A new Stress and Mental Health Resources page is live on AFBF’s website. It includes information about recognizing the warning signs of stress and how to help someone who may be at risk, a video from Rural Health Information Hub about stress in the farm community and a link to AFBF polling on rural stress. The page also has a contact email to share resources or stories, request more information or communicate with members of the AFBF staff working on this issue. (Farm Bureau)

It was just 10 years ago farmers experienced one of the longest and wettest harvest seasons of recent history in 2009. With USDA trimming its statewide yield estimates to 179 bushels per acre for corn and 51 bushels for beans this month, the numbers are eerily similar to the 2009 state yield averages of 175 bushels per acre for corn and 46 bushels for beans. (FarmWeekNow)

With another government funding deadline looming a month from now, Senate Republicans want to advance a fiscal 2020 domestic spending package as soon as this week that would include funding for departments and agencies critical to agriculture and the food industry. (Agri-Pulse)

Chinese importers have been busy booking fresh purchases of soybeans from Brazil this week, despite the White House announcement that China had agreed to buy up to $50 billion of U.S. farm products annually during trade talks last week. The purchases from Brazil show that China is in no hurry to buy U.S. products in the wake of last week’s phase one trade agreement. (Reuters)

Biofuel groups are imploring the EPA to reconsider its supplemental rule on blending requirements released last week. The rule was aimed at helping corn growers and ethanol producers who have lost demand because of the Trump administration’s wide use of waivers for oil refiners. But the industry says it falls short of the fix they were promised, and now producers are hoping for a do-over from the agency. (Politico)

It’s now to the point in the season in which farmers should weigh stalk quality concerns versus extended harvest delays as many wait for the crop to dry down in fields. “Unless we get an unseasonably warm, dry stretch in late October into early November, field drying will be terribly slow,” noted lance Tarochione, Bayer technical agronomist. “You may be waiting for something that never comes and jeopardize standability.” It takes about 30 heating units to take one point of moisture out of corn. This week, heating units are averaging between zero and 5 points per day. (FarmWeekNow)