U.S. farmers could see $2/bu for soybeans in second government pay out

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As farmers in the U.S. wait on the edge of their seats to learn how much each commodity will get for round two of the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), a source told two Bloomberg reporters that the Trump administration is eyeing $2 per bushel for soybeans.

By the afternoon, the USDA released a statement, saying, “details will be forthcoming shortly, but we want to be clear that the program is being designed to avoid skewing planting decisions one way or another.”

“Farmers should continue to make their planting and production decisions with the current market signals in mind, rather than some expectation of what a farming support program might or might not look like based on inaccurate media stories,” the department said.

The bulk of the controversy on Tuesday was that the payments would be based on 2019 plantings instead of a historical average. With US planting progress massively behind due to weather, immediately traders and farmers warned of dangerous incentives to plant more soybeans rather than corn.

The Bloomberg report also mentioned $0.63 per bushel for wheat and $0.04 per bushel for corn.

Ted Seifried, with Zaner Ag Hedge, says that the market is looking for details on what this might look like, and suspects that, depending on how the payouts are structured, could actually mean fewer soybean acres get planted. Seifried joined Shaun Haney on Tuesday’s RealAg Radio to discuss what market impact this could have not just on soybean acres, but on Canadian canola prices, too:

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