Agriculture Shorts

Feedstuffs said a CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange report says rural communities are hit harder by rising gasoline and diesel prices. Longer driving distances and heavy reliance on diesel-intensive activities like farming, freight, and construction mean fuel price spikes are quickly reflected in household budgets and business costs . . . Bloomberg’s Anuradha Raghu and Hallie Gu reported the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, which tracks 10 of the world’s top-selling crop products, climbed for a third straight month in April to the highest level since November 2023 . . . The boxed beef cutout value was recently in the mid-$380 per cwt range, more than $50 per cwt, or 15% above the value at this time last year according to the Daily Livestock Report . . . USDA’s crop progress report last week rated just 12% of Nebraska wheat acres in good or excellent condition, the lowest rating in the past decade . . . The European Commission adopted a regulation which will result in the phase-out of soybeans as a feedstock for biofuels by 2030. The U.S. exported $2.2 billion of soybeans to the European Union last year. Final adoption of the rule is pending.