Headline Stack
📋 Rollins weighs reviving Biden-era domestic fertilizer program
🌽 USDA reports corn emerged in 8 states, 4% nationally
📋 House farm bill amendment process begins ahead of April 27 floor vote
🏭 $27.3M federal grant clears West Quincy river terminal fertilizer facility
Top Story
📋 Rollins weighs reviving Biden-era domestic fertilizer program. — LINK
USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins is actively weighing the revival of a Biden-era Fertilizer Production Expansion Program as part of a multi-agency response to the Hormuz-driven spike in nitrogen costs, POLITICO reported Wednesday. The program, originally funded through the Commodity Credit Corporation, channeled grants to domestic fertilizer producers to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity and reduce import dependence. Reviving it would mark a rare continuation of a Biden agriculture initiative by the Trump administration and comes as urea prices have jumped 47% since the end of February and nitrogen prices are up more than 30% since Middle East tensions escalated. Rollins told reporters the department is coordinating with the White House, Treasury, and the Department of Energy on potential responses to input-cost pressure hitting producers mid-planting. An April American Farm Bureau Federation survey of more than 5,700 farmers found 70% cannot afford all the fertilizer they need for the 2026 crop year, a data point Rollins has cited in recent public remarks as justification for urgent federal action.
More This Week
🌽 USDA reports corn emerged in 8 states. — LINK
USDA's latest Crop Progress report shows corn emerged in 8 states with 4% of the national crop up, led by Texas at 59% and with Illinois at 3%, against a USDA forecast of 95.3 million corn acres — down 3% from last year.
USDA Crop Progress data is collected weekly from more than 4,000 field-level reporters across the 18 primary corn-producing states that account for the bulk of national production.
The 4% national emergence figure compares with the five-year average for this week and sets the early pace for the 2026 crop cycle.
📋 Farm bill amendment process opens ahead of April 27 floor vote. — LINK
The House farm bill amendment process opened this week ahead of a floor vote scheduled for the week of April 27, with federal crop insurance flagged as a target for potential amendment changes affecting producer coverage levels.
Commodity groups and farm-state lawmakers have prioritized defending crop insurance premium subsidies and Title I reference price updates as the amendment window runs through the weekend.
The chamber last passed a full farm bill reauthorization in 2018; the current bill is operating under extension authority that expires September 30.
🏭 $27.3M federal grant clears West Quincy fertilizer terminal. — LINK
A $27.3 million federal Port Infrastructure Development Program grant will fund a new GROWMARK-partnered barge-to-truck fertilizer blending facility at West Quincy, Missouri, anchored by a 21,000-ton dry-fertilizer warehouse on the Mississippi River.
The PIDP grant program is administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration to upgrade port and inland waterway freight infrastructure.
The facility is designed to move dry fertilizer off barges for direct truck distribution into the Corn Belt, shortening supply chains for Missouri, Illinois, and Iowa producers.
Basis Watch
Old-crop corn basis strengthened across Missouri, with Central moving up 5 cents to a range of -35¢ to -25¢ and West Central also gaining 5 cents to -25¢ to -15¢. Indiana West posted positive basis at +5¢ on the high end, marking an outlier in the interior Corn Belt. Most other corn locations recorded minor moves of 1–2 cents.
Old-crop soybean basis showed more pronounced movement, led by Missouri Northwest gaining 15 cents to -120¢ on both ends of the bid. Missouri Southwest strengthened 20 cents on the high side, reaching -110¢, though the low remained at -125¢. Minnesota East Central widened its range with a 5-cent gain on the high, now spanning -120¢ to -50¢. Illinois and Indiana locations moved 1–2 cents.
The 20-cent move in Missouri Southwest soybeans stood well above the activity elsewhere; most locations reported changes of 5 cents or less.
Source: USDA AMS Reports