soybeans

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.

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.

Canadian growers reduced their wheat sowings by 7 percent from 2013 and put more land into canola and soybeans, says Stats Canada.

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

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.

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.

The U.S. soybean stockpile is expected to shrivel to its smallest size in 10 years - less than a two-week supply - by late summer ahead of a record-large harvest that will saturate supplies and sharply pull down prices for the oilseed, according to trade expectations for the crop report today.

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

Researchers from four countries around the world say that as the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere rises, the amount of zinc and iron in wheat, rice, soybeans and field peas went down significantly; wheat and rice also had notable declines in protein content at the higher levels of carbon dioxide used in the experiment. Zinc and iron deficiency is a global health problem.

Strong overseas demand for U.S. corn and soybeans will mean smaller than expected stockpiles in coming months, the government said in a monthly update of crop output and usage worldwide.

Ag economist Art Barnaby of Kansas State University created a 13-page summary of the crop subsidy and federally subsidized crop insurance provisions of the 2014 farm law.

U.S. farmers intend to plant more land to soybeans and less to corn than traders expected, the Agriculture Department said, based on a survey of 84,000 growers nationwide.

Record yields will result in record large US corn and soybean crops, USDA said at its Outlook Forum, based on current commodity prices, which affect plantings, and on normal weather.