Farmers and traders have always been more concerned about keeping the wheat contract committee intact than keeping the pit open, Gilpin said, and CME has agreed to keep that committee intact for at least three years. The contract committee gives physical users of wheat input on the contract terms, a role they’d like to keep.

This is the time of year when farmers are dealing with taxes and other financial paperwork. It’s also the perfect time to address those important “perpetual” tax documents that get outdated. This is important defensive medicine. The IRS will create havoc when your paperwork does not match current transactions.

For the children of a 75-year-old couple who live in the Great Plains, the paperwork dash was a little too close for comfort. Their parents had put off the finishing touches on an estate plan until Dec. 31 last year, their son said.

The corn market also is full of nervous anticipation. “Traders will take note of precipitation across the U.S. Midwest over the course of the winter, given the dry soil conditions at the end of last fall,” said DTN Senior Analyst Darin Newsom. “This should continue to be an evolving issue.

The drought will continue to devastate the beef cattle industry in terms of decreased available forage, as about 85 percent of the feed used to produce finished beef is forage, according to Terry J. Klopfenstein, professor of ruminant nutrition at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Iowa’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have drafted a work plan agreement to improve the state’s regulation of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, in response to a petition filed by...

The House of Representatives last Tuesday passed by a vote of 257-167 a bill to avert a set of automatic tax increases that would have gone into effect Jan. 1. The bill passed the Senate 89-8 Monday and is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson, who made several pro-ethanol decisions key to the economy in rural America, but who ran into conflict with some farm leaders and Republicans over regulations, announced last Thursday that she will resign.

The dust hasn’t yet settled in Washington, D.C., but farmers can count on scoring some significant tax victories in legislation designed to avert the fiscal cliff. Chief among them are provisions renewing generous writeoffs for equipment purchases and permanent exemptions that spare moderatesized farm estates from federal tax.

The legislative delegations from North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Kansas sent a joint letter to President Barack Obama, urging him to refrain from declaring an emergency on the Mississippi River due to economic losses from reduced barge traffic.