Chicago | Reuters — Bargain buying and a major sale of U.S. soy to Mexico on Wednesday helped lift U.S. soybean futures for a second day, traders said, while corn and wheat futures slipped. Soybeans are recovering after the most actively traded contract last week fell to its lowest price in nearly 10 years. The […] Read more
U.S. grains: Soybeans rise on bargain buying, sale to Mexico
U.S. grains: Soybeans top one-month high in turnaround from losses
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures climbed to their highest in more than a month on Tuesday in a turnaround from recent declines that were driven by concerns about the U.S.-China trade dispute hurting American exports. Corn futures also set a one-month high, while wheat pulled back from a one-month high reached on Monday. […] Read more
U.S. grains: Corn, wheat surpass one-month highs
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. corn and wheat futures jumped on Monday to their highest levels in over a month on technical buying as well as concerns about rain stalling the country’s autumn harvests. Soybean futures slumped as China — the world’s top buyer of the oilseed — and the U.S. imposed fresh tariffs on […] Read more
U.S. farmers rush to clear crops but animals stay in Florence’s path
Chicago | Reuters — As powerful Hurricane Florence advanced toward the southeastern U.S., farmers in North Carolina rushed to harvest corn and tobacco and stock up on pig rations, while the danger of sustained rain and deadly flooding threatened a state where millions of farm animals are housed. “The governor said that North Carolina is […] Read more
U.S. pork, fruit producers brace for second wave of Chinese tariffs
Beijing/Chicago | Reuters — U.S. producers of pork, already saddled with duties enacted in an earlier round of the escalating trade dispute with China, are bracing for further pain after Beijing hit the products with additional tariffs due to come into effect next month. China implemented a 25 per cent duty on most U.S. pork […] Read more
U.S. grain firms set up co-ops in tax law’s wake
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. agricultural merchants are scrambling to register themselves as cooperatives after a blunder in the country’s new tax law gave farmers a tax break for selling grains to co-ops rather than private firms. Private crop handlers — including the “big four” merchants Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus — […] Read more
Rush on to reverse U.S. tax boon for ag co-ops
Chicago | Reuters — Republican U.S. senators are working with some of the world’s biggest agricultural merchants to undo a last-minute provision in the tax overhaul that threatens to distort the grains market and starve private firms of corn, soy and wheat supplies. It was included during final revisions of the tax bill that passed […] Read more
Major U.S. grain firms fear harm from new tax law
Chicago | Reuters — The new U.S. tax law is poised to drive more control over the nation’s grain supply to farmer-owned co-operatives, provoking concern among ethanol producers and privately run grain handlers that they could be squeezed out of the competition to buy crops. Until now, the co-operatives, private companies and publicly traded firms […] Read more
Tyson to test new method to stun chickens
Chicago | Reuters — Tyson Foods will test a new way to render chickens unconscious before slaughter, the company said Wednesday, in the latest sign that heightened concerns about animal welfare are affecting U.S. meat processors. Within the next year, Tyson, the biggest U.S. chicken company, will launch a pilot program at two processing plants […] Read more
Millions of chickens reported dead in Hurricane Matthew floods
Chicago | Reuters — Flooding from Hurricane Matthew has killed up to five million poultry birds in North Carolina, most of them chickens, the state’s top environmental official said Wednesday. Donald van der Vaart, secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, also told Reuters that some pits that hold hog waste on farms […] Read more