wheat
USDA to pay $8 billion in crop subsidies, $1.6 billion for stewardship
With the start of the new fiscal year, the USDA will issue $8 billion in crop subsidy payments, triggered by persistently low commodity prices, to hundreds of thousands of farmers. The government also said it will pay $1.6 billion in annual rental payments to landowners who enrolled fragile land in the Conservation Reserve.
Syrian seeds shake up Europe’s plant patent regime
Salvatore Ceccarelli knew he was engaging in a subversive act when, in 2010, he took two twenty kilo sacks of bread and durum wheat seeds from a seed bank outside of Aleppo, Syria and brought them to Italy during a visit back to his home country. Now, seven years later, those seeds from the Fertile Crescent, the birthplace of domesticated agriculture, with thousands of years of evolution behind them, are poised to challenge the system of plant patenting in Europe, and, soon enough perhaps, the United States.
Farmers lean toward more corn and wheat, less soy in 2018
After setting back-to-back records for soybean plantings, U.S. farmers indicated in a survey that they will plant more wheat and corn while cutting back on soybeans in 2018, said Farm Futures. Soybeans nearly matched corn, the most widely grown crop in the nation, in acreage this year with farmers believing the oilseed would be more profitable than corn.
Amid a global glut, the Wheat Belt considers its alternatives
U.S. wheat plantings are the smallest in nearly a decade because of low market prices and large stockpiles worldwide, so growers in traditional wheat states are experimenting with alternative crops, says The Associated Press. They are dabbling in "crops that might be less iconic but are suddenly in demand, such as chickpeas and lentils, used in hummus and healthy snacks."
World grain stockpile to shrink for first time in five years
Although the world will harvest the third-largest grain crop ever in 2017/18 — only 4 percent smaller than the record set last season — the global grain inventory will decline for the first time in five years, forecasts the International Grains Council.
Record crop will propel Russia to No. 1 wheat exporter
Russian farmers are headed for a record-setting wheat harvest, forecast the USDA, up 7 percent from 2016 thanks to high yields in the winter wheat crop and a bountiful outlook for spring-planted wheat. With the large crop, Russia is forecast to displace the United States as the world's largest wheat exporter.
World food prices hit 2-1/2-year high
On the rise for the third month in a row, the Food Price Index is now the highest since January 2015, says the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. The latest increase in the index is due to higher prices for cereal grains, sugar and dairy. In early 2015, prices were declining from the peak in 2011, when drought affected global food supplies.
Wheat yields better than expected in drought-stricken North Dakota
The impact of drought was readily spotted during the first day of the annual tour of the spring wheat crop, with wheat standing shorter than normal — barely knee-high in some fields, says Reuters. All the same, the yield per acre is higher than expected for a crop that is below average.
Drought in Europe, aridity in Australia imperil wheat crops
Extremely dry weather in Australia, southern Europe and the U.S. northern Plains could mark the end of record-large wheat crops worldwide, says Reuters. Analysts expect the Australian wheat crop will be markedly smaller than the government forecasts while grain production in Italy and parts of Spain could be the smallest in at least 20 years.
Drought-scalded spring wheat crop to be smallest in 15 years
The deepening drought in the northern Plains will result in the smallest harvest of spring wheat since 2002 — 423 million bushels, said USDA in its first forecast of the crop. Futures prices for hard red spring wheat, a high-quality variety and 90 percent of all U.S. spring wheat, soared in the past month as dry weather threatened a squeeze on supplies.
Russia to be world’s largest wheat exporter for first time, edging U.S.
In the three-way race for leadership in the world wheat market, Russia will be No. 1 in the current marketing year, says USDA's Grain: World Markets and Trade report. It's the first time Russia would take the top spot; the United States was No. 1 in 2016/17 and the EU led in 2015/16.
Global consortium forms with goal of speeding up crop breeding
The congressionally created Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) will put $10 million into a new global consortium whose goal is to accelerate crop breeding to meet the rising world demand for food, the eight-member consortium said in a kick-off announcement. FFAR said its contribution "is expected to leverage significant investment from partners."
Northern Plains may feel effects all year from scant spring rains
Spring and early summer are the wet season for the northern Plains, a cattle, wheat, and corn-growing region, so the dry start to this year’s growing season could have a lasting impact, says the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor.
USDA sees winter wheat crop falling by one-quarter; soybeans also down
Record-low planting of winter wheat and recent reports on harvests and yields “indicate a sharp decline in winter wheat production” in 2017/18, according to the USDA’s Economic Research Service. The May Wheat Report projected a 25 percent fall in yields of U.S. winter wheat.
U.S. wheat output to plunge 21 percent; price rises for first time in four years
Along with corn and soybeans, U.S. wheat prices reached a record high in 2013, just before the collapse of the commodity boom. The USDA projects that this year's wheat crop will end the four-year decline in prices, partly because the harvest will be nearly one-half billion bushels smaller than a year ago.
Perdue proves his row-crop credentials
The job went to Sonny Perdue of Georgia, although Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley loudly advocated for a northerner to be agriculture secretary under President Trump. Grassley told a crowd of Iowans that his doubts were erased went he met Perdue, who repeated for the crowd his bona fides in the three major U.S. crops, grown predominantly in the Midwest and Plains.
Two long-time wheat states fall in love with soybeans
Kansas and North Dakota perennially vie for the title of the largest wheat-producing state in the nation; last year, they reaped 35 percent of the U.S. wheat crop. This year, Kansas and North Dakota are leading the U.S. stampede into soybeans. In fact, North Dakota will plant more land to soybeans than to wheat, according to USDA estimates based on a March survey of growers – 6.9 million acres of soybeans vs 6.6 million acres of wheat.
A perennial wheat, Kernza heads for the cereal and snack aisle
Under development for decades as an erosion-preventing perennial crop, Kernza, "a sweet, nutty-tasting new grain," is getting a big boost from General Mills, which intends to commercialize the drought-resistant crop, says the Associated Press. Kernza could appear in cereals and snack foods as early as next year, according to the foodmaker, which encourages other companies to help create a market for the food grain.