China to Boost Dairy Investment Overseas Yashili, one of China's top dairy producers, recently announced that it will invest $210 million in building a mil...

President Obama has promised to take up immigration reform during this session of Congress, and post-election -- especially after all the slicing and dicin...

A federal court today rejected a key part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) mandate for cellulosic fuels, but it also ruled against a complaint...

Everyone understands that world weather in 2013 will be critically important to commodity suppliers and prices. World feed grains supplies are hovering aro...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market has been quiet this week and no major trades were reported. The EU allocated 364,000 MT of export licenses, bringi...

General Comments Markets were mixed overnight in relatively light volume. Trading volume in the last hour today was pathetically small. Yesterday's late re...

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

We Were Wrong: A U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that people were best at comp...

General Comments On a day in which fresh news or market inputs were very limited to nonexistent, traders were forced to turn to South American weather fore...

Corn ARGENTINA Both the old crop and new crop corn markets in Argentina have remained pretty quiet. Several sellers are still holding parcels or cargoes to...

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...

LDP Chooses TPP: Reports indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has instructed his cabinet ministers to begin more proactively pursuing trade neg...

India Doubles Benchmark Vegoil Import Prices The Indian government today raised the minimum taxable price for vegoil imports as expected. The minimum impor...

Where's the Beef, or Pork, or Chicken? It is probably unfair to delve too deeply into the meaning of the menu at the presidential inaugural luncheon, but t...

It has been nearly two weeks since USDA released the quarterly stocks report, final U.S. corn and soybean production estimates, planted winter wheat acreag...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and the soy complex began with mixed results. Corn and wheat seemed to want to move lower, but the continued cha...

Russian Grain Markets: 16-22 January 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,793 MT of grains for exchange trading on 16 January 20...

USDA Ignores USTR: Part of the Obama government is upset about the growing number of government requirements around the world that goods and services be pu...

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...

Big Increase in China's Soymeal Exports in CY 2012 Since China built about twice as much soybean crush capacity as its actual crush volume, there has been...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The European Union last week announced that it could provide Egypt with $6.5 billion in loans, grants and credit lines. As expe...

General Comments After the Monday holiday, the first trading of the week opened last night with wheat, corn and soybeans prices moving higher. There seemed...

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 weather in 2012 was dramatic, to say the least. The U.S. had a record drought in its heartland and a hurricane, dubbed Superstorm Sandy, on the East Co...

Shifting trade flows for major agricultural commodities are usually directed by prices and comparative values. When it comes to agricultural trade, it has...

Milling Wheat The wheat market in the Black Sea was very quiet this week. Apart from a rumor that a cargo of Ukrainian wheat traded at $350 FOB, there were...

As Washington -- and the U.S. economy -- has been looking out over the fiscal cliff, some perspective has been lost on the economic landscape traversed in...

General Comments Markets were generally firm overnight with soybeans showing more strength than corn or wheat. That changed about the time the U.S. came to...

Every year, and often several times a year, we are obliged to write about the U.S. crop insurance program. It is a very important piece of the acreage puzz...

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

Mystery Meat Ingredient: Horse Burger Last week Sweden discovered that exports of meat labeled "Argentine beef tenderloin" from Hungary were in fact dyed p...

Soybeans: More Activity in Brazil and PNW, Little Movement in Argentina Soybeans had good movement last week in the PNW for spot positions. This origin was...

Experts a Skeptical Lot: WPI surveyed 32 top level experts in the Washington agriculture and trade community, several with direct trade negotiation experie...

U.S. Soy Export Sales Much Higher Than Expected Market analysts surveyed by Dow Jones this week expected today's USDA export sales report to show that last...

We hesitate to belabor the series of reports from USDA last week. Yet we cannot stay away from them because of the changes forced upon the prevailing conve...

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...

Australia is experiencing record fire danger and, at the time of writing this report, has over 100 wildfires. Firefighters have struggled to cope with doze...

General Comments Grain and soy futures were generally weaker in overnight trading. When March soybeans could not hold above their four-week high, technical...

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: 8-15 January 2013 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,978 MT of grains for exchange trading on 15 January 201...

Useful Data: WTO Director General Pascal Lamy announced jointly with the OECD a new database calculating the value-added aspects of traded goods and servic...

General Comments Following the bullish reports from USDA, grain and soy futures prices strengthened as the need to slow down the domestic use of corn and b...

The soy complex dominated the markets as a "star performer" on Wednesday, 15 January 1997, and set a "firm tone" for the corn market. According to WPI's ma...

Well, USDA's January 2013 reports lived up to the reputation that the January reports have for being exciting. The increased final production estimates for...

Vilsack Needed on Farm Bill: Previous administrations have been highly engaged with Congress in the writing of new farm bills. The Reagan Administration ha...

USDA Report Shows Predicting Soybean Yields Not Easy Last Friday's USDA NASS final crop production report indicated the U.S. soybean crop in 2012 totaled 3...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS There was a great deal of discussion this week regarding financing for Egypt, much of it in hopes of supporting the Egyptian po...

General Comments Prior to the 11 January reports from USDA, grain and soy markets slumped because of a sense that prices had already gone high enough, that...

Congress will be preoccupied with fiscal matters this year. The following is a short look at the fiscal timeline that will dictate the upcoming schedule fo...

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...

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 Asia and Europe came back to work last night for the first time since USDA's reports were released last Friday. Markets opened very firm a...

China to Boost Biotech Industry The State Council, China's national cabinet, on 8 January announced that the government will provide further support to the...

Indian Wheat Poised For Better Price Recovery Following up on the story from 7 January 2013, the current weather conditions in North India are optimal for...

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack is in Nashville to address the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). Back in Washington, USDA Director of Communications Matt...

The markets have responded to last Friday's bullish corn and wheat reports as expected. Today's steep rally in the soybean market was perhaps a little stro...

UnCOOL Damage: The Canadian Pork Council released the results of its study proclaiming $500 million in damages annually as a result of the U.S. Country of...

Today's USDA reports were very bullish corn, somewhat bullish wheat and neutral for soybeans. Here are the key issues: Corn 1 December corn stocks more th...

TPA Moves Up: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the U.S. president's ability to ask Congress for an up or down vote on trade agreements, thus barring them 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'...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea had a quiet start after the holidays. The Russian and the Ukrainian old crop wheat positions are practically unsp...

Lost (so far) in the debate over the federal deficit and debt ceiling is perhaps the most basic question: What is the goal of federal deficit reduction? Th...

General Comments It was a particularly vicious day across the agricultural markets today. Everything was weak most of the night, and that weakness turned i...

Postharvest Attention: The Institution of Mechanical Engineers received media attention for its somewhat self-serving report on the post-harvest food losse...

Moderate Soy Export Sales Last Week Today's USDA FAS export sales reports showed moderate soy export sales last week. Total soybean export sales for 2012/1...

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...

Chicken Profits Fly Higher on Wings The holidays (and maybe more importantly, the college football bowl season and professional football playoffs) have com...

General Comments There is not a lot to say about the markets during the last full trading day before the key USDA reports. Traders were working on position...

The ability of scientists to introduce genetic traits from outside sources into common agricultural crops (GMO crops) has caused more controversy during th...

General Comments NOAA's National Climatic Data Center released its report on 2012 which declares that the average U.S. temperature for 2012 was 55.3 degree...

Like it or not, USDA's January reports can take their toll on the markets. Ben Beneke on Thursday, 11 January 2001 observed that a "great deal of anticipat...

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 and Oilseed Markets: 24-28 December 2012 Due to the holidays (31 December – 7 January), information on the Russian grain and oilseed markets...

Farm Bill Hurdle: Lobbyists are paid to make things happen in Washington, but ultimately their power is derived from the size and importance of the clients...

A New Year Begins: How About Logistics? By the end of 2012, many companies were looking forward to the New Year. It had not been a good campaign in general...

General Comments Trading during the overnight session was quiet and without much direction as prices chopped about narrow ranges. Fresh input was lacking,...

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...

In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) has asked that the speaker and...

Indian Soymeal Exports Fall Sharply in December The Solvent Extractors' Association (SEA) of India this week reported that Indian soymeal exports in Decemb...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS A meeting between Egyptian leaders and senior IMF staff is expected to be held this week in Cairo to discuss details of the $4...

As markets and market participants make ready for the important bevy of USDA reports on Friday (11 January), we thought we should make way for them by clea...

There was a bearish lean in everyone's outlook for 2013 agricultural commodity markets (see graph below). Presumably, there is a bearish and volatile view...

USDA will release a series of reports at 11 a.m. this Friday, 11 January that could have a major impact on markets' directions. These reports -- which incl...

Partial Food Safety: The Obama Administration finally issued part of the proposed regulations for implementing the Food Safety Modernization Act approved...

Wheat Export Possibility: Can the 10 MMT Mark Be Reached? The government of India (GOI) and its agencies are very much concerned about the huge wheat stock...

General Comments The trading pattern of the markets was reversed from the recent "norm" last night and today. That might have been a slight disturbance in...

Corn Sales Pick Up in Northeast China Before the New Year After the cash corn market's low trading volume trend prevailed for a couple weeks, corn sales in...

Congress is back in session, and one of the first orders of business will be to confirm several new Cabinet members, including the following: Senator Joh...

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 durum market has done absolutely nothing over the past several months, while prices for nearly every other agricultural commodity were setting new all-...

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 fiscal cliff legislation that brought about the nine-month extension of the 2008 Farm Bill could mean that what nearly accomplished in terms of a new f...

General Comments The grain and oilseed markets continue to repeat the daily pattern we have seen since the fund liquidation started at the tail end of 2012...

Where Fools Rush In Twice In yesterday's report, WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer provided his commodity market prognostications for 2013 entitled, "Where Fools Rush In...

Contrasting Reactions to Technology: New York Times food bloviator Mark Bittman's New Year's toast accuses "hyper-industrial" agriculture of causing a half...

General Comments In December the Fed's FOMC voted to buy $85 billion of Treasury notes and mortgage bonds each month for an indefinite period of time. This...

Retroactive Biodiesel Blenders' Credits Congress and the White House ultimately worked out a legislative fix that avoided the fiscal cliff scheduled to tak...

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...

Long ago an old trader friend once told us that predicting the future is a harmless game unless one actually bets real money on his predictions. After all,...

Beef Feed Efficiency The U.S. cattle herd is at its smallest in more than 60 years and at a point where rebuilding is paramount for the future. In the near...

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...

Commodities might have been the best performing asset class in 2010, but that soon changed in the following year. According to WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer on Tuesd...

Part 1 of Tax Battle Done, Longer War Ahead: There was no grand bargain in Washington over the New Year holiday, and that means more political rumble for w...

Soybeans: Big crops in South America The last soybean campaign in South America was very disappointing. In November 2011, everyone was predicting productio...

General Comments Most financial and commodity markets enthusiastically greeted the Congress's passage of a last minute fix that avoids (at least for now) t...

Russian Grain and Oilseed Markets: 24-28 December 2012 Due to the holidays (31 December – 7 January), information on the Russian grain and oilseed markets...

General Comments The markets started steady to higher in extremely light volume Sunday evening, with soybeans trading as much as 7-8 cents higher. Volume w...

Both House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders have agreed to an extension (i.e. until 30 September 2013) of certain provisions of the current farm bi...

Illegal Drug in China's Poultry Production Raises Public Concerns China Central Television (CCTV), the nation's largest media outlet, recently reported tha...

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 New Year will get off to a very nervous start with three major factors set to impact at the least the first few weeks of trading in 2013. Those factors...

Meat and Veggie Outlook: Food fashion prognosticators are saying that participants in meatless days will increase in 2013. This is likely due to a variety...

Government Increases Assured Wheat Price The Indian government (GOI) last week increased the minimum support price (MSP) for wheat by $11.81/MT, an increas...

General Comments The markets today repeated the pattern of the past several sessions. They were all firm overnight led by 12- to 14-cent gains in soybeans,...

No matter how you cut it, 2012 was a very good year to be a famer in the U.S. Not drought, pestilence or fiscal cliff could slow the juggernaut of rising n...

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

Livestock Traceability Now in Place USDA is scheduled to publish the final rule on livestock traceability today after last week announcing its completion...

As we approach the end of 2012, it is worth taking a look back at the year's major events in the oilseeds sector and what may be in store in 2013. Perhaps...

General Comments Overnight trade was quiet in the absence of new inputs. Wheat was weaker with some traders trying to run ahead of index funds that are lik...

Fiscal Cliff: Maytagged But Not Ended The fiscal cliff will be breeched. This is inevitable given that politicians in Washington during these final days ar...

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson today announced her resignation. She is the second member of the Obama Cabinet to do so; S...

Kick the can is, or perhaps we should say was, a children's game, a version of hide and seek. We can recall playing it when we were very young, but our sen...

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: 17-21 December 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 19 December...

General Comments Futures markets opened at 10:30 ET this morning for the first time since the Christmas holiday, but judging from today's very light tradin...

Animal Ag Beefs: For too long governments have resigned themselves to incurring the illegal trade practices of others on the basis that negotiation is bett...

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...

'Twas the day after Christmas (on 26 December 2003), and all through the markets it was anything but quiet during another shortened trading session. WPI's...

Corn Market Gains Strength Basis levels in the Argentine new corn market had been dropping slowly because of a lack of demand. Nevertheless, as FAS prices...

Seven new Republicans were appointed to the House Agriculture committee: two farmers, a large animal vet and four others who have not been so steeped in th...

General Comments Markets were firm overnight and this morning in extremely light Christmas Eve trading. In fact, trade volume was much lighter than expecte...

Picking One's Battles: FDA is seeking 60 days of public comment on its proposed approval of AquAdvantage's genetically modified salmon. The environmental 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...

Food Security Bill Update The much anticipated national food security bill aims to provide and distribute 24 kilograms of food grains at a subsidized price...

The older you get, the shorter your Christmas list gets. And so it is with me. The list not only becomes shorter but also simpler. And so it is with my mar...

The Advanced Ethanol Coalition (AEC) this week issued an industry progress report for cellulosic biofuels that shows "a detailed look at the progress made...

General Comments The world survived the end of the Mayan calendar myth. Now we must see if we survive the fiscal cliff. The failure of the House Republican...

Milling Wheat The offers for Ukrainian and Russian wheat practically have disappeared due to the lack of farmers selling and bad weather in ports. Part of...

Here are a few more things to keep you up at night as we head home for the long holiday weekend. It appears we survived the end of the world according to...

Japanese Pivot: They were against it before they were for it. The new Japanese coalition government (LDP/New Komeito) announced post-election policy change...

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

An amendment to the Hurricane Sandy relief bill that would have extended livestock and specialty crop disaster assistance into next year failed in the Sena...

Government Markets Typically Gamed The EU member states voted to impose a 9.6 percent tariff on ethanol imported from the U.S. over the next five years, as...

Back on 5 January 2012 we found our crystal ball that we had misplaced tucked in the back of a closet. We dusted it off, and looked to see what it had to s...

I am in Japan this week meeting with a wide array of individuals involved in Japan's trading, animal feed and animal production sectors. The meetings have...

General Comments The proposed acquisition of NYSE Euronext by the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) is a continuation of the pattern of consolidation among d...

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 almost that time of year when markets seem to embrace the holiday mood. Looking back, the markets on Thursday, 19 December 1996 were lightly traded. F...

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, USTR Out of Sync: USDA has been at the forefront of encouraging consumption from local sources (Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food) and has had to be d...

Russian Grain Markets: 13-18 December 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,990 MT of grains for exchange trading on 18 December...

General Comments Overnight trading in grain and soy futures was quiet and without much direction. Dalian soybean futures posted losses following yesterday'...

Wheat Argentina's Domestic Commerce Secretary Guillermo Moreno recently met with exporters to inform them of the 20 percent cut in export licenses. It was...

The first quarter (September-November) of the 2012/13 U.S. soybean year has flown by, and we are into the early weeks of the second quarter. That the first...

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...

Higher Prices Needed to Ration Soybean Demand Last week's export sales report and this week's NOPA crush report shows the pace of U.S. soybean use is quick...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The IMF loan agreement with Egypt has been postponed until January 2013 at the request of the Egyptian government due to the cu...

General Comments Grains and the soy complex opened mixed in overnight trading, but the complex soon came under pressure from slumping soymeal prices on Chi...

News coverage of the nation's fiscal cliff dilemma has become something akin to a game show. Just as an audience roots for contestants, the press is now ch...

We have long maintained that the math behind the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is unsustainable. As previously asserted, 2013 will be the year that RFS ref...

WTO Litigation Up: The number of dispute settlement cases filed at the WTO has skyrocketed, forcing the organization to reassign staff to deal with the wor...

It is almost the end of December and it is still raining across much of Argentina. The forecast this week still looks wet. Over the weekend 1-2 more inches...

General Comments Today was another disappointing day for the bulls. Markets opened very firm yesterday afternoon with soybeans showing double-digit gains m...

Soybean Crusher Operation Rate Rises in China Because China's soybean crushing margin improved in the first half of the month, the crusher operation rate h...

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...

Egg Production to Increase in India The growth of India's egg sector in the last few years has been impressive. Even with high feed costs, production grew...

Speaking Truth to Power In an interview with the Nikkei, Japanese Foreign Trade Council Chairman Shoei Utsuda astutely explained why his country should joi...

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

This week I am in Dubai, United Arab Emirates to participate in a regional conference for the Middle East and North Africa organized by the U.S. Soybean Ex...

Earlier this week (see WPI 11 December) we wrote that the potential reinstatement of the biodiesel blenders' tax credit could impact Brazilian sugar ethano...

General Comments Markets were trading higher across the board most of the day led by strong gains in the soy complex. Demand for soybeans and soy products...

This week's soybean story was one of unbridled demand. Weekly U.S. soybean export sales set an all-time high for this marketing year at 1.3 MMT (47.7 milli...

Farm Bill Angst The House and Senate Agriculture Committees are moving closer to an agreed compromise on the farm bill's new commodity, which would accommo...

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...

Cattle Efficiency It's been said that a statistician can have his feet in a bucket of ice and his head in an oven and declare that "on average" he feels fi...

We note with interest that a bill has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would merge the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), w...

General Comments There was a reasonable volume of trade in grains and the complex overnight, and prices traded both sides. Soybeans were the strongest foll...

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...

Weather and Crops Between 28 November and 5 December, soil moisture levels greatly increased in Argentina. Between 25-100 millimeters of rain fell over the...

Russian Grain Markets: 3-12 December 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,880 MT of grains for exchange trading on 11 December 2...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. According to WPI's Emily French, during the week ending Friday, 10 December 2004, wheat was the story...

General Comments The December meeting of the Federal Reserve's FOMC was expected to be pro forma, but it developed into something more. The Fed redefined a...

USG Blames Ethanol A report by the U.S. government's National Intelligence Council entitled "Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds" this week brought medi...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The state of the Egyptian government and economy seems to change daily, adding a great deal of insecurity to the business envir...

As we have reported in the past, the disparity in Renewable Identification Number (RIN) prices for conventional versus advanced ethanol has been a de facto...

Pushing High-Oleic Soybeans The United Soybean Board (USB) last week committed to a five-year multimillion-dollar effort to expand the production of high-o...

General Comments There is not much to say about today's grain and soy markets except that wheat reacted to bearish numbers, and the other markets reacted 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...

The December WASDE met everyone's expectations, which is to say that without fresh production estimates for U.S. corn and soybeans, it was broadly unexciti...

Ag Secretary for USDA USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack's heavily reported comments at last week's Farm Journal Forum were at once instructive and disappointing...

The news is saturated with talk about the fiscal cliff and its impact on the economy. What if -- just for argument's sake -- the cliff is not as big as we...

Sugarcane and Sugar Pricing Deficient monsoon rains have negatively affected sugarcane crop yields, according to an Indian Ministry of Agriculture report...

China Purchases 30 MMT of Grain for Reserves As previously reported, the Chinese government began its state reserve purchase program in early November. By...

General Comments Markets were basically steady during much of the overnight trading hours with soybeans trading back and forth while corn and wheat were ge...

Price of Non-Enforcement U.S. officials have warned Russia that its announced ban on imports of beef and pork with residues of the lean muscle enhancing dr...

USDA tomorrow will release its December WASDE numbers at 7:30 a.m., and the open outcry session will start trading at 7:20 a.m. as a result. This will be 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...

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

Greed and Climate Change: Greed will cause UN climate change negotiations to end this weekend in Doha, Qatar without agreement. The negotiations were made...

General Comments It was another quiet session in the markets overnight. Soybeans were steady to slightly higher while corn and wheat were steady to slightl...

Bob Kohlmeyer and John Baize both wrote about the U.S. and world soybean situation this week. It is indeed fascinating, and it is almost a certainty that i...

Gary Blumenthal yesterday wrote about the newest Republican members of the House Agriculture Committee and the controversy surrounding the removal of Tim H...

Milling Wheat Some limited offers for Ukrainian and Russian wheat can still be found for December/January, but buyers are very reluctant because of the ris...

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...

COOL Deadline in May A World Trade Organization (WTO) arbitrator on Monday decided that the United States has until 23 May 2013 to bring the country of ori...

Weather and Crops Rain continued to fall across Argentina last week, especially over the central-northern part of the agricultural region. More rain in the...

USDA will release the December WASDE next Tuesday, 11 December. This will be the last WASDE scheduled to be released at the traditional 8:30 a.m. ET. Start...

Expanding DETs Paraguay's national Senate approved legislation imposing a 10 percent export tax on unprocessed soybeans as well as on wheat and corn. The m...

General Comments Unexciting and low volume characterized the overnight Globex trading. Markets are still starved for something on which to trade. At least...

Dispute Settlement Slugfest: Trade lawyers this week find themselves up to their keisters in WTO dispute settlement cases. For too long trade litigation ha...

COOL on Ice It will be more than four-and-a-half years after the U.S. implemented an intentionally discriminatory country of origin labeling (COOL) require...

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...

With USDA set to release the WASDE next Tuesday, 11 December, it's worth remembering that while the December supply and demand revisions typically do not s...

General Comments Once again, traders had nothing new to go on during the overnight session other than the ability of yesterday's market to defend its recen...

Russian Grain Markets: 26-30 November 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 4 December...

It has been a strange 12 months for the soybean complex to say the least. The drought in Brazil and Argentina that stretched from December 2011 through Feb...

Update on Global Sunseed Supply Periodically it is worthwhile to take a look at each of the main oilseed sectors other than soybeans and rapeseed. In this...

Silver Bullets from Food Science Researchers and industry are on a path where food will solve some of the largest risks to human health: non-communicable d...

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 Not much specifically pertaining to grain from Egypt this week, other than the GASC tender details shown further down in the re...

General Comments Markets feed on what can be loosely defined as news, and when fresh supplies of news are limited, markets can grow tired and head for the...

While Washington is locked in high stakes negotiations over the fiscal cliff, the economy is doing just fine, thank you. It's not flourishing, but it is no...

With all the talk about new taxes and their potential role in deficit reduction, Senator Bruce Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Representative Mike Pompeo (R-Kansa...

Different Takes on India's Economy India's economic growth slipped to a nine-year low of 6.5 percent for 2011/12 and to 5.5 percent for the quarter ending...

Economic Slowdown Curbs China's Meat Consumption China's economic growth has shown signs of slowing down, falling from 8.1 percent (Q1) to 7.6 percent (Q2)...

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 If you have grown tired of the "risk on, risk off" analysis, so have we. But today we were back to "risk on." World financial markets were...

Wheat has been the topic of conversation for the past few weeks. We have pointed out that U.S. and world supplies continue to decline as production levels...

It is hard to handicap the progress of the farm bill. There is growing momentum to attach the bill to a "grand compromise" fiscal-cliff averting package. T...

The U.S. drought continues to worsen, particularly across the central Southern Plains where the HRW wheat crop is produced. The weekly crop ratings have 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'...

General Comments Markets leaked lower overnight, this time led by weakness in the soy complex. It was first notice day for deliveries against the December...

Milling Wheat Offers for Ukrainian and Russian wheat are difficult to find, especially for January onwards. The Ukrainian government still has not declared...

Farm Bill Movements If a deal can be reached on the fiscal cliff, it looks likely that a new farm bill could be part of the plan following that signal from...

"Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it." This is an old cliche, the truth of which has never been more evident than during th...

Large U.S. Soymeal and Soyoil Exports Sales, Soybean Sales Slump Today's USDA Export Sales report indicated U.S. exporters last week had net export sales o...

Pork Getting Grilled by Interest Groups First, the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) filed a complaint with USDA alleging that the National Pork B...

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...

Weather and Crops More rain fell across most of Argentina's agricultural area during the past week. The map below indicates the amount received as of 26 No...

Trading Dysfunction: Usually Brussels appears to be dysfunctional and Washington efficient by comparison, but it seems to be the opposite at the moment. Wh...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and the soy complex opened slightly lower, and then slightly edged above the previous closes. Volume was light...

Frankness When Abroad: EU Parliament President Martin Schultz made clear in Washington this week that Brussels greatly desires a Trans-Atlantic trade agree...

General Comments Overnight grain and soy futures activity basically involved traders stepping back and taking deep breaths after yesterday's big rally. Vol...

Russian Grain Markets: 19-23 November 2012 Export Update Russia has exported 11.38 MMT of grains since 1 July 2012, according to the Russian Ministry of Ag...

A little over four years ago (see WPI Wednesday, 26 November 2008), China and the EU announced their respective economic stimulus packages, prompting WPI'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...

Wheat markets finally have begun to focus on the continued severe drought covering the Plains HRW production area. USDA's weekly crop condition report for...

EU Biodiesel Imports Will Reach Record High Level in 2012 Oil World indicates the EU is likely to import a record volume of biodiesel in CY 2012. During th...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS There was quite a bit of news on the IMF $4.8 billion loan to Egypt this week, but unfortunately not all of it was good. Midwee...

Brazil's Currency War: The major players shot down Brazil's effort to create teeth in the global trading rules (WTO) for countering intentional currency ma...

General Comments Grain and soy markets have plenty of things to chew on these days. On the macro side there is the on again-off again-on again Greek debt r...

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...

Lawmakers are resigned to the likely eventuality that the farm bill will be subject to an extension -- possibly up to a year, maybe shorter. The one hope o...

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...

Over the weekend I received e-mails from three Southern Hemisphere farmers whom I have known for many years. I thought their comments were worth sharing in...

China to Suspend Soybean State Reserve Auction China's National Grains and Oil Information Center (CNGOIC) recently announced that starting from the week o...

Congress is back for the lame duck session, and the Representatives- and Senators-elect are in Washington for orientation. Wherever there is a group of pol...

General Comments Some people expected fireworks when markets opened Sunday afternoon following the long holiday weekend, but they were disappointed. Corn,...

Ethanol Blending Program in India Takes Off The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has finally approved a new ethanol blending program, making it...

Un-Free and Unfair Trade As previously noted (see WPI 21 November), the U.S. Commerce Department is allowing tomato growers in the U.S. and Mexico to collu...

Today felt like the good old days in many respects. The most important one is that no markets opened until 9:30 a.m. this morning and they closed at noon...

General Comments Markets were dark from 2:00 p.m. last Wednesday until 9:30 a.m. this morning. It was one of those rare days when it felt like the "good ol...

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

While the market awaits the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set the 2013 "renewable volume obligations" (RVOs) for all biofuels except biodiesel (...

Wheat Market The old crop wheat market has disappeared. New crop wheat is being harvested and the first shipment will take place in December. No trades wer...

With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, it is time to see if the "turkey trend" holds true once again. As WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer once described (WPI 21 November 200...

General Comments Today's price action reminds me of an observation a friend once made about prices within a trend. My friend, a Chinese commodity trader, n...

Consumers Missing in Tomato Spat: U.S. Commerce Undersecretary for International Trade Francisco Sanchez told reporters that the antidumping dispute on tom...

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: 12-16 November 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,899 MT of grains for exchange trading on 14 November...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS GASC, Egypt's main government wheat buyer, has officially dropped Ukraine from its list of approved suppliers. However, it was...

Being involved in agriculture and agribusiness, being once a farm owner, and being a long time consumer of food, we watched with more than just passing int...

General Comments The CME markets are beginning to recognize that the problem of low water in the Mississippi River and probable restrictions on draft are l...

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...

Trade Negotiation Indicators: A 'round the globe update ... Regional/FTAs: Trade negotiations are alive and well. The newly announced Asia-Pacific center...

Noble Group to Build Soybean Crush Plant in Paraguay An official with a Paraguay industry group (CAPPRO) today said Noble Group plans to build a soybean cr...

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) sent a letter last Friday to Ron Kirk, the U.S. Trade Representative, regarding U.S. ethanol exports to Brazil. The l...

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 It was one of those rare "risk on" days today following what seems like weeks of fear-related selling. The fiscal cliff suddenly has becom...

Significant Amount of New Rapeseed Crop Left Unprocessed in China Recent statistics show that about 5.9 MMT of rapeseed in China are being purchased by gra...

I participated in two large wheat conferences over the past two weeks. One was the ALIM conference in Merida, Mexico, and the other was for wheat buyers an...

This weekend, Republican congressional leaders sat at the White House to discuss how to avoid the fiscal cliff. The media covered the meeting with great en...

Corn Exports from India to Continue The world grain situation remains tight amid speculation about India's wheat business. There are questions about wheat...

General Comments There were all sorts of factors affecting the grain and oilseed markets today, none of which were supportive. The worries included: The...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today denied requests from several governors and the livestock industry to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard...

Milling Wheat The Ukrainian government warned Egypt's GASC that Ukrainian wheat exports would be banned starting 1 December. This news did not come as a su...

There has been no shortage of things to keep us awake at night, but here are a few more to worry about: Fiscal cliffs. They seem to be everywhere. Keep s...

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

Korea Starts Buying New Crop South American Soymeal Two Korean feed manufacturing groups today bought one cargo each of South American soymeal for delivery...

Environment for Legislation Earlier this year so many in the U.S. Congress deemed passing permanent normal trading relations (PNTR) with Russia to be such...

General Comments As dire as the U.S. soybean and corn supply situation may prove to be, futures markets can trade on them only so long before turning to so...

Broken Organic Window The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has frequently proven its ignorance of both science and economics. Once again, it was economi...

Weather and Crops The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange released its Weekly Agricultural Outlook last Thursday, 8 November. During that week (1-8 November), week...

A friend, whose two passions in life, aside from his family, are commodity futures markets and the theater, recently likened the corn and wheat markets to...

Last month's feeder calf placements data points to a changing supply situation for the beef market next quarter. Similarly, feedlots' fed cattle marketings...

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 Income Fails Poor William Savedoff of the Center for Global Development notes that evaluations of farmer training programs funded by the Millennium Ch...

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: 5-9 November 2012 Export Updates Last month Russia exported 350,037 MT of barley, down 1.5 percent from October 2011. Of that amount...

The prospect of locking in multiple months of corn futures in a clock contract that has an average price somewhere between $6.75-7.25 should not be neglect...

WPI's Dan Basse observed that single-minded liquidation was the theme  at the start of the week of 12 November 2007. Especially concerning was slowing...

General Comments Overnight futures trade saw a modest bounce in grain and soybean prices following yesterday's open outcry session that saw corn, soybeans...

Following the November WASDE released last Friday, the market's attention was primarily focused soybeans and USDA's increased yield and production estimate...

Farm Bill Angle Aggies are trying every angle feasible for getting a five-year farm bill through the lame duck Congress. The latest is offering up the cuts...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTs The Egyptian government said that the amount it pays out to farmers for wheat will increase by 5.2 percent for the 2013 wheat s...

DETs Under Attack The EU Commission will undertake an anti-dumping investigation into biodiesel imports from Argentina and Indonesia. The investigation was...

General Comments Grain and soy futures markets tried to rally in overnight trade, and prices moved modestly higher mostly due to profit-taking, although en...

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...

Congress is back in session today after a brief campaign recess (even though the campaigns weren't so brief). One of the first orders of business is the pe...

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...

We've been predicting for about a year that Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) reform will ripen as an issue in 2013. We stand by that. There will be a controve...

Last Friday's USDA reports have clearly removed the soybean and oilseeds markets from the leadership position -- at least for now. The big soybean producti...

General Comments The U.S. government and the banking system were closed today for the Veteran's Day holiday. There were no USDA reports. The weekly export...

China Rice Imports Increase Sharply in 2012 According to the latest data from China Customs, China's first nine months of rice imports reached 1.87 MMT, a...

Will India's Economic Growth Keep Pace? India's economic growth may stagnate anywhere between 5-6 percent this fiscal year, and may continue to fall below...

General Comments Markets were lower most of the overnight period as traders anticipated that the USDA reports would be at least bearish soybeans and at bes...

The political class is the chattering class. With the election over, most denizens in Washington cannot help but spread -- or even create -- some informed...

De Gucht Sings U.S. Ag Song U.S. agriculture groups are insisting that any Trans-Atlantic trade negotiation must include improved access for their products...

Today's USDA crop production estimates and WASDE revisions confirmed what the market has been expecting (and trading) for the past week or longer. The U.S...

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 Ukraine's wheat export ban has yet to be made official. The government has been criticized by both the EU and the IMF after last month announ...

Weather and Crops No rains fell in Argentina's agricultural area during the past week. In fact, most areas received sunny, hot weather that helped dry the...

General Comments The December corn contract basically has been forming a consolidating-wedge pattern since the middle of October. Normally, the formation o...

Animal Elections The most expensive presidential election in U.S. history is over. How did the animal agriculture industry fare with who/what they backed 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...

One day after losing their bid in California to require labeling of foods produced with biotech, antagonists are saying they will "out" foods with such con...

In yesterday's WPI report, Gary Blumenthal and Dave Juday gave their assessments of the effect of the U.S. election results on various issues related to U...

China to Buy New Crop Soybeans from Farmers Reports out of China indicate China's National Development and Reform Commission next week will send a proposal...

Russian Grain Markets: 29 October – 2 November 2012 Grain Market Interventions The intervention fund put up 64,935 MT of grains for exchange trading on 6 N...

It was a status quo election from the standpoint of political control in Washington, but that does not mean that things stand still or can now move forward...

If there is one thing for which the Congressional Agriculture Committees historically have been known for, it is their bipartisan cooperation. A prime exam...

As Greece readies itself for a crucial vote on new austerity measures, it seems appropriate to look back and see how European sovereign debt problems weigh...

General Comments After the costliest election ever, President Obama won a second term, the Democrats increased their margin of control in the Senate (thoug...

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...

Soybean Plantings in Argentina Delayed by Flooding Last year Argentina suffered a severe drought that sharply cut its soybean production. This year the pro...

General Comments Today is Election Day, and most U.S. markets closed higher. The Dow was up 133 points several minutes before the stock markets close. The...

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 Futures Industry Association (FIA), the principal trade association for the derivatives industry, periodically publishes a variety of information on de...

Years of Missing Beef A Japanese Health Ministry panel approved the age increase from 20 months to 30 months for cattle supplying imported beef. The 20-mon...

The Future of Food II Foodies are working hard to return the food system to the good old days, but actual consumer choices make high-technology food the li...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS IMF officials are now in Cairo to negotiate the $4.8 billion loan that has been discussed for several months now. The IMF group...

Today is Election Day in the United States. Up for grabs are the presidency, all House seats and one-third of the Senate. Since we last wrote about the sta...

China's January-September Wheat Imports Reach Seven-Year High China's January-September wheat imports reached a seven-year high at 3.21 MMT. Though it is t...

India Increases Support Prices In a politically motivated decision that is going to cost government of India more, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affair...

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 soy complex started the week on a lower note Sunday with corn and wheat markets steady. Overnight volume was moderate. Soybeans were s...

Last week I was in central North Dakota along with 40 or 50 farmers at a meeting sponsored by the Carrington Area Farm Business Management group. Certainly...

GSP and the 21st Century The European Union has announced a revision to its Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) that grants duty-free access for goods...

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

In terms of agriculture, the estate tax is one of the bigger concerns in the potpourri of issues that make up the impending fiscal cliff. If left unaddre...

The Australian wheat harvest has all but begun, with deliveries in Western Australia and Queensland. Harvest is not expected to begin in earnest for anothe...

General Comments Markets were soft overnight and this morning with soybeans showing the greatest weakness. Corn, soybean and wheat futures did not close we...

Two months certainly do not make a crop year, but for corn and soybeans this past September and October have provided plenty of interesting things to consi...

Soybean production in Brazil has been spilling over into Brazilian pasture land, forcing more confinement feeding of Brazilian beef. This corresponds with...

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...

EPA Meeting with Industry on Fake Biodiesel RINs Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be meeting with industry representatives ove...

General Comments Yesterday's price rally carried into the overnight session and then into the day session this morning. There may have been some first-of-t...

CAP Reform At the insistence of the net contributors to the budget in Brussels, the EU's Council of Ministers issued a recommendation for at least 5.65 bil...

Weather and Crops More rain fell over a majority of Argentina's agricultural area in the past day. The map below shows the rainfall received during 1-22 Oc...

Russian Grain Markets: 22-26 October 2012 Harvesting Update As of 26 October, Russian farmers have harvested 72.2 MMT of grains and grain legumes: 39.6 M...

General Comments With the NYSE open and East Coast banks and funds back in operation, grain and soy futures markets seemed to spark up not only in terms of...

Market observers certainly have had their fill of excitement during these last few months. That is a marked change from Friday, 29 October 1999, when WPI's...

Battle Over Scale Catherine Badgley, a University of Michigan ecologist, says she envisions a U.S. shift from fewer large farms to many small farms -- and...

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...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The end of Ukrainian wheat exports has been a source of worry in Egypt. Egypt's GASC has several lots of the wheat pending, as...

About the time Hurricane Sandy roared ashore near Ocean City, New Jersey, meteorologists decided that it had lost its status as a tropical system. Sandy co...

New Canola Plant to Be Built in Oklahoma Traditionally, canola is not a crop that has been grown in Oklahoma. However, producers have been experimenting wi...

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last month approved the "advanced" categorization for a new process that creates biodiesel from biogenic waste oi...

U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) says he doesn't believe next week's election will have much impact on the farm bill debate and the legislation's cou...

General Comments After Superstorm Sandy crimped both trading volume and risk tolerance yesterday, grain and soy markets returned to the real world today. S...

Slowing Urban Sprawl American urban consumers are in a rage over eating local. Somehow the undocumented benefits include slowing the rise of the oceans and...

Meat and Poultry Production Up 5 Percent China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently announced that the country's pork, beef, mutton and poultry p...

General Comments Today was a very strange trading day for a number of reasons: The superstorm now blitzing the East Coast has closed most of the governme...

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...

Last Friday we took a peek at the potential U.S. corn outlook for the 2013/14 marketing year and how it might be quite bearish if weather and yields shift...

Voices Against GM Moratorium A Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by India's Supreme Court has recommended a 10-year moratorium on any field trials...

This may be one of the most difficult presidential elections to predict in modern history -- or at least the history of polling. The election is one week a...

General Comments Today was one of the quietest and more boring days for anyone watching the markets in a long time. Soybeans were weak all night and throug...

Old crop corn and soybean market direction will now be determined by demand. We might see small changes to the U.S. crop production estimates in the Novemb...

Milling Wheat Ukrainian and Russian wheat are not competitive anymore. Some offers for Ukrainian wheat were still available earlier this week. After the ex...

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

Farm Policy Scheduled Both U.S. and European leaders are indicating new farm policy will be moving forward under their respective jurisdictions. The Commis...

There has been a lot of attention focused on the possibility of Brazilian sugar ethanol entering the United States this year, but a quick read of USDA's Oc...

Beef Feedlots North and South America USDA's latest Cattle on Feed report showed the total number of cattle on feed at 10.89 million head, down 3 percent c...

General Comments Overnight trade in grains and the soy complex was mixed in terms of price action, although trading volume held up well in the face of a de...

One of the most contentious parts of the massive and controversial Dodd-Frank financial market reform legislation passed by Congress in 2010 is the so-call...

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...

This week I have been attending a conference in Spain organized by the U.S. Soybean Export Council to discuss issues related to soymeal, sustainability and...

Election Economic Impacts With the U.S. presidential race neck and neck, policy planners have begun mapping out scenarios for fiscal management and trade p...

General Comments The Fed's FOMC closed its regular two-day October meeting without changing any of its policy initiatives or adding any new ones. This incl...

Corn started and ended the week of 24-28 October 2011 as the lead grain, and according to WPI analyst David Poe, the rally "seem[ed] to have presented an o...

Draft Survey Some analysis has appeared regarding a new dispute between the Argentine government and exporters about a draft survey. The Customs Office is...

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...

Pediatricians or EPA the Fool? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has caused a stir with its charge that the federal standards for pesticide residues...

Russian Grain Markets: 15-19 October 2012 Harvesting Update As of 19 October, the Russian farmers harvested 71.8 MMT of grains and grain legumes: 39.5 MM...

General Comments In typical "Turnaround Tuesday" fashion grain and soy prices weakened in overnight trade with yesterday's rally attracting some early prof...

Ag Productivity On the one hand, agricultural productivity has been terrific. It moves along at a 1.67 percent annual rate, which by one estimate accounts...

The driving force for soybean demand and prices in the last couple of years has been continued strong soymeal demand, particularly in Asia. The soybean sup...

  NEWS UPDATES EGYPT COMMENTS Egypt's Agriculture Minister has said that the country will be able to grow sufficient wheat for all subsidized bread pr...

In Secretary Tom Vilsack's words, USDA is reacting to the "challenge of meeting the Renewable Fuel Standard" and the 36 billion gallons of renewable fuel b...

Futures markets seem to be taking a schizophrenic view of the supply/demand situation facing U.S. corn and wheat. Traders are well aware that the worst dro...

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...

  China to launch new legislation on green food label China's Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) recently revised the 1993 version of the Measures for the...

ADM is making a move to acquire GrainCorp, Ltd., the major grain handler in eastern Australia. It was reported last week that ADM had increased i...

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 Markets were firm to strong in the Sunday evening session, and continued that strength through most of this morning before backing off aro...

India's milk production high, quality low India has been the world leader in milk production in recent years, and will continue to be thanks to the large n...

Creighton University's October 2012 "Mid-American Money Report", which is a survey of bank Presidents and CEO's across 10 central states from Minnesota and...

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 Grain and soy futures markets generally tapered down today to end a choppy up-and-down week with spurts of heavy trading volume interspers...

Milling Wheat Ukraine announced a wheat export ban beginning 15 November. Since the start of the campaign, about 3.5 MMT have been exported from Ukraine. W...

If President Obama were of the mind to label China a currency manipulator, this week would have been the perfect opportunity. The Treasury Department was t...

Last Monday's crop progress report showed that 71 percent of the U.S. 2013 winter wheat crop has been planted. That is exactly on the five-year average for...

Yesterday's announcement of the sale of the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) to the CME Group is another reminder of just how much the grain business in...

General Comments Markets started steady to slightly better yesterday afternoon and the momentum higher continued to build throughout today's session. The b...

Traceability for Antibiotics in Feed Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Congressman Henry Waxman this week announced that he will introduce...

U.S.-EU Contrast on Biofuel The EU announced its new policy is to limit biofuel made from food to 5 percent, end its subsidies by 2020, and mandate a 60 pe...

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...

USDA Releases Final 2011/12 Export Sales Report for Soymeal and Soyoil USDA today released the final export sales reports for soymeal and soyoil for the 20...

Corn The corn market in Argentina continues to be relatively quiet. Offers for old crop corn are scarce, with sellers asking for 15 October and November sh...

"Nothing is certain except that nothing is certain." The same can be said about the markets' often unpredictable nature. Bob Kohlmeyer commented on this ca...

Russian Grain Markets: 8-12 October 2012 Harvesting Updates The Russian Ministry of Agriculture on 12 October updated its total grain harvest forecast 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...

General Comments The CME Group has agreed to buy the Kansas City Board of Trade (KCBOT) for $126 million, according to news reports today. The KCBOT wheat...

The second presidential debate will be held tonight in New York City, and a group of undecided voters will be posing the questions. It is unlikely that the...

Scientists Discover Gene Controlling Resistance to Cyst Nematode in Soybeans The cyst nematode is the most costly pest that impacts soybean yields in the U...

General Comments Grain and soy futures traded higher overnight, and they tried to maintain that momentum today. It worked for a time, but the momentum was...

Geography and Politics The farm bill may be an issue in some political contests this year (see Dave Juday's piece on 15 October), but it does not define mo...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS In order to control the fuel shortage problems in the country and attack the expensive fuel subsidy programs, the Egyptian gove...

During the last several weeks, investment/speculative money has been fleeing long positions in commodity markets for agriculture, energy and metals. Lookin...

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...

India's Economic Growth Are India's economic woes over, and could there be an economic turnaround? Experts believe that a turnaround could happen in the ne...

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 There was no letup in the selling pressures across the soy complex when markets opened Sunday evening. The selling in soybeans spread over...

Mitt Romney last week blamed the lack of a completed farm bill out of Congress on the lack of leadership from the White House (see Gary Blumenthal, WPI 9 O...

Price levels for the federal crop insurance programs have been a crucial ingredient in the net farm income levels of farmers, and the crop revenue insuranc...

High Expectations for New Corn Price This is the time of the year when the Chinese government's procurement price for new crop corn becomes a hot topic amo...

Yesterday's USDA supply and demand estimates should be considered at least somewhat bullish. U.S. ending supply estimates for corn, wheat and soybeans sugg...

General Comments Markets opened weak yesterday afternoon. That weakness continued to build throughout the night and accelerated at 9:30 a.m. when the open...

Food Fight IV Foodie Michael Pollan wrote in The New York Times that California's Prop 37 requiring labeling of boiotech foods is not about food safety or...

Milling Wheat Wheat prices in the Black Sea remained about unchanged this week. The liquidity is shrinking as the offered volume is decreasing significantl...

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 status of E15 has been overwhelmed by the drought and the subsequent requests to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2012/13, but automakers re...

General Comments Prior to today's October crop estimates and the WASDE, money managers who were actively paring down their long futures positions in the 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...

USDA Boosts U.S. Soybean Production and Usage To no one's surprise, USDA today raised its forecast for U.S. soybean yields, production and consumption in 2...

Hunger for Better Facts There were some odd side notes with the International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) release of its Global Hunger Index a...

Cattle Feeding Isn't for Sissies Feedlots are facing a challenging year. Thus far in 2012, cattle supplies are about 2.455 times under feedlot capacity and...

Following is an ad hoc summary of some of the important numbers from USDA's October WASDE.In a year of drought and tight supplies, every month's fresh esti...

General Comments When a federal judge threw out CFTC's arduously constructed new regulations setting position limits for commodity futures markets on 28 Se...

Corn Market This week the corn market in Argentina continued to be relatively quiet. A significant volume of export licenses for old crop corn were approve...

Russian Grain Markets: 1-5 October 2012 Harvesting Updates Russian Ag Minister Nikolai Fedorov on 9 October changed the 2012 grain harvest forecast in net...

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 Dairy Security Act provisions in the 2012 Farm Bill continue to be a point of controversy in the industry even though both congressional Agriculture Co...

Four years ago, amid a global economic crisis and a presidential race, the markets certainly were not boring to watch. "Every day brings its own set of fac...

Rich versus Poor The IMF/World Bank meetings in Tokyo this week are providing some geopolitical and policy drama. China's refusal to send a top level offic...

Palm Oil Prices Near Bottom? Anyone who has been watching the palm oil market knows palm oil prices have plummeted in recent months. Weighed down by expand...

General Comments The IMF lowered its already anemic forecasts of world economic growth for this and next year, and by implication, raised its view of the c...

Proving that spin and perception are the politician's friend, Mitt Romney told an Iowa farm audience today that the lack of a completed farm bill out of th...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The effect of Egypt's wheat purchases recently and the amount of power GASC has in world markets has been a widely covered topi...

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 October WASDE with revised estimates of 2012 U.S. corn and soybean production estimates will be released Thursday (11 October) morning. In this year...

The Fed's decision to move into round three of quantitative easing (QE3) was a bit of a surprise -- at least it wasn't expected to happen during the Fed's...

USDA will release its October crop production updates and WASDE revisions Thursday at 7:30 a.m. CT. There is little question that most -- maybe all -- eyes...

Politicons The petroleum industry gets a politically inspired federal investigation every time gasoline prices rise above consumer comfort levels. This yea...

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...

Rupee is Stronger Post Reforms The Indian rupee was stronger by almost Rs. 3.17 (5.37 percent) in a 30-day period, down from Rs. 55.35 on 9 September to Rs...

General Comments The U.S. government was on holiday today. There were no USDA reports, including weekly export inspections, weekly crop progress numbers, o...

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 Black Sea wheat market is firmer. The domestic market in Russia has rallied to levels that are above the export parity. This is logical c...

Agriculture Losing the War Modern agricultural practices will never obtain approval from their philosophical antagonists; the goal is to explain agricultur...

The new era of extreme price volatility coupled with very high prices and equally high crop insurance revenue guarantees have made it tough for the minor o...

The old adage that high prices cure high prices is being proved again by the energy sector. U.S. petroleum output has been growing since 2008, based largel...

General Comments It was a quiet session overnight with soybeans firmer and corn and wheat slightly weaker. That was the pattern throughout much of the day,...

Corn Market The Argentine corn FOB market continues to be pretty similar to what was reported last week. Some trading houses are running out of corn export...

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...

Canada's Canola Crop Forecast Well Below Analysts' Expectations Statistics Canada today released its estimates for that country's 2012 crops and the foreca...

General Comments The Turkish attack on a Syrian military installation may be part of the reason for today's increase in gasoline and crude oil prices, but...

No American Rats Dying Unsurprisingly, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opined that the rat study carried out by anti-biotech researcher Gilles-Er...

U.S. Economy for the Birds The U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, National Chicken Council, National Turkey Federation and United Egg Producers have issued...

Farmers Pick Cash Some EU member states are pressing for budget reductions in Brussels, and that could factor into the current effort at reforming the Comm...

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 CBOT day session opened one hour late on Tuesday, 2 October 2007 due to technical problems. According to WPI's Bob Kohlmeyer: It was clear that profess...

Russian Grain Markets: 27-30 September 2012 Harvesting Updates As of 28 September, Russia harvested grains and grain legumes on 36 million hectares, or 91...

General Comments China is on holiday and market conditions are similar to when parents are gone or when the boss is out of the office: the market is free 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...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The government of Egypt is making every effort to reduce subsidies on some major food items. As reported a few weeks ago, the g...

Activists Kick Butt The attack on conventional agriculture by activists is getting stranger by the day. Now it is reported that activist investor Carl Icah...

The farm bill expired on Sunday, and by Monday the anticipated recriminations were flying. Various statements and tweets from the Democratic leadership tar...

The corn and soybean harvests are going full blast in the United States. Those of us with long -- though not necessarily accurate -- memories can recall fa...

Commodities and Elections Financial and commodity indicators correlate with elections, but there is a more important conclusion. Soy Prices Fail to Ration...

Taiwan Crushers Tender for Soybeans Encouraged by the recent sharp drop in soybean futures prices, Taiwan's Breakfast Soybean Procurement Association (BSPA...

General Comments As Dave Juday noted yesterday, in response to a suit filed against the CFTC by two swaps and financial market trade associations in the U...

General Comments The start of the new quarter brought buying to financial markets but not to commodity markets. Corn futures were firmer on, as one trader...

Food Grain Production Down, Rainfall Deficit at 7.6 Percent The government of India (GOI) last week released its first 2012/13 crop and grain production es...

Last Friday's USDA quarterly stocks report found about 40 million bushels more soybeans than expected. That news started the soybean market lower and it wa...

Back in January, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) filed a lawsu...

Trade Liberalization Wow Doha is dead, long live Doha; and Africa is a continental backwater -- all no more! Largely given up for dead, apparently the true...

Chinese Government Likely to Raise the Purchasing Price for Corn Recently, market discussions suggest that the Chinese government is likely to raise the 20...

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...

Yes on Biotech Labeling Comedian/commentator Bill Maher's comment on the American people is that "[t]hey're not very bright." The real problem is that ther...

This morning's USDA quarterly stocks numbers threw bullish corn and wheat numbers at the market. The soybean number was slightly bearish. Needless to say,...

General Comments A bullish USDA quarterly stocks report following two weeks or so of big time fund liquidation caught corn and wheat markets too short with...

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) today released a report on the Self-Employment Contributions Act (SECA), or unemployment taxes. CBO in its report con...

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 Russian and Ukrainian wheat prices are increasing sharply. It's difficult to find offers for October, and there are no offers at all for Dece...

Fewer and Heavier Cattle Mean Less Feed Last week's Cattle on Feed report showed an 11 percent drop in placements despite industry expectations of placemen...

Corn Market By the end of last week after some trades were made, Argentine corn premiums became firmer. This week the FOB market remained the same. Main is...

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...

Broad Pain from Tomatoes The Commerce Department has preliminarily suspended a tomato antidumping agreement with Mexico that was negotiated back in 1996. T...

China Sells More Reserve Soybeans The Chinese government today sold an additional 400,001 MT of soybeans from its reserve stocks. The soybeans were sold to...

General Comments In anticipation of tomorrow's Grain Stocks report, market participants may have reversed the old adage, "buy the rumor, sell the fact," in...

Friday, 28 September 2001 was a "day of getting clobbered" in the markets, according to WPI's Ben Beneke. It is unclear what started it: "the general neutr...

Wrong-Way Trade Policy Trade policy remains a wreck with countries concurrently practicing their own protectionism while complaining vehemently about that...

General Comments Consumers can be more flexible with gasoline consumption than food consumption, so it does not make a lot of sense that European economic...