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
109 episodes
Episode 107 - Estimating the Impact of the Iran Conflict on Arkansas Crop Markets
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy look at how ongoing shipping disruptions from the Iran conflict continue to raise fuel and fertilizer costs for Arkansas row crop producers. Ryan explains how problems in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea have pushe...
Episode 106 - Leveraging the Southern Integrated Risk Management Tool to Inform the SCO/ECO Crop Insurance Decision
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy walk through the Southern Integrated Risk Management Tool (SIRM), a free web-based decision tool that helps farmers, county agents, crop insurance agents, and ag lenders build a crop insurance portfolio. The tool...
Episode 105 - September WASDE Tightens Stocks for Corn, Soybeans and Cotton; Improved Price Outlook
Scott Stiles and Hunter Biram discuss the latest September 2026 WASDE, where the balance sheet held few surprises but the price changes stood out. Scott opens with a primer on how FSA certified acreage feeds into NASS production estimates and w...
Episode 104 - Crop Insurance: Basic Producer Considerations
Ryan Loy and Hunter Biram sit down to discuss the crop insurance chapter from the newly released Surviving the Farm Economy Downturn: 2026 Update. Hunter walks through the basic decisions producers face when selecting federal crop insurance, fr...
Episode 103 - How Much Should You Pay for a Replacement Heifer?
Ryan Loy is joined by James Mitchell, Associate Professor and Fryar Price Risk Management Center Associate Director at the University of Arkansas, to dig into the new Beef Cow and Heifer Investment Analysis tool. With cattle prices ...
Episode 102 - Attractive Wheat and Canola Prices May Draw Acres This Fall
Hunter Biram, Scott Stiles, and Breana Watkins to look at why attractive winter wheat and canola prices may draw Arkansas acres this fall. With row crop margins still squeezed by high input costs, they dig into the newly released 2027 Universit...
Episode 101 - Bird Flu on the Move: Understanding Seasonal HPAI Risk in the Mississippi Flyway
Ryan Loy sits down with Matthew Marchant, a PhD student in agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas, to discuss how highly pathogenic avian influenza moves through the Mississippi flyway. They explain why the current strain spreads ...
Episode 100 - More Acres, Lower Yields: The Focus of August USDA Reports
Hunter Biram and Scott Stiles walk through the August USDA WASDE and Crop Production reports, where a recurring theme of more acres but lower yields shaped the outlook for soybeans, long grain rice, corn, and cotton. They dig into the surprisin...
Episode 99 - Global Cotton Mill Use at a Six-Year High
Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy dig into why global cotton mill use is projected to reach its highest level since the 2017/18 marketing year, the fourth consecutive year of growth. They explain how the gain is concentrated in China, India, and Pakist...
Episode 98 - The Crop Insurance Premium Implications of the USDA EARP Rule Reversal
In the third and final episode of our series on USDA's Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) rule, Ryan Loy and Hunter Biram dig into what the rule means for rice producers' premium costs, with a timely twist, since USDA moved to reinstate...
Episode 97 - The Impact of Long-Grain Rice Share on the Average PLC Payment Rate
In this episode, Hunter Biram walks through how the share of long grain rice base shapes a farm's average Price Loss Coverage (PLC) payment rate, drawing on the University of Arkansas PLC Payment Calculator to run the numbers. He explains why f...
Episode 96 - July WASDE Friendly to Grain Markets
Hunter Biram is joined by Scott Stiles to go through the July 2026 WASDE report and what it means for Arkansas producers. They cover the sharp cut to long-grain rice production, now the smallest crop since 1993, and a higher price outlook...
Episode 95 - Fed Funds Update and Outlook
The Federal Reserve Open Market Committee's June 2026 meeting ended in a federal funds rate hold, but the odds of a rate hike by September have jumped to nearly 70%. Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy unpack what's driving the shift, from lingering ener...
Episode 94 - June Acreage Report Offers No Surprises
Rice acreage in Arkansas just hit a 50-year low, so what's driving farmers away from a crop they've grown for generations? Hunter Biram and Scott Stiles break down the 2026 USDA June Acreage Report, exploring why rice and peanut acres fell whil...
Episode 93 - Chapter 12 Bankruptcy Filings are up 20%, Underscoring the Impact of the Farm Safety Net on Crop Farmers
Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings are up 20% year over year, with Arkansas leading the nation. Hunter Biram, Ryan Loy and LSU's Mike Deliberto break down where filings are concentrated, why rising input costs have eaten into recent crop price gains...
Episode 92 - The long grain rice world market price for the 2025 crop approaches the USDA marketing loan rate for the fourth time since 2001
This week on Morning Coffee and Ag Markets, Hunter Biram visits with Arkansas Agricultural Hall of Fame inductee Carl Brothers about the history of rice marketing assistance loans, world market price calculations, and the growing possibility of...
Episode 91 - Analyzing the relationship between the yield ratio and optimal crop insurance coverage levels
Hunter Biram is joined by Enil Serrano and Grant Gardner to discuss the Crop Insurance Decision Maker, a web-based tool developed by the University of Arkansas and University of Kentucky that evaluates expected net returns across different crop...
Episode 90 - Rice Farmers Face Limited Adjustment Capacity Under the Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) Rule
USDA's new Expanding Access to Risk Protection (EARP) rule eliminates the option for producers to purchase an additional 5 percentage points of prevented planting coverage. In this episode, Hunter Biram and Ryan Loy discuss what this change mea...
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...