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

Back in July, the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League asked the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina to vacate the rule, which was finalized by the Trump administration to replace the 2015 waters of the United States, or WOTUS, rule.

In a motion for summary judgment filed this week, the agencies asked the court to maintain the new rule.

“Regardless, plaintiffs lack standing,” the motion said. “They have not shown a concrete, imminent action giving rise to an injury in fact caused by the regulatory changes promulgated by the NWPR.”

The agencies take head-on claims by the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League the new rule will harm water quality.

“Contrary to plaintiffs’ hyperbolic forecasts of environmental harm based on unreliable data, the NWPR and its partnership with states in the CWA’s regime of cooperative federalism could provide comparable environmental protection, at less societal cost, and net public benefit,” the motion said.

OMAHA (DTN) — Hurricane Laura in the Gulf of Mexico continued to track toward the Texas-Louisiana coast Wednesday afternoon. The storm reached “catastrophic” Category 4 status early Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The NHC also described the hurricane as “a formidable hurricane” in recent hours, threatening to smash homes and sink entire communities. An early Wednesday bulletin from the NHC noted that Laura had undergone a remarkable intensification, “and there are no signs it will stop soon,” the Hurricane Center said.

Damage to homes, communities, oil rigs, transportation and human safety threats are widely circulated. The storm, however, also threatens to damage crops in the Gulf Coast and portions of the Delta on its track inland after making landfall early Thursday near Lake Charles, Louisiana.

The hurricane’s track is most threatening to crops in the Delta (Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, the Missouri Bootheel and Western Tennessee). DTN contributing cotton market analyst Keith Brown said that “of those states, Louisiana is 40% bolls open and Arkansas is about 23% open.

OMAHA (DTN) — Agriculture and biofuel groups are mounting a defense of EPA’s year-round E15 approval, arguing in a court brief filed in a federal appeals court that the agency was within its legal parameters with its action.

Back in May, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers challenged EPA’s action. The group argued that E15 is not a fuel substantially similar to E10, that the Reid vapor pressure waiver does not apply to blends higher than E10, and that the agency did not have the authority to “reopen” E15 waivers it granted for use in vehicles 2001 and newer.

The Reid vapor pressure waiver is a measure of the volatility of gasoline.

In a court brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Aug. 21, intervenors in the case, which included the National Corn Growers Association, Renewable Fuels Association and Growth Energy, argued EPA’s action was consistent with the Clean Air Act and congressional intent and extending a waiver to E15 was appropriate because fuel volatility decreases as ethanol content in gasoline rises above 10%.