1. Now this is gonna catch your attention. Gary and colleagues have a very interesting new #FDD on projected corn and soybean returns in Illinois based on planting date and present prices and costs.
4. What Gary did was to put these curves into economic terms this year using current prices and costs. Gets expected returns for corn and soybeans in IL by planting date for 2022
5. Very cool analysis. It shows something very interesting. Corn is more profitable than soybeans at present harvest bid prices for all planting dates. Economics suggest some switching of beans back to corn may happen.
6. Weather and input availability could certainly push against any move back towards corn over soybeans. In fact, one can argue that this premium for corn is exactly what the market needs to do to hold corn acres given crappy spring weather so far and input issues.
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1. Weekend Reading: USDA went to "real-time" release of its crop reports in 2012. A momentous change in release policy and for the grain futures markets. Mike Adjemian and I took at look at the resulting market impacts in this 2018 AJAE paper. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1093/aj…
2. It is really more accurate to say the the USDA was forced into real-time release of crop reports due to electronic trading and competition between the CME and ICE. With electronic trading someone was going to trade through USDA release time and capture the volume.
3. The timeline of changes in CME trading times is given by the following chart. I think it is important to remember that this was all driven by the futures exchanges not the USDA. If you don't like real-time release don't blame the USDA.
1. Recommended Reading for the Day: A very thought-provoking blog post yesterday from David Zilberman of UC-Berkely about the difference between ag economics and economics. blogs.berkeley.edu/2022/04/20/on-…
2. I clipped below what I think is the key section of the post. Basically, David is saying that publishing in top 5 econ journals is the wrong goal for ag econ departments. He is really laying down the gauntlet for a debate that has been simmering in the profession for awhile.
3. Personally, I have never felt there was anything intrinsically wrong with an ag economist publishing in top 5 econ journals on occasion. It is very hard to do and can be a significant accomplishment. I have tried and failed at this a few times myself.
1. Website Wednesday: Started a weekly thread on the different resources found on my new professional website: scotthirwin.com. This week I want to highlight Food Research Institute (FRIS) Studies articles linked in the Commodity Classics section scotthirwin.com/archive/food-r…
2. Some of the most important articles ever published on commodity futures markets appeared in the FRI journal. Authors like Holbrook Working, Roger Gray, and Anne Peck. I list and link to every one on commodity futures here: scotthirwin.com/archive/food-r…
3. I am so grateful to @AgEconSearch at the University of Minnesota for digitizing and maintaining access to the FRI archive. All freely accessible too. AgEconSearch is a terrific resource in its own right. Check it out: ageconsearch.umn.edu/?ln=en
1. Website Wednesday: Highlighting different parts of my new professional website found here: scotthirwin.com. This week is a section I call "Commodity Classics". scotthirwin.com/archive/
2. I realize there is a tendency as one gets older to think that what you learned in your younger days is far superior to what is being taught today. My position is different. I think there is a body of literature on commodity markets that is foundational.
3. Put differently, my position is that anyone who wants to truly understand commodity markets should be familiar with the writings of what I believe are the masters of the field. New work in the field should build upon this foundation.
1. Weekend Reading. With the March Prospective Plantings and Grain Stocks reports behind us, its a good time to review a recent article on the accuracy of USDA reports in corn, soybeans, and wheat. Long title. cambridge.org/core/journals/…
2. Background: this work was part of a research project that Olga Isengildina-Massa of VPI and Berna Karali of Georgia did with me on the accuracy and market impact of USDA reports. Motivation was the argument that big data/machine learning/satellites had made USDA redundant.
3. Interesting how long this argument has been made about the private sector relative to the USDA. I first ran into it in the 1980s. My friend Richard Just wrote an entire AJAE article I think back in 1983 making this argument. Resurfaced in the 2000s with "big data."
1. Oh yea, I'm on a roll with the Biden EPA and the RFS. I was thinking about the justification used yesterday by the EPA for forgiving the 1.4 billion gallons of RVO associated with the 2018 SREs that they threw out. That was a $1.5-$2 billion dollar gift to refiners.
2. EPA says its toooooo late to make the affected refiners re-comply and (accompanied by fainting sounds) we just cannot pull down the RIN bank that much. Oh my. It would literally threaten the very foundation of the entire RFS program!
3. I call you know what on the entire thing. Do not forget that in the proposed rulemaking released just last December that the Biden EPA went back and re-opened the final rulemaking for 2020 and wrote down the RVOs. So much for that lateness thing.