**U.S. corn production is huge. That’s no secret. But, imagine if it was all brought together. The crop would cover an estimated 83.1 million acres OR an area the size of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington D.C. combined.

Breaking down acreage by use, the land devoted to producing corn for ethanol would be the size of New York. Animal feed would fill Pennsylvania and Delaware combined.

Sweetener production of glucose, dextrose and high-fructose corn syrup would cover New Jersey.

The sheer weight of the corn grown for syrup alone tops the combined mass of every U.S. adult.

**Meaningful tax cuts without the certainty of expensing and estate planning that many farm groups were hoping for.

That’s the reality of the sweeping tax bill Congress passed last week before President Trump signed it into law.

As reported in Agri-Pulse, the bill lowers tax rate and creates a new 20-percent deduction on pass-through business income that could lower farmers’ effective tax rate, which currently averages about 15 percent.

The bill nearly doubles the standard deduction for a couple to $24,000.

https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/10386-farmers-eye-tax-relief-some-uncertainty-as-tax-bill-crosses-finish-line

**The European Commission has issued formal objections to Bayer's planned $66 billion takeover of Monsanto, signaling the deal may be blocked unless the German company makes more significant concessions.

The objections from Brussels represent a stark ultimatum for the agrichemical giant, which has spent at least 12 months trying to bring around EU regulators on the politically charged mega-merger.

 

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