Ag News: Famer Sentiment Higher

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**Farmer sentiment improved modestly in December as the Ag Economy Barometer rose 7 points from November to a reading of 174.

agrimarketing.com reports, December's sentiment improvement still left the barometer 9 points below October.

Both of the barometer's sub-indices, the Index of Current Conditions and the Index of Future Expectations, were higher in December although the current conditions improvement was three-times the size of the future expectations increase.

https://www.agrimarketing.com/s/134303

**Given the time necessary to convert legislation into action, the Biden administration will oversee the payment of most or all of the $13 billion in agricultural aid included in the latest coronavirus package

Ag Undersecretary Bill Northey tells agriculture.com, there’s still a chance some funds could flow before the end of January, or before the administration change January 20th.

Farmers would receive payments of $20 an acre, roughly $5 billion in all, on crops that suffered at least a 5% price decline during a specified period.

https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/biden-administration-to-oversee-new-coronavirus-payments-to-farmers

**After a dry autumn and early winter, the odds of California receiving average precipitation this water year stand between 10% and 30%.

That’s the estimate from climate experts, who say that storms forecast for early to mid-January could bring some improvement to Northern California.

Farmers say they’re making contingency plans for tight water supplies while hoping additional storms will boost the Sierra snowpack and reservoir storage