General Comments We've been in a weather market, and the problem has been too much rain and delayed planting across the United States. It was wet across th...

Poultry Industry May Not Grow as Expected India's poultry industry showed steady growth over the last few years. Hatcheries placed 15 million broilers per...

The House Appropriations subcommittee marked up the FY 2014 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies appropriatio...

New crop markets have had an overwhelmingly bearish attitude. This started back in February with the USDA's Outlook Conference projections for big planted...

General Comments Weather during weekends in June typically is involved in futures price direction. This upcoming weekend is an example, as Midwestern farme...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Land Options: While the U.S. harvests cereals from about 35 percent of its arable land and Brazil crops grain and oilseeds on around 26 percent of its arab...

Patri Oikonomia: London's Daily Telegraph reports that Pope Francis criticized consumerism and said that, "Throwing away food is like stealing from the tab...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Argentine Farmers Considering Sales Stoppage as Protest Argentina's farm groups are considering implementing a strike in the next couple of months during w...

Unsteadying U.S.-Mexico Meat Trade Mexico is a major supplier of feeder cattle to the United States. This is an important role given the fact that the U.S...

There is an old cliché to the effect that "rain makes grain." The truth of this cannot be disputed. Adequate and timely rainfall is essential to the develo...

The Senate today invoked cloture on the farm bill, meaning that debate is now limited to 30 hours. That limit should pare the number of amendments offered...

General Comments Perhaps the biggest story coming from today's markets has to do with the rapid decline of the U.S. dollar against every other major curren...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Some are likely calling Ernest Barnes, a wheat farmer in Kansas, an opportunistic ambulance chaser. He is suing Monsanto because last week's discovery of b...

Russian Grain Markets: 28 May – 4 June 2013 Planting Updates As of 3 June, spring grain crops were planted on 27.4 million hectares, which is 90.6 percent...

General Comments The pessimism about further planting delays for corn, soybeans and spring wheat generated by last weekend's heavy rains and the lingering...

Soybeans Soybean basis levels continued to drop, and there seems to be no end in sight. After trading mid-June at +30 SN for July shipment, basis collapsed...

General Comments There was light selling across the agricultural markets overnight and throughout today's trading session. Only July corn futures and July...

Playing Fair in Wheat and Cars: Japanese officials say they are blocking U.S. white wheat as a "precautionary" measure because they don't have a way to ins...

Argentina Lowers Soymeal Protein Guarantee Argentina's oilseed processing association (CIARA) recently notified all of the country's buyers of soymeal that...

The Senate resumed consideration of the farm bill yesterday and adopted two amendments.The 2012 Senate farm bill pitted northern crops against southern cro...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Turkish crop production estimates for 2013 show the following: 7.9 MMT of barley, 5.0 of MMT corn and 2...

Last Friday we took a look at the delayed planting progress and zeroed in on North Dakota. Yesterday Bob Kohlmeyer wrote about weather and planting from a...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market was actively trading last week. The weather in Ukraine and southern Russia has been favorable during the last two...

Mother Nature certainly can give good weather, but she can also take it away. She has done some of both recently. She ignored Mike Krueger's plea in this r...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) circulated a memo on Friday outlining the upcoming schedule for the House in June. Upon returning tomorrow,...

China Aims to Rebrand Domestic Dairy Industry According to the China Dairy Association, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) expects t...

General Comments A pretty good way to describe today's grain and soy futures market is simply to point out that corn futures prices traded in a 21- to 25-c...

Today is 31 May. This is an important crop insurance date because it is the "drop-dead" date for crop insurance planting in many states, especially in the...

Weak Rupee: Good for Exports , Bad for Imports The Indian rupee this week declined to a 10-month low. It was the weakest Asian currency against the U.S. do...

The Senate will reconvene on Monday, 3 June and resume the farm bill debate. It will vote on the Moran amendment and the Coons-Johanns amendment.Alfalfa: W...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments The soy complex was firm overnight, and that "firmness" turned to outright strength as the day wore on. It was a puzzling market for those...

Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the world, has been bought by China's largest meat producer, Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. Shuanghui...

Corn Argentina exported 2.9 MMT of corn in April and 2.5 MMT in March. Approximately 3 MMT will be exported in May, and we can expect about 3 MMT of corn e...

General Comments In overnight trading, grain and soy futures prices moved back and forth on both sides of the previous closes. Volume was fairly good even...

Rushing to Judgment: The discovery of some glyphosate-resistant wheat in an Oregon farm field prompted the EU to request the detection protocol from Monsan...

Russian Export Updates As of 22 May, Russia exported 14.9 MMT of grain since the beginning of MY 2012/13. Grain exports made during 1-22 May amounted to 32...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

South America Soy Headed to the U.S. Last week there were reports from Brazil that eight to 10 cargoes of soybeans and/or soymeal had been booked to ship t...

In yesterday's market commentary we noted (as did Gary Blumenthal in his policy comments) that the owners of the largest Chinese meat packing company, Shua...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Russian Grain Markets: 20-28 May 2013 Planting Updates As of May 27, spring grain crops were planted on 23.1 million hectares, including 8.5 million hectar...

Xenophobic Hogwash: Shuanghui International's purchase of U.S. meatpacking giant Smithfield has brought out all the xenophobic anti-business lunatics. Ther...

General Comments The question of whether the recent rain makes grain or reduces planted corn acreage is being debated, but determining the answer to the qu...

General Comments Surprisingly heavy rain fell across parts of Iowa, Illinois and the northern Corn Belt over the long weekend as a frontal system stalled o...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS A Lebanese company announced that it will invest up to $800 million in agricultural projects in Sudan t...

EU Formally Imposes AD Duties on Biodiesel As expected, the EU today formally imposed anti-dumping duties on biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia...

Next autumn, when we look back at the 2013/14 U.S. corn and soybean crops and the cash and futures markets, we just might conclude that the last full week...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

When Congress reconvenes on 3 June, the Senate farm bill debate is likely to turn to ethanol and biofuel issues related to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS...

The Senate met today in pro forma session and will not reconvene until Monday, 3 June after the Memorial Day recess. When the Senate does come back on 3 Ju...

Crop Insurance Challenge: Any angst over a U.S. Senate vote to reduce crop insurance benefits to the top 1 percent richest farmers seems overdone. Amendmen...

Monday is the Memorial Day holiday in the U.S. and all markets will be closed. The Memorial Day weekend signals the start of summer, which means we are als...

General Comments Markets will be closed on Monday for the Memorial Day holiday.Markets were relatively quiet in the overnight session on limited volume ahe...

Indian Grain Exports Wheat prices have rallied at market yards, exceeding $286/MT on the exchange and reaching $282/MT for the spot price in Delhi. The gov...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Historically, the U.S. has been the world's dominant producer of grains and oilseeds. As such, the U.S. was also by far the world's leading supplier of gra...

UnCOOL Enough to be Changed: The final country of origin labeling (COOL) rule remains offensive to everyone, including groups supportive of the concept. Me...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Today was day four of voting on the Senate farm bill. The following is a recap of today's action.At the time of this report, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon...

COOL: New Rule to Be Challenged The U.S. today issued a final rule modifying its country of origin labeling (COOL) statute to satisfy the WTO's ruling on t...

Argentina's Selective IPR Protection The government of Argentina plans to submit legislation to Congress later this year that would require large farmers t...

General Comments Soy and wheat prices moved higher in overnight trade while corn prices edged lower. It appeared to be short covering in wheat and soybeans...

CropLife America hosted its annual National Policy Conference, to which it invites the opponents of conventional agriculture to come and debate the issues...

Russian Grain Markets: 13-17 May 2013 Planting Updates As of 15 May, spring crops were planted on 22.4 million hectares (44 percent of the target area). Gr...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments After relatively dull overnight trading that mostly featured more unwinding of old/new crop spreads but little by way of price direction,...

The Senate took up the farm bill again this afternoon, but it was also scheduled to vote on a resolution supporting the full implementation of U.S. and int...

Wheat Argentine wheat is very hot in the domestic market. Argentine millers are desperately trying to buy wheat for their needs, but prices for the cereal...

Brazilian Ship Lineup for Soybeans Declining Data from a Brazilian maritime agency last week shows that the lineup of vessels at Brazilian ports to load so...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Corn plantings will be promoted in Algeria as a way to try to reduce the country's complete dependence...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments USDA's report that corn planting had progressed to 71 percent as of 19 May came as a pleasant surprise. That is only 8 percent below avera...

The Senate had no votes on the farm bill Monday night. Because Tuesdays are the day of traditional party caucus meetings and the Senate was in recess for t...

With prospects for the 2013 corn and soybean crops rapidly improving enough to dismiss production concerns -- at least for now, we can safely turn our atte...

Russia With Love: As we noted back on 3 May, U.S. meat exporters and the Obama Administration are set to give Moscow a big wet kiss on the ractopamine issu...

Net farm income (profits) has been on an amazing roll for several consecutive years, with 2012 apparently establishing another record all-time high. The ke...

TTIP Red Lines At the same time EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht was warning his fellow Europeans against drawing red lines on trade issues before thei...

Farm Bill on Senate Floor for Debate After passing a farm bill out of Committee last week on Tuesday 14 May, the Senate officially took up the farm bill on...

Milling WheatThe weather in Eastern Europe is far from ideal. Parts of Ukraine and Southern Russia have received some beneficial rains since the beginning...

China's poultry industry loss reached $6.5 billion after bird flu outbreak According to a recent report by the China Animal Agriculture Association, losses...

General Comments Old crop corn and soybean futures were strong last night and for the first few hours today before selling showed up and dropped markets fr...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

National Food Security: Mission Unaccomplished India's parliamentary budget session ended in confusion, and the government (GOI) was unable to clear some c...

General Comments It was a quiet, low volume trading session the first half of the day, with wheat and corn generally lower and soybeans swinging back and f...

The delivery period for the May futures contracts is finished, and it provided an interesting look at how the super strong cash markets finally had an impa...

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is continuing its review of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Last week it released a third white paper on greenho...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

It is springtime, and for those who are involved with or interested in grain and oilseed production, transportation, storage, processing and/or exporting,...

NOPA April Crush Report Shows Expected Big Decline Yesterday's NOPA crush report for April 2013 shows that its members sharply reduced their soybean crush...

General Comments Weather forecasts gain importance each day. Although corn planting progress across the Midwest has been impressive these last few days, th...

The Senate and House Agriculture Committees have passed their respective farm bill drafts. The Senate bill passed by a vote of 15-5 (the same as in 2012) o...

Pseudo Farm Bill Issues: USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack told us NPR listeners that he thought the new farm bill, which he described as a "food, farm and jobs"...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Soybeans The Argentine soybean market has been quite boring as far as trading goes. Most traders have been dedicated to issues with executing shipments. Th...

The House Agriculture Committee began its farm bill markup this morning. Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) and Ranking Minority Member Collin Peterson (D-M...

General Comments Grain and soy markets were a bit lower in overnight trade, mainly, it seemed, because there was an absence of news that might encourage hi...

Russian Grain Markets: 6-10 May 2013 Planting Updates As of 6 May, spring crops were planted on 13.8 million hectares (27.2 percent of the planned area), w...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS There has been some tightening of Turkey's GMO inspection rules in the past couple of weeks. This mainl...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

USDA's report released last Friday included its first forecasts for U.S. and global supply and demand for oilseeds and products for the 2013/14 marketing y...

The Senate Agriculture Committee today passed its version of the 2013 Farm Bill by a 15-5 vote. Voting against the bill were Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ke...

General Comments The grain and soy futures market was in a consolidating mode after the big price run-up yesterday. Traders were not willing to say that ye...

The May futures contracts expired today without any deliveries of soybeans, corn or soybean meal. And why should there have been deliveries? The value of a...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market is very quiet. The old crop market is now completely disregarded, and the focus has switched to the weather develo...

The Senate Agriculture Committee will begin its markup of the 2013 Farm Bill tomorrow, and the House Agriculture Committee is likely to follow suit on Wedn...

China's Small- to Medium-Sized Ethanol Plants Struggle to Survive China's small- to medium-sized ethanol plants have been struggling to survive because of...

General Comments Basis levels for corn and soybeans continue to soar higher, and there was still some open interest left in the May contracts that expire t...

One of the things that stood out in USDA's May WASDE was that total U.S. exports of wheat, corn and soybeans will again be significantly lower than those o...

The tables below show today's USDA report numbers compared to last year's. In general, the numbers were bearish, although not quite as bearish as expected...

Preparing for next week's markups, both the Senate and House Agriculture Committees have released their marks. The Senate bill is the Agriculture Reform, F...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Indian Wheat Exports: To Be or Not to Be? The trade has lowered its estimate for the Indian wheat crop from 92 MMT or more to 82-85 MMT. The government of...

Biotech Fairy Tale: USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack reportedly told congressional appropriators that legislation intended to prevent disruptions in crop product...

General Comments There was nothing bullish going on in any commodity today. Metals were sharply lower, energy markets were sharply lower, the dollar was sh...

Farm Bill Outtakes: The Senate Agriculture Committee has a draft farm bill for next week's markup, and it reflects some expected changes and some controver...

Big Increase in Ukrainian Oilseed Production Forecasted The Ukrainian consulting firm UkrAgroConsult this week forecasted a big increase in that country's...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and soy was mixed in terms of price action and light in terms of volume. However, by the time the day session be...

The topic of U.S. food aid programs seldom garners a lot of public attention, but it never goes away either. Like the proverbial bad penny, the topic of fo...

No Egg Layer Welfare Language in Senate Farm Bill Mark Last week we wrote that a number of commodity groups had been told that Senate Agriculture Committee...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Greedy in Bali: Roberto Carvalho de Azevedo of Brazil is the new WTO Director General. While there is initial hope that he can guide the organization...

General Comments We cannot claim even the slightest expertise in the sugar market, sugar trading or USDA's price support program for sugar. According to wh...

Due to the May holidays, market activity in Ukraine and Russia has slackened and there has been little price development. Business will resume as usual at...

Corn The Argentine corn lineup surprises us every day. The volume shipped during the first few months of the campaign was almost a record. March loadings a...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Brazilian Soybean Cargo Headed to the U.S. A Brazilian maritime agency last week issued a ship lineup report that indicated a cargo of approximately 27,000...

General Comments In another "Turnaround Tuesday" market, grains and the soy complex traded mostly higher overnight in light volume as USDA's crop progress...

Both the House and Senate Agriculture Committees are taking the next step in the farm bill process when they markup farm bills next week. But then again, t...

Farm Bill Markup: The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee will markup its version of a farm bill (similar to the one passed last year) next Tuesday and the f...

Numerillogical at the Top There are problems in the agricultural data field, but its quantity and quality do improve over time. Meanwhile, decisions at the...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Wheat exports from Germany to Iran have continued at a good clip in 2013 with about 120,000 MT exported...

USDA reported that planting of the U.S 2013/14 corn crop was only 12 percent complete as of 5 May, which is the second slowest corn planting pace on record...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market was quiet last week partly because of the holidays (1 May and Orthodox Easter) but also because of the very slow d...

While the effort to reform the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is running apace in Congress, a number of interests are weighing in on the actual farm bill's...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

TTIP Coherence on Unsafe Food: Taking full advantage of the horsemeat scandal, the European Commission today proposed the harmonization of the Continent's...

China to Build a Unified Reserve Grain Trading System China plans to build a unified reserve grain trading center under supervision from the China National...

General Comments The extended weather forecasts look warmer and drier, which was all the market needed to know to make the assumption that the spring weath...

A week ago the market couldn't buy enough corn and wheat because the corn crop wasn't going to get planted. Today some analysts were saying the year's pric...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Annual crop quality tours took place across Kansas and Oklahoma this week. In the final analysis, production estimates came in well below the pre-tour expe...

Counter-Offensive Needed: Conventional agriculture and biotechnology will continue to be the soft-bellied target of the activist community until the latter...

Policymaking Washington is anticipating a farm bill process that will kick off officially very soon. Now is a good time to take stock of what we do and do...

Poultry Processing Sector's Expanding Scope India places about 55-60 million birds a week and is possibly the fifth-largest poultry meat producer, but its...

General Comments "Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Winston Churchill should...

One of the most durable of political chestnuts, the U.S. Food for Peace program will be celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2014. Food for Peace is the for...

Egg Layer Welfare Bill in Senate Farm Bill Mark A number of commodity groups reportedly were told that Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabe...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

High Indian Soy Prices Driven By a Squeeze Caused by Few Traders On Tuesday I wrote about India's extremely high prices for soybeans, soymeal and soyoil. S...

General Comments Grain and soy markets continued their choppy price action overnight and again today. According to the pattern, today was supposed to be an...

A cooling Chinese economy and more trouble in the Middle East were the top prognostications in WPI's last online survey. Our latest survey question address...

Russian Grain Markets: 24-30 April 2013 Planting Updates As of 25 April, spring crops were planted on 6.2 million hectares, up 1.9 million hectares compare...

General Comments Today's price action in grains and the soy complex again followed the recent pattern of changing direction each day. On Monday markets wer...

Bali Heat: In preparations for the WTO Ministerial in Bali in December, the U.S. is emphasizing eliminating export restrictions, liberalizing trade and rem...

Soybeans The Paranagua paper market has been depreciating. May traded at +5 SK in March, and it has since dropped to -58 SK. That is an incredible drop in...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Grain and soy futures markets continued their up-one-day, down-the-next pattern, with wheat being the exception. Wheat prices hit a o...

Conventional wisdom among many traders of grain futures is that USDA's unexpectedly huge 1 March quarterly corn stocks estimate killed the long-term bull m...

As Bob Kohlmeyer is fond of saying, farm bills are often written to cure the last problem agriculture faced. Moreover, farm bills for decades have been tie...

Half Right = Half Wrong: Economists can probably get science half right. Botanist Ian Crute this week showed that scientists can get economics half right,...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS In a further expansion in Middle East agricultural investments, Al Dahra Agriculture, a UAE-based compa...

Tight Soybean Supplies Drive High Soymeal and Soyoil Prices in India This time of the year India is normally the near-least or least expensive source of so...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Today was all about weather. Weekend forecasts were much cooler and wetter across the guts of the Corn Belt than what some models looked l...

Temperatures soared across the Northern Plains this past weekend and reached the 70s in many areas. The snow melt was rapid and rivers were rising quickly...

The U.S. suffered from drought last year and the current weather has made it too wet to plant so far this year. Meanwhile, China has been suffering from an...

China's Milk Price Continues to Rise It is estimated that China's milk price will increase by 5.3 percent in 2013 because domestic demand outpaces producti...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Response to Biotech Labeling: Legislation introduced by 10 U.S. senators (none from major farm states) would require labeling of foods produced with biotec...

Any remaining market bulls certainly must now consider themselves "snakebit" following the CME's decision to declare force majeure and suspend the delivery...

Typically, one reason why a subcabinet official is nominated to be an agency head is because it is an expedited process. The subcabinet official was once v...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments It was another trading session last night and today that beared no resemblance to the previous session. That has been the pattern in recen...

Soybean Meal Prices Drop, But Not Enough for Exports Soybean meal prices on the exchange and physical markets have corrected in the last two weeks (since t...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

CSPI Risky Meat Report The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) -- the organization that brought us scares over Chinese food, trans fatty acids...

The full story of the 2012/13 year for U.S. soybeans and soy products is yet to be written. When it can be written, the 2012/13 year for the soy complex pr...

General Comments The grain and soy markets opened the overnight session in mixed and tentative form, but prices soon moved into the green. Weather model ru...

Lethal Chinese Avian Flu Baffles Experts A team of flu experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) were in China this week to seek answers on how to d...

Disagree with AGree: The group AGree was formed by various charitable organizations to "to drive positive change in the food and agriculture system." The g...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Weather models giveth, and they taketh away. Today's model runs seem to shrink the window of opportunity for field work and corn planting...

Reversal of Climate Fortunes: Before the Great Recession, Europe and Japan signed on to the Kyoto Protocol's obligation of reducing greenhouse gas emission...

I am traveling this week in Asia for meetings with soybean processors in Korea and Thailand on behalf of the U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC). Both are...

Russian Grain Markets: 17-23 April 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,902 MT of grain for exchange trading on 17 April and 64,...

Soybeans MARKET UPDATE Although lineups at Brazilian ports remain extremely long, the situation has improved somewhat this month. The waiting time at Paran...

General Comments An improving Midwest weather outlook, especially in the 10- to 15-day slot, lent a weaker tone to grain and soy markets overnight and agai...

Politics is the art of the possible, as the saying goes, and the possibilities for the 2013 Farm Bill will be shaped by a number of political factors. We a...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The IMF has reached a $1.75 billion two-year finance agreement with Tunisia. Now all that is required i...

EWG Ears Boxed: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report on antimicrobial resistance, and the Environmental Working Group (EWG) used an...

The spring of 2013 is here, sort of, and grain and soy futures markets turn toward analyzing prospects for the new crops that will be sown during the next...

Milling Wheat The wheat market in the Black Sea was quiet last week. Tunisia bought 50,000 MT at $325 and $330 for June shipment. These prices were conside...

U.S. GDP is likely to grow for the first quarter (Q1) of 2013. The new number will be out on Friday, 26 April. Indeed, a number of market watchers have bee...

Foodie Michael Pollan continues his anti-agribusiness diatribe in his latest book, "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation." Noting that people curren...

We all know how crazy volatile commodity markets have been in recent years, and none more so than the past year or so. Agricultural commodity markets have...

General Comments If you only looked at how corn, wheat and soybean markets were trading today, you would assume that temperatures had warmed to above norma...

China's Livestock and Feed Industry Impacted by H7N9 The Chinese government announced that the H7N9 bird flu strain has infected 87 people as of 19 April...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

The bulk grain transportation monopoly that exists in Western Australia (WA) through Commodity Bulk Handling (CBH) is coming to an end. The Australian Comp...

General Comments It was another relatively quiet trading session with light to moderate volume. Prices were steady to higher early in the evening session b...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

India's Corn Price Needs to Correct Indian corn is being offered for export to the Southeast Asia region at $255/MT FOB East Coast. Most of the stocks bein...

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) has announced his intention to convene a markup for the 2013 Farm Bill on or about 15 May. Th...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Grain and oilseed markets were steady to firm overnight and gained some strength when the open outcry session started to trade. The weekly...

Argentina Raises Biodiesel Blend Requirement The government of Argentina announced that effective 1 June, the percentage of biodiesel required to be blende...

Chinese Pork Update Chinese consumers are showing an aversion to meat because of the recent animal health scares there. Feeder pig prices in China are now...

Profits in Perspective: The Financial Times recently implied excessive profiting by a handful of owners of global grain trade firms by highlighting that ne...

Heavy rains swamped portions of the Midwest overnight from Missouri, Iowa and Illinois into Michigan. A cold front produced totals ranging from 1-4 inches...

Corn DEMAND CONTINUES TO APPEAR The Argentine corn market continues to have a lot of movement. In previous reports we mentioned that nearby demand was most...

Russian Grain Markets: 10-16 April 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 of grain for exchange trading on 10 April and 64,996...

Regulatory Precaution: Europe and Japan are providing plenty of policy lessons for officials governing other countries. The Washington Post notes how gover...

General Comments After yesterday's price recovery, grain and soy prices opened slightly lower with light profit-taking, but the soy complex was soon bid up...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Flights of Fancy: USDA put a five-year extension on its "Farm to Fly" program intended to support the production of 1 billion gallons of aviation fuel by 2...

China's Soybean Imports Almost Certain to Decline It is becoming increasingly clear that China's soybean imports in the current marketing year will be lowe...

Gasoline prices always are a key factor in politics each summer, starting from Memorial Day in May, through the busy summer driving and vacation season, to...

The fear of short traders being squeezed may create a temporary rally in the nearby corn and soybean contracts that is larger than recent fundamental data...

General Comments Without the drag from the general downdraft from outside financial markets and commodity prices as seen yesterday, it was "Turnaround Tues...

We spent much of the last two days in a flat boat casting flies in hopes of finding red fish in the shallow grassy waters near the mouth of the Cape Fear R...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Saudi Arabia has been quickly reducing the size of the locally grown wheat crop because of the h...

New Approach Needed: The European Parliament votes tomorrow on a plan to raise the cost of carbon under the carbon emissions trading scheme by delaying the...

China Boosts Pork Reserves to Stabilize Price China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's top planning body, announced on 8 Ap...

Milling Wheat Once again, the Black Sea wheat market was quiet last week. Bulgarian/Romanian wheat remained the cheapest origin for Mediterranean destinati...

The price of Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) continues to generate a lot of attention these days. We first reported on the big bull rally in RIN pr...

General Comments Grain and oilseed markets ignored the collapse in metals and energy prices last Friday, but they didn't ignore it today. Gold got crushed...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

The major sell-off in metals and energy markets that started last Friday continued in full force today. Gold futures were down as much as $150 an ounce at...

Soymeal Price Correction Important Soybean prices in India have reached a new high of $750/MT in the country's production center, Indore. As a result, loca...

President Obama's FY 2014 budget proposal calls for far greater cuts in farm spending than either the Senate or House farm bills. Overall it provides for $...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

The wait for the northern half of the U.S. and all of Canada to finally warm up looks like it will continue for at least another two weeks and maybe longer...

Just Label It: After 11 years of claiming its chicken and eggs were not raised on biotech feed, Britain's largest grocery chain Tesco says it is dropping i...

General Comments Markets were firm overnight led by soybeans and wheat. Wheat eventually led all markets with big gains that were sustained into the close...

Despite the downturn in 2012 that we discussed a few weeks ago, trade in derivative markets is still enormous and diverse enough to be difficult to compreh...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Echoes of yesterday's WASDE, fears of freeze damage to new crop HRW, finally a sale of new SRW to China, strong cash bids for soybean and...

Paraguay Rejects DET The lower house of Paraguay's Congress yesterday voted down a proposal to impose a 10 percent export tax on unprocessed soybeans. The...

Russia Meat Trade: Ractopamine or Oil Prices? Russia is extending its ban on North American meat exports. It announced on Monday that about 50 percent of a...

Balanced RFS Approach: Ethanol proponents saw no reason to reduce the blending rate when a drought caused corn prices to skyrocket and thus forced the adju...

Budget Proposal Flaws: Like all budget proposals from various presidents, the Obama Administration's proposed FY 2014 spending request reflects a political...

Russian Grain Markets: 3-9 April 2013 The intervention fund put up 64,870 of grain for exchange trading on 9 April.Since the beginning of the public grain...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Today's WASDE contained a little something for everyone. It was considered somewhat bullish for corn, as (not surprisingly) WAOB analysts...

Soybeans The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange last Thursday reported that the Argentine soybean crop was 9 percent harvested, with a 4 percent delay compared to...

On Wednesday USDA's World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) will release the April WASDE. Frequently, the April WASDE is anti-climactic after the quarterly...

Ad Nauseam at 50,000 Feet Opining on agriculture’s “sacralized” issues -- those treated as or made sacred, such as locavorism, veganism,...

Some members of the U.S. House intend to introduce legislation tomorrow that would reform or change the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Apparently they are...

General Comments Overnight markets were mixed as corn and soybeans tried to hang on while wheat retreated from yesterday's rally. Wheat's relative weakness...

China Lowers Soybean Import Estimate for March, Raises April China's Ministry of Commerce today lowered its estimate for that country's soybean import in M...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS At a recent conference in Dubai, speakers called for cooperation between countries in the Middle East i...

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) yesterday sent a farm bill proposal to Capitol Hill. Its recommendations for the 2013 Farm Bill were based on "s...

Milling Wheat The wheat market in the Black Sea was quiet last week. Several vessels are loading in Bulgaria for Libya and Morocco. About 100,000 MT were l...

Winter has yet to leave the U.S. Northern Plains. In fact, it hasn't even made a sincere attempt to create a false hope that spring is near. There is signi...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

It's budget week in Washington, and a number of fiscal policy matters will be highlighted. These include a plan to minimize the sequester's impact on farm...

China's Fertilizer Imports on the Rise China's January-February fertilizer import volume has increased by as much as 72 percent year-on-year. Out of all fe...

The Ruse of COOL: Comments are due by this Thursday on USDA's proposed revision to the country of origin labeling (COOL) requirement. A recent letter with...

Partial Decontrol of the Sugar Industry The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) finally has decided to partially decontrol the sugar sector. A few...

General Comments Markets were firm to start the week. The new trading hours took effect yesterday. The markets now open at 7 p.m., close between 7:45 a.m...

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) imports 40 MMT of grain each year, over half of which is wheat. Wheat represents half the calories consumed in coun...

Sugar is a high profile commodity this month. When the April WASDE comes out next week, it will have to factor in some developments in Mexico. The March WA...

Back on 4 February we ran an analysis of what the potential 2013/14 U.S. wheat situation might look like. The table below is from that report.A fair amount...

Chinese Bird Flu Impacting Soy Market U.S. soybean futures prices fell this week because of concerns that H7N9 will result in a decline in poultry consumpt...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments Nearby corn and soybeans closed out the week a dollar lower than last week's highs as margin calls took precedence for a time and position...

General Comments There was little more news about China's bird flu outbreak overnight, and Chinese markets and many businesses have closed for the long spr...

Insider trading has become a topic du jour among traders in financial markets. Recently the financial news has been filled with stories about alleged insid...

Some developments that are interesting, or disturbing, or just plain stupid ...Cold War Redux: The U.S. suggested that South Korea join the Trans-Pacific P...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

New Bird Flu in China A strain of bird flu in China not previously known to infect humans now has infected at least 11 people and resulted in at least four...

It's All About Logistics in Brazil Note: This is a continuation of our section about Brazil's logistical problem in last week's report (see WPI 27 March).W...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Farm Bill Larder: The Senate Agriculture Committee plans to markup a 2013 Farm Bill before the end of the month, and committee member Kirsten Gillibrand (D...

Russian Grain Markets: 27 March – 2 April 2013 The intervention fund put up 64,950 MT of grain for exchange trading on 27 March and 64,903 MT of grain on 2...

General Comments Chinese authorities have reported that a newly identified strain of bird flu has caused a number of deaths and serious illnesses in recent...

As we looked at USDA's quarterly stocks estimates last Thursday, for some reason we were reminded of a favorite uncle who passed away many years ago. He wo...

Free-market economist Milton Friedman might have believed that there is no such thing as a free lunch, but West Virginia is trying to be the first state in...

General Comments The shockingly high 1 March corn stocks reported by USDA triggered enormous trading volume in corn futures. CME corn futures volume last T...

Born and Killed: USDA's proposed revision of the country of origin labeling (COOL) to bring it into compliance with a WTO ruling is not just excessively bu...

Last Thursday's USDA Prospective Plantings report indicated U.S. soybean planted area in 2013 will be almost unchanged from last year. I continue to feel t...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Al Dahra Company of Abu Dhabi announced that it is investing $400 million to purchase eight Serbian far...

General Comments Markets started the week with steep losses in corn. That was expected after the limit-down close last Thursday on the heels of the spectac...

Trust Politicians More than Scientists: David Kessler, a former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) writes in The New York Times th...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

The old corn market suffered a sudden and inexplicable death last Thursday when USDA pegged 1 March corn stocks to be about 400 million bushels (11 MMT) la...

China Enters Peak Season for Corn Purchases Corn prices and domestic sales volume in northern and northeastern China, the country's major corn production a...

New Year Prospects for India's Economy The new fiscal year in India has begun, which means there are new goals for the country's economy. India's economic...

New Chinese Premier Li Keqiang last week stressed the importance of developing modern agriculture and scale farming in China. During his research tour to t...

East Asia Trade Bloc: Japan, China and South Korea completed the first round of talks intended to achieve a free trade agreement. No one should expect the...

We commented yesterday that if USDA's 1 March corn stocks estimate were to present the kind of erratic surprise that has become an established pattern for...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Prospective Plantings Report Indicates Small Drop in Soybean Plantings Today's USDA Prospective Plantings report indicated U.S. farmers intend to plant sli...

Congress passed the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in October 2011. The impact of the FTA, which went into effect in May 2012, already is being felt i...

Note: Grain and soy futures markets (and WPI) are closed tomorrow, 29 March, for the Good Friday holiday. They will reopen Sunday evening. General Comme...

It's All About Logistics in Brazil It is not surprising that Brazil has a logistical problem, nor is it news that the current campaign is probably the wors...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Green Versus Trade: The National Association of Manufacturers sent a letter to President Obama urging that he successfully negotiate a Transatlantic Trade...

Russian Grain Markets: 20-26 March 2013 The intervention fund put up 64,950 MT of grain for exchange trading on 20 March and 64,953 MT of grain on 26 March...

General Comments The last full trading session before tomorrow's key reports from USDA was understandably a light volume affair. Any trader wishing to posi...

FAO Mediocrity: While the FAO itself makes a few valuable contributions, one of the criteria for becoming its director general is the ability to repeatedly...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Is it the end of the world as we know it? Speaking from personal knowledge, the banking crisis in Cypru...

2012 was a tough year for the derivatives industry. The year opened with the industry still trying to deal with the fallout from the collapse of MF Global...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments The main topic for market discussion is Thursday's quarterly stocks and planting intentions reports from USDA, of course. However, a secon...

China Buys Australian Rapeseed I wrote last week that China and Australia reached agreement to liberalize Chinese imports of Australian rapeseed. China pre...

Dead Pigs Found in Shanghai River Earlier this month dead pigs were found floating through China's commercial hub, Shanghai. As of 20 March, local authorit...

Skyrocketing Food Safety: Food and Chemical News reported that the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) watered down regulatory requirements f...

Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) last Friday sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) acting Administra...

Over the course of the past few months we have written often about how good things are "down on the farm" in the United States. Net farm income has been se...

General Comments Markets were softer overnight on extremely light volume. Fewer than 1,000 May soybean contracts traded in the first hour or so. Corn gradu...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Crop Diversification How much water does corn require, and how much do soybeans need? Experts suggest corn requires 500-800 millimeters and that the crop n...

Milling Wheat The EU allocated 538,000 MT of wheat export licenses, bringing the total to 14.7 MMT (excluding durum and flour) versus 10.3 MMT allocated at...

The biofuel reform process in Congress has begun. The House Energy and Commerce Committee announced that it will publish a series of five white papers on R...

Anyone who has spent any time in the military or in college for sure knows what "guts poker" is, and maybe everyone else does as well. Guts poker is what t...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

With so many petty and small complaints, things must be not too bad in this world. So here are some small reactions to go along with them.Junk Science: The...

General Comments Grain prices were lower overnight led by double-digit losses in soybeans at one point. Trading volume was very light overnight and didn't...

A week from today, 28 March, USDA will release its quarterly estimate of grain and soybean stocks as of 1 March, along with its report on the initial sprin...

Cost of Bipartisanship: The continuing resolution signed into law by President Obama ensures there will be no government shutdown next week and is being ha...

EU Margarine Industry Lowers Trans Fats Maximum The International Margarine Association of the Countries of Europe (IMACE) has tightened its voluntary code...

General Comments Overnight trade in grain and soy futures saw a reversal of recent trends. Wheat and corn incurred some selling by traders seeking to cash...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Today's USDA Daily Boxed Beef Cutout Value report showed that rare phenomenon of an inverted Choice-Select price spread. Cutout values for Choice beef were...

Russian Grain Markets: 13-19 March 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,917 MT of grain for exchange trading on 13 March and 64,...

General Comments Among topics for the market's consideration, weather is constantly at the forefront. Agricultural production in various important regions...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Respondents to our recent online survey regarding expected U.S. economic growth this year were decidedly on the bearish side (see graph below). A sub-par 2...

Wheat The Argentine government's intervention made a mess of the 2012/13 wheat campaign. Production was lower than expected and the crop's quality was a su...

There has been much said about the recent flight of managed money from grain and soy futures markets in search of greener pastures, and the record setting...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The Egyptian government announced on Sunday that it is cutting the wheat flour subsidy to bakeries and that the flour will be s...

Given the federal government's current fiscal condition, the newly imposed sequestration of federal spending, mounting federal debt and several years of re...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Grain and soy futures prices were mixed to mostly firmer overnight with corn the leader, supported by ongoing concerns about supplies acce...

Contrasting TTIP Views: Not only are the U.S. and EU far from agreement on a trade pact, but politicians and pundits also are far from agreement on its pro...

Chinese Farmers Complain About Large Soybean Imports Farmers in China's Heilongjiang province are complaining to the government that they are being hurt by...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Whole Foods Fools: Walter Robb, co-CEO of the foodie marketing chain Whole Foods, last week announced that his grocery chain would require the labeling of...

Last week the first swap transactions were required to be cleared at central clearinghouses to decrease systemic risk in the swap markets under Dodd-Frank...

Sinograin to Secure Corn Procurement for Reserves Sinograin has repeatedly improved corn procurement in north and northeast China since last fall. Further,...

It was 19 degrees Fahrenheit in Fargo, North Dakota this morning and we are in the middle of a winter blizzard. All schools and many businesses closed. On...

General Comments Markets opened steady to a penny lower yesterday, but gradually weakened as the Cyprus story unfolded and world financial markets started...

Chinese Investment in India Foreign direct investment (FDI) is allowed in India, but not all sectors are open to Chinese investment. Still, Chinese busines...

The Senate Budget Committee unveiled the chairman's mark for its version of the FY 2014 budget earlier this week (See WPI 12 March). The committee adopted...

It feels like we have been writing and talking about the exact same news for a very long time. It is not that this "old news" isn't important. On the contr...

Milling Wheat The wheat market in the Black Sea remained quiet this week. Bulgaria has a remaining surplus of about 300,000 MT and is now the only orig...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

General Comments It was generally quiet in the markets today. Funds were largely absent and trading volume was light to moderate. Yesterday was the last tr...

Litigation Progresses: The dispute settlement system is called the "crown jewel" of the WTO. Just as royalty must prance around to inspire the people, trad...

For most of the last 10 years it seems as though the U.S. supply and demand balance for either corn or soybeans has been deemed to have been "tight." Of co...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Burdensome Stocks Unlikely, Even With Large U.S. Crop It is now apparent that South America will harvest its largest soybean crop in history at about 145 M...

Wheat During Argentine President Cristina Kirchner's reign and thanks to government intervention, wheat has been highly profitable for the export sector. O...

FSIS Furlough Update During a House Ag Committee hearing yesterday, USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety Elizabeth Hagen yesterday said that furloughs for f...

General Comments The overnight session provided more of the same for the soy complex and grains. Soybeans traded lower again while corn and wheat firmed. S...

Budget Agreement and Markets: The budget fight in Washington is said to be the difference between using spending cuts or tax hikes to achieve a balance. On...

General Comments Yesterday's poor performance by the soybean market brought on further selling pressure in the complex overnight, while the grains were mos...

Comprehensive, But: The contradiction of new, "high-level" trade agreements across the Pacific and the Atlantic and political realities are beginning to st...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Russian Grain Markets: 6-12 March 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,960 MT of grain for exchange trading on 6 March and 64,95...

Tight Cottonseed Supply Situation Forecast for 2013/14 Most analysts are predicting U.S. cotton plantings will fall sharply in 2013 as farmers shift to pla...

General Comments Overnight trade saw generally lower prices led by the soy complex amid moderate volume. It was Turnaround Tuesday but in a mild form. With...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Hazardous Farm Bill Environment: With every government program taking a sequester cut, including White House tours, lost is the broad coalition of the equa...

With the unremarkable March WASDE behind us, the fundamental focus for grain and soy markets has quickly shifted to the 1 March stocks report that USDA wil...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS There is a great deal of concern in Egypt that the current political turmoil will make it difficult for the IMF to follow throu...

The House Budget Committee today released the chairman's mark for the FY 2014 budget resolution. Regarding the farm bill, the budget has little to say; how...

The following are some problems worth noting as we head into the Northern Hemisphere's planting season. A year ago at this time, all eyes were on the cor...

CAP All-Nighter: The European Parliament Agriculture Committee reportedly is meeting tonight to slog through over 300 proposed amendments to Common Agricul...

FCI Wheat Exports via Traders As of 1 February 2013, wheat stocks in India's central pool totaled 30.809 MMT (including 0.146 MMT in transit), far exceedin...

General Comments Markets were higher overnight and into this morning, but the overnight gains were softened early this morning when prices dropped back to...

Chinese Beef Imports Surge Recent data from China Customs shows that China's beef imports in January reached a record high of 18,489 MT, an increase of 812...

Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) for conventional ethanol have been on a crazy bullish ride, going from 5 cents in December to 45 cents in February...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Futures markets were quietly mixed overnight ahead of this morning's USDA WASDE update. U.S. and Asian financial markets continued to gain...

The sequester is mostly over. While it has been ordered, it has not yet been implemented; it will be carried out over the remainder of the fiscal year. Con...

Today's monthly supply and demand revisions from USDA were not expected to have too much of an impact on the markets, and sure enough, they did not. Here a...

Everyone Thrown Under the Bus: In a perverse attempt to come into compliance with an adverse WTO ruling against country of origin labeling (COOL) for beef,...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Milling Wheat The EU allocated 607,000 MT of wheat export licenses this week, bringing the total to 13.8 MMT versus 9.4 MMT allocated at the same time last...

Next week on 15 March many U.S. farmers face an important deadline. They must decide by then whether or not to sign up for crop insurance for their corn, s...

Corn Mexico Approves Argentine Corn Mexican authorities have approved imports of Argentine corn in order to circumvent the tight supply and demand situatio...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

The U.S. trade community already likes Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Michael Punke, and today he reinforced why as he treated Washington's business bunc...

Slowing Soy Export Sales Today's USDA Export Sales report showed a slowing in U.S. soy export sales as expected. Old crop soybean sales totaled 392,000 MT...

General Comments Grain and soy futures edged higher overnight supported by bargain hunters. That trend continued during the day session for the most part...

BSE Rule Re-Opened, Change Unlikely The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reopening the comment period for the interim final rule entitled "Use of...

General Comments USDA and other government offices were closed today as the Washington, DC metro area was forecast to get 6-10 inches of snow. This probabl...

Russian Grain Markets: 27 February – 5 March 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,930 MT of grain for exchange trading on 27 Feb...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

TPP Deal for Decline: The deal is being done between the U.S. and Japan for an exchange of concessions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotia...

Biodiesel Production Falling in Europe, Argentina and Brazil After years of rapid growth, biodiesel production is in decline in some countries. This is not...

T, T, T & I from USDA Outlook Forum Key points from four sessions (Technology, Transatlantic, Trade and Insurance) at USDA’s annual Outlook Forum...

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack today testified on the state of the rural economy before the House Agriculture Committee. Much of the testimony was on emergency...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Vending Impact on Food Safety: Food industry research firm Technomics says that the retailer meal solutions (RMS; prepared meals for takeout) category in g...

We should say that in our opinion, soybeans and soy markets have provided more excitement and tension over the past 50 years than any other major field cro...

General Comments The CME announced its latest new schedule for trading grain and soy futures. Beginning 8 April, electronic trading on Globex will open at...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS With financial problems in Egypt plaguing the government, GASC must look at a wide range of alternative methods to pay for need...

Market Sees Less Wheat Substituting for Corn Most Chinese feed plants recently have been decreasing wheat rations in feed because of wheat prices being inc...

USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) calculates the initial (and minimum) price levels for the crop revenue insurance program in the fall for winter-planted...

After nominating new State, Treasury and Defense secretaries for his second term, President Obama today named three new picks for cabinet officials: Gina M...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

SPS Litmus in TPP: U.S. aggies are pressing USTR to put an enforceability provision in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for the WTO-plus sanitary and ph...

India's Budget and Its Impact India's budget for the next fiscal year was unveiled last week. Many hoped there would be an announcement to fast-track the e...

General Comments Markets were quiet in overnight trading with a steady to slightly lower bias. There wasn't much market-making news over the weekend. They...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

There is a lot of significance to the month of March that shouldn't go unnoticed. It is the end of winter and the beginning of spring. It contains St. Patr...

Opposite Ways on Biotech: One of the U.S. goals in the upcoming EU-U.S. trade and investment agreement negotiations reportedly is to get Brussels to work m...

General Comments Markets again demonstrated their inability to rally two consecutive days by trading lower overnight and into the open outcry opening this...

It's 1 March, Sequester Day, with no deal within reach. Yesterday two votes were taken on plans to avert the sequester. The Democratic plan failed 51-49 (s...

Sequester and Meat Plants Last Friday (see WPI 22 February) we wrote about the potential sequester and the political specter of furloughing meat inspectors...

General Comments CME delivery intentions against March futures consisted of 119 contracts of wheat, 185 contracts of oats and 2,932 contracts of soybean oi...

Trade and Wages: The U.S. economy must be in better shape because Americans are no longer sour toward trade. The latest Gallup survey shows 57 percent of A...

During the intense volatility that prevailed in commodity futures markets in 2007, 2008 and again in 2011, it was commonly asserted that the volatility was...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Surprisingly Large U.S. Soy Export Sales Today's USDA export sales report showed surprisingly large U.S. export sales of soybeans and soymeal last week. Th...

Big Sales of Soybean Oil Several crushers last week liquidated their long positions on soyoil, which might seem strange considering farmers' grain retentio...

General Comments This morning USDA reported an export sale of 120,000 MT of old crop soybeans to unknown destinations (probably China) and a sale of 120,00...

EU-U.S. Negotiating Angst: The newly proposed EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership Agreement has launched dozens of discussions this week...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Russian Grain Markets: 20-26 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 65,004 MT of grain for exchange trading on 20 February a...

"Hope springs eternal," as the old saying goes, and in terms of U.S. corn and soybean crops for 2013/14, last week's projections from the USDA Outlook Conf...

Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) are the 38-digit tracking mechanism for ethanol compliance. A RIN is generated when ethanol is produced, but it can...

Jones Act Under Threat: U.S. aggies tried for decades to rid the burden of the U.S. flagged shipping requirement (AKA the Jones Act) for government impelle...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Overnight trade was mixed with corn retaining some of yesterday's strength while soybeans and wheat bounced around on both sides of unchan...

Rosario Exchanges Cuts Forecast for Argentine Soybean Production The Rosario Grains Exchange today reduced its forecast for Argentine soybean production th...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The biggest news out of Egypt this week was Nomani Nomani's resignation from GASC after several years of overseeing wheat purch...

Food inflation for 2012 was up 1.8 percent last year, compared with 4.7 percent in 2011. Gasoline prices rose 1.7 percent in 2012, following gains of almos...

General Comments The markets were steady to slightly higher much of the first half of the night trading, but gradually started to weaken toward daylight wi...

EU Ag Going Naked: The European Union has delayed for a couple of weeks a decision on cancelling the use of certain pesticides on agricultural crops. While...

Indian Wheat Exports Continue at Lower Prices Good weather and timely showers in India's northern belt during the past week have given hope for a bumper cr...

The season of winter farm meetings is quickly drawing to a close even though much of the farm belt has a cover of snow (at last). I was at three meetin...

China to Prioritize Grain Security The Chinese government recently stated that prioritizing grain security and guaranteeing the supply of major farm produc...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Milling Wheat Offers for Russian and Ukrainian wheat have disappeared. The new crop Russian wheat is offered at $285 for 12.5 percent protein and at $275 f...

Soybean Export Sales Decline, Good Soymeal and Soyoil Export Sales Today's USDA export sales report indicated U.S. net soybean export sales declined by 119...

Everyone knew that USDA would release big corn and soybean yield and crop production estimates at their annual outlook conference this week — and that's ex...

General Comments It was the final day of USDA's Outlook Conference, and their corn and soybean projections were bearish with forecasts for a record U.S. co...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

As we reported on 15 March, time is marching toward the sequester on 1 March, unless Congress delays it (again.) The sequester would cut $85 billion from t...

General Comments Yesterday's green numbers turned red today. Grains and the soy complex turned lower in overnight trading, and that was the trend as well t...

Addicted to Failure: The New York Times is highlighting a new book by one of its reporters that accuses the food industry of masterminding consumer "addict...

In a letter to the editors of the Wall Street Journal appearing in today's edition, Professor Ronald L. McKinnon of Stanford University writes about the "c...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

EPA Releases Personal Info on Livestock Operators: The National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) was informed this week by the U.S. Environmental Protec...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

Russian Grain Markets: 13-19 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,996 MT of grains for exchange commodity trading on 13...

Aggies Losing in DC: Farm groups rejected a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) and Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow...

Supreme Court Appears to Support Monsanto on Biotech Royalties The justices on the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to be very supportive yesterday of the right...

General Comments In the short term grain and soy markets are contending with two main sources of influence: weather and demand. The weather factor consists...

Corn: No Clear Trend on Argentine Corn Premiums Argentine new crop corn is currently experiencing both bullish and bearish influences. This is the main rea...

It is a bit redundant to say that the corn futures market "wants" to be bearish since it has fallen about 50 cents so far (10:30 AM as of 19 February) duri...

Ironies of Sequester Politics: Nearly all agree that the across the board U.S. budget cuts (sequester) slated for 1 March is worse policy than making cuts...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

While the annual USDA Outlook Conference is ready to tee off tomorrow to discuss the current state and future outlook of the agriculture economy, The Washi...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The Egyptian government says that the local currency — the Egyptian pound — will not collapse under the weight of t...

General Comments Soybeans are an important crop, so much so that the way they are grown has become a topic to be argued tomorrow in front of the U.S. Supre...

Sequestration War: Senate Democrats have produced a package of tax increases and spending cuts that would offset the spending needed to avoid sequestration...

General Comments The screens were "green" overnight and that buying carried over into today's activity. Volume, however, was very light. Wheat led the mark...

A week ago we took a peek at what the U.S. wheat production and balance sheet might look like in the 2013/14 marketing year. Today we take a look at what w...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Senate Democrats, with backing from the White House, yesterday proposed a plan to avert the sequester by cutting $120 billion. One quarter of the savings c...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

General Comments Trade in grains and the soy complex was indecisive overnight and volume was light. Asian traders should begin returning to action starting...

EURAFTA Skepticism II: Anyone looking for reasons to be skeptical about the success of a U.S.-European negotiating effort on free trade need only see remar...

Soy Export Sales Below Expectations The expected sharp decline in U.S. soybean and soymeal export sales seems to have come. Today's USDA export sales repor...

Over the past few weeks, we have come across a number of things related to markets and agriculture that attracted our attention and, we think, deserve some...

Where's the Beef? USDA's semi-annual beef cattle survey for January 2013 shows that the beef herd in January 2014 will be about 1.5 percent smaller than it...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Overnight trading opened with the grains and soy complex trying to rally after the recent liquidation shakeout, but a flood of new selling...

State of the Union (SOTU) addresses are often eloquent speeches that rarely do more than bolster supporters and irritate detractors. Last night's version b...

Russian Grain Markets: 6-12 February 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,915 MT of grains for exchange trading on 6 February an...

Wheat The Brazilian government last week decided to lift its wheat import tax for non-Mercosur origins. The tax will be suspended from April to July of thi...

The U.S. trade deficit dropped to a seasonally adjusted $38.5 billion in November, down 21 percent from October and the smallest deficit in nearly three ye...

SOTU and Food Safety: President Obama is expected to highlight many horrors of sequestration during his State of the Union address tonight. The goal is to...

USDA yesterday released its annual updated long-term projections for U.S. production and global trade of all major commodities. The projections are in many...

General Comments Grain and soy futures markets saw another wave of non-commercial liquidation today amid heavy trading volume. It was not a panicky "get-me...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS Poultry prices in Egypt have experienced a sudden jump, with the cost of local chicken up by about 15 percent in the past coupl...

USDA's annual Outlook Conference is held in late February, and just prior to it each year USDA releases its updated 10-year baseline projections for the ag...

Low Grain Production Estimates The second estimates for India's 2012/13 grain production were released last week. Target production for the marketing year...

Soyoil Consumption Continues to Grow China's 2011/2012 edible oil consumption stands at 22.7 MMT, nearly a 1 percent increase year on year. Of that amount,...

With 19 ethanol plants shutting down since June, the latest WASDE report now shows that 42 percent of the corn supply will go into ethanol. Production fell...

Today's closing prices for the first six listed futures contracts for major grain, oilseed, and livestock contracts are shown along with their price change...

General Comments Most of the weekend commentary seemed to blame last Friday's collapse in the soybean market on the fact that USDA did not reduce Argentina...

Agricultural commodity prices may still rally on crop failures, but there are plenty of other fundamentals providing a bearish outlook (see table below). W...

Last week's collapse in new crop futures markets followed by Friday's meltdown in old crop soybean futures has producers spooked for the first time since t...

The February WASDE report generally is not a market-maker, and today was no exception. The trade again was braced for a bearish report, especially in corn...

General Comments Following yesterday's steep losses in every contract except nearby soybeans, the markets generally traded close to the vest overnight and...

Cuts Focus on Direct Payments: Leaders from the European Union member states agreed to a 960 billion-euro baseline during 2014-20, a 35 billion-euro reduct...

At the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) winter policy conference in Washington this week, animal welfare was among the topi...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market was very quiet this week. The rumors about one or two cargoes of U.S. SRW being sold to Russia remain unconfirmed...

WPI provides a summary of the week's futures price activity and the gains/losses experiences by grain, oilseed, and livestock markets. Additionally, today'...

Coercing Argentine Soy Sales It is no secret the Argentine economy is in bad shape and getting worse. The country has runaway inflation and a plunging curr...

General Comments Grain and soy futures prices were generally lower overnight, although trade was erratic as weather forecasts for the dry areas of South Am...

Weather Dry weather continues to be the trend in Argentina, and there is concern about the corn and soybean yields. The forecast called for good rain cover...

Regulatory Overlap: Some members of the U.S. Senate are proposing legislation to clear up a regulatory overlap that the courts created when they ruled that...

An erstwhile wise man once observed that everything in life is cyclical. We are not sure how inclusive the use of the word "everything" was intended, but t...

Activity in the Chicago SRW wheat market spilled over into those for HRW and HRS wheat futures. Changes in the soybean, soyoil, and soymeal futures point t...

Chinese Pork Reserves Tapped Economic growth, lead time demand, and supply and delivery problems caused by cold weather in November and December have pushe...