By  E. W. Lang

Class IV Milk Futures for the first half of 2022 are $23.05 per cwt., a gain of 85 cents for the week.  Butter lost two cents per lb.  Block cheese lost seven and barrels gained 10 cents.  At $1.92 and $1.96 per lb., the four-cent block barrel spread is called normal.  Class III Milk Futures for the first half of 2022 average $21.61 per cwt., a gain of 45 cents per cwt. over a week's trade. 

A new report from the Texas A&M Agricultural and Food Policy Center (AFPC) shows that nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous prices are costing cash grain farmers 80% more in 2022.

AFPC conducted an economic impact study on fertilizer prices at the request of U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.)

A&M was asked to look specifically at fertilizer cost impacts from Covid, as if Covid, in and of itself, was precipitating supply chain interruptions.  Letlow's office asked AFPC to do an analysis on the impact of increased fertilizer costs on the representative farms involved with the Ag and Food Policy Center.

Here is the general popular press analysis of this study of 2022 costs to produce corn.

"Oh no, it is costing $42 per acre more to fertilize an acre of corn, so the government should do something!  Here is a list of things that will help farmers at a cost to society, even though corn value has increased $280 per acre in the last 12 months."

Part of this is the popular press, as these people have to sell combine, planter, chemical and seed corn ads in order to keep the lights on.  But I also think that A&M, as well as other well regarded ag colleges, may be willing to deliver research results that can be readily interpreted in favour of whomever is paying for the research.  I'm oversimplifying things here, but I think the university research-for-pay dynamic may have shifted over decades. 

I'm also reminded of what a former academic, and Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingerich, told one of my professional political friends.  Said the Speaker, "I can make university economic research come out any way I want it to."

I suppose that the real problem here is the interpretation of research data, as all results are the same research results.  But this supplication to corn producers and landowners, myself included, is submissive urination by the press.  

The United States have always been able to feed its citizens and then some.  This has been fostered by market forces that move the prices of seed, land, capital and other inputs in response to supply and demand.  Including a list of possible new government actions further makes crop farming into a participation event, and crop farmers into a social order that collectively expect government mitigation and economic relief when free markets loom.