corn

Seed company Syngenta wants the U.S. appeals court in Denver to intervene in a class-action lawsuit, prompted by China's rejection of cargoes that included a GMO variety not approved for import.

Just as the spring rally in futures prices brightened farmers' outlook, the summer slump in corn and soybean prices pulled down sharply on the Ag Economy Barometer, say Purdue economists. The monthly survey of producer sentiment fell by 17 points in August for a reading of 95, the lowest since the end of winter.

Record-setting corn and wheat harvests worldwide will pull the average prices for this year's crops to lower prices than expected early this year, says a University of Missouri think tank. Although soybean prices will be higher than the think tank's projections in April, the three crops — accounting for 232 million acres of farmland this year — suggests no more than a minor recovery is likely.

With the widespread adoption of genetically engineered crops — accounting for 94 percent of all soybeans and 93 percent of all corn in the U.S. in 2015 — the use of the herbicides rose, although insecticide use in corn declined, according to a new study published in the journal Science.

Mitch Daniels, president of Purdue University, says the school's newly dedicated Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center "will play a big part" in helping to assure enough food for the rising world population. The center is the first field phenotyping facility in North America.

U.S. soybean plantings will be record-large for the second year in a row in 2017 if growers follow through on their stated plans, said Farm Futures magazine. In an email survey, farmers said they intend to plant more soybeans, cotton and sorghum next year while cutting back on corn and wheat.

Prospects for wheat and corn crops brightened in the past month, chiefly in the United States and the former Soviet Union, so the world is headed for "an all-time peak" grain crop of 2.069 billion tonnes, forecast the International Grains Council, based in London. The forecast is a sharp 3 percent larger than in July and portends the largest grain glut on record.

An annual tour of the corn belt found evidence that a recent U.S. government forecast for record production might be a bit too rosy, because hot weather has appeared to harm the crop, according to Bloomberg news. "Dozens of people -- among them farmers, agronomists and journalists -- inspecting fields on this week’s Pro Farmer Midwest Crop Tour are reporting corn yields that trail projections made by the U.S. Department of Agriculture less than two weeks ago," Bloomberg said.

Researchers are turning to natural solutions like nematodes, spiders, and cover crops to fight the notoriously destructive rootworm in corn crops. “Western corn rootworm has evolved resistance to nearly every chemical and biotech tool deployed against it in the past few decades,” including Monsanto's genetically modified Bt corn, says The Progressive Farmer.

A tiny percentage of Iowa farmers are turning to diversified vegetable and fruit production to augment or replace their fields of corn and soybeans, the Des Moines Register reports. The paper says that the chance for farmers "to diversify their crop mix, receive more income and avoid the price volatility that has squeezed profitability recently for corn and soybean producers can be enticing."

With corn and soybean prices plummeting, and pressure to reduce runoff from fields mounting, some Iowa farmers are turning to oats as a possible solution to both problems, says Harvest Public Media.

Corn production will surge by a hefty 5 percent worldwide, pushing global grain production to within shouting distance of the record set two years ago, said the International Grains Council. Bigger-than-expected wheat and corn crops in the United States will be a factor in the near-record harvest and an expansion in the season-ending "carry over" stocks for the fourth year in a row.

U.S. farmers are headed for a record-large corn crop at the same time that market prices may be the lowest in a decade — a combination that could trigger crop-insurance indemnities for farmers who bought high levels of revenue insurance, says DTN. "In fact, many corn growers could trigger 2016 crop insurance pay-outs with no yield loss."

The corn earworm is a widespread crop pest, particularly in the U.S. South, and adept at quickly developing resistance to genetically engineered crops. Over time, researchers looking at lab-selected strains of earworm have identified 20 genes that harbor mutations conferring resistance to pest-killing proteins in so-called Bt crops, which have been genetically engineered to produce bacteria that repel the earworm.