Gift Ideas for that hard to buy for farmer in your life

Dec 16, 2014

Online Gifts in Agriculture

by Denise Faguy, Farms.com

Looking for something thoughtful yet practical to give the farmer in your life? Like many people, farmers often prefer practical gifts. Sometimes gifts related to the farm business may be the perfect gift, gifts the farmer may not want to “treat” themselves to, but they will still appreciate.

As we get closer to Christmas, and last minute online shopping is your only option, try the following gift ideas.

Get them a paid subscription to an expert who follows the markets. Most farmers are great at the day-to-day operations of their farms, and planning for the year ahead. They are, however, often intimidated by the commodities markets. Yet most commodity experts believe farmers could easily increase the profits on their farm by watching the markets more closely, and booking their crop/livestock or feed prices at the right time. A newsletter subscription that simplifies this market information could be the perfect gift. Farms.com Risk Management offers such subscriptions, but of course, there are many such offerings offered in the agriculture industry – choose the subscription that best meets the needs of the farmer.

A registration to an agricultural conference may also be a gift that will be appreciated well after the holidays are finished. Are they farmer a member of a particular association that has one or more conferences or seminars? Have they mentioned that they would like to improve in a particular area, or explore a new crop or farming technique, is there a conference registration that could help them fulfill that goal? Precision agriculture is the latest trend in agriculture, here is a list of precision agriculture conferences in North America:

Why not buy them a subscription to a farm magazine – maybe an international farm magazine to give them a different perspective on farm issues. There are also a number of free electronic newsletters on agriculture. (View all Farms.com free agriculture subscriptions.)

Has the farmer been trying to sell a piece of farm equipment? Buy them a classified ad in a local farm publication.

Is there an agriculture software program that would make their life easier? Get them the software.

When all ideas have been exhausted, or when you want to add one more gift under the Christmas three for the farmer in your life who has everything, consider making a donation in their name to a farm charity.

Video: Is China Buying US Soybeans + USDA Nov 14th Crop Report could be “Game Changing”

After a week of a U.S./China trade truce, markets/trade is skeptical that we have not seen a signed agreement nor heard much from China or seen any details. There are rumors that China is buying soybean futures & not the physical. Trust in Trump?
12 MMT of U.S. soybean purchases by China by year-end is better than 0 but we all need to give it more time and give it a chance to unfold. China did lower the tariffs on Ag and is buying U.S. wheat and sorghum.
U.S. supreme court could rule against Trumps tariffs, but the Trump administration does have a plan B.
U.S. government shutdown is now the longest in history at 38 days.
But despite a U.S. government shutdown we will be getting a USDA November crop report next Friday and it could be “game changing.” If the USDA provides a bullish surprise with lower U.S. corn and soybean yields and ending stocks that are lower than expected both corn and soybean futures will break out above their ceilings at $4.35/bu and $11.35/bu respectively.
The funds continued their selling in live and feeder cattle futures on continued fears that the Trump administration want to lower U.S. beef prices. The fundamentals have not changed, only market psychology has.
Stocks markets continue to worry about a weak U.S. job market, but you can blame ChatGPT for that. In the future, we will have a more efficient, productive and growing economy with a higher unemployment rate until we have more skilled AI workers.
After 34 new record highs in the S & P 500 and 124 new records in the NASDAQ in 2025 we are back to a correction and investor profit taking as AI valuations may have gotten too stretched near-term ahead of NVDA’s 3rd quarter earnings announcement on Nov. 19th. But this is not an AI bubble.
75% of Tesla shareholders approved a $1 trillion pay package for Elon Musk!
It has rained in South America in the last 7 days, but both the American and European models agree that Central Brazil remains dry in the next 14-days!

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