corn

Corn growers harvested nearly one-fifth of the U.S. corn crop last week - around 2.9 billion bushels - last week but the harvest is far behind its usual rate, says the weekly Crop Progress report.

Thanks to a second year of bumper crops, the world is headed for mammoth inventories of corn, wheat and soybeans, says the International Grains Council in London.

Seed company Syngenta says it acted responsibly in selling two strains of genetically engineered corn that are approved for cultivation in the United States although not allowed for import by China, says DTN.

Soybeans "are projected to be more profitable than corn in 2014," a reversal from most years, but a situation that is likely to prove true again in the new year, says economist Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois.

Food and environmental groups are renewing calls for the Agriculture Department "to adopt a slower, more stringent approval process" for genetically engineered crops, says USA Today.

Gross revenue per acre for corn growers in northern Illinois is forecast to be the lowest in five years, says economist Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois.

After harvesting two record crops in a row, U.S. farmers will cut back on corn plantings in the spring and produce a comparatively small 13.073 billion bushel-crop, says agricultural economist Dan O'Brien of Kansas State University.

The corn and soybean harvest is running far behind normal, says the weekly Crop Progress report. Some 31 percent of the corn crop and 53 percent of the soybean crop was in the bin at the start of this week.

Corn plantings could decline by 3 percent next year without pinching the U.S. supply, swollen by the second record-setting crop in two years, says economist Darrel Good of U-Illinois.

Like the United States, the European Union is reaping a record corn crop this year, says USDA, estimating the European crop at 71 million tonnes.

Transportation consultant Walter Kemmsies is skeptical the barge industry will be able to move the huge corn and soybean crops being harvested this fall, said Farm Futures, based on an interview at a grain industry meeting in New Orleans.

U.S. farms are highly mechanized, one of the reasons a comparatively small number of people can produce a torrent of food, feed and fiber. Harvest Public Media went to western Illinois for a contest to harvest corn the old-fashioned way, by hand.

The government will raise its estimates of the record-setting corn and soybean crops on Friday, according to two surveys of analysts ahead of the monthly crop report and the companion WASDE report on world crops.

Seed company Syngenta, whose genetically engineered corn is blamed for a disruption in U.S. corn exports to China, says it applied in 2010 to cultivate the same variety in China, says Reuters.

Ethanol makers produced 14.15 billion gallons of ethanol during the 12 months ending on Sept 1, coinciding with the corn marketing year, says economist Darrell Good of U-Illinois.

Class-action lawsuits asking $1 billion in damages from seed company Syngenta were filed in federal court Iowa, Illinois and and Nebraska.

Researchers identified a set of genes to naturally boost the level of substances the human body converts to vitamin A, important for eye health and the immune system, says Purdue University.

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.