The nation’s winter wheat growers have learned through experience to be prepared for more trouble ahead. Much of the nation has been in a deep freeze for the past several days. Hard red winter wheat growers in Kansas and Oklahoma are already not expecting to have a large crop this year. They’ve been battling lower prices because of a large …
Stable Forecast for U.S. Crop Prices Forecast
U.S. grain prices and crop demand for 2017-2018 will likely show no major changes, according to Dr. Keith Coble, former chief economist for Senate Agriculture Committee Republicans and the head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Mississippi State University. Coble spoke to workshop attendees during the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 2018 Annual Convention & IDEAg Trade Show about global crop …
Winterkill Likely in Wheat Belt
A large portion of the nation’s winter wheat crop lacks a protective layer of snow cover and meteorologists are saying the recent deep freeze is doing some damage. Snow cover is adequate in the northern plains and the northern Midwest. However, an Agriculture Dot Com article says the snow cover is very thin in the central and southern plains as …
U.S. Crop Acreage Still Moving to Soybeans
Farmers in the United States have been slowly switching their cropland to just two field crops. Corn is king in the United States. Soybeans have been on a swift move upward. And wheat acreage has been on the decline for about 40 years. About half-way through those four decades two important things happened. Congress passed the 1996 farm bill – …
USW Thanks USTR for Protecting Ag at WTO
Farm groups thanked U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Lighthizer for his efforts to defend U.S. agriculture against attempts to weaken the World Trade Organization rules on domestic support in agriculture. Ben Conner, Director of Policy with U.S. Wheat’s Associates, attended the Buenos Aires Ministerial. He says at the meeting India and other countries attempted to create a permanent loophole for certain …
Lighthizer defends U.S. Ag in WTO Meeting
U.S. Wheat Associates publicly thanked U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer for his work defending U.S. agriculture against attempts to weaken the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on domestic support in agriculture. The Wheat Associates organization says the Buenos Aires WTO Ministerial Conference would be a failure and the mission of the WTO to advance trade would be negatively affected through …
Farmers Discuss Trade with South Korea
U.S. farmers travelled to South Korea recently to ensure the importance and willingness to continue trade between the two nations. South Korea is a top destination for U.S. corn. The U.S. and South Korea are considering a renegotiation of KORUS, The U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement. U.S. Grains Council Chair Deb Keller says that as those talks continue, South Korea also …
Grain Exports Provide $55.5 Billion in Economic Output
Exporting feed grains and related products is worth a lot of money to the U.S. economy. Those exports offer billions of dollars in direct and indirect economic benefits to farmers, the rural communities they live in, and the nation as a whole. Research commissioned by the U.S. Grains Council and the National Corn Growers Association provided concrete numbers to the …
Grain Traders Getting Squeezed by Oversupply
Over the past few years, farmers have cut their spending due to low commodity prices caused, in part, by a global glut of commodities. A Dow Jones report indicates that it’s now commodity traders’ turn to make significant adjustments. Major players in the global grain trade, such as Archer Daniels Midland and Bunge, Ltd., are reducing expenditures by hundreds of …
Cheerios Ditches Gluten-Free Label in Canada
Cheerios cereal sold in Canada will no longer be labeled “gluten-free.” CBC News of Canada reports that Manufacturer General Mills has confirmed it will voluntarily remove the labels from the cereal boxes sold in Canadian stores “as soon as possible,” even though it says the product contains less than 20 parts per million of gluten, which meets the regulatory standard …