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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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)...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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

"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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

Farm Bill 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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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'...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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 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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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'...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

  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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

Russian Grain Markets: 17-21 September 2012 Harvesting and Planting Updates National Grain Producers Union President Pavel Skurihin forecasted that Russia...

General Comments Corn has sold off a dollar and soybeans almost $2 in the past month. The strong basis and slow decline in open interest makes it appear th...

Soymeal Consumption to Rise in North Africa and Middle East Despite Turmoil The revolutions that have taken place in the primarily Muslim countries of the...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS Egypt's GASC said that in recent weeks it has built up the strategic wheat stockpiles to a level that can cover the country's n...

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...

President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney recently outlined their stances on agriculture issues for the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF). This is as clo...

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 will release its 1 September quarterly stocks report this Friday. These quarterly stocks reports have been very tricky to interpret recently, especial...

Reform Process Continues The Indian government (GOI) is keen to continue the reform process it began back in 1991. While growth was positive in some years,...

Negative Attitude Towards GMOs Increases Among Chinese Consumers Chinese consumers are becoming less tolerant of GMOs, according to a survey conducted by t...

Things are looking up for the Brazilian sugarcane sector despite world sugar prices stuck at near-two-year lows of 19 cents per pound (U.S. sugar prices ar...

General Comments Note: Last Friday we reported that negotiations in the labor dispute at Pacific Northwest (PNW) ports had been extended for 90 days. That...

General Comments It was another very erratic overnight session with wide price swings, especially in the soy complex. November soybeans traded as much as 1...

House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Thursday officially commented on the fate of the farm bill. "We will deal with the farm bill after the election," he...

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

Dennis Gartman (of The Gartman Report) reportedly told an audience to short John Deere stock because U.S. farmers won't have any money to buy farm equipmen...

Reason for RFS Waiver Currently attention is being focused on the near-term impact of the current short crop and whether the Environmental Protection Agenc...

With harvest only months away, Australian wheat production remains on a familiar knife-edge -- the scope for wheat production remains as wide as ever (20-2...

General Comments The December 2012 corn contract may be forming a double bottom at $7.39. If this contract closes out the week strong tomorrow, then a temp...

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...

Drought Cuts Australian Canola Crop Forecast The Australian Oilseeds Federation (AOF) this week reduced its forecast for that country's upcoming canola har...

Pigs of the Future: Impact on Feed The high feed costs as a result of the drought have led to a reduction -- rather than what was expected to be an expansi...

Russian Grain Markets: 10-14 September 2012 Harvesting Updates The Russian Grain Union forecasts the grain crop in that country at 72 MMT. The crop current...

The "winds of change" swept through the pits in Chicago on Wednesday morning, 15 September 1999. According to WPI's Gregg Doud: In reality, there was very...

Biotech Hurdles France: France initially announced that it planned to keep its "moratorium" on the planting of biotech crops. The difference is that "morat...

General Comments Yesterday it was noted that there were buyers waiting at lower prices for the market to come their way. Increasing numbers of those prospe...

Corn Market After the release of new corn export licenses, the government began authorizing specific requests from each trading house. More than 0.8 MMT we...

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

EPA Sets Biodiesel Blend Mandate at 1.28 Billion Gallons The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Friday announced that it will set the biodiese...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS Egypt's GASC was back in the wheat market, booking another 235,000 MT of wheat as of last Thursday. This included 120,000 MT of...

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 possibility of aflatoxin in harvested corn is a frightening prospect to all market participants. Aflatoxin is a carcinogen produced by certain mold fun...

The White House released its sequester report late last week, outlining the potential cuts to various government programs. The following is a summary of sc...

No Cooperation at Forum Apparently, USDA's September WASDE report was not sufficiently comforting on food prices. France has sent notice of a "Rapid Respon...

General Comments Brazilian farmers were allowed to start planting soybeans as of this past weekend. From 15 June until 15 September no soybeans were suppos...

General Comments Grain and oilseed markets started lower Sunday evening. The selling snowballed as the night wore on with another major leg down happening...

The House last week passed a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through 2013. And as we predicted on 10 September, the CR did not co...

Irrigation Infrastructure and New Technology Can Help Agriculture India has approximately 140 million hectares of net cultivated area (the gross area of 19...

China Continues to Spend on Farmland Improvement China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) recently announced that the government will invest $5.9 billion this yea...

India's Modest Reform A group of Indian agribusiness representatives is in Washington to explain India's export potential and pitch for foreign direct inve...

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...

You would think that when supplies of corn and soybeans are headed to their tightest levels ever you would see strong basis levels. The opposite is true to...

General Comments Yesterday's Federal Reserve announcement that it will inject $40 billion per month into the economy buoyed U.S. and world financial market...

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 milling wheat market in the Black Sea is much firmer. The catalyst for the rally was the seventh GASC tender in six weeks. Russian wheat...

Sequester Issues Earlier this summer the federal agencies appeared to be oblivious as to the implications of the fiscal cliff scheduled for 2013. Indeed, t...

The September USDA reports again verified just how severely U.S. corn and soybean production was impacted by the drought of 2012. We can all still argue ab...

General Comments Grain and soy futures traded in mixed fashion overnight. Corn, soybeans and wheat prices were on both sides in fairly active trade. Wheat...

High Winds Reduce Canada's Canola Production The amount of canola Canada harvests this year will be reduced as a result of high winds that occurred this we...

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

When we first became involved in trading grain and soybeans, one of the most impressive features of grain trade practices for us was the casual, off-handed...

Biotech Shifts The assault on agricultural biotechnology has increased in the United States and Prop 37 (mandatory labeling) in California is a major threa...

WASDE As could be expected, yesterday's WASDE showed a decrease in meat and poultry production based on an increase in beef driven by drought liquidation,...

Floods During the past week, excessive precipitation fell over central Buenos Aires, flooding a third of the area. In some cases, this rainfall duplicated...

USDA's eagerly awaited September WASDE was greeted happily by corn market bears and soybean market bulls. USDA reduced the 2012/13 average corn yield from...

On Thursday, 12 September 2002, USDA's September WASDE "gave the market what it had anticipated," and as a result, "overbought signal and profit-taking wer...

General Comments Basically, CME grain and soy futures trade today was a tale of two markets. USDA's modest cuts in 2012 production prospects and a 2012/13...

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...

Green Policies Take Beating The economic doldrums on both sides of the Atlantic, coupled with other concerns, are forcing environmental goals to take a bac...

Russian Grain Markets: 3-7 September 2012 Harvesting Updates The Russian Ministry of Agriculture announced that as of 10 September, farmers harvested grain...

Today's WASDE report was considered bearish for corn because the national average corn yield of 122.8 bushels per acre was larger than the average analyst...

While more than 40 farm and commodity groups in the Farm Bill Now coalition rally for congressional action on a farm bill, the American Enterprise Institut...

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 In the 14 trading days since 21 August, the CME December corn contract has dropped about 63 cents. Price action has been choppy and irregu...

News Updates EGYPT COMMENTS The Egyptian government stated that all details required for its IMF loan should be in place in about two months, and that it e...

EU Commission Proposes to Scale Back Use of Food Crops for Biofuel The EU Commission has drafted new rules that would substantially scale back the use of f...

In a "normal" year the September WASDE yield and crop estimates are usually just bridges between the August WASDE, when the estimates reflect the first act...

Trans-Atlantic Analytical Differences EU Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos indicates he is prepared to discuss the role of biofuels given concerns by...

Chinese Consumers Turn Toward Imported Food A recent survey conducted by an international market research firm shows that more Chinese consumers have turne...

Indian Monsoon May Not Be Enough Despite the fact that the monsoon rain deficit is declining due to its a late resurgence (it is now at 9 percent), it may...

USDA will update its crop production and ending supply estimates Wednesday morning. Obviously, these are very important numbers because it is very likely 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...

Back in 1979 President Jimmy Carter famously described the malaise that he perceived gripping the nation. While Carter never actually used the term "malais...

Ethanol's Lagging Support After correctly perceiving the drought drying up its political support in Washington, the ethanol industry is mounting a tour de...

General Comments Markets were mixed to start the Sunday evening session and traded both sides of unchanged throughout the night. Corn, wheat and soybeans w...

General Comments Markets were weak overnight with soybeans showing the greatest weakness. Wheat was firm and eventually traded sharply higher. Corn traded...

Laggard Trade Policy Free trade advocates have long complained about the Obama Administration's laggard initiative on such negotiations. However, the Romne...

Milling Wheat Russian wheat continues to be the cheapest for September shipment. November shipment is offered at a high premium against September since the...

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

Stats Canada released its 31 July stocks report this morning and it continued to follow the trend of smaller-than-expected numbers (see table below).It is...

One factor the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will rely upon for its analysis of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) on corn prices is the price...

Grain and soy markets are easing their way toward next Wednesday's September WASDE from USDA, and all eyes will be on the USDA NASS updated yield and produ...

Indian Soymeal Sales Plummet in August India's soymeal exports last month totaled only 10,005 MT, which was 95 percent lower than exports of 165,510 MT in...

Shameless Category Protectionism knows no bounds as the Made in the USA Foundation announces it has filed a lawsuit against the WTO for determining that th...

General Comments History seldom repeats itself precisely, but human nature is fairly consistent. Prices are reflections of human behavior under similar cir...

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-Term Demand Destruction in Feed Sector While corn and soybean futures prices jumped 41 percent and 33 percent, respectively, since the start of June,...

Russian Grain Markets: 22-28 August 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Harvesting Updates According to the Russian Ag Ministry's Department of Crop Production, as of...

On Tuesday, 7 September 1999, many traders were hoping to see bullish markets. Bob Kohlmeyer wrote: They are sick of the low price, low volatility, low vol...

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...

Ethanol trade association Growth Energy in a letter to Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe wrote that the end result of waiver to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS...

General Comments Grain and soy prices closed weaker in another low volume day session following the trend established earlier in overnight trade. More liqu...

Ethanol After Argentina's large investment in biodiesel plants during the last few years, the next step will be developing corn crushing plants to produce...

China Secures Agricultural Investments Overseas China Oil and Foodstuffs Co., (COFCO), the nation's largest food manufacturer, and New Hope Group, China'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...

Indian Soy Processors Too Optimistic About Soymeal Exports Reports indicate India has begun its 2012/13 soymeal export sales program with sales of about 25...

India Quarterly GDP Growth Lowest in 10 Years During the first quarter of FY 2013 (April-June), India's GDP grew 5.5 percent over the corresponding quarter...

News Updates AFRICA COMMENTS The Kenyan government has decided to import maize into government-held strategic stocks to ensure that the supply in the count...

Democrats Evolve The holding of power necessitates responsibility. This year's Democratic Party platform commits to "free and fair trade" and boasts that t...

General Comments Grain and soy futures staged a strong price rally overnight as prospects for tight supplies again outweighed anything the bears had to off...

It has been a long, hot (and dry) summer for U.S. soybean growers. It also has been an unusually hot summer for U.S. soybean exporters. Brazilian and Argen...

The debate over just how small the U.S. corn and soybean crops are, along with how much rationing has been accomplished, will rage on for another couple of...

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 milling wheat market remained about unchanged. This morning the Russian government decided not to restrict exports for the time...

General Comments Grain and the soy complex faced three important or potentially important influences today. First, there was the Russian Food Security Coun...

The Federal Reserve recently released its minutes on the 31 July – 1 August Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) meeting, giving insight into the central b...

General Comments There was no follow-through buying when the markets re-opened late yesterday afternoon following the very strong performance of corn, whea...

Southeast Asian Ag Sector Surprisingly Optimistic As I mentioned yesterday, this week I am participating in the 9th Annual Southeast Asia Agricultural Coop...

RFS Waiver on the Clock Two more states, Texas and Virginia, have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)...

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...

Non-Biotech Subsidies -- Taxpayers Although there is no final decision as yet, it looks as though it will be the taxpayer on the hook to compensate growers...

The hue and cry over the ethanol use mandate in the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the possibility that the Russian government might intervene in t...

Russian Grain Markets: 22-28 August 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Harvesting Updates According to the Russian Ag Ministry's Department of Crop Production, Russi...

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...

Eggs Rule Mexico has announced a substantial increase in the duty free egg import quota from the U.S. An avian influenza outbreak has shortened domestic su...

Corn There were several inquiries for Argentine corn for October, November and December shipment. As a result, some trades were made at -55 CZ for November...

General Comments It has been rare for wheat to be the futures market leader recently, but that is exactly what happened today. After five straight losing d...

Demand Rationing of Soy Not Apparent in Southeast Asia This week I am attending and speaking at the 9th Southeast Asia Agricultural Cooperators Conference...

News Updates There was not too much grain trade activity in North Africa and the Middle East in the past week due to the Eid holidays following Ramadan.The...

Biotech Facts versus Organic Kills The battle over Proposition 37 in California that would require labeling of food products produced using biotechnology 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...

The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) recently argued (see WPI 23 August) that one reason it would be a bad idea to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS)...

General Comments Overnight trading was muted with prices mostly mixed with trade on both sides of the previous closes. Volumes were low, and a lack of inte...

Grain and soybean futures markets seem to have hit something of a vacuum. They have lost direction, at least temporarily, and they have become rather dull...

Wheat Shortage Despite Huge Procurement India's wheat production for 2011/12, according to the July update from the government of India's (GOI) Ministry of...

Back in October 2010, the Federal Reserve undertook Operation Twist, whereby it sold $400 million in short-term bonds (maturities of three years or less) 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...

The Republican Convention is getting underway in Tampa, and while party platforms are largely ignored documents after the meeting is over, they make for go...

The next major USDA reports are scheduled to be released on Wednesday, 12 September. These will include new crop production estimates and the revised month...

General Comments Markets started the week very firm Sunday evening, with November soybeans again setting new all-time price highs. Corn and wheat were also...

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 most important question for these markets over the next six to 12 months will be how the massive job of rationing corn and soybean demand gets accompli...

General Comments Wheat, corn and soybean marketers were all very firm in the evening session and held most of those gains until prices started to falter ar...

Milling Wheat Russian and Ukrainian wheat remain the cheapest origins by far. It may sound illogical that the Russian wheat is so cheap after all the bulli...

Republican presidential Mitt Romney yesterday released a 21-page "comprehensive" energy policy plan to "achieve North American energy independence by 2020...

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney released his proposed U.S. energy policy this week and it is no different than President Obama's in that both...

Glass Half-Full Argentina Yesterday we speculated about a positive that could come out of Argentina's challenge to U.S. barriers to imports of its lemons a...

General Comments Markets took another breather today. After early gains could not be sustained, prices began to slide lower. The change in direction create...

Corn Argentine corn FOB market premiums are weak and there is a lack of demand. Spot shipments (August and September) are offered at 5-10 cents/bushel lowe...

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...

Drought Effect: Freezer Busting Inventories Because of the drought, drought-fueled corn and feed prices, and lost pasture, more beef and pork is being push...

Back when we first got involved in the grain business and in grain merchandizing, grain export activity was not very important to futures markets. Or perha...

Argentina Still Subsidizes Biodiesel Exports Contrary to earlier reports, Argentina has not completely eliminated its export incentives for biodiesel. Whil...

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 Minutes of the Federal Reserve Bank's August Federal Open Market Committee (FMOC) meeting were released today, and they show a growing til...

Russian Grain Markets: 15-21 August 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Harvesting and Planting Updates According to Petr Chekmarev, director of the Russian Ag Minist...

Ineffective Aid U.S. Agency for International Development official Nancy Lindborg says the Sahel region of Africa is in the midst of long-term drought and...

Corn prices are creeping back up again, nearing the $8.43 record price set earlier this month. That's being viewed as a signal that not enough demand has b...

With all that is going on in U.S. and world agriculture, we feel out of touch after having been away for just a few days. Good or bad, we are in a period o...

Crop Insurance Spike U.S. farmers have been steadily increasing the land they have under crop insurance coverage, and based on research published in the Jo...

  News Updates Ramadan has finished and all Muslim countries are currently celebrating Eid-Al-Fitr — the festival of breaking the fast. Most off...

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 With a barrage of tweets from participants on Pro Farmer's Midwest crop tour commenting on how bad crops look, futures prices had nowhere...

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

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...

Russia at U.S. Political Conventions Russia's trade regime officially changes over to the WTO's better standards on Wednesday, but U.S. industry cannot ben...

The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has been trying to remove the word "navigable" from the language of the Clean Water Act (CWA) as it refer...

The corn and soybean crops in the U.S. are bordering on disastrous this year because of the major drought that affected nearly every part of the Corn Belt...

General Comments Markets were just slightly higher to start Sunday evening but gradually built on that early firmness and were strong by the time the sun r...

India's Economic Growth: Drastic Need for Reforms The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) last week pegged India's GDP forecast at 6.7 perce...

General Comments Markets were quietly strong much of today, and funds were noted as light buyers. There was no special or fresh news today. Financial marke...

The USDA blog has much of its space dedicated to food inflation and the drought. One entry, dated 10 August, is USDA's response to the current question on...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea milling wheat market is slightly weaker in sympathy with Chicago and Matif due to the slow demand. Despite the bullish stories...

The U.S. drought has pushed corn and soybean prices to new all-time highs following the drought-reduced production in Brazil and Argentina. Problems in Rus...

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 United States is agreeing with France and current G-20 leader Mexico to possibly hold the first meeting of the rapid response forum created as a result...

Politics of Ethanol The Des Moines Register chides President Obama for visiting Iowa and highlighting his differences with Republican rival Mitt Romney ove...

General Comments Markets were mixed in the night session with soybeans trading as much as 13-15 cents lower at one point. The tenor of the markets changed...

We might have to reduce corn acres in the U.S. in 2013 because of a potential planting seed shortage. Seed was very tight in 2012 because of the big incr...

Argentina Reportedly Pressuring Grain Exporters to Sell Stocks I wrote on Tuesday that the Argentine government's dire need for tax revenue and foreign exc...

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...

RFS Waiver on the Clock, or Will Be Soon Southern Governors Mike Beebe (D-Arkansas) and Beverly Purdue (D-North Carolina) this week have joined Maryland an...

Corn Argentine corn basis levels are weaker this week, especially for spot shipments (August and September) where seller's ideas are in the -65 CZ to -70 C...

Russian Grain Markets: 7-14 August, 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Harvest As of 14 August, grains and leguminous crops have been harvested on 21,062,800 hectare...

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 Demand rationing markets can be particularly difficult to trade. Greater emphasis needs to be placed on factors such as basis because the...

It seems ironic that established government policy can have the opposite effect of its stated objectives. For example, the vast majority of congressional r...

Shorting the Market The Thai Ministry of Commerce is reportedly assembling its ASEAN counterparts to negotiate the creation of a trading cartel in rice. Ap...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE At long last Egypt was back in the wheat market, validating the forecast of several experts. Egypt's GASC bought 120,000 MT of Ru...

All the Wrong Hunger Targets Owen Barder with the Center for Global Development pegs it when he points to the errors in policymakers' approaches to global...

Argentina Eliminates All Export Incentives for Biodiesel Last Friday the Argentine government in a surprise move acted to immediately raise the export tax...

General Comments Corn and soy markets tried hard to make it a "Turnaround Tuesday." Prices firmed slightly in overnight trade, and this continued into the...

The August WASDE confirmed -- if there was any doubt -- that drought-reduced production of U.S. soybeans and corn in 2012 absolutely will require that dome...

The American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) last Friday held its convention in Omaha, Nebraska. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack spoke to ACE members shortly...

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...

Sugar Undermines TPP Former U.S. agricultural trade negotiator Jim Grueff says U.S. aggies are already ambivalent about a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) a...

General Comments Despite the tightest potential supply/demand situation facing U.S. grains and soybeans in many, many years, grain and soy markets found ve...

The long awaited August WASDE has come and gone. Even though USDA's surveys confirmed huge yield and production losses for corn and soybeans that exceeded...

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...

This weekend, presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney chose Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) to be his vice presidential running mate...

Parliamentary Panel Junks GM Crops, Asks For Complete Ban Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of Bt cotton's introduction in India is the release of a par...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea milling wheat market remains quiet due to slow demand from the major destinations. The Russian government has decided not to in...

General Comments Corn got all dressed up today and had nowhere to go. The WASDE report was bullish in comparison to the average analysts' expectations. Pri...

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

Somewhere in the White House and the USDA cage, people realized that USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack's invitation to speak to the American Coalition for Ethanol...

Bulls looking for affirmation in today's WASDE report were not disappointed. USDA slashed its corn and soybean production estimates. While the market alrea...

The law of unintended consequences endlessly reveals itself in public policymaking, particularly in areas where it is most market distorting. Mandating the...