corn

There's buzz about the Corn Belt moving northward into Canada's prairie provinces. Top Producer magazine says, "Leading the charge are Manitoba, where corn acreage has doubled to 380,000 in just two years, and Alberta, which grows almost 25,000 acres of corn."

Analysts expect record U.S. corn and soybean yields this fall that will be 3.5 percent higher than the marks set five years ago, according to a straw poll by Reuters. On average, the 20 analysts pegged the corn yield at 170.5 bushels an acre and soybeans at 45.6 bushels an acre, compared to the record 164.7 for corn and 44.0 for soybeans. The analysts figures are higher than USDA's projections of record-setting crops. USDA will make its first field-based estimate of the crops on Aug 12.

The odds of a production slowdown for corn and wheat over the next two decades are 20 times higher with climate change than without, say researchers from Stanford University and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Ag consultancy Doane says the first day of its crop tour found corn and soybeans in outstanding condition in western Illinois and eastern Iowa. "We believe it's the strongest corn crop we have observed in our long history of this crop tour," says its report. Doane says corn yields in western Illinois could be 10 bushels an acre higher than last year.

It may be months before USDA publishes a regulation but it is reminding farmers that the new farm policy law links so-called conservation compliance with eligibility for a discount on crop insurance. Operators have until next June 1 to file the paperwork, form AD-1026, the Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Certification.

A softening of seed corn sales was behind an 11 percent drop in DuPont's agriculture sector operating profits in the quarter ending in June, says AgriMoney. It quoted DuPont's chief executive as saying the company has faith in the business over the longer term although big big crop crops this year would "pressure overall economics for corn and soybean farmers."

Crop conditions in Iowa and Illinois, the two biggest corn- and soybean-growing states, out-shine U.S. ratings in a year that seems headed for record harvests, said USDA data. The neighboring Midwestern states grew 31 percent of U.S. corn and 27 percent of U.S. soybeans last year, says USDA.

In two reports today, the Agriculture Department will clarify how tight soybean stocks will get this summer and how large, possibly record-setting, the fall harvests will be.

Analysts generally expect USDA to report record-large soybean plantings and sizable corn planting in its Acreage report on Monday.

Energy crops may be best suited for planting on marginal land or in Southeastern states when compared to likely earnings from corn and soybeans, the two most widely grown U.S. crops, say two researchers from the University of Illinois.

Despite a late, wet and chilly planting season, the U.S. corn crop is in prime condition. "U.S. crop conditions in the most recent Crop Progress report are the best in four years for the aggregated 18 reported states...

Ethanol makers have enjoyed a run of high profits since March 2013, "driven by a combination of steady or rising ethanol prices and falling corn prices," write economists Scott Irwin and Darrel Good at farmdoc daily.

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.

Thanks to forecasts of large harvests, global grain supplies will rise again this year, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

U.S. farm exports will hit a record $149.5 billion in the year ending on Sept 30, up 5 percent from the previous estimate due to higher corn, wheat and soybean prices as well as larger export tonnage, said USDA in a quarterly report. The record now is $140.9 billion, set in fiscal 2013.

Bankers in the Farm Belt say expectations of lower income this year are slowing or even reversing the years-long climb in farmland values.

The Drought Monitor says arid conditions deepened in the central and southern Plains during the past week with Kansas as the leading edge "of the intense drought that seems to be waking up and pushing rapidly north along with warmer temperatures."