corn
Dicamba revisited: Will corn be the next herbicide debacle?
Dicamba-tolerant corn seeds aren’t available yet. But if the seeds reach the market, and tens of millions more acres are sprayed with dicamba, there’s good reason to expect a repeat of the soybean disaster, in which the highly volatile weedkiller drifted off-target and damaged 5 million acres of conventional soybeans and an untold number of other crops.<strong>(No paywall)</strong>
Farmers could see “very low returns” on corn and soybeans
WTO rules China gave its growers unfair wheat and rice subsidies
The Trump administration, with the weight of a WTO ruling behind it, called on China on Thursday to eliminate trade-distorting wheat and rice subsidies that cost U.S. farmers hundreds of millions of dollars a year in export sales. The WTO panel report may provide impetus to negotiations to resolve the Sino-U.S. trade war.
Soybeans may lose less land to corn than expected
The United States is awash in soybeans, the result of the trade war with China and a string of bumper crops. But although farmers were expected to respond by planting more corn this year while cutting back sharply on soybeans, it's no longer clear that this rush to corn will actually occur.
Drought-tolerant corn, most of it conventionally bred, is a hit
More than one-fifth of U.S. corn area is planted with drought-tolerant varieties, a remarkable rate of adoption considering the trait has only been available for a few years. Drought is a menace to farmers everywhere. In 2012, the U.S. corn yield plunged by 16 percent, or 24 bushels an acre, due to drought.
‘Big crops, low prices,’ for a long time ahead, says CBO
Lowest food prices in a year, says FAO
Global prices for cereal grains, dairy products and vegetable oils fell during September, pulling the Food Price Index to its lowest reading in at least a year, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Corn prices dropped by more than 4 percent, "mostly on expectations of a very large crop in the United States and ample supply prospects globally," said the FAO.
Corn and soybean farmers will struggle for profit in 2019
Corn may be more profitable than soybeans in 2019, but that isn’t saying much about the outlook for midwestern farmers, say a pair of agricultural economists from the University of Illinois.
U.S. awash in corn and soybeans, says USDA harvest forecast
The mammoth corn and soybean crops awaiting harvest across America are larger than expected, the USDA said on Wednesday in its monthly Crop Production report.
China trips soybeans, corn wins race for top U.S. crop
A year after making soybeans the most widely grown crop in the country, U.S. farmers will make corn king again, driven by trade war with China and a burdensome soy stockpile, said the FAPRI think tank at the University of Missouri. "China's tariffs will reduce U.S. soybean exports," said FAPRI. The research group expects farmers will slash soybean plantings by 5.5 percent in 2019 in the face of the lowest market price in 12 years.
Will soybean growers get the lion’s share of Trump tariff payments?
Soybeans are the largest U.S. farm export to China, and growers of the oilseed may be in line for huge federal payments, worth an average of $85 an acre, to offset the impact of retaliatory Chinese tariffs. Corn growers, meanwhile, might not get enough per acre to buy a cup of coffee at many restaurants.
Outlook for corn and soy farmers in 2019 ‘simply is not good’
Midwestern farmers will likely need large reductions in rental rates on cropland in 2019 to have a chance of making money on corn or soybeans, said economist Gary Schnitkey of the University of Illinois.
Drought persists in western Corn Belt, southern Plains
In its monthly Drought Outlook, the National Weather Service says drought will persist in northern Missouri and southeastern Iowa through August, a key month for crop development. Nationwide, about 15 percent of soybean land and 11 percent of corn land is in drought.
U.S. heads for near-record corn exports
Thanks to continued strong demand from overseas buyers, U.S. corn exports this trade year could be the second highest ever, the Foreign Agricultural Service said on Thursday.
As commodity prices sink, Perdue says Trump will aid farmers
The typical midwestern corn and soybean grower lost tens of thousands of dollars in potential revenue due to steep declines in commodity prices over the past four weeks, said Purdue economist Brent Gloy, listing global trade uncertainty as an obvious factor.
Smallest U.S. winter wheat crop in 16 years
Searing drought in the central and southern Plains will result in the smallest winter wheat crop since 2002 and the second smallest in 47 years, said the USDA in its first estimate of the summer harvest.
Farmers plant one-fifth of U.S. corn crop in a week
More than 19 million acres of corn were planted last week, thanks to generally favorable weather in the Midwest, according to the Crop Progress report released on Monday.
Corn planting lags in cold, wet spring
Corn earworm develop Bt resistance via unexpected genetic path
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.