corn

The World Bank says international food prices fell by 6 percent over a four-month stretch and are the lowest in four years. Lower wheat prices drove the decline, says the bank's Food Price Watch.

The Chinese government has launched a campaign on TV, newspapers and the Internet to build public support for genetically engineered crops, says Reuters.

The global corn carry-over is forecast to climb by nearly 10 percent this marketing year, to 189.9 million tonnes, according to USDA estimates. David Widmar of the blog Agricultural Economic Insights says it would be the largest inventory in 15 years, since 194.4 million tonnes at the end of 1999/2000, and the fifth-largest on record. But it would equal 19.6 percent of consumption, a manageable level, writes Widmar, when the stocks-to-use ratio was above 30 percent in 1999/2000.That said, the ratio has risen for the past five years. "If this doesn’t abate either through greater demand of reduced supplies it’s hard to paint a rosy picture for corn prices," concludes Widmar. "Time will tell."

With corn prices down and fuel demand up, including exports, "(o)perating profits for many ethanol makers more than doubled in the second quarter compared with last year," says the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "It's shaping up to be one of the best years ever for the ethanol business."

Two analyses say the record-setting U.S. corn crop is around 14.06 billion bushels, or 2 percent smaller than USDA estimated 11 days ago. That would mean slightly smaller inventories and somewhat higher farm-gate prices, now forecast to be lowest in eight years.

Corn, long-grain rice and sorghum are the most likely of the crops in the farm program to generate a subsidy payment because of low market prices, say economists Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University and Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois. "Payments are far from certain," they write at farmdoc daily, "if prices strengthen due to lower production or higher demand." Their calculations, an update of an earlier blog, are based on USDA's estimates of season-average prices and yields nationwide. The new Agriculture Risk Coverage plan is more likely to trigger a payment than the Price Loss Coverage plan PLC allows large payouts.

A University of Missouri think tank lowered its forecasts of farm-gate prices for corn, wheat and soybeans because of huge inventories that are building up. It will take three years for prices to recover, said the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, which slashed by 10 percent its forecast of the average price for this year's corn crop, expected to be a record 14.4 billion bushels.

Agribusiness behemoth Cargill sued Syngenta, the seed and chemical company in state court in Louisiana, blaming it for sales lost to China, said the St Paul Pioneer Press. Cargill says U.S. corn exports to China were effectively halted because Syngenta sold seed for a genetically engineered corn variety, known as MIR162 and Viptera, that is not approved for sale in China. In a statement, Cargill said Syngenta Seeds "put the ability of U.S. agriculture to serve global markets at risk, costing both Cargill and the entire U.S. agricultural industry significant damages."

The numbers may change when USDA issues its September crop report on Thursday but the story remains the same: U.S. farmers will reap their largest corn and soybean crops ever this fall. The gargantuan harvests will result in the biggest surpluses in several years and bring markedly lower farm-gate prices that end an eight-year run of historically high crop prices.

Plant breeder Frank Kutka is working on corn varieties that organic farmers can plant without fear of cross-pollination from GMO corn in neighboring fields, writes Ken Roseboro at Civil Eats. It is a multimillion-dollar challenge because organic crops cannot include genetically modified organisms. Corn is the most widely grown U.S. crop. Farmers can take precautions such as planting their fields earlier or later than their neighbors so the fields mature at different times but that is an imperfect tactic.

Private consultants expect the U.S. corn and soybean crops will be larger than estimated by the government. USDA will update its forecasts on Sept 11. Three consultancies - INTL FCStone, Lanworth and Allendale - release assessments this week. Lanworth was the only one to lower its estimate of the corn crop, to 14.646 billion bushels, but that is higher than the other two forecasts and 4 percent larger than USDA's estimate of 14.032 billion bushels based on Aug 1 conditions, said AgriMoney.

With two more cellulosic ethanol plants to come on line in coming months, annual production of the biofuel should exceed 1 million gallons for the first time in 2014, says the Union of Concerned Scientists. "We still have a ways to go until cellulosic ethanol is as abundant as corn ethanol but with commercial production under way, we are making progress much faster," said UCS's Jeremy Martin on the day Poet-DSM plant formally opened its cellulosic plant in Emmetsburg, Iowa.

Heading into the final weeks of the growing season, U.S. corn and soybeans were in extraordinary condition, said USDA. Its weekly Crop Progress report said 74 percent of corn was in good or excellent condition, up 1 point from the previous week, and 72 percent of soybeans were good or excellent, up 2 points. Eight percent of corn was mature, half the usual figure for the final days of August. U.S. corn and soybean harvests are forecast to set records this fall.

It's sorghum, one of the major grain crops of the world yet eclipsed in the United States by the expanding range of corn and soybeans. In Africa and parts of Asia, sorghum is a food crop but in the U.S. market, it is primarily used in livestock rations and as an ethanol feedstock, says the Whole Grains Council. It's gaining some recognition as a gluten-free grain that can substitute for wheat flour in many recipes - muffins, pizza, cakes and casseroles are examples.

Farmers around the world are boosting corn production by 12 percent, or 112 million tonnes, since drought-hit 2012, says the International Grains Council. Larger corn crops are the major reason for the surge in global grain production notwithstanding a record-large wheat crop this season, forecast for 713 million tonnes. IGC, based in London, estimated the global corn crop at 973 million tonnes this year, led by 355 million tonnes in the United States, more than a third of the world total. China is the second-largest grower, with 22 percent of the world crop.

Grocery shoppers will pay record-level prices for beef and pork through 2015, says a University of Missouri think tank.

U.S. farm exports are headed for a record $152.5 billion in the fiscal year ending on Sept 30, says the Agriculture Department.

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.