crop yields

Crops such as wheat and corn would fare better against weeds if growers abandoned the traditional approach of planting crops in rows, says research by the University of Copenhagen.

Brazil, No 2 to the United States as a soybean producer, will reap a record 95.5 million tonnes of the oilseed, forecasts USDA - 10 percent than its previous crop.

A meta-analysis of 115 studies by UC-Berkeley researchers finds the yield gap between organic and conventional agriculture is smaller than thought, around 19 percent.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), aided by a giant U.S. seed company, "are testing a new approach to improve the production of corn among the millions of poor, small-scale farmers who dominate African agriculture," says the...

A huge increase in grain production in the Northern Plains over the past decade is an unspoken factor in the transportation snarls reported in the region, says economist David Widmar in the blog Agricultural Economic Insights.

The Agriculture Department lowered its estimates of the corn and wheat crops marginally and raised its estimate of the soybean crop by 1 percent in its monthly crop report.

Serious drought cut yields sharply on as much as 15 percent of corn land in China, second to the United States as the world's top producer, says USDA. It estimates the harvest at 214 million tonnes, down 8 million tonnes from estimates made before the brunt of the dry weather was felt.

The harvest-time prices for corn and soybeans are significantly below the prices projected last spring, so there is a possibility of payments under crop insurance policies that assure growers of a portion of average crop revenue, said economist Gary Schnitkey of U-Illinois.

Growers in California harvested a record crop of tomatoes for processing, the thick-skinned varieties used in making soup and pasta sauces, says Bloomberg.

A UN-backed panel of experts, the International Panel on Climate Change, says climate change "is projected to undermine food security" from mid-century and beyond.

Colder-than-usual weather "is likely to spur further concerns over the condition of the winter wheat crop" in Russia, says The Crop Site. It points to uncertainties about the state of the crop.

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.

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.

U.S. growers will harvest a record 2.5 billion pounds of canola this season, thanks to above-average yields and near-record plantings, says USDA in its Oil Crops Outlook report.

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.

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.

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.

The least expensive way to attack greenhouse gas emissions on the farm may be larger investment in agricultural research and development, said University of California professor Aaron Smith in a blog on Tuesday. He cited a 2010 study that estimated agricultural R&D reduced carbon emissions through higher productivity at a cost of $15 per ton, "a much lower cost" than some commonly suggested practices, such as cover crops and conservation tillage.