DTN

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.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told DTN it may be January before the United States files an appeal of the World Trade Organization ruling against U.S. country-of-origin meat labels.

The World Trade Organization ruling on U.S. meat-origin labels could be public in "weeks, if not days" in the words of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, says Feedstuffs.

The agriculture ministers of Liberia and Sierra Leone say the ebola outbreak in western Africa is "exacerbating hunger and wrecking any plans to revitalize the region's farm production," says DTN from the World Food Prize symposium in Iowa.

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

The Agriculture Department is drafting a $1 a head beef checkoff program of its own that would run alongside the current $1 checkoff that is a lightning rod for complaints of favoritism.

Groups representing soybean, corn and hog farmers in Iowa formed an alliance to encourage farmers in the Hawkeye state to voluntarily reduce nutrient runoff, said DTN.

Crop scouts reported strong potential corn yields in southwestern Iowa and the northern half of Illinois as the annual Pro Farmer crop tour headed toward release today of an estimate of the U.S. corn and soybean crops.

A spot-check of fields in northern Indiana and into northwestern Illinois as part of the annual Pro Farmer crop tour found that conditions, and yields, improved as the scouts drove westward, says DTN.

Corn yields in Ohio and South Dakota are likely to be far above last year's levels, say scouts on the Pro Farmer crop tour. Their reports indicate a yield of 182.1 bushels an acre in Ohio and 152.7 bushels an acre in South Dakota.

The new subsidy STAX will be available to upland cotton growers beginning with the 2015 crop, said USDA's Risk Management Agency in a bulletin to insurers and its field offices.

The board that oversees the beef check-off program would lose three seats under a reapportionment proposed by USDA in the Federal Register.

Economist Carl Zulauf of Ohio State University says crop subsidies of $30-$90 an acre are possible with record crops and farm-gate prices that average $3.60 a bushel, reports DTN.

Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton "expressed enthusiasm for biotech seeds" and suggested the industry should stress the benefits of the crops, such as drought resistance, rather than the umbrella description...

U.S. farmers said they would plant a record 81.5 million acres of soybeans this spring, putting within reach a record crop that would ease high prices and the tightest supplies in decades.

Row-crop cultivators are being put to work because of the emergence of herbicide-resistant "super weeds," says DTN, "something of a renaissance" for mechanical weed control. Cultivators went into decline with adoption of limited-tillage and herbicides.

Crop scouts set off today for the annual inspection tour of the winter wheat crop in Kansas, the No 1 grower. The tour provides a timely look at a crop that will be ready for harvest in a few weeks.

Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea Virus was discovered in Vermont this week, meaning the disease has hit 28 states, says DTN.