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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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: 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...

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

  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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

General Comments The 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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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'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...

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...

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

This week'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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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...

Those in conventional energy markets believe that if not for its adverse politics, there are plenty of philosophers in Washington who would raise the price...

EU Proposals Will Exclude Soyoil and Palm Oil as Biodiesel Feedstocks The EU Commission has put forward a "College Orientation Debate" paper offering two 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...

News Updates CORN FLOUR QUALITY PROBLEMS After many consumer complaints, the Tanzanian government is looking into the quality of maize flour available in t...

General Comments When USDA reported that as of last Sunday 53 percent of the intended corn acreage had been planted, it provided a pretty clear signal to g...

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...

If one wishes to attract attention, one of the best ways is to be successful. Said another way, success attracts attention, whether or not it is wanted. Su...

The hard red winter wheat crop quality tour begins tomorrow and tour participants will see a very good looking U.S. winter wheat crop. In fact, some crop f...

New Grain Production Estimates The government of India (GOI) released its third advance estimates on 23 April, putting 2011/12 grain production at 252.56 M...

Substitution of Feed Wheat for Corn Continues to Surge on High Corn Prices Fueled by record corn prices and abundant wheat stocks totalling 50 MMT, substit...

General Comments Grain and oilseed markets were firm in the Sunday evening session until Europe came to work with another dose of financial worries. That s...

U.S. lawmakers risk compromising "enormous progress" if they fail to pass a farm bill this year, said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack on Friday, 20 April.Accord...

Dissecting BSE Barriers: South Korea and Japan have domestic policies far more driven to close off their respective import markets in the event of BSE case...

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...

Cotton Challenge from Brazil: The Senate Agriculture Committee's version of a new cotton program in the 2012 Farm Bill is unlikely to placate Brazil in its...

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

Will farmers will stick to the planted acres reflected in the March planting intentions report or will they make significant changes based on weather or ma...

General Comments There were two bullish factors in today's markets: USDA announced another major round of corn and soybean export sales to China and "unkno...

The Senate Agriculture Committee yesterday completed the 2012 Farm Bill markup in one session. The Commodity Title is based on the same outline we reported...

General Comments Today's market action was what some analysts like to refer to as "consolidation." This is a term that is frequently used when there is not...

Mad Cow: 2003 versus 2012 What a difference a decade makes. The discovery of a BSE-infected dairy cow in California, the fourth case in the U.S., this week...

Soybeans BRAZIL Brazilian soybeans are almost out of stock. In the past few weeks, several cargoes of soybeans were sold abroad. Chinese demand has been pa...

Large U.S. Export Sales Today's USDA export sales report once again showed U.S. exporters made large sales last week. The report indicated U.S. exporters s...

Inefficiency Beneficial: The organic food industry issued an Orwellian report yesterday proudly claiming that "[p]roducing U.S. foods organically creates 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...

Indexes that track the prices of a specified group of commodities have become the subject of considerable controversy ever since 2008, when commodity price...

Longer Farm Bill Delay: As predicted by Dave Juday in yesterday's report, the Senate farm bill is too weighted down to move quickly. Over 120 amendments we...

Russian Grain Markets: 16-20 April 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting UpdatesAs of 24 April, spring crops were planted on 4,322,900 hectares (76 percent mor...

General Comments Once again the overnight e-session opened lower, then quickly recovered on renewed non-commercial buying. Soybeans were the leader on repo...

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 Stats Canada released its first estimate of planted crop areas today, and the estimates were pretty much as expected. All wheat acres were...

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a new cost estimate of the proposed Senate farm bill. Over the course of 10 years it would save $26.4 billio...

Spain Retaliates As expected, Spain adopted legislation specifying that only EU-origin biodiesel can be used to satisfy that its biodiesel blending require...

Every so often we like to look at where markets have been, and what have been the factors that have influenced them. Hopefully, this gives us a sense of wh...

  News Updates KAZAKHSTAN AND IRAN Iran reportedly is very interested in importing grain from Kazakhstan and will build grain elevators to handle the...

  News Updates KAZAKHSTAN AND IRAN Iran reportedly is very interested in importing grain from Kazakhstan and will build grain elevators to handle 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...

General Comments The world's financial markets were miserable overnight and today with sharp losses posted everywhere. The French election coupled with the...

Doha Still Choking: A WTO agreement at last week's meeting in Mexico to pursue trade facilitation assistance to developing countries is being fist-pumped a...

As we reported on Friday, the Senate released its 2012 Farm Bill proposal late on Friday. At the time of this report a revised draft is expected, though li...

The latest bearish exercise in the corn market is talk that the early planted 2012 corn crop also will be harvested early. That certainly makes some sense,...

Corn Planting Area to Rise 2 Percent in 2012, Soy Area to Drop 11 Percent A Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) survey and analysis of 2012 planting inte...

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...

Is Higher MSP One Way to Offset Exports? The chairman of the Commission on Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) has recommended increasing the minimum supp...

John Baize yesterday wrote about the increasing pace of U.S. soybean export sales and the general tightening of the world oilseed markets, including both s...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea remained nearly unchanged this week despite the volatility in the U.S. futures. The focus is progressively shifti...

Senate Farm Bill Proposal: It will take time to analyze the 2012 Farm Bill proposal released late this afternoon but there are no initial surprises. Direct...

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 This was a week in which trading was heavily influenced by adjustments of spread positions. The nearby May and July corn contracts held mo...

The Senate Agriculture Committee today released a draft of the 2012 Farm Bill, which is being credited to both Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and...

Large Soybean and Soymeal Export Sales Today's USDA Exports Sales Report indicated U.S. exporters sold large amounts of soybeans and soymeal last week. Soy...

General Comments After yesterday's big losses grain and soy futures rebounded during overnight e-trade and during the day session. Support came from Spain'...

Ukrainian Oilseed Markets: 9-13 April 2012 Domestic prices of sunflower seeds and products and soybeans skyrocketed, supported by active foreign and domest...

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...

Deft Farm Bill Maneuvering: House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma) was obligated to reconcile agriculture spending in accord with th...

Since the topic is forever ongoing, we sometimes tire of discussing the roles that speculators play in markets and in politics. We are sure that clients ar...

Fast Food, Consumer Credit, and Protein Demand Some very bullish economic news from the first quarter of 2012 caught our eye today. First, fast food restau...

Russian Grain Markets: 9-13 April 2012 GRAINS AND PRODUCTS Planting Updates Delayed spring and cool weather has hampered the planting progress in Russia, 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...

Big is Better; Boo to Biofuel: USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah receives praise from just about everyone who meets him, but he donned a target shirt while sp...

Logistical Problems in Argentina In past years, Argentina has been well known for its excellent port logistics. Normally there is almost no waiting time at...

General Comments The CME Group today announced its intention to launch a Black Sea milling wheat futures contract with trading to begin on 6 June subject t...

Later today USDA is expected to announce that corn planting was about 20 percent completed as of last Sunday, 15 April. If so, that would be a record-early...

Just when you think the Argentine government has done all it can to screw up the country's economy, it manages to do something even more counterproductive...

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 Spain sold a greater volume of short-term notes than expected and at a lower interest cost than expected, which caused the mood of Europe'...

Political Speculation: President Barack Obama's proposal today to crack down on financial speculators in the oil market was met with a deserved characteriz...

News Updates ZIMBABWE TO DOUBLE WHEAT CROP The Zimbabwean government wants to double the local wheat crop, though its increase to 75,000 MT seems very smal...

The debate in Congress last year over Obamacare and in the GOP primary this year over Romneycare, and the Supreme Court's consideration of the federal heal...

Congress has returned from the Easter recess to a very busy schedule this week on ag, energy and trading issues, and what should be a busy schedule in 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...

The perfect bearish storm took better shape today following a very wet weekend across much of the U.S. The rains have set aside the dryness/drought talk fo...

E15 Fight: A lawsuit filed by the auto, oil and food industries against EPA's approval of E15 gets its day in court tomorrow. Meanwhile, a House subcommitt...

Wheat Crop Damaged as Rains Lash North and Northwestern Regions With the wheat procurement target fixed at 30-32 MMT, the recent wet spell in North and Nor...

The following export inspections report was released after the close because of computer problems. The weekly crop progress report will not be released unt...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea is under pressure in sympathy with the U.S. wheat market. Last week, the Egyptian GASC purchased 115,000 MT of U...

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

Subsidy limits for crop insurance payments made to farmers have been a topic of heated debate during the last several farm bills, from total payment limits...

Wrong Problem, Wrong People WTO director General Pascal Lamy announced the creation of a "WTO Panel on Defining the Future of Trade." Lamy lamented that "y...

General Comments China and weather were the bearish market factors today. Markets were very firm early in the overnight session, but that tone changed when...

This week's USDA supply/demand report was bearish because, contrary to widespread belief, USDA made no changes to the ending stocks number. That erroneous...

Darden Restaurants announced its plans to build a spiny lobster farm in eastern Borneo. The Orlando-based company operates several restaurant chains, inclu...

General Comments The InterContinental Exchange (ICE) announced that subject to CFTC approval it plans to launch new futures contracts for corn, wheat, soyb...

FDA Issues Guidance on Antibiotics A number of environmental groups last year filed a lawsuit requiring that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdra...

Wheat ARGENTINA The Argentine government apparently will not release any additional export licenses for wheat in the present campaign. Although there was n...

Food Aid Fight: Farmers are debating between four different commodity support options for the 2012 Farm Bill, but the largest expenditure category by USDA...

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 we have commented before, the market has had a chance to study the April WASDE, and the focus has now shifted to weather, new crop prospects, the Chines...

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

General Comments After yesterday's financial market doom and gloom, things did not look quite as bad today. Interest rates on Spanish debt dropped below 5...

Russian Grain Market: 2-6 April 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Planting Updates According to information received from the Ministry of Agriculture on 10...

Representative Tim Huelskamp (R-Kansas) wants to add a regulatory title to the farm bill. The congressman last fall introduced legislation called "Freeing...

News Updates IMF AND EGYPT: CHAPTER 14 The IMF saga in Egypt continues. A loan advance seems to be impossible with the current situation in the North Afric...

General Comments USDA's April WASDE basically told the market what it already knew or already assumed. It provided nothing new for markets to trade on, unl...

As far as markets are concerned, USDA's April WASDE is not a game changer. Some of the changes from the March WASDE exceeded expectations, and some did not...

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...

No Big Surprises for Soy in WASDE Report Today's USDA world supply and demand estimates report contained no big surprises for soybeans and soybean products...

Information Markets and Politics Information providers are generally keen on anything that contributes to understanding. Thus, there is disappointment 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...

The 30 March USDA quarterly stocks reports indicated that we should see reductions in the ending supply estimates for corn, soybeans and wheat in tomorrow'...

If the Senate had taken up the farm bill as it had originally planned, then the farm bill would be marked up in Ag Committee by now. Indeed, the plan was t...

General Comments Markets started the Sunday evening session very strong, with soybeans posting double-digit gains and wheat and corn 4-6 cents higher. Thos...

India's Pulse Imports to Reach 3.5 MMT India, the world's biggest buyer of pulses (lentils), in 2010/11 reduced its imports to 2.7 MMT because farmers, enc...

It is axiomatic that when freely traded market prices move up or down -- no matter for what -- some people will always be made unhappy. We have often said...

General Comments Note: Grain and soy futures markets will be closed tomorrow, Friday, 6 April, for the Easter holiday as will most financial markets (and W...

Large Soybean and Soymeal Sales Reported by USDA Today's USDA export sales reported indicated U.S. exporters recorded large sales of soybeans and soymeal 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...

Purported Solutions: Members of Congress are reportedly getting an earful from constituents over the price of gasoline. Republicans are saying the solution...

FX and Brazilian Pork Currency fluctuations are impacting the Brazilian pork sector -- for the better. The average price of pork in Brazil in March was $2...

For some months now, the fertilizer industry has been full of anticipation for the U.S. 2012 spring planting season. The considerations were pretty simple,...

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

Russian Grain Market: 26-30 March 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR As of 3 April, Russia began planting early grains and leguminous crops -- barley, oats a...

Wheat ARGENTINA The old crop wheat market showed some movement once again. Demand came from African countries, with North Africa taking 11.5 percent protei...

Farm Policy CAP: EU Commission proposals to impose payment limitations on direct payments is running into resistance as some suggest that farmers will mere...

General Comments Even though the Spanish government yesterday put forward a package of tight budget and spending reforms, today's Spanish bond auction rece...

News Updates EGYPT AND FUEL Much like the recent fuel crisis in the UK, Egypt's fuel shortage continues to create complications. The Egyptian government ha...

Echoes of USDA's report on 1 March planting intentions and quarterly stocks estimates are still reverberating, and no doubt they will continue to do so. We...

The Clean Air Act and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations require that gasoline and diesel fuels as well as fuel additives for use in highway...

General Comments Other than another round of South American crop estimates, there has not been much in the way of fresh input for grain and soy markets. Ch...

South American Soy Crop Forecasts Reduced Further The drought in South America continues to take its toll, according to crop analysts. Yesterday the Brazil...

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...

World Bank Money Train Outgoing World Bank President Robert Zoellick said he was OK with the BRICS countries seeking to form their own international develo...

Love, Food and Deception More rants on the lies that are told about the agrifood system, and those who seek to deceive us. A Wheat Market Surplus The era 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...

Last Friday's USDA reports threw another major curve ball at the markets just when the market bears were getting comfortable in with their bearish frame of...

As we've noted many times, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has waived the statutory cellulosic biofuel mandate for three straight years, but has...

Expansion in Dry Milling Sector Adds to Grain Prices Until recently, potable alcohol for blending in whiskey and pharmaceuticals was derived from molasses...

If ever there were evidence of the shortage of science degrees in America, consumers' anxiety over the content delivered by the food system would be exhib...

General Comments Soybean futures continued to roll higher today, with gains exceeding 30 cents a bushel at one point during the session. Corn didn't punch...

Another step toward making E15 a reality has been made. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved the model misfueling mitigation plan (MMP) 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'...

General Comments Funds (and others) have been major sellers of grain and oilseed futures ahead of today's USDA acreage and quarterly stocks reports. The ma...

Today's USDA reports offered something for everyone, but there were some very significant surprises. The first and most bearish surprise was that U.S. farm...

Milling Wheat The milling wheat market was quiet this week in anticipation of the important USDA report. The rising temperatures and rain in Russia and Ukr...

Argentina's Soybean Crop Likely Fewer Than 44 MMT The most recent reports, including one from a large soybean processor, from Argentina indicate that the c...

U.S. to Appeal COOL Case in WTO The U.S. Trade Representative has announced that the U.S. will appeal the WTO's November 2011 ruling against country of ori...

Who Takes the Long Side? It is too often unclear whether commentary from politicians is based on the required expediency of their craft, or reflects actual...

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 we and the markets wait for tomorrow's stocks and acreage reports, it seems like a good time to get rid of a few other things that have occurred to us b...

General Comments It was more of the same for commodity and financial markets today as investor/speculators again scrambled to liquidate long positions. Sto...

Background Here in WPI's hometown of Washington, D.C., the end of March is a busy time. There are cherry blossoms, warm sunshine and of course college bask...

Wheat ARGENTINA These days, wheat sellers have been concentrating on North African demand. In the Egyptian tender, 11.5 percent protein Argentine wheat was...

Russian Grain Market: 19-23 March 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR The Russian domestic grain market showed continued price trends from the previous week,...

General Comments Today saw a major effort by traders to shed risks in a wide variety of markets. In fact, it is hard to find a commodity market, financial...

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 reputation destruction that was just quickly and definitively imposed on lean, finely textured beef (LFTB) and the company that made it is actually occ...

The South Carolina House of Representatives is considering a bill that would ban the state from buying any ground beef for school lunch that includes lean...

WTO on Exchange Rates Director General Pascal Lamy opened the WTO Seminar on Exchange Rates and Trade by warning that the subject is complex, emotional and...

USDA's highly anticipated reports on 1 March U.S. quarterly grain and soybean stocks and the 1 March initial planting intentions will be released Friday mo...

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...

Southeast Asia's palm oil industry has incurred persistent attacks from Western environmental and animal protection groups for its destruction of rainfores...

News Updates SOUTH AFRICAN MAIZE DEFICIT: IS IT REAL? Recent shipments of corn from Romania to South Africa reportedly were needed to cover the latter's ex...

General Comments Red was the color du jour for grain and soy markets today. This was after the overnight session saw wheat and soy prices trade higher and...

Not Worth Its Salt The EU has been making inroads with its effort to expand protections for geographic indicators (GI), and this has forced U.S. producers...

Ten Years of GM Cotton in India: Good or Bad? Ten years ago today, GM cotton was introduced in India. Some would say that this event changed the world cott...

The value of farmland in the U.S. has been going straight since the early 1990s. A friend who bought farmland back in the early '90s told me that the value...

DRC Projects Corn Imports Could Reach 20 MMT by 2020 A researcher with the State Council Development Research Center (DRC) projects that China's corn produ...

The House Budget Committee was expected to pass Chairman Paul Ryan's (R-Wisconsin) proposed budget last Wednesday, 12 March. They did. This Wednesday, 28 M...

General Comments The soy complex continues to trade bullish South American production estimates, and the trade continues to buy soybeans and sell everythin...

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...

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

In 1988 a La Nina weather pattern brought a crushing drought to the Corn Belt. This year started off with a moderate La Nina pattern, which generated some...

Milling Wheat The Black Sea market was quiet this week as demand shifted to South America. The debate over the winterkill rate in Ukraine is attracting dif...

Livestock Decisions Antibiotics Use: A federal court has ruled that U.S. FDA must proactively determine whether antibiotic use in animals compromises their...

Because there was a lot going on in the energy world with both markets and policy in the past week, we thought it would be a good time to look at some of t...

It isn't often the WPI defers to other sources, but the subject of trend line yields can be very confusing. We have pointed out on numerous occasions the i...

General Comments Markets were higher in the Thursday evening session following the late buying on Thursday. Soybeans led the comeback on news that Argentin...

Oriens vs. Occido According to a 23 March Nikkei news report, Democratic Party of Japan officials say that the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations "are...

General Comments In overnight e-trade grain prices traded higher briefly at the opening, then sank back into the red in slow trade. This is the condition i...

Unhealthy Meat As Gary Blumenthal highlighted last week, a recent study from Harvard indicates that any consumption of red meat increases mortality risk. T...

Strike Update Argentine grain truckers have been striking since 19 March. They are asking for a hauling rate increase of about 30 percent, and talks betwee...

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...

India and Iran Hook Up on Soymeal Reports today indicate that Iranian firms have recently purchased about 100,000 MT of Indian soymeal for $420-435/MT FOB...

One of the greatest examples of conceit we know of comes from anyone who claims to know what grain and soy market prices will do in the next three, six or...

Farm Policy Simplification It is a broad mantra that farm policy needs to be simplified. In the U.S., various proposals have been made for a single, cross-...

General Comments Long liquidation in corn continued overnight, but soybeans uncovered some support in light volume trade. This pattern was the general them...

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

Russian Grain Market: 12-16 March 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Last week, prices in Russia's domestic grain market moved in different directions across...

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...

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) today released his "Chairman's mark" budget. The House Budget Committee is scheduled to markup the...

We are 10 days away from USDA's 1 March quarterly stocks report and its report on initial U.S. planting intentions. These reports are always important, but...

News Updates U.S. GSM-102 PROGRAM At the end of February, the totals booked in dollars through the U.S. GSM-102 program for Africa and the Middle East were...

General Comments Most equity and commodity markets around the world today were waving scarlet flags. Investors/speculators with long positions began to agg...

Push Local Retail Apparently the hosts of this summer's Olympic Games in London had a clause requiring all poultry being served to originate in the UK, pur...

Sunflower oil is the world's fourth most abundant vegoil after palm oil, soyoil and rapeseed oil. It long has been the vegoil of choice in countries like F...

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

General Comments Corn, soybean and wheat futures started a bit higher in the Sunday evening session but faded by morning and finished lower. Today's sessio...

In anticipation of the House budget plan, social media sites and conventional media outlets are all atwitter. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-...

A Return to Tight Hog Supplies in 2012 Could Slacken China's Corn Demand Expectations for a rebound in hog inventories and reduced pork prices this year ar...

The large speculators and at least some of the large commercials have been big sellers (shorts) in the wheat markets for some time now. Large speculative s...

Economic Survey 2011/12 India's latest Economic Survey estimates that the Indian economy will slow to a 6.9 percent increase in 2011/12 after having grown...

Business' Trade Agenda The U.S., Europe and others have shifted towards a post-Doha plurilateral approach to trade liberalization, which has developing cou...

Milling Wheat As the snow melts, the extent of the severe winter's impact becomes clearer. Crop damage seems to be worse than expected in many parts of the...

USDA Acting Undersecretary Michael Scuse yesterday testified on behalf of the Administration at the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing. Scuse defended th...

E15 Process EPA approved the Model Misfueling Mitigation Plan for the use of E15 in 2001 and newer vehicles. This follows last month's decision by the agen...

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

General Comments The market seemed prepared for a day of profit taking today at the end of a much stronger week of trade than what most were looking for. M...

The soybean market has defied bearish analytical gravity for the umpteenth year in a row. Each of the past several years has started with projections of bi...

European Rapeseed Processors Crushed by Rising Seed Price Europe's rapeseed processors have seen crushing margins fall to negative levels as a result of th...

General Comments The soybean futures market is like a runaway truck. You can analyze and dissect its movements all you want, but if you stand in front of i...

Soil Moisture Top soil moisture over the Pampa Humeda region has improved with the recent rainfall in the country. The weather forecast predicts abundant 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...

Warming Weather, Cooling Markets This week cattle prices dropped, which is unusual for seasonal markets, moving into the spring and summer high-demand seas...

Obviously, there are many factors to consider when putting together a supply, demand and ending stocks analysis for wheat, corn and soybeans. Supply and de...

GM Machinations While Europe remains bogged down policy-wise on how to handle divergent member state opinions on the planting of GM crops, the effort to de...

Rotten Meat Study Activists and the media are the usual sources of erroneous information regarding the agrifood system. That is frustrating enough, but it...

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 Soybeans continued to push higher overnight while the grains were mixed. That pattern continued into the day session, except that by mid-s...

Russian Grain Market: 6-9 March 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Planting SeasonAccording to the Russian ag minister, spring crops in the country will be p...

In the last, but certainly not least, of the Senate Ag Committee's series of farm bill hearings, lawmakers have finally made their way to the commodity tit...

News Updates PAKISTANI WHEAT TO IRAN Pakistani authorities are working very hard on a plan to export 1.5 MMT of milling wheat and 1.2 MMT of rice to Iran o...

India is now the world's largest importer of palm oil and Indonesia the world's largest exporter. Therefore, it is of some consequence that the two countri...

3/11 Policy Effects From an American standpoint, the multiple disasters that struck Japan a year ago this week were transformative. Before calamity struck,...

General Comments The Federal Reserve's FOMC finished its March meeting today by issuing some guardedly optimistic comments about the U.S. economy. It noted...

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...

We firmly believe that taking a complete break from markets and related topics is a healthy thing -- at least for us.  That is what we did for the las...

Pink, Pink You Stink The media has had a heyday with the revelation that meat scraps are used in the making of hamburger (e.g. minced meat), and has sought...

High Wheat Production and Procurement in India Indian farmers in the western states -- Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and central India (Madhya Pradesh) -...

This morning I spoke with a Central Illinois farmer who said that weekend rains were less than expected. It seems that weather talk is starting to bloom. I...

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 number of alternative fuel amendments could come up for a vote tomorrow in the Senate as part of the highway bill now being debated. This includes an ext...

Not many were expecting today's USDA WASDE updates to show significant changes, and that is exactly what we got. In general, pre-report expectations were l...

General Comments Buoyed by news that Greece's bond swap offer had almost 86 percent participation, which was much better than expected, markets were firm i...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea is quiet. Talks about a possible export tax from Russia are resurfacing again, but the government has not announc...

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. aggies give Canada's Harper government a lot of credit for ending the Canadian Wheat Board (now officially CWB) monopoly over grain marketing, but the...

Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan), chairwoman of the Senate Ag Committee, this week announced that she will mark up a farm bill this spring. Stabenow is...

Good Week for U.S. Soy Export Sales Today's USDA export sales report showed U.S. exporters had a banner week last week selling soybeans. The report indicat...

Farm Policy without Economics The policy brief "Toward Healthy Food and Farms" by the Union of Concerned Scientists uses neither science nor economics in i...

Inside the Numbers The tables above tell a story about the beef, poultry and pork sectors. Beef slaughter is down about 6 percent, poultry is sustaining th...

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

General Comments If there is concern that USDA might further lower world corn production and ending stocks that are already just about the tightest in hist...

It goes without saying that USDA's monthly WASDE is a strong common thread that grain and soy markets face. Death and taxes may be inevitable, but so too a...

General Comments Since gasoline prices are included in the energy sector, they do not figure into the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank's calculations of the rate...

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 Leverage The Trans-Pacific Partnership has forced countries such as Japan to re-examine their insular approach to policies like agriculture, and now Ta...

Russian Grain Market: 29 February – 6 March 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Different price trends took place last week in Russia's domestic grain market,...

Corn The corn spot market has been under pressure because there was a good harvest in February. This caused a drop in FOB basis levels. Cargo was traded at...

Impending Change in China China's national interest is to continue economic growth and maintain an adequate supply of food, both of which are ambitions tha...

General Comments Commodity markets, including grain and soy markets, found plenty to worry about today. First, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told the People's...

Machinery Romanticism Expanding the manufacturing sector in the U.S. has been the rallying cry of some politicians. They are calling for tax incentives on...

A group of 68 lawmakers yesterday sent a letter to the CFTC, demanding that immediate position limits be promulgated under the Dodd-Frank bill. The lawmake...

India's Soymeal Exports Decline Sharply in February The Solvent Extractors Association of India today reported India's exports of soymeal in February 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...

News Updates EGYPTIAN AND ALGERIAN AGRIBUSINESS REPORTS There were new reports out this week on the agribusiness in both Egypt and Algeria. The following a...

The Food and Agricultural Policy Institute (FAPRI) is a well-known and widely followed agricultural research organization formed jointly by the University...

The markets have been absorbed with discussions about the potential for big corn acres with record or near-record yield estimates and a correspondingly lar...

General Comments Markets were generally lower in the Sunday evening session with no support from the outside markets. In fact, financial markets in Asia, E...

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 price of gasoline is one of the new themes emerging from the 2012 election (see WPI 24 February). We've seen it in the Republican presidential candidat...

Scientists Say India Needs to Adopt New Technology and Remove Constraints The 2011 Global Hunger Index ranked India 67th out of 81 countries -- even below...

Selective Fueling Information The government has mandated an enhanced fuel economy sticker on all new automobiles. The fuel economy rating must provide a v...

U.S. Ag's Skepticism of EU The joint EU-U.S. Working Group on Jobs and Growth (see WPI 24 February) is trying to calculate how best to move forward on a tr...

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

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea is quiet with limited activity reported this week. Confident that the total grain exports will exceed the previou...

General Comments Crude oil has had a rather incredible trading range since the agricultural commodity markets closed on Thursday. Rumors of an oil pipeline...

Farmers across the U.S. have been busy planning for the upcoming production season for months. The winter farm meeting circuit is, for all practical purpos...

Two major U.S. ethanol policy developments look bullish -- at least on paper -- for Brazilian ethanol exports. One is the 31 December 2011 expiration of th...

Tyson CEO Expects U.S. Protein Consumption to Continue Decline The COO of Tyson Foods, today told attendees at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2012 Globa...

Ag Gag The Iowa legislature has passed a bill called "ag gag" by opponents that would make it a crime for animal activists to surreptitiously gain employme...

General Comments Iran has been a constant topic in the news lately. The imposition of the latest set of sanctions against the country is a stepped-up effor...

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 morning we happened to peruse the "Money & Investing" section of today's The Wall Street Journal. We do not do this every day since we do not have...

Fraud versus Whistleblowers The Iowa legislature passed a bill that would make it high misdemeanor to gain access to an agricultural production facility, l...

General Comments The soybean market extended its rally and closed higher for the eighth straight trading day. Corn followed to post a higher close for the...

March Wind Reports Tomorrow begins the month of March, which is apparently USTR publication month. It starts tomorrow with the agency issuing to Capitol Hi...

Russian Grain Market: 20-28 February 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Russian domestic grain market trends continued their upward trend. All crop prices in...

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

Soil Moisture Top soil moisture levels in the Pampa Humeda region are clearly recovering. The rainfall received last weekend and the beginning of this week...

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

News Updates GM FOOD AND TURKEY With the Turkish government's recent approval of 13 GM corn types and three GM soybean types, there has been huge anti-GMO...

Soybeans Gaining on Corn in Battle for Acres The assumption by most analysts this winter has been that corn would gain a lot of planted area in 2012 while...

President Obama's FY 2013 budget resolution includes new user fee programs that would support applying key elements of the Food Safety Modernization Act (F...

General Comments After a slow start, grain and soy markets continued their impressive rally again today with most contracts posting double-digit gains. The...

FSU to Forefront The EU is moving forward on a free trade agreement with Ukraine and announced that Serbia is now a candidate for EU membership. Meanwhile,...

When it comes to fundamental supply and demand analyses, it can be argued that the projections presented by USDA at its annual Outlook Conference command m...

The Senate Agriculture Committee tomorrow will hold a hearing on the farm bill's conservation title. Like the hearing on energy programs, we also expect to...

Poultry Sector Takes the Franchise Route India is gaining strength in its franchise business. Until recently, most businesses wanted to keep outlets and br...

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 Eurozone (Read: Greece) concerns were back in the markets again over the weekend, which pressured Asian and European markets overnight and...

Conservation Battle The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee holds a hearing on Farm Bill conservation programs tomorrow and the Environmental Working Group t...

The initial (and minimum) prices for the federal crop insurance programs are established for the spring planted grains and oilseeds during the month of Feb...

Corn and soybean markets have been torn back and forth every day this week based on the 2012/13 supply and demand projections from the USDA Outlook Confere...

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

General Comments The actual supply and demand tables for the 2012/13 marketing year were released early this morning at the USDA Outlook meeting and, as ex...

Ag Technology While activists maintain their war against modern agricultural technologies like biotechnology, the push back by ag and governments is just a...

Milling Wheat The market in the Black Sea is a little more active. The weather is improving and the movement of grains in the domestic and export markets i...

Here is a market price prediction: If Newt Gingrich gets elected, gasoline will be $2.50 per gallon. That is his prediction, by the way, and not ours. And...

General Comments The closing prices are a pretty accurate reflection of USDA's Outlook Conference comments plus ongoing demand. USDA foresees U.S. wheat pl...

Rosario Grain Exchange Reduces Its Forecast for Argentine Soybeans The Rosario Grain Exchange today cut its forecast for this year's Argentine soybean crop...

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 USDA's Outlook Conference is underway today. As usual, there are speeches and sessions covering a multitude of wide-ranging topics. Those of the greate...

USDA Livestock Report/COF USDA's Economic Research Service released its monthly Livestock Dairy and Poultry Outlook last week.U.S. beef exports in 2011 pos...

General Comments The overnight e-market for grains and soy saw a carryover of yesterday's price weakness. In this the grains were following a similar patte...

Russian Grain Market: 13-17 February 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Russia's domestic grain market remained bullish last week with prices growing at 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...

State's Rise and Threat? The U.S. State Department hosted its first ever Global Business Conference this week. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Friday, 17 February issued its evaluation of "health and emissions" data on E15 -- the next critical step...

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...

Scale and TPP Today was the start of two days of working level talks between the U.S. and Japan on the latter joining the TPP. Meanwhile, Stephen Harner of...

Low Protein Content Hurting U.S. Soy Exports U.S. soybean exports and confirmed unshipped sales are down by 29.7 percent this year compared to a year ago...

General Comments After the long holiday weekend, the overnight e-market started out higher with support coming from the apparent agreement by eurozone fina...

News Updates IRAN, THE TOPIC OF THE WEEK According to reports in the market this week, Iran has found many ways to skirt the recently imposed sanctions. A...

As we have noted before, February is often a period in which grain and soy futures markets mostly mark time until planting season for the new spring plante...

India's Milk Plan Approved for Action India is the world's largest milk producer. The country's production in 2010/11 was an estimated 116.5 MMT, according...

Milling Wheat The weather continues to be extremely cold in Central and Eastern Europe, though the temperature is expected to rise starting this weekend. S...

Energy Policy Update President Obama proposed in his budget an increase in spending on renewable energy and a cut in the tax credits used by the oil indust...

General Comments There are days when there is nothing to write about, and there are days when there is too much to write about. Today, there were all kinds...

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 chance for fast-tracking the farm bill as an attachment to the payroll tax cut extension has been lost. Congress today will vote on a final compromise...

The world's financial markets have been embroiled in the Greek and eurozone debt issues since last summer. Markets fly higher one day based on "positive" n...

Fifty years ago, the world wheat market used to be rather simple to follow. The U.S. accounted for more that 50 percent of world wheat exports, and the res...

India Do-Over The sarcasm was too dry to be understood in yesterday's "War on the Poor" take on India's farm mechanization effort, and also failed to fully...

McDonald's to Phase out Gestation Crates McDonald's Corporation, which has delivered 20 percent returns on its stock for the past five years and 31 percent...

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 The Greeks are back on again -- at least that is today's thinking. The euro bounced higher and the dollar eased, which helped support doll...

A Report from NOPA Annual Meeting I have been fortunate enough to be in warm Florida, where I attended and spoke at the annual meeting of the National Oils...

Weather BETTER MOISTURE CONDITIONS IN PAMPA HUMEDA The drought seems to be passing, but most of the damage is already done. In the main agricultural areas...

Russian Grain Market: 6-10 February 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Russia's domestic grain market continued to show an upward trend last week, but the pr...

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

Trade Policy Shorts U.S.-China Joint Fact Sheet: The visit by Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping required a long list of commitments by the two countries. I...

General Comments It was a down-and-up day for the U.S. dollar, reflecting the swing and sway of the prospects for a Greek bailout. Optimism that the bailou...

East Asia and TPP A Wilson Center program yesterday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and agriculture provided some notable insights.Takashi Terada from Was...

February is often a time of optimism for world agricultural producers, at least those residing in the Northern Hemisphere. When viewed in February, one to...

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

General Comments Like a never-ending soap opera, the Greek debt situation goes on and on. Every time an apparent solution is reached, something comes up to...

As the saying goes, "desperate times call for desperate measures." Nowhere is that more evident than on Capitol Hill, where election year politics, budget...

News Updates LOWER IRAQI WHEAT CROPS Farmers in Iraq held off planting winter wheat for as long as possible due to the lack of rain, but they have had to g...

The main factor impacting global demand for soymeal is the world's consumption of animal protein. This is particularly the case for pork and broiler meat...

General Comments News from Greece was bearish last Friday and at least somewhat bullish over the weekend. The Greek Parliament did approve the austerity me...

Anti-Meat Activist Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society of the United States may have scored success getting McDonald's to oppose gestation crates for hogs,...

A Snapshot of Indian Oilseeds Production and Prices Oilseeds production is expected to be 30.53 MMT for 2011/12 against last year's 32.48 MMT. Peanut is th...

President Obama today unveiled his FY 2013 budget proposal. Under the plan, revenues grow by 60 percent and spending increases by 12 percent between now an...

USDA today released its first, and very preliminary, supply and demand estimates for the 2012/13 marketing year and, as expected, the numbers were bearish...

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...

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

Addressing The Economist conference this week on "Feeding the World," WTO Director General Pascal Lamy queried: "First, is it safe that the world's agricul...

We previously reported on the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) baseline budget projections (see WPI 3 February 2012), noting that the CBO report project...

China's Vice President Xi Jinping will visit Washington next week, 14-15 February, to give an address on Sino-American relations. Strong friendships are de...

I spent this past week on the road at farmer meetings that took me across much of western and northern North Dakota and as far north as Winnipeg. These wel...

General Comments Markets were weak across the board today following yesterday's weak closes and because today was another one of those "risk off" days. Wit...

The market was wary of the way USDA's February WASDE would treat impact of the drought and heat that threated crops in Argentina and southern Brazil. Obvio...

Pea-shooting at­ Biotech The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications (ISAAA) report that biotech crop acres expanded 8 perc...

WASDE and More on Cattle USDA released this morning the February WASDE. The livestock highlights are: Lower expected broiler weights, with hatchery...

No Surprises in USDA Supply-Demand Report for Oilseeds There were no significant surprises in today's USDA supply-demand report for oilseeds. In fact, USDA...

General Comments USDA released its February WASDE this morning, and today's futures markets saw prices swing widely on both sides of yesterday's closes. Ma...

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...

Weather ARGENTINA RECEIVES GOOD RAINS Good rainfalls were received yesterday over core productive areas of the country. About 40 to 50 millimeters fell in...

General Comments Grain and soy prices traded both sides overnight but traded them only lightly. This directionless price pattern continued during the day s...

In yesterday's report (see WPI, 6 February), Dave Juday pondered whether this is a different farm land boom. Today we will explore some of the differences...

Russian Grain Market: 31 January – 7 February 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Last week's upward trend in the Russian domestic grain market strengthened.&...

February is a good month to take stock of where we are and to speculate about trends and events that might help shape price action and direction. The title...

Fairness and Food Knowledge, income and food all collide in a microcosm of the larger societal issues now being confronted. Macro Influences and Fundamenta...

General Comments Today's grain and soy markets had a pre-report feeling about them. Volume was thin, trading ranges were narrow and price movements were ch...

The Jewish Passover seder rite begins with the youngest person, the one least familiar with history, to ask the question, "Why is this night different from...

Ethanol Skids The ethanol industry's long run of policy and market support is catching headwinds from all directions. Although enactment into law will be t...

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

News Updates IRANIAN GRAIN IMPORTS: STOPPED OR DELAYED Estimates vary widely on how many ships and how much cargo is sitting in Iran ports waiting to disch...

U.S. Vegoil Trade Deficit Continues to Grow The U.S. is the world's largest oilseed producer. It is now the world's second-largest oilseed processor after...

This Thursday's USDA WASDE report should not hold any major surprises for the market, but we say that cautiously based on the recent history of surprises...

A preview of the Annual Energy Outlook released late last month shows the basic projections that the Energy Information Agency (EIA) will fine tune during...

Japan and TPP U.S. and Japanese officials meet tomorrow to discuss Tokyo's desire to join the TPP negotiations. Washington fully capitulated on the use of...

India's Food Grain Production to Jump India may witness another record food production in 2011/12 amid favorable weather, especially in the wheat growing 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...

General Comments Markets were weak the first half of the Sunday evening session but turned slightly higher when Europe went to work. Strength in French whe...

Baffling Trade Policy Trade policy aficionados in Washington are scratching their heads over some parts of President Obama's recent announcement. These inc...

General Comments Markets were weak early in the evening session but crawled back to finish slightly higher. The impetus for the recovery was strong trade i...

President Obama will submit his FY 2013 budget proposal to Congress on 13 February, one week late. The first Monday in February is the deadline for the pre...

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 remains firm due to very limited offers from farmers and exporters. The cold front passing through Eastern...

Today was a day of several important market stories -- unusual for a Friday in early February. Some stories were routine, while others were more weather re...

Farm Bill as Obesity Remedy While representatives of producer groups fret over achieving consensus on farm support policy in the 2012 Farm Bill and ensurin...

General Comments When buying interest began to dry up during the last hour or so of Wednesday's day session, grain prices -- and to a lesser extent, soy pr...

This week, I have been making my annual pilgrimage to Minnesota to participate in five farmers' meetings organized by the state's main farm radio network...

NCBA on Animal Welfare, Dust, COOL, Estate Taxes and Farm Bill As previously reported (see WPI 5, 26 January 2012), livestock groups are lining up in oppos...

Yesterday the EU Commission formally rejected the proposed merger of Germany's Deutsche Borse and NYSE Euronext, the owner of the iconic New York Stock 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...

Russian Grain Market: 24-31 January 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR Russia's domestic grain market last week showed a clear trend of increasing prices for...

Clever EU GMO Wording Never underestimate the wordsmithing capacity of Brussels. The new proposed procedure for member states to opt out of the planting of...

General Comments Yesterday's strong rally in the grains and soy complex was extended again overnight, and it carried through into the morning session. Once...

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 More Rains in the Forecast After several weeks of drought, it now seems that the weather is becoming more humid. The forecast is calling for good r...

General Comments Beginning with the overnight session, the grain and soy markets turned higher, reversing yesterday's losses. By the opening of the day ses...

News Updates MOROCCAN AGRICULTURE A report issued last week is quite bullish Morocco's agriculture, although grain imports will have to continue at high le...

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...

Like the farm bill reauthorization this year, Congress will be taking up the reauthorization of the highway bill. It was passed unanimously last year out o...

Following USDA's January reports, the soybean market has tended to focus on the threat to South American soybean production posed by the drought and, of co...

EPA Rejects Palm Oil-Based Biodiesel as Acceptable Renewable Fuel The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) last Friday ruled that biodiesel produced...

General Comments Markets were soft in the Sunday evening session on another round of weakness in financial markets. There is still no agreement on the rest...

Foreign Investors Remain Bullish on India Reports from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) indicate that India's Foreign Exchange Reserves had declined by $14.25 b...

The Whole Label The anti-GMO crowd is excited as they push mandatory labeling provisions at the state level. Food Safety News quotes Washington State Senat...

Last week was the first week of trading for the new Canadian ICE wheat futures contract. Here are a few details on the first week's trade. Total volume f...

Retiring Senator Kent Conrad (D-North Dakota) is a busy guy in his last year in office. He is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, and therefore in 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...

Weather is always a huge factor in commodity markets, but it's beginning to look like weather in 2012 may be even more critical than usual for a number of...

One of the obvious facts about ethanol is that it is abundant in the Midwest Corn Belt. In fact, from the beginning of the ethanol mandate through to 2009,...

Gaming Biofuel Trade barriers affect not only food but also food used as fuel. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency  announced today that palm oil...

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

General Comments It was a very quiet and lackluster trading day following a week of significant gains in corn, soybeans and wheat. This week's gains were 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...

TPP to the Forefront The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations have reignited the interests of Washington trade lobbyists. It promises to be financially l...

Packer Margins Deep Red; Beef Herd Down in 2012 Beef packer margins last week sunk to -$125.50, according to the Sterling Beef Profit Tracker, with feedyar...

No one can say that for agricultural derivative markets, the year of 2011 lacked for excitement and drama -- some of which was quite painful. Some of the e...

Grounded Bulk Carrier in Parana River Navigation in the Parana River (Upriver, Argentina) has been affected since 17 January by the grounded vessel, MV Ari...

Buenos Aires Grain Exchange Forecasts Soybean Crop at 46.2 MMT The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange today issued its first forecast for Argentina's 2012 corn an...

General Comments The hangover from yesterday's accommodating stance taken by the Fed extended the rally in most commodity markets. The promise of historica...

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...

Wrestling with Government Burden President Obama joked about regulating milk spills, but the anti-regulatory burden is an intensely emotional issue. This i...

General Comments Overnight trade saw prices trade both sides before finally climbing into the green. Fund buying and more talk about the hot cash grain bid...

Russian Grain Market: 17-24 January 2012 GRAIN COMMODITIES AND FLOUR A major recent event in the Russian grain market was the government-held auction of gr...

The State of the Union (SOTU) annual address is tonight, and President Barack Obama will be presenting his third SOTU to members of Congress. In anticipati...

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 SUEZ CANAL TRAFFIC INCREASES Egyptian authorities have reported that the Suez Canal's revenue increased by just under 10 percent in 2011 to a...

When January 2012 comes to an end a week from today, we will have gone through the first five months of the U.S. corn and soybean statistical crop year and...

General Comments The Fed FOMC two-day meeting is underway with the usual statement due Wednesday afternoon. In it, the Fed is expected to reiterate again i...