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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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 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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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)...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

Fairly Good Exports Sales Last Week Today's USDA export sales report indicated U.S. exporters had fairly good sales last week. The report showed 105,200 MT...

It is certain that the most pervasive common thread throughout USDA's August WASDE will be that world supplies of wheat, coarse grains and oilseeds are shr...

General Comments The "official" beginning of the global financial crisis occurred five years ago today in 2007 when the ECB was forced to pump 95 billion e...

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

WASDE Waiver Watch To start the clock for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider an RFS waiver, such a request would have to come from...

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 It seems fitting as we await USDA's yield and production estimates for 2012's drought-stricken corn and soybean crops that the National We...

Corn Argentine corn basis levels are now weaker than they were in our last report, especially those for August and September shipments, where there is big...

Farm Bill Prospects House Republican leaders balked at bringing the farm bill to the floor before the August recess, but at least three subsequent developm...

Russian Grain Markets: 1-6 August 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Harvest As of 3 August, Russia harvested 1.5 MMT less grain and leguminous crops than it did at...

Drought Implications The drought has brought with it a variety of explanations and proposed solutions. The Great Drought of 2012 A drought is loosely defin...

Soft Drink Taxes Need Study New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stirred a wide array of opinions when he suggested limiting soft drink sales to 12 ounces...

General Comments We so often cite the trade's anticipation of certain reports from USDA that it has probably become a cliche. However, it would be hard to...

With drought afflicting crops elsewhere, many are assessing crop conditions in the Black Sea Region, and particularly in Russia. Rumor has it that, like tw...

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...

Brazil to Sharply Increase Biotech Plantings The Brazilian consulting group Celeres is predicting that Brazilian farmers will use biotech varieties to plan...

By now nearly everyone involved in agriculture or in activities even remotely connected with agriculture is aware that USDA will release a crop report (the...

Far, far away from scorched corn fields in the Midwest, removed from Chicago, the financial center of commodity-based industries, beyond the horizon from W...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The new government in Egypt has issued a formal invitation to the IMF to resume talks on the $3.2 billion loan. The finance minis...

General Comments For the first time this growing season, the trade came back to work Sunday evening and noticed that weekend rain across the Corn Belt 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...

Sugar Prices Rally, Exports to Take a Hit The government finally has declared drought in at least four states: Karnataka, Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtr...

While the war wages over the decision to waive the ethanol Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), biodiesel recently has enjoyed three big wins.The Senate Appropri...

USDA will release its August production estimate and supply/demand (WASDE) numbers this Friday, 10 August. This might be one of the most important producti...

Optics or Impact If the perceived seriousness of the U.S. drought is reflected in this Friday's USDA WASDE report, pressure will increase on policymakers t...

With all the hubbub over record crop prices and food inflation, we almost forgot to check in on the Federal Reserve's Wednesday meeting where the Federal O...

SEA Case Study Two Southeast Asian neighbors are going to provide yet another example of which economic model works better: market capitalism or protection...

The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) ceased to exist as a monopoly single-desk seller this week. It was the last of the single-desk government-sponsored sellers...

General Comments Markets were quiet overnight but started to pick up steam this morning when world financial markets rallied sharply higher. The rally in 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'...

The scorching heat of June and July, along with the scarcity of meaningful rains, has caused a drought over more than half of the 48 contiguous states. Unf...

Indian Soymeal Imports Seem Likely As I wrote on Tuesday, the Indian government is very concerned about the high price of domestic soymeal and the impact i...

General Comments For the second time in two days, markets were disappointed by the lack of specific actions by central banks to combat spreading economic s...

Disingenuous and Absurd Don't look for a cordial settlement when it comes to the issue of granting a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) waiver, as requested las...

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...

PNTR: Congressional Democrats still refuse to schedule or vote for permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) for Russia, and Republicans refuse to vote for i...

Corn The old crop corn market did not suffer any big changes during the last week. There were a couple of sellers still willing to see demand out of Uprive...

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 Market: 25-31 July 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS The market trends last week were the same as the week before, with prices continuing to grow but...

General Comments Yesterday it was noted that a pronounced level of profit-taking could become evident in futures contracts for the next week. Such activity...

The War Within It is no longer food versus fuel but food versus food in the debate over continuation of the ethanol mandate amidst the drought. Senator Cha...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The Egyptian government announced that the final amount of its wheat purchases from the local market is at 3.8 MMT, up slightly f...

While USDA will have the more definitive word on this year's U.S. corn crop with its 10 August WASDE, estimates from private analysts are shrinking the cro...

India Considering 10 Percent Export Tax on Soymeal The Indian Ministry of Agriculture has proposed imposing a 10 percent export tax on soymeal for at least...

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...

Controversy today heightened over the House Republican leadership's decision to move the farm bill process via a one-year extension of the farm bill. Many...

General Comments The recent decline in trade volume for the the December 2012 corn contract is probably indicative of traders' waning interest in expanding...

Ethanol Politics The U.S. drought is putting the heat on both crops and the biofuels mandate. Livestock groups asked the Environmental Protection Agency (E...

Tomorrow the House Rules Committee will meet to consider a rule for a one-year extension of the 2008 Farm Bill that "with certain modifications and excepti...

General Comments Markets opened much stronger than expected Sunday afternoon and continued to maintain that strength through the night and into today. Corn...

Drought Is Inevitable, Overall Rainfall Deficiency Remains at 22 Percent "Drought is inevitable, and the situation in August may not improve," said a farme...

A week or so ago we wrote about how farmers will not suffer significant financial losses because of the drought. In fact, it is extremely likely that net f...

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...

There is a lot of discussion about the possibility of a Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) waiver this summer should, say, the August WASDE, come out with a sig...

Game of Chicken over Russia Republicans and Democrats are playing a game of chicken over passage of permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) for Russia. U.S...

Back on 31 May WPI updated its world wheat production table and talked about how world wheat supplies were tightening. We wrote that there were still some...

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 started very tentative again yesterday afternoon following another day of sharp losses in the soy complex. The selling dried up qu...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea is quiet since import demand in the major destinations is very slow. Black Sea wheat remains nominally the cheape...

The destructive U.S. drought of 2012 grabs all of the headlines, but it is not the only drought being inflicted on an important grain producing region of t...

General Comments Traders apparently were impressed today by the big green blobs that were shown by weather radar. The green blobs indicate where precipitat...

Extremism Deserves the Law Slander: The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) is making a frontal attack on Monsanto by running billboards in Washington that...

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 Export Sales Higher Than Expectations Today's USDA export sales report showed U.S. exporters sold more soybeans and soymeal in the week ending 19 J...

Meatless USDA Says Livestock "Wastes Resources" As if having a secretary who seemlingly plans to jawbone the markets into believing that the July WASDE sti...

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...

Farm Bill Intrigue The Senate has had its say on a 2012 Farm Bill, but on the House side negotiations are hot and heavy over whether it can even pass a sim...

Corn Because of bad weather conditions in the United States and their subsequent effect on corn crop conditions, CBOT continued its rally. The CU12/CZ12 sp...

General Comments Grain and soy prices began a rebound in overnight trade after the very sharp price break with which markets began the week. The rebound co...

Russian Grain Market: 17-24 July 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Weather Conditions Because of the lasting drought, a state of emergency has been introduced in th...

It is late July and here we are again in the U.S. crop forecasting season. During the next few weeks we will hear numerous predictions of the size of the c...

News Updates As crops in many countries -- from the U.S. through Southern and Eastern Europe -- have been affected by poor growing weather, grain prices ha...

Insensitive Ethanol Rhetoric While it is still possible that this year's U.S. corn crop will be sufficient to satisfy all users, there is a growing list of...

U.S. Soybean Crop Condition Continues to Deteriorate Yesterday's USDA crop condition report indicated the overall condition of the U.S. soybean crop contin...

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...

One of the issues looming over the congressional schedule, budget and the presidential election is the expiration of the Bush tax cuts. These taxes are set...

General Comments It was more of the same -- "down and dirty" grain and soy markets. Yesterday's steep declines set up bearish technical signals that no dou...

General Comments Grain and oilseed markets were supposed to open higher Sunday on another very hot and very dry weekend across the U.S. Corn Belt, but that...

Japan Trade Deals Like U.S. agriculture, EU agriculture is hopeful for a trade deal with Japan. EU officials anticipate that a free trade agreement (FTA) w...

The Grain Complex: Situation Grim But Under Control Though there are many who would want the government of India (GOI) to ban exports of grains and oil mea...

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...

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia) released the House floor schedule on Friday, 20 July. The farm bill was nowhere to be found. This means that...

The hard red spring wheat tour is scheduled across the Northern Plains this week. The only problem is that the spring wheat harvest started last week and t...

General Comments The weather market today intensified again with no rain and very hot temperatures in store for most of the central and western Corn Belt f...

Ag commodity markets obviously are on a bull tear that is driving food inflation, but that high level of agri-food inflation may be masking some of the inf...

Markets are trying to take a breather from the super rally. We are also hearing another round of "bear" talk, most of which is garbage. Here are some of th...

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 was sharply higher for the sixth consecutive week. The offers in the FOB market are difficult to find, but...

Drought, Ethanol and Economy Respondents to WPI's online survey leaned a bit pessimistic on the economy (see graph below). Meanwhile, the drought may not p...

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

Rainfall 26 Percent Below Normal in India's Key Soybean Area Information released today by the India Meteorological Department indicated that the cumulativ...

General Comments It has seemed inevitable since early July, but today it happened. CME September corn set a new record high for corn futures of $8.1675. Au...

No Ethanol RFS Waiver There have been rumors that an ethanol waiver is in the works because of the drought situation and skyrocketing corn prices. We previ...

Pre-Emptive Ethanol Action Scuttlebutt is that at least part of the ethanol industry may decide to request a temporary waiver or a temporary lowering of th...

This has been a tough nine-month stretch for derivative industry regulators. In just about the time they had dealt with the fallout from one major scandal,...

Corn The week started out with a lot of demand for Argentine corn at -40 CU for August and September shipments, but only a few sellers were willing to push...

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: 11-16 July 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Harvest Update On 16 July the Russian Ministry of Agriculture lowered its harvest forecast to a...

Trade Amendment Free-for-All The U.S. Senate Finance Committee markup of trade bills today reflects a lot of pent-up political anxiety, much of it misdirec...

General Comments It has begun to feel as though we have been trapped in a drought-driven market since forever. Of course, that is not true. However, it is...

Soybean Condition Declines, But Not as Much as Corn Yesterday's USDA report on the conditions of U.S. soybeans and corn indicated the condition of soybeans...

Last Friday (see WPI 13 July) we wrote that it is up to the House Republican leadership to devise a strategy to deal with scheduling the farm bill. Here's...

General Comments We suppose today's market was the drought version of "Turnaround Tuesday." Instead of running 20-30-40 cents higher like Monday's market d...

News Updates On the new business side of things, there is little or nothing to report this week as buyers are staying out of the market in the hopes that p...

We apologize for raising the subject of the U.S. drought again, but these days what else is there to discuss? Simply put, the severe and ongoing drought ac...

Trans-Atlantic Differences In considering a Trans-Atlantic free trade agreement (FTA), one has to assess the impact of the divergent views on many issues 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...

There are a lot of policies and political factors weighing in on the 2012 Farm Bill. These include spending levels for the nutrition programs, the structur...

The drought across the U.S. Corn Belt is getting worse, not better. Weekend rains were far more scattered than expected and the 10- to 14-day outlook looks...

Monsoon Continues to Lag; Contingency Plan Needed After the spurt of rain in the past week (5-11 July 2012) the monsoon was 1 percent above normal, but the...

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 Markets opened much stronger than expected Sunday afternoon. The following statement from a private weather forecaster accurately sums up...

By now, there can't be anyone involved in agriculture who is not aware that the crop production situation in the U.S. has undergone a quick and extreme tur...

Milling Wheat The milling wheat market in the Black Sea is extremely firm with very limited volume offered in the export market. Russian wheat nominally re...

General Comments Markets of every sort were stronger today with financials posting big gains on somewhat better-than-expected news from China and strong U...

Here is a rundown of the amendments adopted by the House Agriculture Committee during its markup on Wednesday.As indicated by the number of voice votes, no...

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

To badly paraphrase Shakespeare, these are the days that try men's nerves and wallets. We refer to the nerves and wallets of everyone throughout the agricu...

Farm Bill Livestock Amendments A few key and non-key livestock related amendments were adopted yesterday in the House Agriculture Committee's farm bill mar...

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...

Winning without Trying U.S. aggies are astonished and pleased while the owners of a handful of worn out U.S.-flagged ships are baffled and angry over the t...

Most of the attention yesterday by the trade press about USDA's July supply and demand report focused on corn. The 20-bushel reduction in USDA's yield esti...

General Comments In overnight trade and again during the day session, it was a battle between technical bears and weather-driven bulls. Although technical...

Corn South American corn premiums continue to drop, staying at -25/-30 CU for August/September. Some trades were reported at those levels, while several in...

The bullish tone of USDA's July WASDE surprised many observers. USDA lowered its projected corn and soybean yields and production more aggressively than ex...

Russian Grain Markets: 3-10 July 2012 Grains and Products As of 9 July 2012, Russia produced 8.3 MMT of grains with an average yield of 2.59 MT/ha. Accordi...

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...

Policy Impacts of Drought Today's WASDE report from USDA, with its sharp cut in corn yields, is having several important tangential policy impacts: Ethan...

General Comments "Buy the rumor, sell the news" is a fairly common reaction to important reports from USDA, and it certainly applied to today's market. Mar...

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 As prices continue to rally for all grains, oilseeds and protein meals, export buyers are staying as far away from the market as possible in t...

General Comments 'Twas the day before the July WASDE and futures trading was dominated by a Turnaround Tuesday and pre-report profit taking mentality. The...

Soybean Condition Worsens, But Can Rebound With Good Rains Yesterday's crop condition report indicated the condition of the U.S. soybean crop deteriorated,...

Dragging Economy Down Last week's U.S. employment report was more than just a bummer for President Obama; it prompted a wave of negativity on the economy a...

As the House Agriculture Committee convenes its farm bill markup tomorrow, there is some recent data about farm-based perspectives on the bill that is inte...

We are just three weeks into summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and to put it mildly, the summer already can be classified as highly unusual for all things...

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 What more can we say about these markets, other than that we are in a full-blown weather market in the U.S. with some help from more adver...

USDA will release its WASDE updates this Wednesday, 11 July, at 7:30 a.m. This could be one of the more interesting supply and demand reports since back in...

The Need for Biotech in India Many experts, including those in the private and public sectors, believe that Indian farmers and consumers would be better of...

Drought Impact on Ethanol December corn continued its daily leap, heading ever closer to $8.00/bushel. Muktadir Rahman of Capital Economics says that if th...

As Gary Blumenthal wrote last night, the House Agriculture Committee released its version of the 2012 farm bill, called the Federal Agriculture Reform 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'...

Wheat, corn and soybean prices soared this week as crop condition ratings showed much greater declines than expected in last Monday's weekly report. This w...

General Comments Markets were weak in the overnight session and that weakness followed through until the close at 2:00 p.m. Outside market factors were bea...

Day Late and... After years of talk, the UN Food & Agriculture Organization has an initiative to develop a common standard for measuring livestock agri...

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: 26 June – 2 July 2012 Harvesting Updates GRAINS AND PRODUCTS As of 4 July, according to the Russian Agriculture Ministry, Russia har...

Whispered RFS Changes Nearby corn settled at $7.73 today and December at $7.08, implying to some that the new crop is around 145 bushels per acre, not the...

Beef Drought Looking at the cattle section of the table above (Livestock and Poultry Inventories), we see a huge increase in overall cattle receipts. USDA...

Brazil Raises Corn Crop Estimate, Keeps Soybeans the Same Brazil's crop supply agency (CONAB) today raised its forecast for the 2012 Brazilian corn crop by...

Corn Corn basis in Argentina continued to drop during the last week. Shipments for 15 July, August and September are offered at -15 CU, a 45-cent discount...

General Comments There were two signs of official concern over slowing economies from different parts of the globe today. First, China's Central Bank dropp...

Having endured four days of 100-degree Fahrenheit temperatures without electric power, and of course without air conditioning, as a result of the powerful...

Tomorrow night will see the usual array of Independence Day fireworks displays across the U.S. (except where they are cancelled due to heat, extreme drynes...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Egypt's change of power will have no effect on the financial institution's plans...

Tutti Frutti TPP While USTR denied U.S. Congressional Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) "observer" status at this week's Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)...

Here is a snapshot of some key ethanol and biofuel issues. China Drops DDGS Anti-Dumping Case China late last week announced that it is dropping its invest...

Big New Crop Soybean Sale Indicative of Buyer Concerns about U.S. Crop Yesterday USDA reported that an exporter last Friday or over the weekend made a sale...

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 Future of the Americas’ Ag Dominance Africa and the former Soviet Union have agricultural potential, but factors favor the Americas as continuing...

General Comments The need for ample soil moisture during corn pollination, combined with the decline in soil moisture levels from abnormally dry to excessi...

Higher Feed Prices Affect Margins for Small Poultry Farmers Corn prices in the state of Andhra Pradesh reached a high of $232/MT, while soybean meal reache...

With Congress adjourned for the Independence Day recess, it's worthwhile to provide an update on the political landscape against which the farm bill will b...

EU Eyes TPP A Reuters report indicates interest by both Brussels and the Canadian dairy, poultry and egg sectors in how Ottawa handles the start of Trans-P...

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 haven't had a true 4 July weather market in years. In fact, it has probably not been since the last widespread mega-drought in 1988. That particular dro...

General Comments Weather, weather, weather. It was a super hot weekend across nearly all of the U.S. The East Coast, especially the Washington, D.C. area,...

Today's long-awaited quarterly stocks and acreage revisions did contain a few surprises, but the surprises were not significant enough to outweigh the ragi...

Farm Boy Media Darlings Here's something lighthearted for a Friday afternoon. The Peterson brothers, Greg, Nathan and Kendal, three young farm kids from Ka...

General Comments Much of today's market excitement was not the result of the USDA's quarterly stocks and acreage numbers; it was the result of yet another...

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

China Aids Mercosur China wants more competition amongst food suppliers and greater food security. During Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's swing through South...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea is firmer without much activity. Russian wheat is about $10 higher versus last week, and French and U.S. wheat pr...

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...

Pork Gap Looking at the slaughter chart above, we can see that hog slaughter numbers are down again, having pretty steadily come in below 2 million head si...

Paying Twice A House Agriculture Committee markup of the farm bill is scheduled two weeks from now, and while consideration by the full House remains uncer...

General Comments Grain and soy futures market closes across the board are red, but not by large amounts. The losses are generally single digits. Traders we...

In his policy comments last Monday (see WPI 25 June) Gary Blumenthal very briefly touched on the summary report issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) o...

U.S. Soymeal Exports Sales Now Ahead of Last Year Today's USDA export sales report once again indicated U.S. exporters made large export sales of soymeal l...

Russian Grain Markets: 19-25 June 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting and Harvesting Updates According to the Russian Ministry of Agriculture, the target are...

General Comments Volatility reigned in grain and soy futures trade as the market exhibits an increasing nervousness over USDA's acreage and stocks reports...

Corn Corn basis in South America continues to be weak. July shipments at the beginning of the week in review were buyable at +30 CU (or -10 CN with the CN/...

Russia PNTR Likely The White House and Congress continue to tussle over the passage and possible inclusion of the so-called "Magnitsky" bill in the grantin...

"A Mediocre Farm Bill," featured in the Sunday edition of The New York Times, opined on the Senate's version of the 2012 Farm Bill. Just for fun, we took 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...

As Mike Krueger noted yesterday, among the 1 June quarterly stocks estimates that USDA will release this Friday, 29 June, the quarterly corn stocks number...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The Egyptian government has announced that the budget for 2012/13 wheat purchases has been set at $2.65 billion (EGP 16 billion),...

China Proposes FTA with Mercosur China's President Wen Jiabao yesterday suggested that China and the countries of the Mercosur bloc consider negotiating a...

G-20 Ag Plan In contrast to the Rio+20 meeting last week, G-20 members meeting in Mexico agreed to an actual plan for boosting food security in poor countr...

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 This is what a weather market looks like, and there is no doubt that we are in one. Yesterday's weekly crop condition reports dropped corn...

Justice Hears "Voices" In 2010 the Antitrust Division of the Justice Department orchestrated four field hearings to receive the griping from small and inef...

Wheat Procurement Increases, Exports Catching Flak India reaped 90.23 MMT of wheat in the 2011/12 season. According to new records, wheat procurement has r...

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

USDA will release two important reports on Friday morning, 29 June. The first is the quarterly stock estimate and the second is the revised planted acreage...

General Comments Markets started very strong in the Sunday evening session and built on that momentum right through today's session. Note that the open out...

This week will be one of Washington's busiest of the year. Congressional members are facing a Saturday, 30 June deadline on the highway bill. Potentially m...

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

Every week seems to be a key week in markets these days, but next week has the potential to be especially important for several reasons. Markets can't ig...

General Comments It was a very quiet day from a news perspective. Following yesterday's debacle, financial markets were steady early but then gradually gai...

Notes on Farm Bill Amendments The U.S. Senate's consideration of various amendments to that body's 2012 Farm Bill deserves some commentary.Biotech Labeling...

Milling Wheat The weather in Russia remains one of the main concerns in the Black Sea region. Most operators are now evaluating the Russian wheat crop at o...

With the Senate's passage of its farm bill on Thursday, attention has been turned to the House. House Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) expres...

Based on observation and experience over many years, we have concluded that people involved in grain futures markets generally prefer bull markets to bear...

Farm Bill: What Didn't Happen to Livestock The Senate completed action on the farm bill today. The biggest news for the livestock sector is what didn't get...

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...

Diplo-Speak The WTO Agriculture Committee met yesterday and discussed various members' perceived indiscretions by other countries, with questions posed and...

It seems that traditional Chinese medicine is primarily concerned with harmonious interaction of the body with the outside world. Herbs and foods are perce...

The Senate today passed its version of the farm bill by a vote of 65-34. The following is a description of the bill and a list of amendments and how they w...

General Comments Rains fell in sometimes heavy amounts over the Northwestern Corn Belt with Nebraska, the Dakotas, western Iowa and Minnesota the primary b...

Big Jump in U.S. Soymeal Export Sales Today's FAS Exports Sales report indicated U.S. exporters last week sold 258,700 MT of soymeal for shipment in 2011/1...

Russian Grain Markets: 12-18 June 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting and Harvesting Updates Wheat harvest forecasts are getting worse as the dry weather con...

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 Update The Senate slogged through more amendments today, ending certain payments to millionaires and capping marketing loan gains for all farmers...

General Comments Overnight trade in grain and soy futures found soybeans enjoying support from more non-commercial buying while grains traded in mixed fash...

Corn Despite weaker premiums, the Argentine corn market was very quiet during the last week. On the selling side, premiums were downgraded 5-8 cents a bush...

Sustainability of Gab Fabs The Rio+20 Environment Conference is set to begin in its namesake Brazilian city tomorrow. The event is concurrently described a...

Dryness in Midwest an Increasing Concern for Soybeans If there ever were a year when the U.S. needs to harvest a large soybean crop, this is it. After 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...

Scarcely a summer growing season goes by in the U.S. without some sort of adverse weather somewhere over major crop areas threatening to damage crop produc...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE According to the Egyptian government, local wheat purchases are getting close to the 3.5 MMT target. The total cost of these purc...

After two hours of debate on the floor, the Senate today began voting on the 73 farm bill amendments. The following is an update as of 5 p.m. ET.The Grassl...

General Comments Markets had plenty to trade on today. There were the pro forma encouraging statements from the G-20 meeting in Mexico that eurozone leader...

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 Greek election verified that Greece does want to remain in the eurozone. The problem is there was no clear majority, and attempts to f...

U.S. farmers appear to be headed for another very strong year financially. The table below shows that while net farm income might slip some from 2011, it i...

ARC Honey Attracts Bees Historically, agriculture has been presented as a highly risky enterprise, though statistically it fares better than other business...

GOI Increases MSP The government of India (GOI) last week announced new minimum support prices (MSP) to jumpstart agricultural activity for the 2012/13 sow...

The Senate was back in session today at 3 p.m. without a resolution on the farm bill and scheduled to vote on a federal judicial nomination. Meanwhile, all...

USDA's U.S. corn yield projection of 166 bushels per acre is in trouble. The simple fact is that it has not rained across much of the Corn Belt since late...

General Comments Instead (or in addition to) being worried about Sunday's Greek election and weekend weather updates, today's corn, soybean and wheat marke...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea milling wheat market is under heavy pressure in sympathy with the U.S. and EU futures' markets, but without much activity. Farm...

In one week of farm bill consideration, 247 amendments have been drafted and the Senate has now voted on two. Both were voted down: one to turn the Supplem...

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

Economists and analysts of all kinds like to talk about the interconnected globalization of the world economy. Those of us who focus primarily on markets a...

Rural Campaign An article in the Capitol Hill news outlet Politico declares the USDA-issued document "Strengthening Rural Communities" to be "Obama's play...

The Argentine Liaison Board (SRA, CRA, FAA and CONINAGRO) on Tuesday announced the end of its seven-day national strike, but farmers threatened to stage mo...

India Boosts Soybean Minimum Price by 33 Percent The government of India today announced big increases in the minimum price guaranteed to farmers for their...

Gestation Stall-Free Pork Supply A number of fast food operations and grocery retailers have announced that they will demand a pork supply chain that is fr...

General Comments Frankly, we get tired of talking about weather and Europe's debt crisis all of the time, but realistically, when it comes to grain and soy...

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...

Russian Grain Markets: 5-11 June 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS MY 2011/12 Grain Exports Russian grain exports in MY 2011/12 amounted to 27 MMT, including 20 MMT...

General Comments Weather is always key to every summer growing season, and the 2012 summer growing season is no different. We are in a weather market. As e...

Aggie Litigiousness Needed Within hours of Greenpeace labeling JBS as an intentional purchaser of cattle raised in illegally forested areas, the meatpackin...

As of this afternoon, there are more than 100 amendments filed on the farm bill with more than 200 in the drafting/planning stages. Committee leadership co...

General Comments For the first time ever, grain and soy futures markets were trading this morning (both electronic and pit) when USDA released a major repo...

Economy Threatens CAP Reform Some in Europe say that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform as presented by the Commission is now dead. The austerity...

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 June WASDE was released this morning at its regularly scheduled time of 8:30 a.m. ET. This made it the first WASDE to come out amidst the CME's expande...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE As mentioned last week, the Egyptian government reported it has purchased 2.6 MMT of local wheat and is getting closer to its 3 M...

Few Changes for Soybeans in USDA WASDE Report As expected, USDA made relatively few changes in today's supply and demand report. It did raise U.S. soybean...

General Comments It was a night and day of extremes in the agricultural markets. Last week trade was dominated by struggles between bullish weather forecas...

USDA will release its June WASDE and winter wheat production updates at 7:30 a.m. CT tomorrow morning. Few major changes are expected, but the biggest chan...

Slow Movement Moves The "Slow Food" movement was begun as a protest to the building of a McDonald's restaurant in Spain. It was followed by the "Slow Money...

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 Corn Exports An ample amount of grain, especially wheat, barley and corn, combined with slow consumption by both the domestic industry and neighbori...

The Senate has entered its second week of farm bill debate. As of this morning, more than 90 amendments were filed. The Committee leadership will meet to d...

CFTC Funding Issue A House Appropriations Subcommittee has slashed funding of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission by 12 percent for 2013. CFTC Commiss...

General Comments The midweek eurozone euphoria faded overnight on a downgrade of Spain's banks; financial and currency markets were back to the same old st...

The markets have been so dominated by all of the bearish events in Europe, as well as the slowing expansion in China, that any fundamentally bullish news a...

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

As the 2012 Farm Bill enters its second day of deliberations on the Senate floor, there is a new splinter on the dairy front. Senator Robert Casey (D-Penns...

Milling Wheat The milling wheat market in the Black Sea is under pressure in sympathy with U.S. wheat, but with very limited activity. The exporters are no...

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 Argentine Liaison Board last week announced a seven-day national strike, which began Tuesday, 5 June and will end Wednesday, 12 June. The Liason Board...

Russia WTO Accession The office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has reminded Capitol Hill that its top legislative priority this year is removal of...

India's Soymeal Exports Decline in May India's exports of soymeal in May totaled 142,588 MT, 19.2 percent below the 176,819 MT exported in May 2011. Since...

General Comments The Chinese government cut its one-year interest rate 0.25 percent for the first time in nearly four years in what is seen as a serious ef...

Farm Bill The Senate farm bill yesterday cleared a procedural challenge by passing a cloture vote that allows the bill to come before the whole Senate. The...

Trading in the CME's new Black Sea wheat futures contract began yesterday, 6 June. With this contract, CME aims to attract hedging volume from Black Sea re...

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

Russian Grain Markets: 29 May – 4 June 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting Updates as of 30 May 2012 Grain auctions from the National Intervention Fund did n...

General Comments Earlier this spring, corn and soybean futures markets became worried about tight old crop supplies that were being eaten into by strong do...

Tales of Woe The foibles and folly of following various food studies and the machinations of politicians. J.P. Morgan Chase and Financial Regulation J.P. M...

U.S. Soy Exports to Colombia Expected to Recover this Fall Last week I made a quick trip to Colombia to participate in a celebration of the implementation...

General Comments G7 finance and banking officials held a conference call to discuss the eurozone's debt and banking problems. Results from the call, if any...

It is the most basic of truisms to say that differences of opinion are required to make any market work successfully. The ups and downs of market prices re...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The Egyptian Government announced that it is allocating another $166 million for local wheat purchases, increasing the available...

The Senate is taking up the 2012 Farm Bill. Food stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), will be a major issue. As we ha...

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 Slowdown: Time for a Stimulus The numbers are finally out; the Indian economy grew a dismal 5.3 percent in the last quarter (January-March...

Soybean Oil Price Sinks on Rising Soybean Inventories and Softer Oil Demand China's oils and fats market is facing continued supply pressure, with soybean...

The Senate tomorrow returns from its Memorial Day recess for floor business. It is scheduled to hold a procedural vote on the Paycheck Fairness Act, a wome...

Soda and Nutrition Programs USDA policy forced New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's imposition of a 16-ounce maximum cup size for soft drinks. Although...

This past weekend there were some important changes to extended weather models that are worth noting. We are not meteorologists; we do, however, follow sev...

General Comments Following last week's major collapses in financial and commodity markets, the world was expecting Armageddon today. That didn't happen, al...

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...

Small Thought Soda Policy Kerri Toloczko of the Institute for Liberty, an organization that must be quite busy since it claims to be "dedicated to combatin...

General Comments There was no joy in the world's financial markets today. It started with a lower-than-expected China Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) numbe...

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

Weather has not been friendly to world wheat production so far in 2012. Dry conditions have impacted wheat crops in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Western...

In the world of commodities, a lot can change in a decade. That certainly has been the case with the changes in global soybean crushing locations. In the l...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea wheat market remained very quiet this week with no significant trades reported. The weather in Southern Russia improved as the...

Senators James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Christopher Coons (D-Delaware) have led the effort to create a study group to examine which Renewable Fuel Standard...

Farm Bill Animal Welfare Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) introduced legislation that reflects the new animal welfare standards negotiated between 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...

When it comes to supply/demand analyses for corn, ethanol has taken over the top spot on the demand side of the equation, at least temporarily. Back in 200...

ARC Market Impact FAPRI, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri examined the Senate Ag Committee-approved farm b...

General Comments Traders appear to have gone into month-end mode by organizing and squaring up some of their positions. Potential evidence for that assumpt...

Indian Economic Slowdown Definite According to a report from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), India "may not yet be he...

General Comments The gloom that has enveloped the eurozone in recent weeks spread further and deeper today. The Greek situation is on hold until after the...

Russian Grain Markets: 23-28 May 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting Updates as of 23 May 2012 Grain Auction Results from 23-24 May 2012 Russia held another...

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 Non-Compete The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) released a long-anticipated report on Brazil's agriculture sector. It concludes that despi...

Wheat Old crop wheat in Argentina is almost gone. With only a few sellers left who still have export licenses and not many more to be released, sellers are...

Japan's Soybean Imports Forecast to fall to 43-Year Low Japan's Oil and Fat Importers association on Friday predicted Japan's imports of soybeans this year...

General Comments It was soybeans versus the grains in today's market action. Grains fell rather hard and soybeans stayed in positive territory, although th...

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

House Farm Bill Conundrum The U.S. Senate is likely to pass a 2012 Farm Bill, but it is far less certain that the House will take up the measure. According...

Looking at recent market action, one might argue that bulls have the soybean market and bears own the corn market. Maybe this is an obvious conclusion beau...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The first leg of Egypt's presidential election seems to be off to a decent start. There have been only a minimal number of compla...

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its estimates of projected spending under the proposed Senate farm bill. According to CBO, enacting the bill...

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 roughly unchanged despite the volatility in the U.S. and the EU. The weather in Russia improved this week as th...

General Comments It was a relatively peaceful trading day today compared to what has gone on the past several trading sessions. This concludes the first fu...

The Senate farm bill was enrolled yesterday, setting the stage for June consideration on the Senate floor. The bill underwent some changes from the version...

Argentina Faces the Hammer The EU formally requested WTO consultations with Argentina over the latter's non-automatic import licensing and its requirement...

We have just completed the first week of trading the markets 21 hours per day. It was another extremely volatile week with prices staging a free-fall Tuesd...

U.S. Soy Exports to Colombia Should Increase The U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement (FTA) was implemented on 15 May. Under the terms of the agreement, Colo...

Big Spread between "Official" and "Informal" U.S. Dollar Rate in Argentina Argentina has always thought in terms of dollars, and for the past several decad...

General Comments World markets were mixed today. Asian stocks closed lower as early manufacturing data from China supported views that its economy was slow...

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...

Nibbling at the Edges The G8 summit last week emphasized the need to boost food security in Africa, and while the U.S. is adding private sector investment...

Farming and agriculture in the U.S. has always been a major subject for congressional legislation. We are not exactly sure how to prove this, but it seems...

Beef and Cattle There are signs that the bow-wave from high feed costs and the Texas drought have worked its way through the system. First of all, after...

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

TPP Smoke Equals Fire At last week's TPP negotiations in Dallas, USTR floated language that allows health authorities to adopt regulations against tobacco...

General Comments Eurozone leaders are trying to come up with some arrangement that will save Greece and the other debt-ridden countries, promote European e...

Russian Grain Markets: 16-22 May 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting Updates as of 16 May 2012 Grain Auction Updates as of 17 May 2012 As of 17 May, the tot...

We have been away from markets for a few days, so we missed a lot of the most recent price volatility. As we return and try to get up to speed again, here...

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 A sell-off in grain and soy markets after the recent big rally has been overdue, and a "Turnaround Tuesday" was the perfect opportunity fo...

The International Sugar Trade Coalition (ISTC) recently weighed in on the Senate Agriculture Committee's farm bill with a letter to the Senate. According t...

News Updates EGYPT UPDATE The UAE this week announced that it would be investing up to $3 billion in agricultural projects in Egypt over the next five year...

Soybean Plantings in China's Heilongjiang Province Down by 20 Percent Reports out of China indicate farmers in the country's Heilongjiang province have red...

Aid Overhaul Former USAID administrator Brian Atwood, who now leads the OECD's umbrella Development Assistance Committee, says that 30 percent of the world...

The leaders of the G8 countries -- sans Russian President Vladimir Putin -- met over the weekend at the U.S. presidential retreat, Camp David. The group di...

NDRC Announces New Hog Price Control Plan In an attempt to reverse a continued slump in China's hog market, the National Development and Reform Commission...

General Comments Sunday afternoon's weather models stuck with the "heat dome" forecast, which gave us sharply higher trade through much of the night. Corn,...

India's Wheat Dilemma The government of India (GOI) is in a bind. While the good monsoon season has boosted wheat production, it also has brought forth a h...

I often long for the good old days when the commodity futures markets opened at 9:30 a.m. and closed at 1:15 p.m. Life was much more comfortable and certai...

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...

For the past two days, the House Ag Committee Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management has held hearings on Title I of the farm bill. A...

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 U.S. equity markets have been fixated all week with the Facebook IPO that took place this morning. It was huge success with the highest ev...

Grain and oilseed markets have been all about the weather the past few days, and that has trumped weakness over the last couple of weeks caused by more con...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market is firmer in sympathy with the rally in Chicago and Matif. However, the rise of the physical market in the Black Sea is...

Farm Bill Predictions Crop Insurance: A farm bill passed by the House is unlikely to either cap crop insurance payments to farmers or tie them to conservat...

Corn Of the total 3 MMT export licenses granted by the Argentine government, about 1.3 MMT were released during the past few days. Demand expected premiums...

Since J.P. Morgan last week announced that it had sustained a loss estimated at over $2 billion in its Chief Investment Office (CIO), the business press ha...

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...

Gestation Stalls and Pizza Parties Last week we reported that a number of companies -- from Safeway to Burger King -- have moved away from pork originated...

General Comments Late yesterday the CME withdrew its 22-hour trading day proposal. Instead, it substituted a new proposal for a 21-hour trading day with el...

Indian Government Urged to Raise Soybean Price Guarantee An advisory panel to the Indian government is urging the government to raise the guaranteed price...

Farm Bill Bedfellows Populist farm groups like the National Farmers Union (NFU) typically back Democrats, but it is House GOP leaders who are echoing NFU c...

General Comments Grain and soy markets cast aside a number of generally bearish outside influences today to focus on various weather concerns and ongoing 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...

Dumbing Down Trans-Atlantic Goals EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht says a free trade agreement with the U.S. must include increased access to state-lev...

Russian Grain Markets: 8-15 May 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting Updates as of 11 May 2012Russian Grain Export UpdateAccording to First Deputy Prime Minis...

News Updates MAIZE HOARDING IN KENYA Both maize and maize flour have disappeared from Kenya's market as local buyers have virtually cleaned out all stores...

General Comments Greece and weather dominated grain and soy markets today. Another parliamentary election will be held in June because Greek political part...

Foreign Relations Cuban Relations: The Castro brothers have blamed the American trade embargo for Cuba's 50-year subpar economy. Many American policymakers...

Indian Soybean and Peanut Plantings Expected to Increase A combination of high prices for oilseeds and a sharp drop in cotton prices is expected to result...

Senators Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) and Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) have been preparing an amendment to the Senate Ag Committee's farm bill that would cap the am...

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...

An article in The Wall Street Journal yesterday (14 May) discussed whether or not the long-running bull market in commodities is over. The writer, Liam Ple...

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...

A letter from various conservative groups, including think tanks and grassroots taxpayers groups, has been sent to Members of the House of Representatives...

  Ministry of Agriculture Issues New Feed Laws for Implementation on 1 July On 11 May, the Ministry of Agriculture issued new draft versions of three...

Markets have certainly poured over the corn, soybean and wheat 2012-13 supply and demand estimates that USDA released last Thursday. Not much has been said...

U.S.-EU Trade Agreement European officials are sounding a lot more enthusiastic than their American counterparts about the prospects for a trans-Atlantic f...

General Comments The soybean market continued its free-fall in the Sunday evening session while losses in corn and wheat were limited. In fact, corn was th...

Wheat procurement likely to cross the target – ways and means to distribute and contain damage As of last week, Punjab farmers sold 12.027 MMT of wheat to...

General Comments The bearish news overnight was J.P. Morgan's announcement that it had lost $2 billion in the last six weeks from poor derivative trades. T...

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

USDA yesterday officially declared that the long bull market in corn is finished. It did so by increasing old crop supplies by 50 million bushels and decid...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea milling wheat market has been very quiet this week. The weather in southeastern Ukraine and Southern Russia has been dry. If th...

Over the weeks since the Senate reported out its version of the farm bill, WPI has highlighted some potential amendments that could be offered on the Senat...

Bias and GMO Labeling The International Food Information Council (IFIC) issued the results of its annual survey of consumer attitudes and found just 3 perc...

USDA's May WASDE had a little something for everyone. The bears, especially those who have been liquidating long corn futures positions the last several da...

WASDE: More Milk, Fewer Dairy Cows, More Pigs Global milk production is up. The drought in Australia and New Zealand is over; lots of rain so far this year...

In its first forecasts for soybeans in MY 2012/13, USDA predicted a very tight supply/demand situation. It is predicting record U.S. soybean exports in 201...

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's WASDE, including USDA's first look at the U.S. and world supply and demand outlook for 2012/13, added legitimacy to the tug-of-war...

Cabinet Changes: Objective political analysts predict that the power composition of the U.S. government after the November election will be the same as tod...

Corn Last Friday Argentine corn showed good trade movement in the FOB market. After some inactivity, interest appeared from FOB buyers at levels around +14...

Insurance Angle: Crop insurance is evolving to become a primary support mechanism of U.S. farm policy, now apparently including protection against incident...

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 It is the day before another key monthly WASDE, the "Welcome to 2012/13" WASDE. USDA will put up its first 2012/13 U.S. production estimat...

Russian Grain Markets: 1-7 May 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting Updates as of 4 May Bashkortostan Republic: Spring grain crops have been planted on 661,00...

Call to Restrict Indian Meal Exports India's poultry industry has asked the government to impose a ban on exports of soymeal in order to lower prices. The...

Thus far Congressional policymakers have assured that the 2012 Farm Bill will continue federal subsidies to farmers, consumer subsidies to sugar, and aid t...

News Updates IRAQ IMPORT INSPECTIONS The Iraqi government announced that it has terminated its import inspection program with a Swiss-based inspection comp...

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...

Futures markets provided by the InterContinental Exchange (ICE) and its affiliates are quite important for certain commodities. They lead the way in the so...

The House Budget Committee yesterday passed the Sequester Replacement Reconciliation Act, which included budget reconciliation language reported by the Hou...

Big Ag Ends in Big Squeeze The bull market will be prolonged if foodies drive food production techniques back to the Stone Age. Regulating the Villains The...

General Comments The political situation in Europe, particularly in Greece, has set world financial markets on edge and sent traders looking for safety. Gr...

High Protein Meal Prices Protein meal prices in India have increased significantly in the last year (even month-to-month), as has demand for protein meal i...

USDA will release its May supply and demand revisions (WASDE) this Thursday at 7:30 a.m. CDT. This report has been the subject of much market chatter for s...

Following are some observations on the Senate farm bill as it stands today with some of the remaining controversies and a look at a few of the other progra...

Hollande and CAP: All are trying to analyze the implications of socialist Francois Hollande's win of the French presidency this past weekend. The right and...

General Comments The weekend election results in France and Greece sponsored another flight to safety in world capital markets. The dollar and yen soared 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 The world was very bearish this morning and that overall bearishness spilled over into the grain and oilseeds markets. The U.S. jobs data...

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 battle over the definition of "waters of the U.S." has been ongoing for decades, driving the wetlands issue. Most recently, the Environmental Protectio...

This week's Export Sales report from USDA offers insight into the grain market's likely price pattern going forward. Based on historic export patterns, U.S...

BSE Update The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is asking USDA for information about the timeline of the discovery and announcement of the lates...

General Comments It has been an interesting few days for the CME. First, the ICE's foray into grain and soy markets with all electronic trading for 22 hour...

Arguably, the most common thread among all common threads involving agriculture these days is "sustainability." We hear this term used constantly. However,...

China on a Soybean Buying Spree The smaller soybean crop in South America clearly has gotten the attention of Chinese soybean buyers. To make sure they get...

Corn A few weeks ago the Argentine government granted an additional 3 MMT of corn export licenses, and the Minister of Internal Affairs granted the Chamber...

Ineffective Foundations: A consortium of do-gooder foundations seeking to influence U.S. farm bill policy has staked out very broad and very long-term obje...

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...

Unsustainable UN Reports: The UN's recent report, "Sustainable Development in the 21st century," is like most publications from the organization: a ray of...

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 limited fresh news, a stronger dollar and weakness in other commodities, financial markets and other asset classes in general, as wel...

Russian Grain Markets: 23-30 April 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting UpdatesAs of 30 April, Russian spring grain crops were planted on 3.5 million hectares...

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 Senate Agriculture Committee's farm bill provides up to $10 million per year for a new pilot program on weather index crop insurance. The provision sta...