Your Pro Farmer newsletter (February 3, 2024) is now available

Corn futures ended January on a whimper, marking the worst start to the year since 2015. Soybean futures posted their worst January performance since 1984. Funds are heavily short both markets and February historically favors bulls, though neither market is showing signs of a low. It could take increased South American crop stress to trigger a short-covering rally. The cattle market got a boost from the bullish Cattle Inventory Report that showed the U.S. cattle herd contracted further in 2023 — and will continue to do so. On the economic front, the Fed kept interest rates unchanged but gave no indications a rate cut is coming in March, as many anticipated. The major U.S. equity indexes started 2024 with a bang, recently surging to all-time highs. Multiple signs point to this being a positive year for the stock market. Our News page 4 feature this week is a list of key issues farmers and ag industry officials are talking/asking about. We cover all of these items and much more in this week’s newsletter, which you can download here.