Reuters / U.S. corn and soybeans are baking as a scorching dome of heat hovers over the centre of the country, with little relief in sight until the July 1 weekend at the earliest, agricultural meteorologists said June 25. The heat and persistent dryness has become a huge worry for farmers and the grain trade as
Crop fears trigger limit-up move in CBOT corn
ICE set to introduce five new U.S. grain and oilseed contracts
Reuters / ICE Futures US intends to begin offering five new U.S. grain and oilseed contracts, pending review by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The contracts include U.S. corn, wheat, soybeans, soybean meal and soybean oil, IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) announced. Futures contracts are slated to be available on May 14, with options available May 15. “These contracts
U.S. Corn Belt not ready to seed just yet
Reuters / Shirt-sleeve weather across America’s central Grain Belt is tempting, but expensive seeds and worries about insurance covering any sudden cold snap have kept crop planters out of fields. “We’ve got a lot invested in this crop. We want to be careful,” said central Illinois farmer Tim Seifert, who doesn’t want to take the
U.S. Plains farmland values jump again
Farmland prices in the U.S. Plains states extended record-setting gains in the fourth quarter of 2011, rising 25 per cent from a year earlier as cash-rich farmers competed for land, the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City said Feb. 15. In a quarterly survey that provides an important gauge of the U.S. agricultural economy, the
Illinois farmers worried by extremely warm winter
Illinois, a key farm state in the heart of the Corn Belt, is basking in its sixth warmest winter in 117 years — good news for residents who have not had to shovel snow but a red flag for some of the state’s most productive businesses: farms. Illinois and neighbouring Iowa — also in the
Aflatoxin feed recalls in U.S. point to tighter rules ahead
A series of recent recalls for pet and livestock feed in the United States for a corn-based toxic substance increases the pressure to tighten government food safety rules in proposals now being weighed by that country’s Food and Drug Administration, scientists say. "With the Food Safety Modernization Act coming into play into the grain industry,
Investors wary as U.S. farmland prices hit record highs
U.S. farmland prices in the third quarter surged to the highest levels in more than three decades amid an accelerating agricultural boom that has so far defied fears of a bubble about to burst. Prices hit record highs in the U.S. Plains, where wheat and cattle dominate production, and jumped 25 per cent in the
CME says storage plan helping wheat “converge;” traders scoff
CME Group is celebrating the one-year anniversary of a controversial storage scheme for its benchmark wheat futures contract by saying it has fixed a long-standing problem on futures deliveries. Traders, however, remain far from convinced. Arguing that the cure has been worse than the disease, the traders say that by tweaking the century-old contract to
In World’s Breadbasket, Climate Change Feeds Some Worry
It can t happen here, can it? The United States, the breadbasket and supplier of last resort for a hungry world, has been such an amazing food producer in the last half-century that most Americans take for granted annual bounteous harvests of grain, meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables and other crops. When horrific images of drought
U.S. grain firms tighten GMO policy, eye Syngenta corn
Major U.S. grain companies have tightened curbs on genetically modified grains not yet approved by foreign markets, with some singling out one popular corn variety made by Syngenta, fearing any trace of the biotech grain in shipments could shut off export markets. The action was taken just weeks before the U.S. corn harvest, when this
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
