Headlines:

  • Improved US weather hurts corn. But cotton jumps
    If the trade debate earlier on had centered on corn, and whether key estimates released by the US Department of Agriculture were “bullish” or not, it was the soybean forecast which appeared the focus of later discussion. In particular, doubts grew that the US will really export 2.15bn bushels of soybeans in 2017-18, as forecast by the USDA in its first full global crop estimates for next season. The forecast “is not realistic, given the current world fundamentals”, said Darrell Holaday at Country Futures,” a feeling only enforced by an upgrade by CONAB of 2.8m tonnes to 113m tonnes to its estimate for the Brazilian harvest. That compared with a market expectation of a 111.8m-tone figure.
  • Ag technology key to keeping food shortages at bay – Monsanto
    The oldest cultivated grain may, after more than 10,000 years, regain a bit of the limelight it has lost in the last couple of years. Not since 1997-98, when it was overtaken by corn, has wheat been the world’s most produced cereal, a title it held for millennia. Now, world farmers produce 40% more corn than wheat. But if corn’s advance has really been fueled by expanded investment and technological innovations, including genetically modified seed, then wheat could be poised for a bit of the action. While the European Union, the world’s biggest wheat producer, frowns on GM technology, the opportunities for technological advances to “give growers more crop options” remain robust, said Mac Marshall, an economist at Monsanto.

Summary:

The current planning season has been on a bit of a stop and go pattern this spring and according to weather forecast the same pattern looks to continue over the next week or so. The Midwest is expected to have rain the next few days. The forecasted rain stands to hit areas already flooded from heavy precipitation earlier this month. The upcoming rain may not cause additional flooding but it will further delay fields from drying.

Newly appointed Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue has only been at the job for two weeks after suffering through unprecedented bureaucratic delays. He is wasting no time and has proposed for the first time since 1994 a reorganization of the USDA. The measure is in efforts to increase federal efficiency per White House instructions. The proposal creates a new position, Undersecretary for Trade and eliminates the Undersecretary for Rural Development position. Perdue would directly oversee economic development programs and puts one undersecretary in charge of farm subsidies and land stewardship instead of its current state of having the responsibilities split between two undersecretaries.