USDA Updates Livestock Insurance Programs, Drought Updates in Cow Country

USDA Risk Management Agency updated livestock insurance programs this week, we talk about what producers can expect. Also we dive into the drought status for pastures in cow country, and end with a surge in bond markets on Wall Street. 

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Chat BDC. Today is Wednesday, May 20th, 2026. You've got your three business news queued up for today. I'm gonna start out talking about some updates to insurance programs through USDA. We're gonna look at pasture drought conditions across the U.S. and finish up with bond market making some noise on Wall Street. So let's get to it. USDA Risk Management Agency has announced significant updates to the livestock risk protection program, the livestock gross margin, and dairy revenue protection programs. These changes approved by the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation take effect starting with the 2027 crop year. According to Administrator Pat Swanson, these enhancements aim to put farmers first by expanding eligibility and strengthening risk management tools for dairy and livestock operations. Beginning in 2027, LRP, LGM, and DRP policies will share several standardized updates. The eligibility and subsidy percentages of beginning farmers and ranchers are now aligned with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, extending the definition of a beginning producer to ten years. There's concurrent coverage, so producers can now hold coverage in similar livestock programs simultaneously. New language addresses off-exchange contracts to ensure fair subsidy application. Policies that do not earn a premium for three consecutive years will be subject to automatic cancellation. And revised language provides clear guidelines on when and how insurance coverage can be transferred. If you want full information, Angie Denton has a great article on uh DairyHerd.com, so check that out. Flipping over to beef news, pasture and range conditions saw some movement over the past week, according to USDA's weekly crop progress report. Localized moisture has some areas better while others are suffering in some instances in the same state. Jennifer Carackel on Progressive Farmer had this update on Upper Midwest continues to see a good percentage of pasture and range in good to excellent condition. Iowa sits at 73%, Missouri at 76%, and Illinois at 69% in this category. These same states are at 3%, 3%, and 5%, respectively, in the very poor to poor condition category, even with some localized areas seeing moderate drought on the drought conditions map. DTN meteorologist John Baranic said rains have been helping many of the beef cow states. There were some really good rainfall in parts of Cattle Country past weekend, but a lot of hot and dry weather in other parts too, he said. That starts off the week as we get another system to move from the central plains through the Midwest early in the week. That'll produce some areas of heavy showers and thunderstorms, severe weather, potential flooding, especially where those storms overlap from the weekend, he says. The worst pasture and range conditions continue to be seen in Nebraska and surrounding states. Nebraska is likely not going to see as much movement due to the large number of acres that suffered damage from wildfires. In Nebraska, 83% of the state's pastures and range is rated very poor to poor, and only 4% is marked good to excellent. But the warning signals it sends can be powerful enough to drag stock markets up and down, and in the past have even convinced President Trump and other world leaders to back off on some of their most extreme actions. Well, those markets are making noise again. Bond markets around the world have seen yields climb to heights not reached in years and in some cases decades. A top the litany of reasons for that is oil prices and whether they will stay high because of the war with Iran. Worries about big and growing debts for the U.S. government and others are also influencing bond markets. Rising yields are putting downward pressure on stock markets after they rocketed to records on excitement about big corporate profits and the promise of artificial intelligence technology. They're also dragging on economies around the world. If you would like further insight into what's going on and how it got this way, check out the story on apnews.com. Well, that's all for now. As always, thanks for tuning in to ChatBBC. If you found this useful, you know the drill. Leave a comment, subscribe, share, tell all your friends. We'll be back tomorrow with more news of CrossTag and Funny at the market. Until then, I'll make an upper button. Goodbye.