American farmers are reeling after unrelenting rain delayed planting across the Midwest while trade battles continue to drag down exports and crop prices. Now, the prospect of another lean year is spreading farmers’ pain to the agricultural suppliers, traders and food makers that depend on them, the Wall Street Journal reported. Wood County, south of Toledo in Ohio’s northwestern corner, is usually among the state’s biggest crop-producing areas. This summer, it is among the Farm Belt’s hardest hit. About 131,000 acres lay unplanted this month, nearly half the county’s total, according to estimates from the county’s Farm Service Agency. Only one in five cornfields has a crop growing. Cooperatives, unable to sell seed, fertilizer and chemicals, are cutting employees’ hours. Cattlemen and dairies face feed shortages. Banks are negotiating lower payments on farm loans. And some farmers, already struggling after years of low crop prices, will have to make it until autumn of next year before they produce a crop. Read more. (Subscription required.)
The U.S. House of Representatives on July 25 passed the Family Farmer Relief Act of 2019 (H.R. 2336) to raise the debt limit for chapter 12 filings from $4.3 million to $10 million. Read more.