U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue on February 20 announced the launch of the Agriculture Innovation Agenda, a department-wide initiative to align resources, programs and research to position American agriculture to better meet future global demands.

USDA’s initial outlook for 2020 crops projects higher acreage for both corn and soybeans — taking up a significant amount of last year’s prevented planting acres — with soybean prices up slightly but corn prices expected to come down.

“2020 is a big year for trade, of course … and that is going to help sales and prices,” Johansson said.

Net cash farm income is forecast to decrease $10.9 billion (9.0 percent) to $109.6 billion in 2020, relative to the 2019 forecast. Net farm income, a broader measure of profits, is forecast to increase $3.1 billion (3.3 percent) from 2019 to $96.7 billion in 2020.