wheat
Smaller wheat crop won’t dent large world supplies
Prospects for the winter wheat crop are broadly favorable world wide, said the International Grains Council, which forecasts an all-wheat harvest this year of 735 million metric tons, a 2 percent decline from 2016/17 that will do little to cut into stockpiles that have swelled by nearly 25 percent in three years. "Only a small contraction in end-season stocks is expected," said the council's monthly Grain Markets Report.
Smallest U.S. winter wheat plantings in 108 years
Faced by the lowest average wheat prices in a decade, U.S. growers slashed winter wheat plantings to their lowest level since 1909, when USDA began its wheat records. The 10 percent cut in acreage from 2016 sets the stage for potentially the smallest harvest in four decades of winter wheat, used in bread and other baked goods.
Mexico loses appetite for U.S. grain after Trump win
Traders and industry analysts say campaign promises by President-elect Donald Trump to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement have spooked the cross-border grain trade as well as driving down the value of the peso, said Reuters.
More organic acres than ever in U.S.
The amount of U.S. acres in organic farmland increased 11 percent in 2016 from 2014 numbers to reach 4.1 million acres, says a report by the data-service company Mercaris. The individual number of organic farms also jumped in that period by 1,000, to 14,979. The increase is largely due to consumer demand and economics, Scott Shander, an economist at Mercaris, told Civil Eats.
CDC closes investigation of illnesses linked to flour
Federal health officials closed their investigation into foodborne illnesses linked to wheat flour milled by General Mills with a renewed warning to consumers to look for, and discard, packages of flour covered by the recall. "Consumers unaware of the recall could continue to use these recalled flour products and potentially get sick," said FDA.
Green Revolution 2.0: It’s no longer just about boosting food
At the 50th-anniversary meeting of the main body that launched the Green Revolution, a range of researchers and policymakers made clear that the focus of their efforts is no longer just raising crop yields to “feed the world,” as their mantra had been for decades. Production is now just a starting point for a range of food issues faced by developing countries.
Crowdfunding drive for international germplasm bank
Plant breeding company KWS, of Germany, has pledged $10,000 in a crowdfunding initiative to help maintain the world's largest corn and wheat germplasm bank, says the international research center that owns the bank. The "Save a Seed" drive was launched at the 50th anniversary celebration for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), based in Mexico.
Informa: U.S. to plant more soybeans, less corn and wheat, in 2017
U.S. growers will plant a record 88.5 million acres of soybeans in 2017, up nearly 6 percent from the mark set this year and pointing toward the second crop in a row to exceed 4 billion bushels in the estimation of Informa, a private consulting company, reports Reuters. The USDA forecasts a record soybean crop this year of 4.27 billion bushels, far exceeding demand and driving down prices for the coming year.
Grain prices to remain low into 2017
The global grain glut and weaker demand from China will keep grain prices low into next year, according to analysts at Olam International, one of the world's largest commodities traders, reports Bloomberg.
Big harvests expected to take prices to 10-year lows
Record-setting corn and wheat harvests worldwide will pull the average prices for this year's crops to lower prices than expected early this year, says a University of Missouri think tank. Although soybean prices will be higher than the think tank's projections in April, the three crops — accounting for 232 million acres of farmland this year — suggests no more than a minor recovery is likely.
After rogue GMO interlude, Japan resumes purchase of U.S. wheat
Japan bought 2.13 million bushels of U.S. Western White wheat on Thursday, ending a one-month interruption in purchases caused by the discovery of 22 stalks of unapproved GMO wheat in a fallow field in Washington State. U.S. Wheat Associates said trade disruptions related to the rogue wheat were minimal "because every stakeholder approached it in a reasonable way."
Farmers lean toward record soybean plantings for 2017
U.S. soybean plantings will be record-large for the second year in a row in 2017 if growers follow through on their stated plans, said Farm Futures magazine. In an email survey, farmers said they intend to plant more soybeans, cotton and sorghum next year while cutting back on corn and wheat.
Record-setting world grain, soybean crops forecast
Prospects for wheat and corn crops brightened in the past month, chiefly in the United States and the former Soviet Union, so the world is headed for "an all-time peak" grain crop of 2.069 billion tonnes, forecast the International Grains Council, based in London. The forecast is a sharp 3 percent larger than in July and portends the largest grain glut on record.
With record harvest, Russia to displace EU as top wheat exporter
Russia will shatter its record for wheat production with a harvest of 72 million tonnes this year, far exceeding the record set in 2008 of 63.7 million tonnes, says USDA. The record crop will vault Russia ahead of the EU as the world's top exporter for the first time, with the United States in third place, according to USDA's Grain: World Markets and Trade report.
USDA chased rogue GMO wheat for weeks before announcing incident
The tip that led to discovery of rogue GMO wheat in the Pacific Northwest reached the USDA on June 14, more than six weeks before the incident was made public. Officials spent the time in verifying it was a genetically-engineered variety from Monsanto and to begin testing all the wheat grown on the farm in Washington State where 22 stalks of wheat survived a dose of herbicide that should have killed them.
LDPs are back for wheat and may be coming in corn
It's been a decade since low commodity prices made loan-deficiency payments a routine, if arcane, part of U.S. agriculture. But prices are low enough that wheat growers are collecting LDPs and the payments "might even be on the cusp of returning for corn in some parts of the country," says DTN. When farmers request an LDP, the USDA pays them the difference between the support price for a crop and the market price, when prices are below the so-called loan rate.
GMO wheat disruption may be short-lived; origin may stay a mystery
The discovery of 22 stalks of GMO wheat in a fallow field in Washington state “is an isolated incident,” said Monsanto, which developed the experimental strain as part of a project that was shuttered a decade ago.
French wheat crop down 26 percent on poor weather
FNSEA, the French national farming union, estimates the wheat crop in Europe’s largest agricultural producer will total 30 million tonnes this year, down 26 percent from 2016 due to a rainy and cloudy weather that kept grains from filling.