LITTLE ROCK — A season of weather that enabled both early planting and harvest ended in record or near-record yields for several crops in Arkansas. But it wound up being overshadowed by low commodity prices and tumult surrounding development of the next Farm Bill and aid to farmers.
Ag law and policy
Creation of a Farm Bill to replace the current 2018 legislation has been a source of frustration in agriculture. Hard-pressed by high input prices, extremely low commodity prices, drought and hurricanes, farmers urged lawmakers to update the Farm Bill’s reference prices. Failing that, they pressed Congress for ad hoc aid. The additional effort failed in early December.
Hunter Biram, extension economist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said “it is very likely that the 2018 Farm Bill will once again see another extension.”
The ag committees of both the U.S. House and Senate have been working on a new Farm Bill.
Arkansas Sen. Boozman had been serving as the ranking member of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, and will become its chair in January. Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who has chaired the committee since 2021, announced her retirement. Her term ends in January.
Farmers were also watching the Environmental Protection Agency, which had pledged to give the Endangered Species Act a bigger role as it reviewed and approved pesticides. A federal judge also vacated registrations on some dicamba products.
Near year’s end, a federal judge in Texas put a temporary hold on the Corporate Transparency Act, which was expected to affect some 230,000 farm operations. CTA required businesses to file information about beneficial owners by Dec. 31.
In December, a federal judge in Arkansas put a 14-day restraining order on an Arkansas law that restricted foreign ownership of farmland. Plaintiffs said the law was unconstitutional. Similar laws intended to increase national and food security were enacted or under consideration in 48 states.
Arkansas became the first state to take an enforcement action under its law in 2023, ordering ChemChina to divest its holdings in Craighead County.
Harrison Pittman, director of the National Agricultural Law Center, called 2024 “a blockbuster year of court decisions and other legal developments.
“It’s hard to imagine how 2025 can top it, but I have a feeling it will,” he said.
Row crops
Arkansas growers were treated to a warm, dry spring enabling early planting. They also saw dry weather in late summer, providing the grounds for a speedy harvest. In between, the remnants of two hurricanes, Francine and Helene, caused damage to crops in spots.
Drought in the upper Mississippi River and Ohio River valleys dropped Mississippi River levels to near record-low levels at Memphis, Tennessee, by harvest time. The Coast Guard had to implement draft restrictions on barges at a time when they were to be filled with grain for export.
The river levels at Memphis rebounded slightly but sank to minus 6.59 feet by Dec. 12.
Arkansas soybean growers were expected to see a 55-bushel-per-acre average yield, a new record.
"Even though it’s a little better than last year, farmers are still hurting because commodity prices have declined, and the expenses are still higher,” said Jeremy Ross, professor and extension soybean agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Corn acres took a big drop in 2024 — 41 percent lower than the previous year. November's National Agricultural Statistics Service, or NASS, report showed 485,000 acres of corn were harvested with an expected state average yield of 186 bushels per acre. It was one bushel per acre less than the record.
“Both wheat and sorghum have a similar problem in Arkansas,” said Jason Kelley, extension wheat and feed grains agronomist for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
“You don’t have local markets for it. You can haul that most of the time to the Mississippi River, and there’s some other inland places a little closer taking it. But there are only about 10 places buying wheat here. And grain sorghum is really the same way.”
Arkansas cotton growers harvested 640,000 acres. Although this was a 30,000-acre decrease from spring projections, it was still a substantial increase of 135,000 acres over 2023 harvest numbers.
Arkansas peanuts experienced an explosion in acreage this year, rising by 10,000 acres over 2023’s reported acreage to 44,000 acres. Zachary Treadway, extension peanut and cotton specialist, said it’s likely that the expansion in acreage does not represent new growers moving into the crop, but rather the same growers expanding their peanut efforts.
NASS expected rice to end the season at 7,600 pounds per acre, 30 pounds shy of the record set in 2021.
“There are still no surprises on the rice side,” said Jarrod Hardke, extension rice agronomist for the Division of Agriculture. “Unfortunately, milling yields aren’t represented in production estimates but will have a profound impact on rice supplies and markets this year.”
“Profitability isn’t in the 2025 vocabulary,” Hardke said.
