Yesterday we laid out the trends in U.S. fuel consumption as well as the growth in domestic crude oil production. At the same time that report was being dr...

...

The government shutdown in October turned the November WASDE into something quite unique. The forced cancelation of the October WASDE meant there was a two...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Following comments made in Saudi Arabia over the past few weeks, the organization responsible for Sa...

Food Stamp Behavior Change Republicans seeking to cut food stamp spending via the farm bill largely worry about disincentives to work and personal responsi...

Big Export Inspections Last Week Today's USDA export inspection report indicated that it inspected 2.238 MMT of soybeans destined for export last week. Of...

Now that the USDA November series of reports are behind us, it's interesting to see the secondary market comments and ideas that were talked and written ab...

Canada has just completed a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) with Europe, which beckons how it can inform negotiators meeting this week in...

...

Chinese Government Discusses Grain Planting Income Insurance for Next Year's Crops The Chinese government is continuing discussions regarding the replaceme...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market feels a little heavy as there are not many buyers willing to pay current prices. The market went up too high and too qui...

General Comments Today was a government holiday (Veterans Day) in the United States. Banks were also closed, but the markets all traded full sessions. The...

The leaks of the most recently proposed ethanol volumes for 2014 underscore an issue that has been going on since 2007 – miles driven by American motorists...

...

General Comments Today's markets were dominated by the November series of USDA reports that included yield and production updates and supply and demand rev...

It seems like it has been an eternity since the USDA last issued a production and supply and demand estimate. The fact is that it has been an eternity. The...

The major crisis of the year so far was the October government shutdown. After three weeks, a deal was cut to reopen the government and set new dates for b...

Row Crops Should Help Apples USDA-APHIS has given the green light to Okanagan's "Arctic Apple," a fruit that has been genetically modified not to turn brow...

Indian Oil Meal Exports Surge in October Oil meal exports for April-October 2013 are reported at 2.019 MMT, which is up from the 1.749 MMT exported during...

FDA Moves to Ban Use of Trans Fats in Foods The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed removing partially hydrogenated vegetable oils from...

...

Eggs Are What the Hen Eats While Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) are most suited to ruminants, rather than mongastric livestock, because of t...

General Comments Today's grain and soy futures markets turned more active than might have been expected on the day prior to USDA's very important November...

Eliminating pure speculation on oil futures is a question of fairness.  The choice is between a world of hedge fund traders who make enormous amounts...

Agrifood and Minimum Wage The agrifood industry is paying attention to the fact that Senate Democrats will seek to pass a 39 percent increase in the mandat...

Wheat Market The chart below displays the Argentine milling rate per month for the prior three years. Argentine millers crushed 6.4 MMT during 2011, 6 MMT...

...

Russian Grain Markets: 30 October-5 November 2013 Planting Updates As of 31 October, Russian farmers planted winter grain crops for the 2014 harvest on 14...

General Comments Grain and soy futures continued the same slow, grinding pattern of trade that has been around all week as traders brace for Friday's WASDE...

Record Oilseed Production in Ukraine It appears that Ukraine's oilseed production will rise by 21 percent to a new record of about 14.45 MMT. At least that...

Today is Election Day in a number of states. Virginia and New Jersey will select a governor and legislators, while of more interest to agriculture, the sta...

Rethinking AGOA Reauthorization of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) needs to take into account the improved economic condition of some countri...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Wadi Holdings and Medsofts have opened a joint venture Nile River grain port facility in Egypt, whic...

Biofuel Impact The European Commission's Joint Research Centre has reportedly concluded that vegetable oil prices would trend downward by 50 percent withou...

...

General Comments The CFTC has argued that the Dodd-Frank legislation mandated that it establish speculative position limits for all exchange-traded commodi...

The situation surrounding USDA's November WASDE, to be released at noon EST Friday, 8 November, is unique. The recent government shutdown forced USDA to ca...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market was quiet last week. The strength of the U.S. dollar has brought more sellers into the market, but the buyers are still...

Commentary Speculative selling of corn contracts has recently been emboldened by a composite of analysts and commentators repetitively noting that USDA is...

The first major attack on Big Ag by New York Times reporter Michael Moss was in his book, "Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us" (see Ag Perspecti...

China's Soymeal Price Sees Upward Pressure Moving Forward China's cash soymeal price fluctuated lower the week of 28 October because of the ample bean supp...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market was quiet last week. The strength of the U.S. dollar has brought more sellers into the market, but the buyers are still...

The House of Representatives is in recess this week, meaning that the farm bill conference proper will likely not convene. However, staff work that proceed...

...

I am in Western Australia (WA) this week, almost exactly half-way around the world from home. That also means an inordinate amount of time on airplanes. Th...

Farm Bill While there has been a great deal of speculation about how a farm bill might fit into a grand budget compromise that is coming before mid-Decembe...

How Sweet it Isn't One the same day the news media is highlighting NPD Group data showing that Americans are eating more healthy foods, Gallup is reporting...

India Wheat Export Value Reduced – Local Prices Higher As the sowing season for wheat neared, GOI increased the Minimum Support Price of wheat to 14000 rup...

...

General Comments Markets started the month of November with lower trade in corn, soybeans and wheat futures markets. It was another day of a battle between...

General Comments "Buy the rumor, sell the fact." That old market cliché was clearly in play today. The combined three-week export sales report showed that...

Farm Bill Changes The House-Senate Farm Bill conference kicked off this week and among all the various thorny issues are two non-problems. The first is whe...

Farm Bill Conference – GIPSA, Battery Cages and COOL The 2013 Farm Bill conference committee convened yesterday for opening statements, and two key livesto...

...

Large U.S. Soy Export Sales Once Again As expected, today's USDA export sales report showed large U.S. export sales of soybeans and soymeal. Net soybean ex...

USDA released its long awaited export sales data dump that consisted of three weeks' worth of export sales compressed into a single report. Today's report...

...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and soy took a cue from yesterday's late price recovery and started out higher. The mini-rally faded some during...

Wetlands Deserve Input U.S. EPA announced that it would seek new formal rulemaking on the delineation of regulated wetlands under the Clean Water Act. Envi...

Russian Grain Markets: 23-29 October 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 24 October, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 40.2 million hectares, 91.3 per...

Wheat Brazilian millers are in a tight situation because they normally buy about 7 MMT per year of wheat, which primarily comes from Argentina, Uruguay and...

...

Who says the art of letter writing has been lost? As of WPI's count, the House and Senate farm bill conferees have received nearly 20 letters in the month...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market was very firm last week. However, we see more liquidity since last Friday as more sellers have started offering the Nove...

We are on the downhill slope of an unprecedented corn harvest. When the final tally is done, the U.S. corn crop of 2013/14 will be record large, exceeding...

Near Record Week for U.S. Soybean Export Inspections Yesterday's USDA export inspections report indicated that 2.308 MMT of soybeans were inspected last we...

General Comments It seems a bit excessive to describe today's market action as Turnaround Tuesday, but at least markets did not follow yesterday's fund and...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Egypt has decided to further reduce the nighttime curfew period to 0100-0500, except on Fridays when...

Updating Japan Rice The Nikkei reported today that Japanese Prime Minster Shinzō Abe's government plans to change the country's rice price support mechanis...

China Takes Measures to Minimize Environmental Impact of Livestock Farming China's State Council, the government's cabinet, recently passed regulations on...

Today's weekly export grain inspection numbers were the biggest they've been in a very long time at over 127 million bushels (more than 3.5 MMT). It was th...

General Comments This was not a pretty day in the agricultural commodity markets. Corn, wheat and soybean prices were slightly lower overnight, but those l...

...

Senators Ed Whitfield (R-Kentucky) and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) are planning to unveil legislation today that would put a roadblock in front of the Ob...

Cotton versus Textiles The so-called "Cotton Four" (C-4) African countries pushing for an end to subsidies on cotton in rich countries have apparently modi...

General Comments It was (again) a very quiet overnight trading session with small gains in wheat and small losses in corn and soybean futures. The day sess...

Changing Eating Habits – New Entrants in Business Although the share of GDP from basic agriculture is falling, that of animal production within agriculture...

Meat Opportunity At least one major company has announced that as a result of Washington's harsh approach to country of origin labeling (COOL), it no longe...

Huge U.S. Soymeal Export Sales Last Week The USDA weekly export sales report that was released yesterday was notable for the huge weekly amount of soymeal...

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government has been battling deflation and appears to be making some headway, based on its latest release of statistic...

...

U.S. corn exports deviation from historic patterns has implications for what exports will be in the rest of the marketing year. Analysis of unshipped corn...

Catching Up With the extended federal government shutdown, livestock marketing statistics are catching back up and the markets that rely on them for transp...

...

General Comments Today's USDA's weekly shutdown-delayed export sales report covered the week that ended 3 October. Traders and analysts were looking forwar...

Some economists have theorized that there is a common thread in terms of national agricultural policies among countries as their economies transition throu...

...

Throwing Mud Animal agriculture groups are defending their constituency against a report by John Hopkins Center for a Liveable Future that claims public po...

Wheat Egyptian tenders have historically been a good way to measure the competitiveness of wheat from different global origins. Assuming that condition con...

Russian Grain Markets: 16-22 October 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 21 October, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 39.7 million hectares, 90.2 per...

General Comments Starting with overnight trade, it was a rally day for grain and soybean futures with prices reaching impressive gains at their peak. CME w...

...

Huge Soybean Export Inspections Last Week The U.S. soybean harvest may have been a bit later than normal this year, but U.S. exports are clearly catching u...

  News Updates With the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region closed for the Eid holidays last week, new developments in the grain business have...

Data Users' Angst This year's USDA Data Users meeting was dominated by the impacts of the government shutdown. Private industry analysts were anxious to le...

Brinksmanship occurs when an event is pushed to the verge of potentially devastating losses in hopes of achieving an advantageous outcome. Washington recen...

General Comments The U.S. Labor Department announced that the U.S. added fewer jobs during September than analysts expected – 148,000 versus 193,000 in Aug...

Coming into the 2012 Farm Bill, there was one sure consensus among producers and the lawmakers who crafted the bill – crop insurance was to be its cornerst...

From late June-August of 1972, officials of Exportkhleb, the Soviet Union's government grain trading agency, traveled to New York and Washington, DC where...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market has made a spectacular rally during the last week, because of the lack of farmer selling and overbooked port capacity fo...

We tend to always focus on the major crops of wheat, corn and soybeans. Most analysts do that because those are the crops that have futures markets. They d...

2013 Grains and Oilseeds Production Estimates China National Grain & Oil Information Center (CNGOIC) released its estimate of the country's 2013 grains...

...

Now that the government has reopened, Congressional Budget Committee Chairmen Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin...

General Comments Markets were steady to higher overnight, led by soybean futures. That trend continued in this morning's session, but wheat lost its gains...

In the movie "Groundhog Day," actor Bill Murray's character gets caught in a time warp and wakes up in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on that day, facing the s...

General Comments It was a catch-up day for USDA today. It did announce some soybean export sales this morning of 220,000 MT to China and 140,000 MT to unkn...

...

Increased Minimum Support Price for Grains Next Season While the Ministry of Agriculture has recommended an increase in the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of...

The domestic and export soybean basis remain strong and, in fact, have been strengthening throughout this harvest. There are several reasons: The old cro...

CETA Implications Canada and the EU completed a trade agreement, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), with both impacts on their bilatera...

General Comments The U.S. government, including USDA, reopened today following the passage of the interim legislation to temporarily fund the government an...

The CFTC announced yesterday that J.P. Morgan Chase has agreed to pay a fine of $100 million related to the activities of one of its derivative trading des...

...

Paraguay President Vetoes Export Taxes on Soybeans, Corn and Wheat The President of Argentina today vetoed the legislation passed by the congress that woul...

Slaughter Estimates While the federal government is shut down and the Ag Marketing Service reports are unavailable, below is our estimate of cattle and hog...

General Comments Facing the risk that the government's cash flow will turn negative tomorrow (17 October) and threats that the U.S. credit rating could be...

South American Soybean Market Developments The few old-crop soybeans in South America are being retained by Argentine farmers as a protective hedge against...

...

Russian Grain Markets: 9-15 October 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 14 October, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 38 million hectares, 86.3 percen...

Don't Get Fooled Again The corn market took a brief dive on a report that Mexico would ban imports of biotech corn, but it shouldn't have even blinked once...

Big USDA Soybean Inspections Last Week The Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) reported today that 47.381 million bushels (1.29 MMT) of soybeans were i...

Before the government shutdown, the rollout of Obamacare and the Treasury Department being on the brink of exceeding its borrowing authority under the debt...

...

As we all know too well, the government shutdown continues to block nearly all of USDA's daily, weekly and monthly reports. We suppose it requires a shutdo...

General Comments In the absence of much in the way of fresh news, overnight trading was mixed and light in volume with wheat still struggling against last...

We wrote yesterday that the House passed two resolutions instructing conferees to: Seek the repeal of the sugar program. Support a Senate amendment to li...

News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Syria is said to be having some success with its plans to pay for grain imports using blocked funds in fore...

Bittman Helps Big Ag Mark Bittman at the New York Times is hypercritical of industrial agriculture, but his latest rant promises it a bright future. Bittma...

If you live in farm country, every other radio and television ad is about selling planting seeds for 2014. This must seem terribly early for those who don'...

Fama Analysis on USDA The Nobel prize just won by Eugene Fama, Lars Peter Hansen and Robert Shiller has an important relationship to the current lack of US...

The federal government is still closed, but the farm bill conference has finally started. As we reported on 11 October, the House cleared the way to appoin...

Golden Week Invigorates the Economy China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced on 8 October that the national retail and catering sector sales revenue re...

General Comments Markets were mixed overnight, with soybeans holding gains and the initial strength in wheat losing ground by early morning. Corn was basic...

...

Effects of Excess Rainfall Per the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the entire country received 106 percent of its Long Period Average (LPA) rainfal...

President Obama met with a group of House Republicans on Thursday and Senate Republicans this morning. The agenda for both meetings was how to reopen the g...

General Comments Corn and soybean markets were quite weak today and there weren't many good reasons why. Here is some of today's market chatter: Concerns...

Rich and Sugar Targeted The House voted to go to conference with the Senate over the 2013 Farm Bill, and on Saturday will consider explicit instructions to...

It is a rare occasion when farmers should actually hope that prices collapse, but that's exactly what they should be hoping for in the month of October. Th...

...

Paraguay Approves 10 Percent Export Tax on Soybeans, Corn and Wheat Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies yesterday approved a 10 percent export tax on soybeans,...

General Comments The lack of market information from USDA and the trading position of large speculators are creating an unrepeatable buying opportunity for...

In terms of the 2013 U.S. grain and soy harvests and what they may mean for supply and demand balances, most of the analytical attention seems to be focuse...

Slaughter Estimates While the federal government is shut down and the Ag Marketing Service reports are unavailable, below is our estimate of cattle and bee...

TTIP Dance EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht tried to reassure Europeans that the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) will not worsen...

...

Corn The Argentine corn crop is not starting off well due to inadequate soil moisture in most of the core areas due to lack of rain that is delaying planti...

...

Russian Grain Markets: 2-8 October 2013 Harvesting Updates: As of 8 October, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 36.9 million hectares, 83.8 perce...

Middle East Food and Demographics Countries in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA) region vary greatly in size of population, agricultural resources and fo...

Ethanol Reduction The ethanol industry has been under attack on Capitol Hill and now it is reported that U.S. EPA will propose cutting the corn ethanol ble...

General Comments Grain and soy futures played on both sides of Tuesday's closes without much in the way of direction during overnight trading and again dur...

The tactical standoff between the Democratic-controlled Senate and the Republican-controlled House continued into today. The Senate held a vote on requirin...

...

There was a great deal of pressure put on the 2013/14 U.S. corn crop. The severe Midwestern drought and heat wave during the summer of 2012 was devastating...

General Comments Stronger Chinese futures markets and still-circulating rumors that China bought as much as 800,000 MT of U.S. corn gave some impetus to a...

  News Updates While the exact dates will vary by country, it appears that Eid Al Adha will begin on either 14 or 15 October. Most private companies w...

Ministers meeting in Bali on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations made a very strong and hopeful statement that negotiators would "now pr...

Record Canadian Canola Crop Statistics Canada sharply increased its forecast on Friday for that country's 2013 canola crop. It raised its forecast from 14...

The U.S. government shutdown is now entering its second week. It is a symptom of the inability of Congress and the administration to come to terms on a fed...

One of the interesting sideshows of the U.S. government shutdown is its impact on the agricultural futures markets. It's interesting because there's no way...

Negotiation Similarity If one wanted to see the divide between Washington politicians over the budget in another context, one can just read about trade neg...

...

General Comments We started week number two of the U.S. government shutdown today with no indication that any solution is near. That means at least several...

Milling Wheat The rains in Eastern Europe have finally stopped and the winter grain plantings in Ukraine and Russia have resumed. Last week, the planted ar...

General Comments Markets were mixed in the overnight trade and for the first few hours of trade today. Corn and soybeans turned higher after Informa's late...

Updating NAFTA Major companies in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) countries have written the three political leaders (Obama, Harper and Pen...

...

New Support Price and Strengthening Rupee Affect Corn Exports With the rupee strengthening by approximately 8.84 percent within a 30-day period (67.71 rupe...

It shouldn't be a surprise to anyone who knows how to use a calculator that net farm income in 2013 and 2014 will likely be well below the record levels of...

Shutdown As both parties attempt to shift blame on the federal government shutdown, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) is considering going bac...

Federal Government Shutdown to Impact Livestock Trading This is day three of the federal government shutdown. There is no information released from USDA fo...

General Comments Looking at the unbroken array of green numbered closes on our screen, one might think that something was going on. Unusually, every contra...

In a wide variety of ways, USDA affects and influences producers of grains, oilseeds, livestock, poultry and eggs, cotton, wool, sugar, fruits, vegetables,...

Grand Bargain Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) gave the first public signal of where the current crisis in Washington is headed – toward the gr...

...

Korea Buys Soymeal Korean feed millers have been on a soymeal buying spree this week. On Monday, Korea's Feed Leaders Committee (FLC) bought 80,000 MT of s...

Weather There was some rainfall during the past few days. Unfortunately, it was below what farmers were expecting and what was really needed. However, the...

Korea TPP Ho-hum South Korea will soon announce its intentions to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations. Seoul reportedly believes the step...

Russian Grain Markets: 24 September–1 October 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 26 September, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 34.2 million hectare...

...

General Comments Note: As a result of the government shutdown, most, if not all, of USDA's regular reports will be suspended until the shutdown ends. This...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The World Food Program (WFP) has delivered 22,000 MT of U.S. milling wheat to Lebanon and Turkey for...

China's Growing Soybean Imports Have Curtailed Rest of World's Imports The most important factor impacting the global soybean market in recent years has be...

...

Grain market analysts eagerly await each USDA quarterly report on grain and soybean stocks. Analysts can study industry trends and such consumption data as...

Today's date is 1 October 2013. The nine-month extension of the Food Energy and Conservation Act ended yesterday, 30 September 2013, with the end of the fi...

General Comments Markets continue to react to yesterday's USDA quarterly stocks and final small grains reports. Long liquidation by non-commercial soybean...

Low on Totem Pole Congressional Republicans will try all kinds of approaches to the government shutdown in an attempt to shift pressure back on to their op...

General Comments It was actually a more active market through the first half of the trading session than expected, considering we were waiting for the USDA...

...

The House and Senate were engaged in their last legislative volleys today over the continuing resolution (CR) intended to keep the government in operation...

USDA's quarterly stocks report was bearish for corn and soybeans and slightly friendly for wheat. The table below shows the report numbers compared to a ye...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market is firmer following the rally of U.S. and EU wheat. Despite the price increase, Russian and Ukrainian wheat remains the...

China's Overseas Agricultural Investment Continues to Expand The large state-owned agricultural enterprise Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps (XP...

Policy Drip Torture Congressional Republicans are now offering a one-week clean extension of federal funding, purportedly to allow time for negotiations wi...

USDA will release its quarterly stocks and final small grains production estimates at 11 AM (CDT) Monday, 30 September. We have commented on the quarterly...

Earlier this week, EPA expanded the definition of heating oil under the renewable fuel standards (RFS). This rule comes under EISA's "additional renewable...

Nice Talk President Barack Obama hosted a meeting today with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the post script is that each talked nicely. U.S. trad...

First Food Grain Production Estimates The key production areas are likely to produce more grain this year as a result of the continuing good monsoon. The f...

...

General Comments Grain and oilseed markets were generally quiet in light to moderate trade ahead of Monday's USDA quarterly stocks and final small grains p...

An anniversary of a dubious sort occurred last week. It was five years ago, on 15 September 2008, that Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. The collapse o...

Ukraine Firms Denies China Land Purchase Article A news report out of China this week indicated that a Chinese firm, Xinjiang Production and Construction C...

Bali Disagreement No, there is not one yet. In fact, apparently there are still 400+ bracketed sections of the draft ministerial statement for the 9th WTO...

Global poultry consumption is expected to hit 106 MMT this year, up from 91 MMT in 2009 and 66.4 MMT in 2000. In Asia, poultry consumption was 24.4 MMT in...

General Comments In the absence of any fresh market moving inputs, grain and soy markets seemed to be in a consolidative mood today. Corn futures traded on...

...

...

EU Sends Hope for Farm Bill The EU's latest iteration of the Common Agricultural Policy started with a public debate over three years ago. U.S. Congression...

General Comments It was the wheat market's day. Wheat futures were up as much as 17-18 cents at their highs, in a move that began during the overnight sess...

Corn Local offers in the free aside shipment (FAS) market are approximately ARS 900 ($156/MT) and farmer selling below that is nil. Some consumers are payi...

Russian Grain Markets: 18-24 September 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 23 September, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 33.4 million hectares, 72.3...

TPA Fight President Obama has finally told Congress that he wants the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that will enable an expedited and amendment-limiting...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Iraq, a major importer of both wheat and wheat flour, is now expecting its best crop ever. However,...

General Comments The overnight e-session saw prices for the grains and soybeans trade modestly higher as prices crawled back up off yesterday's lows. Howev...

The Senate Agriculture Committee today called on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to look at the trading of Renewable Identification Numbers...

...

This week, I have been in Rotterdam, Netherlands attending and making a presentation at a protein conference. The attendees were mostly from European food...

On 30 September, USDA/NASS will release its survey-based estimates of U.S. grain and soybean stocks as of 1 September. Since 31 August was the end of the s...

...

General Comments Markets opened weaker Sunday evening on expectations that the pace of the corn and soybean harvests will start to increase this week. Corn...

Activists have pressed for stronger action by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to slow the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture. A key arg...

China GMO Fight Continues 12 lawyers from four provinces in China recently signed a joint letter to the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) and the M...

The markets appear to be temporarily trapped in a no man's zone of market-making or breaking news. Consider: Temperatures across the U.S. crop production...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market was mostly unchanged without significant activity. The Russian government has not yet announced the timing and the volum...

We handicapped the political outlook for the new farm bill last Friday. Provided below is a brief procedural overview of what has to occur to get the farm...

General Comments It was a black and blue Friday for equity and commodity markets with both trading lower to sharply lower. CNBC reported today that more mo...

India's Food Inflation According to Consumer Price Index (CPI) calculations, retail inflation eased slightly to 9.52 percent for August 2013 from 9.64 perc...

There are really only two short-term issues left for the market to deal with over the next month or two. This is assuming that while there will certainly b...

Organic Brouhaha At least four activist groups have charged that USDA guts national organic law. The agency purportedly changed the process by which otherw...

We predicted on 17 September that the Republican nutrition-only title of the farm bill would squeak by the House this week. Yesterday, the House did indeed...

...

There is a widely-shared consensus that agricultural markets will continue to face the challenge of matching ever-growing demand with increased production...

Shrinking Beef Supplies USDA releases the Cattle on Feed report tomorrow, and the consensus expectation is for numbers to be down – again. The total number...

Political Success A testy vote today on food stamp spending started with a partisan vote on the rule itself and will likely go down from there. By contrast...

...

In varying degrees, world grain and oilseed markets have been forced to deal with concerns raised by tight supplies, or at least perceptions of tight suppl...

General Comments Yesterday's Fed announcement that it would not cut back its monthly bond buying program at this time surprised many Fed watchers. Fed offi...

A Big Week for U.S. Soybean Export Sales This has been a very big week for U.S. soybean export sales. Yesterday, USDA announced that U.S. exporters had rep...

Russian Grain Markets: 11-17 September 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 16 September, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 31.8 million hectares, 69.1...

TPP Disappointment U.S. business representatives are concerned that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations are headed toward a less than ambitiou...

...

Fresh Licenses Didn't Activate Argentine Corn Market The Argentine government decided to release 3 MMT of licenses for the old crop corn, and market partic...

General Comments In a mild surprise, the Fed's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided not to ease back its quantitative easing (QE) program of buying...

...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Hodeidah, a major port city in Yemen, will undergo an expansion and modernization program that is es...

Early this morning, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) released preliminary data on U.S. acreage planted, abandoned and prevented from being planted. The bas...

Much of the fate of the 2013 farm bill comes down to the disposition of the House Republican leadership's proposal for food stamps, officially named the Su...

Saps in Negotiations The U.S. is being overly conciliatory toward the G-33 and their demand for a food security exemption to WTO agriculture disciplines. T...

A lot of Uncertainty about U.S. Soybean Yields I have been in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa this week, attending a conference organized by the...

General Comments USDA's Farm Service Agency (FAS) released its acreage data collected from farm program compliance and crop insurance at 5 AM EDT, in time...

According to the majority leader's calendar, the House will start votes Tuesday evening in order to dispose of a number of items before moving to the nutri...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market remained unchanged last week. Prices have been stable since July. Exporters are not pressing the market too aggressively...

Commodity Analytics shows the most recent data for grain export sales and shipments along with historic patterns. Current deviations from historic norms po...

China's Livestock Industry May Take over Crop Farming by 2015 The China Academy of Engineering (CAE) recently released the results of its study on sustaina...

...

General Comments Weekend rain across a good portion of the dry western Corn Belt forced the soy complex lower Sunday evening, and those losses became signi...

General Comments After digesting USDA's data for a night, there seemed to be a conclusion that yesterday's 40 cent run-up in November soybeans was a little...

Economy Stalled Due to Slow Domestic Demand CRISIL, the global analytical company, has reduced the 2013/14 GDP growth estimate to 4.8 percent from the 5.5...

The European Parliament voted earlier this week to reduce the target for biofuels from 10 percent to 6 percent by primarily cutting back on food crops as b...

Simple Sugars Multinational financial services companies have a lot of expertise, but complex public policy issues deserve more robust analysis than the Cr...

The market is already talking about the potential for another record soybean crop in Brazil, months before it will be planted. That assumption is based on...

...

Recall that soybean futures were trading below $6.00 per bushel in the fall of 2006. Within about two years, soybean contracts had rallied about $10 per bu...

USDA Cuts U.S. Soy Yield, Production, Crush, Exports and Carryout Stocks USDA reduced its forecast as expected for the U.S. soybean crop in today's supply...

WASDE Projections The September World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates Report (WASDE) was released this morning. It projected production growth for...

...

Ag as Microcosm Changes in U.S. farm size over recent years has witnessed an increase in the number of large, very profitable operations and an increase in...

General Comments Today's price action was all about the contents of USDA's WASDE report, and it was made evident that large speculative traders w...

No Secrets A side show in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) debate is news that America's National Security Agency (NSA) has pursue...

Russian Grain Markets: 4-10 September 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 6 September, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 27.6 million hectares, 60 per...

...

General Comments Wheat contracts started off this morning with a bounce higher, while the soybean complex and corn contracts were rather sedate for a major...

Argentine Crops The needed rains did not arrive in the northern area of Argentina, where the present lack of moisture remains critical. The expected storm...

The state of the economy has a significant impact on food consumption, especially expenditures for food consumed at home versus away from home (restaurants...

Dry Weather Also a Problem in Brazil and Argentina The U.S. soybean crop would appear to be shrinking every day that the hot, dry weather continues across...

General Comments Capital preservation can sometimes be observed in trade activity, and that seemed somewhat apparent today as positions are adjusted prior...

...

  The Enemy is Us Misperceptions about the agrifood sector are frustrating to everyone and understanding the cause is a huge social science endeavor...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Saudi Arabia has announced that the upcoming Eid Al-Adha holiday will start on 10 October with the g...

Speculative traders are much more at liberty to focus on the short-term than are hedgers of commodities, producers or end-users. That is because survival o...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market is steady without much pressure from farmers and exporters. Russia is expected to export 16 MMT of wheat in 2013/14 (5 M...

General Comments Markets had a firmer tone to open the session Sunday evening with soybeans again leading prices somewhat higher. The expected weekend rain...

Extreme Weather Affects China's Major Ag Commodities It has been a tough summer for China with floods in the north and northeast as well as high temperatur...

Congress returns to session this week and there are only nine legislative days on the calendar. The rise of the debate over the proper foreign policy respo...

...

Russia Saves Washington President Obama's Syria policy may have been rescued by Russia, which has proposed international oversight of the chemical weapons...

USDA will release its September crop production estimates and WASDE this Thursday at 12:00pm EDT/11:00am CDT. The August drought across most of the western...

...

EPA has sent the 2014 Required Volume Obligations (RVO) rule to the Office of Management and Budget for review. This rule establishes how much ethanol and...

Band-Aids Promoted Countries continue to meet in Geneva in an effort to find agreement on the food security proposal from the G33 developing countries. The...

Food Security Bill – Two Sides of the Coin The Indian Parliament passed the National Food Security Bill (FSB) this week. It will become law once it is sign...

Crop Revenue Insurance The initial price calculation period for the 2014 U.S. winter wheat crop insurance program started on 15 August and runs through 14...

General Comments Markets were mixed overnight and also started the day that way. Corn and wheat traded higher most of the session with November soybeans tr...

General Comments Markets were mixed overnight and also started the day that way. Corn and wheat traded higher most of the session with November soybeans tr...

China Sells 83 Percent of Soybean Reserve Stock Offering China's Sinograins sold 417,448 MT of soybeans today from its reserve stocks, which amounted to 82...

During the nearly five years since he was elected, it has been interesting, to say the least, to compare President Obama's approach toward the domestic pol...

...

General Comments Weather model runs are consistent in picturing rain for the Northern Plains and parts of the Midwest from 8-11 September. North Dakota and...

Regulatory Harmonization U.S. and European leaders made a public commitment this week to a high-standard, comprehensive TransAtlantic Trade and Investment...

Ruling on Smithfield/Counter Offer The U.S. Committee for Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) could rule as soon as tomorrow on the Shuanghui Internatio...

A number of developments are brewing in the biofuels sector. Below is a look at each: Sugar to Ethanol The Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) was complete...

Russian Grain Markets: 29 August – 3 September 3 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 2 September, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 25.8 million hecta...

...

General Comments What would a market week be without a turnaround Tuesday, even if it falls on Wednesday due to the holiday on Monday? The fact that today...

Farm Bill Extension Steve Kopperud of the government relations firm Policy Directions Inc. correctly opines that President Obama teeing up the Syria war re...

Wheat Market Brazilian millers were in the market this week to buy Argentine wheat as the Free Aside Shipment (FAS) market is heating up. Exporters paid $2...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The U.S. export business to Morocco for both soymeal and soyoil faces a great deal of competition th...

General Comments Export grain inspections for the week ending 29 August were strong for wheat and corn, but soybean inspections were slim. Wheat's volume c...

Weekend Rainfall Insufficient to Stem Soybean Losses Rainfall was received in the Midwest over the weekend, but the amounts and coverage were insufficient...

In terms of actual weather conditions and temperature readings, it has been a relatively mild summer in Washington, DC. Temperatures have averaged well bel...

TTIP Hype European proponents of the TransAtlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are sounding like salesmen with their hype that TTIP is the sing...

...

In Japan, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is straddling a rough course between defending its key farm constituency from overseas competition and...

Worst Performance by Indian Currency within BRICS and Economic Doom India's rupee is the worst performer out of all of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia,...

...

The U.S. soybean outlook has turned from bearish to bullish over the past 30 days because soybean yields across the western Corn Belt have been reduced by...

General Comments Soybeans led the market lower overnight and pushed prices back into the gap that higher openings created last Monday. Not much has changed...

On Wednesday night of this week, ethanol mills that were interested in buying surplus sugar under the Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) were required to...

Aren't weather markets fun? For the third year in a row, the U.S. crop production has been bedeviled by various kinds and combinations of adverse weather r...

Indonesia's Palm Oil Plays Oilseed competitors in western countries have extensively used disparagement to slow the palm oil tsunami out of Southeast Asia...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and the soy complex saw prices chop around without much direction. Trading volume was moderate but well below th...

Livestock Producer Data Collection Issue Arises Again Back in February of this year, we reported that EPA had been collecting data on confined animal feedi...

...

Lanworth Reduces its Forecast for U.S. Soybean and Corn Production Lanworth, the crop forecaster subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, yesterday reduced its forec...

Argentina: Farmer Selling for Campaign 2013/14 Farmer selling in Argentina is completely delayed compared with other origins such as Brazil and to the past...

TPP Nut-Cracking The political commitment to complete the TransPacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations this year brings forward the various tough issues. Th...

Russian Grain Market: 21-28 August 2013 Harvesting Updates As of August 26, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 23.5 million hectares (3.4 million...

...

General Comments Overnight trade saw more short covering and mostly firmer prices in response to what were seen as unfavorable weather forecasts – no break...

To state the obvious, corn and soy futures markets reacted to the flash drought with a vigorous weather premium rally that peaked yesterday, then paused to...

Congress has about one week of legislative days to pass a continuing resolution (CR) for funding the federal government when it returns. To date, there hav...

Coalescing Silliness The ethanol companies coalesced and developed a McCarthy-like strategy to demand an investigation of the oil companies for coalescing...

General Comments After corn and soy futures prices jumped so sharply yesterday in the haste to price in the risks of the late season drought and this week'...

...

Indonesian Government Rejects Proposal to Eliminate Soybean Import Tariff Today, the Indonesian government rejected a proposal by its Minister of Trade to...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS This year's Syrian wheat harvest is reported to be the best in a decade despite the country's curren...

WPI has written about the declining state of the U.S. soybean crop for several weeks. Our concerns started when crop observers reported that soybean pod co...

...

Ben Bernanke's term as chairman of the Federal Reserve is to end on 31 January 2014 and all indications are that President Obama will nominate a new chairm...

General Comments The Pro Farmer tour's corn and soybean production estimates were below the USDA August WASDE estimates and that, coupled with the extended...

China's Domestic Rapeseed Meal Price Hikes amid Low Supply China's rapeseed meal prices continued to rise the week of 19 August and reached $522.88-$555.55...

As we reported on 6 August, EPA announced the 2013 required volume obligations (RVO) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) – albeit eight months late. RV...

Rupee Nose Dives; Economy in Critical Condition The declining value of the rupee is having an apparent effect on the economy. It has lost 20 percent of its...

General Comments Soybeans led markets higher overnight and then exploded higher after 9:30 this morning. It has been an interesting week in the soy complex...

The Pro Farm crop tour was completed this week and the results were interpreted as bullish for soybeans and bearish for corn. The bullish soybean story is...

...

President Obama signed the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act on 22 July 2010. Known simply as Dodd-Frank after its principal authors, Senator...

Canadian Canola Crop Forecast Below Expectations, But Still a Record Statistics Canada released its production forecast yesterday for Canada's main crops...

...

Renewable Energy Fallacy Proponents of renewable energy remain hopeful but frustrated, after decades of work and investment, that the alternative to petrol...

Cattle and Beef Supply In short, cattle are down and beef is up. The National Ag Statistics Service released the monthly cold storage report today. It show...

General Comments The up-down-up-down pattern of futures market price action continued with both corn and soybeans reversing yesterday's rally. Late though...

...

Deutsche Bank has issued a report highlighting the additional cost of non-tariff barriers. For example, while EU food exporters face average U.S. tariffs o...

Soybeans Brazil reacted quickly to the weakness of the real which dropped from 2.25 to 2.4 reals/USD and the rise of CBOT levels. Farmers sold large quanti...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The Pakistani government is very seriously considering the possibility of reducing the 6 percent...

General Comments Corn and soy futures prices continued the down one day and up the next pattern of recent days. Traders are parsing every weather model run...

Tight Cottonseed Supplies Forecasted Again for MY 2013/14 MY 2013/14 is shaping up to be another bad one for U.S. cottonseed processors if USDA's forecasts...

As we have reported on both 6 August and 13 August, EPA is finalizing rules for the 2014 required volume obligations (RVO) for biofuels, and there is much...

Russian Grain Market: 15-20 August 2013 Harvesting Updates Grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 17.7 million hectares (3.4 million hectares less th...

General Comments Following yesterday's sharp jump in grain and soy futures prices, a Turnaround Tuesday sort of consolidation seemed almost inevitable. Sti...

In many respects, the U.S. wheat year of 2013/14 will be a strange one. Much of the hard red winter (HRW) crop was planted in drought conditions last fall...

...

Wrong Turn on Supply Controls We noted back on 12 August how French egg farmers were grousing about heavy financial losses as their Dutch counterparts were...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea harvest pressure seems to be over. Farmers' selling has decreased significantly as the majority of the winter wheat has already...

...

General Comments Markets opened stronger than expected Sunday evening led by soybeans that started out 10 to 15 cents higher. Soybeans quite quickly moved...

Chinese Government's Seed Industry Concerns Chinese industry and government officials recently showed concern about the nation's seed industry crisis, and...

July is corn's month because that's when pollination takes place. August is soybean's month because that's when blooming and pod setting take place. This y...

While Congress is on its August recess – or sometimes referred to as district work sessions break – there is much focus on the farm bill. Lawmakers have be...

Sucks at Supplicating Michael Needham of the conservative policy advocacy group Heritage Action says Congress should extend the 2008 Farm Bill for another...

Soybean export sales in this week's USDA report totaled 1.9 MMT. That ranks as one of the top five weeks in history and exceeded only a few times back in 2...

Capital Controls for Stemming Rupee Devaluation and Economic Glide The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) imposed partial capital control on companies and individ...

...

We reported on 29 July that the final rule for the long anticipated Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) was announced. The FFP is intended to avoid sugar l...

General Comments Markets started the evening session firm but what little strength there was gradually eroded to small losses and little action throughout...

Recall that the bearish 28 June Acre report caused a sharp sell-off in the December corn contract; down to about $4.90 per bushel. End-users found that to...

Big New Crop Soybean Sales Last Week Today's USDA export sales report showed U.S. exporters made exceptionally large new crop soybean sales last week. The...

General Comments The color theme for grain and soy complex futures today was firmly green. Prices began to move higher overnight as trading volume picked u...

Proof of Principle for In Vitro Burger Professor Mark Post of Maastricht University in the Netherlands served a hamburger last week in London that was cult...

Constituent Service? Credit John McCormick and Greg Giroux over at Bloomberg for revealing a delicious irony in the food stamp debate. They analyzed USDA d...

...

MARKETS Recent weakness of the real and the bounce in CBOT soybeans produced a good volume of farmer selling. On Tuesday it was estimated that about 1.5 MM...

Conflicting Food Safety Rules Trade negotiators in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) negotiatio...

General Comments The smaller estimated U.S. corn yield and production in Monday's WASDE kicked corn futures prices higher. By Tuesday, doubts about USDA's...

...

Russian Grain Market: 8-14 August 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 12 August, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 16.7 million hectares (3.7 million...

What's in the Beef Over the years, the popular restaurant chain Chipotle has aired commercials denigrating factory farms while promoting an image of its fa...

...

As we wrote on 6 August, EPA issued its 2013 required volume obligations (RVOs) for biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and notified the marke...

Well! Those U.S. corn and soybean production estimates from USDA/NASS contained in yesterday's August WASDE provided another instance to show that we in th...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN AND MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The Iraqi Ministry of Trade has announced that the current wheat stocks on hand are sufficient t...

General Comments Yesterday's lower crop yield and production estimates caught a bearishly oversold futures market leaning in the wrong direction which led...

USDA Makes Questionable Cut in Forecasted U.S. Soybean Yield Yesterday's USDA crop production report surprised a lot of analysts by making a substantial cu...

...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market remained about unchanged last week. The Ukrainian and Russian harvest is proceeding in favorable weather conditions. The...

Location, location, location. That's the name of the game in real estate and also in commodities. It's all about the basis. This is especially true about U...

China Explores Professional Farmer Training The Chinese government recently initiated the nationwide concept of professional farmers and is starting to exp...

Surprises are surprises because they happen when you least expect them to happen. So it was with today's August USDA WASDE report. Here's what happened in...

General Comments Corn and wheat markets were sluggish overnight while soybeans exhibited some strength based on disappointing rains over the weekend across...

Market Quips A selection of recent comments in the meeting rooms of Washington... NSA Spying: During a conference call about implementation of the Dodd-F...

India's Oil Meal Exports Down, Iran Remains Biggest Buyer India's oil meal exports contracted by 24.26 percent to 1.027 MMT in the first four months (April...

Yesterday afternoon a private analytical group released their estimate of U.S. corn and soybean production. The corn number was slightly above the USDA Jul...

General Comments Soybeans benefited from some residual buying overnight following yesterday's strong close, but that buying barely lasted until daylight wh...

Vilsack's Threat USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a clever, even if flawed threat by saying USDA would not be able to make full or continuing compensation...

...

Clients may recall the disruptive regional dairy policy known as the Northeast Interstate Dairy Compact (NEIDC) which was in place from 1996- 2002. If not,...

Beef Cattle and DDGS Demand Last week, Livestock Roundup covered the topic of beef production which was the lowest 1 July beef herd since at least 1973 and...

Reports and Open Trading Hours Now that USDA reports are being released during open trading hours, it is clear that there is a spike in both volatility and...

General Comments Monday's important WASDE looms over the markets, but it was not the only factor in play today. Cash markets, export sales and weather all...

Sizable New Crop Soy Export Sales, Soymeal Sale to China Today's export sales report from USDA continued the trend of recent weeks of very small old crop e...

As we have commented before, USDA's August WASDE is always notable because it contains the first crop yield and production estimates for U.S. corn and soyb...

...

A Lot of Poor Mouths to Feed in Next Decade There will be more mouths to feed in the future but many will reside in the poorest countries and where governa...

USDA's Report Poltergeist First, it should be emphasized that USDA is as frustrated as the trade over the increased variance since 2007 in the trade's pre-...

Argentine 2014 Crop Low Production Margins Argentine farmers have seen their historically best economical situation in the past 10 years despite the 35 per...

General Comments Overnight trading in corn and soybeans saw prices move higher while wheat traded on both sides without much direction. The day session fou...

Russian Grain Market: 1-7 August 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 5 August, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 14.1 million hectares. The volume of...

Major Concern about Impact of Excess Rainfall on Indian Soybean Crop I was in Mumbai, India at the end of last week to attend and make a presentation at a...

...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The Bangladesh government intends to import another 850,000 MT of wheat this fiscal year and expects...

General Comments Grain and soy futures edged lower overnight mostly in response to the slightly improved weekly crop condition report for corn and soybeans...

As of last Sunday, 4 August, USDA's weekly crop condition report rated 64 percent of the U.S. corn crop as being good/excellent. This was up 1 percent from...

...

EPA announced the 2013 Required Volume Obligations (RVO) under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) today. The RVOs set the minimum amount of biofuels that mu...

The farm bill isn't the only thing facing a 30 September deadline; so is the whole government. Congress has 12 appropriations bills to pass to fund the gov...

General Comments According to some accounts, over 40 percent of the U.S. crop-growing regions received moisture over this past weekend. The problem was tha...

...

We are still quite a way from harvesting the 2013 U.S. corn and soybean crops, but if the early private crop production estimates are anyplace close to the...

China's Alfalfa Imports Continue to Grow China's January-June 2013 alfalfa imports reached 319,500 MT, a nearly 63 percent increase year on year, according...

Milling Wheat Black Sea harvest pressure seems to have stopped for the moment with prices a bit firmer. Russia's crop may be slightly smaller than the 50-5...

Bountiful Monsoon Brings Bumper Paddy Crop Expectation The 2013/14 crop area under paddy is estimated at 19.638 million hectares against last year's 18.424...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) is working on a new version of the nutrition part of the farm bill to be sent to conference with the Senate...

...

Yesterday afternoon a private analytical group released their estimate of U.S. corn and soybean production. The corn number was slightly above the USDA Jul...

General Comments A private crop production forecast released after the close yesterday pegged the U.S. corn crop at 13.993 billion bushels and the U.S. soy...

Wasteful Figures The UK is challenging a European Commission goal of halving food waste by 2020, which is claimed to be 89 million tons annually. Part of t...

Still No Silver Bullet Banning 16-ounce soft drinks, vending machines and fried foods in schools as well as the mandatory posting of unhealthful and dense...

Malaysians Upset with France over Palm Oil Treatment Malaysia's government and palm oil industry are quite upset with efforts by some in the French governm...

General Comments Yesterday's tepid attempt at price recovery quickly got buried by persistent selling by funds. Some of the selling was in response to tech...

...

Last week we made note of two events of importance to American agriculture that took place 50 years ago in 1963.  One was the referendum in which U.S...

Summer Beef Production Spiking; 2014 to See Record Beef Prices U.S. beef production will reach a 21-year low according to the U.S. Department of Agricultur...

South American Corn Empty For Spot Shipments Argentine origin is running out of export licenses so most of the local players are out of the market. Due to...

  EU COOL Pre-Study Results The European Commission has ordered a study to evaluate the impacts of a proposed intra-EU origin labeling requirement on...

Russian Grain Market: 25-30 July 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 30 July, grain and leguminous crops were harvested on 12.6 million hectares. The volume of t...

General Comments The overnight session for grains and the soy complex traded quietly but in fair volume on both sides of unchanged. It seemed as though the...

...

...

A few years of relatively high corn prices have encouraged farmers around the world to increase corn production and for a change it appears that reasonably...

EPA Beats USDA Newly installed EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said today, "We need to cut carbon pollution to grow jobs." In essence, the administration's...

Soybean Crop Condition Down Slightly, Still Good Yesterday's USDA crop progress and condition report indicated there was a 1 percent drop in the combined g...

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City has recently reported on an interesting trend in agriculture lending: the market share of agricultural loans shifte...

General Comments Markets seemed to pause overnight and even tried a modest rally in an effort to assess what may be in store for grains and the complex as...

  NEWS UPDATES MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS Iraq is considering the possibility of importing French wheat in the regular wheat tenders. It norma...

Many farmers from other parts of the world have spent time visiting U.S. farms over the years. Rarely does this happen without these visitors staring in aw...

...

More Damaged Wheat to Be Downgraded China's wheat crop damage is more severe than previously estimated because of the frost and rain during the growing per...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market remained under pressure last week, as the Russian and Ukrainian harvests are progressing under favorable weather conditi...

General Comments It was really just more of the same today. Corn and soybean markets were again weak on softness in old crop basis and weather forecasts th...

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has been moving steadily ahead this year toward considering reform of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). A series o...

USDA today announced two actions to intervene in the sugar market and avoid loan forfeitures: one was a second purchase of raw cane sugar to be offered for...

Sizable Old-Crop Soybean and Soymeal Export Sales This week's USDA export sales report showed sizable sales of soybeans and soymeal for shipment in 2012/13...

It was just last Monday that the August/November soybean futures spread set its high for the year at $2.32. Basis levels for both soybeans and soymeal were...

Reciprocity with Japan Cars and wheat should be treated equally. Toru Hisazome, a deputy director in Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisherie...

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 markets took a much deserved vacation today with prices trading both sides of unchanged in moderate volume. It is reported that tradit...

Fourth Agricultural Production Estimates: Higher Production and Higher Prices India has produced more food grains than the target as well as more wheat, co...

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...

Grain and soy prices, be they futures prices, cash basis levels or a combination of both, are tied closely to crop prospects as viewed by those who trade f...

Don't Cry for Geneva Pascal Lamy gave his farewell speech as he departs after nearly eight years of service as the WTO's director general. His departure me...

General CommentsThe corn and soy markets continued to sink into a bath of red ink, with enough of it splattering out on wheat to pull those markets down as...

Meat and Livestock View of RFS The Energy and Power subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held the first of what will be many hearings on...

RUSSIAN GRAIN MARKET: 17-23 July 2013 Harvesting Updates As of 22 July, grain crops were harvested on 10.3 million hectares. The volume of the grain produc...

SNAP – Heal Thyself U.S. aggies may rue the day that they acceded to House leaders the segregation of farm supports (500,000 beneficiary farms; 120,000 lar...

...

General Comments Rumors continue to swirl concerning a possible decision by Chinese authorities to sell up to 3 MMT of soybeans from the government's reser...

Soybean Pricing Dynamics Despite the common belief that Chinese soybean needs are primarily covered for August and September, there is still interest being...

WTO Risk of Farm Bill Both the Senate- and House-passed farm bills end direct payments, which are considered green box neutral under WTO rules, and instead...

Argentine Farmers Holding Back Soybean Sales Argentina's farmers have been very reluctant to sell their crop because of high export taxes and a very low of...

The outlook for U.S. wheat has been plagued by negatives of one sort or another for several years. One of the negatives has been falling and/or stagnant pr...

  News Updates MEDITERRANEAN/MIDDLE EAST COMMENTS The trade is full of stories again this week concerning the wheat for electricity deal between Pakis...

General Comments Weather markets are notoriously fickle. Old crop/new crop inverses are treacherous especially as the actual time spread before the availab...

The Energy and Power subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held the first of two marathon hearings on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) t...

...

Downturn in China's Feed Sales China's feed sales were lower in the first half of July compared to the same period in June. Hog feed consumption is down by...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market remained unchanged from last week, with demand increasing at the current price level. Farmers are currently reluctant to...

...

General Comments The widespread rains that were supposed to cover the western Corn Belt missed. That should have meant much stronger openings Sunday evenin...

The second quarter (April-May-June) initial Gross Domestic Product report will be out 31 July. The US economy grew at 1.1 percent in the fourth quarter of...

Virtually every weather forecaster and computer model run were putting big rains across all of the western Corn Belt last Friday. The problem was that over...

Congressional Hearing Winners and Losers A House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is the scene this week for what is being called a slugfest amongst all th...

There isn't much fresh to talk about these days other than weather and potential U.S. corn and soybean yields. That is certainly a lot and, of course, extr...

Sour Grapes Outgoing WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has many good qualities but he showed his sour side this week. He complained about the big bilateral...

House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) sent a memo entitled "Next Steps on 2013 Farm Bill" to the members of the committee on Tuesda...

Credit Exposure Squeezed to Help Rupee There is widespread concern about the fate that awaits the Indian rupee as it hurtles in free fall. The Reserve...

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 Weather is what it is all about for the next several weeks and today's forecasts remained consistent with rain expected across much of the...

The December corn contract traded below $5.00 per bushel several times this week, but each day it was able to close with its nose just above the $5.00 surf...

Later this year, on 22 November to be precise, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy will be remembered. On that date in 1...

When Will New Soybean Yield Plateau Be Achieved? As someone who has been involved in the soybean sector for more than 30 years I have long been interested...