Brexit may put a floor under sagging U.K. cropland values
Over the past year, UK cropland values have fallen by 9 percent, says Agrimoney, with one land company seeing a continued decline this summer while another says prices are stabilizing after the steepest decline in at least 12 years. Both companies "were sanguine about the effect of a British exit from the EU on land prices," said Agrimoney, based in London.
China to discuss its stockpile secrets with UN ag experts
Chinese agricultural leaders are to meet members of the UN-backed Agricultural Market Information System, created after food prices surged worldwide in 2008, to discuss access to data on Chinese grain stockpiles, says AgriMoney.
China to sell part of its massive cotton stockpile
China, the world's largest importer and consumer of cotton, "will start to sell down its massive cotton stockpile this year," says Reuters. Beijing holds half, or more, of the world's stockpile of cotton.
Smaller corn, soy supplies but big harvests on horizon
Stockpiles of U.S. corn and soybeans are smaller than expected, giving a boost to futures prices in the near term, although massive harvests of the two most widely planted crops in the nation are on the horizon.
Less winter wheat is sown, suggesting less wheat, more soy
Wheat farmers planted the smallest amount of winter wheat in five years and 5 percent less than last year, said the government, based on a survey of growers in early December. Winter wheat is planted in the fall, lies dormant during the winter and sprouts in the spring for harvest in early summer. The total of 40.2452 million acres was far below trade expectations and also was the second-smallest figure in a decade.
USDA reports today may steer commodity prices until spring
The Agriculture Department is to release a handful of potentially pivotal reports today at noon ET that could set the tone for futures markets until spring-planting data becomes available. They include a final look at 2014 U.S. crop production; the monthly WASDE report with its estimates of crop output and usage worldwide; the Winter Wheat Seedings report, the first hint of this year's crops, and the quarterly Grain Stocks report, which will indicate...
Canada harvests bumper oilseed crops
Canadian farmers harvested their sixth record soybean crop in a row and their second-largest canola crop, said Statistics Canada, with the harvest season over. The canola crop was 11 percent larger than the previous StatsCan estimate in October and was 1 million tonnes more than traders expected. Canola is Canada's major oilseed, at 15.6 million tonnes this year, down from 18 million tonnes last year. Soybeans totaled 6 million tonnes this year, up 13 percent from 2013.
Cold weather adds to Russia wheat woes
Colder-than-usual weather "is likely to spur further concerns over the condition of the winter wheat crop" in Russia, says The Crop Site. It points to uncertainties about the state of the crop.
Returns on US farmland are lowest in four years
Returns from investment in U.S. farmland in the third quarter of this year were the lowest in four years, said the National Council of Real Estate Fiduciaries, a trade group based in Chicago for investors.
Drought dims outlook for Brazil’s soybean crop
Brazil's soybean belt is critically short of rainfall, in the view of consultancy Oil World, which sees a harvest of 89 million tonnes this season, said AgriMoney.
US tractor and combine fleet is much newer than usual
Farmers modernized their tractors and combines during the agricultural boom that started in 2006, says analyst David Widmar at the blog Agricultural Economic Insights.
US soy crop may top 4 billion bushels, a record by a mile
Analysts look for USDA to forecast the first-ever 4 billion-bushel U.S. soybean crop on Friday, along with possibly boosting the size of the record-setting corn crop.
US decides to impose duties on sugar from Mexico
The Commerce Department says it will impose countervailing duties of 3-17 percent on sugar imported from Mexico following a preliminary ruling that Mexico unfairly subsidized its producers, said the Financial Times.
Deere to scale back as farmers buy less equipment
The world's largest farm equipment manufacturer said sales were down by 5 percent worldwide - down 8 percent in the United States and Canada - in the third quarter - due to lower commodity prices...
China blocks import of US corn byproduct on GMO grounds
Chinese quarantine officials are barring imports of distillers dried grains from the United States because they may contain a genetically modified organism that is not approved by China, said Reuters.