Morning Coffee and Ag Markets
This podcast delivers weekly insights for the agriculture industry, covering everything from farm-level risk management to market volatility and production challenges. Beyond the farm, we discuss key supply chain issues, like Federal Reserve policies, port strikes, and Mississippi River disruptions, affecting everyone from producers to those all along the supply chain. Join us every Monday morning for engaging conversations with agricultural economists and industry experts about the agricultural economy at both the micro and macro level. Each episode also features a market report, offering current and historical futures price trends.
Episodes
91 episodes
Episode 89 - Prevented Planting: When (if ever) is it a good business decision to take the PP indemnity?
This week’s Morning Coffee and Ag Markets Podcast revisits a 2025 episode on prevented planting decisions for Arkansas rice producers as the 2026 final planting date arrives. Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy discuss when prevented planting may be fina...
Episode 88 - May 2026 WASDE Highlights for U.S. Supply and Demand
Hunter Biram is joined by Scott Stiles to discuss the May 2026 WASDE report and what it could mean for Arkansas producers. The conversation covers tightening grain stocks, stronger price outlooks for soybeans, rice, and cotton, and how changing...
Episode 87 - 100 Years of Arkansas Soybeans
Arkansas soybeans have shaped the state’s agricultural landscape for the last century, growing from a rotational crop in the 1920s into Arkansas’s leading row crop today. In this episode of Morning Coffee and Ag Markets, Hunter Biram is j...
Episode 86 - Arkansas net farm income remains steady in 2026 driven by government assistance
Ryan Loy and Hunter Biram discuss the 2026 Arkansas net farm income outlook. While income is projected to remain steady, it is largely supported by increased government assistance as crop receipts decline and production costs rise. The conversa...
Episode 85 - Arkansas Farmer Decision Support Tool
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy are joined by Eunchun Park to discuss a new integrated decision-support tool for Arkansas producers. The tool brings together crop insurance, farm program decisions, grain marketing, and input cost risk into one platfo...
Episode 84 - What Lower Interest Rates Mean for 2026 Budgets
Hunter Biram is joined by Ryan Loy to discuss the March 2026 Fed decision to hold interest rates steady and what that means for farmers. While rates have eased slightly, higher input costs mean producers are still borrowing more, keeping intere...
Episode 83 - Exploring Floating Solar on Arkansas Farms
Ryan Loy is joined by Mike Popp to discuss his recent research on floating solar systems in Arkansas. The discussion covers how these systems can generate electricity without taking farmland out of production, while also reducing water ev...
Episode 82 - March 31 Prospective Plantings Report Offers Few Surprises
Scott Stiles and Hunter Biram discuss the March Prospective Plantings report and what it means for 2026 crop acreage. Arkansas rice acres came in close to expectations but remain historically low, while cotton acres were higher than expected an...
Episode 81 - Preliminary Assessment of Arkansas Poultry Industry Damage (Winter Storm 2026)
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy discuss the economic impact of the January winter storm on Arkansas’s poultry industry, where prolonged outages and freezing conditions led to major production disruptions. They walk through the difference betwee...
Episode 80 - Row-Crop Markets in Transition: Supply, Demand, and Pricing Opportunities
Rising input costs are creating new challenges for producers as fertilizer and fuel markets respond to global conflict and supply chain uncertainty. In this episode, Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy are joined by Grant Gardner (University of Kentucky)...
Episode 79 - 2026 Farm Budget Implications of the Conflict in the Persian Gulf
Join Hunter Biram and Breana Watkins as they discuss how rising fuel and fertilizer prices linked to conflict in the Persian Gulf are reshaping crop profitability heading into the 2026 season. Updated University of Arkansas enterprise budgets s...
Episode 78 - Developing a Crop Marketing Plan in 2026
Hunter Biram is joined by Will Maples of Mississippi State University to discuss building a disciplined crop marketing plan for 2026. They emphasize using breakeven costs to set realistic price targets, spreading sales to manage risk, and docum...
Episode 77 - How could insured farmers adjust to the Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) rule from USDA?
In this episode, Hunter Biram and special guest Francis Tsiboe explore how USDA’s new Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) rule will reshape prevented planting insurance starting in the 2027 crop year. With the elimination of the prevente...
Episode 76 - Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Payments and Implications for Arkansas Farmers
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy walk through the newly finalized Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) payment rates and estimate Arkansas producers will receive about $347 million in total support. They discuss how the per-acre rates for key crops compare ...
Episode 75 - Jennifer James
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy are joined by Jennifer James, a fourth-generation rice and soybean farmer from Newport, Arkansas, part owner of H&J Land Company, and host of the Field Good Life podcast. Jennifer shares her path back to the family...
Episode 74 - The National Cotton Profit & Loss Tool
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy discuss the launch of the National Cotton Profit & Loss Tool, a free, web-based budgeting and planning resource designed to help cotton producers evaluate profitability, breakeven points, and financial risk. Ryan o...
Episode 73 - December 2025 WASDE Lowers Rice Price by 9% and the Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program is Announced
Hunter Biram and Scott Stiles discuss the December 2025 WASDE report, noting the most significant price reductions in rice and cotton markets. Long-grain rice prices declined 9%, while cotton fell to around $0.60 per pound, driven by sluggish e...
Episode 72 - Senator John Boozman
In this episode, we sit down with U.S. Senator John Boozman to discuss the major federal policy issues shaping American agriculture. We cover how Congress has approached farm policy this year, including reconciliation packages, appropriations w...
Episode 71 - November 2025 WASDE report is relatively quiet despite surprises in production and exports
Hunter Biram and Scott Stiles walk through the November 2025 WASDE, where small adjustments still led to very different price signals across major crops. Soybean and corn price projections inched higher, supported by tighter soybean ending stoc...
Episode 70 - The 2025 Arkansas State Net Farm Income Projection is Adjusted $850 Million Downward in its Fall Revision
Arkansas’s 2025 net farm income was revised down by $850 million, and in this episode Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy break down what’s driving the shift. Wet spring conditions cut rice and soybean acres, delayed and smaller disaster payments pulled ...
Episode 69 - Developing a Market Plan in the Post-Harvest Window
With harvest wrapping up across much of the Midsouth, today’s episode looks at how pre-harvest marketing strategies can guide decision-making after the crop is in the bin. Ryan Loy is joined by Andrew McKenzie and Scott Stiles to discuss how to...
Episode 68 - Prevented Planting: When (if ever) is it a good business decision to take the PP indemnity?
Join us for an in-depth discussion between Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy on prevented planting (PP) decisions in Arkansas rice production. Using simulated 2025 yield and price outcomes, they evaluate when PP could be financially preferable to plant...
Episode 67 - The State of the Arkansas Crop Economy in 2025
For the third consecutive year, Arkansas crop producers are facing a hard reality — total cash expenses exceed total cash income. In this episode of Morning Coffee & Ag Markets, Hunter Biram, Ryan Loy, Scott Stiles, and Grant Beckw...
Episode 66 - Optimizing PRF Insurance for Southern Forage Producers: Lessons from Arkansas
Interval timing matters more than you think when it comes to Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) insurance. Hunter Biram and guest Walker Davis unpack new University of Arkansas research comparing dry, median, and wet counties to reveal how ra...
Episode 65 - 2025/26 Rice Market Outlook
Historic April floods in the Mid-South forced widespread replanting, setting the stage for a volatile 2025 rice marketing year. Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy are joined by Alvaro Durand-Morat to unpack global market forces reshaping U.S. rice compe...