In January, Farm Credit Canada (FCC) issued an economic outlook for the agriculture industry. Des Sobool, FCC’s grains and oilseeds economist, stated market prices should be the main focus of farmers this year — in other words, trying to get the best possible prices for these commodities in another year of low returns. At that time, Des forecasted a glut of corn and soy on the international market would drive down prices, and reduced demand would exacerbate prices further. Fortunately, our low Canadian dollar will help support grain growers somewhat. What effect the present trade wars will have is anyone’s guess, so we’ll leave that variable alone.

So, let’s have a look at those prices and see what impact they might have on producers’ bottom lines.

First, some history. Here we see two updated graphs from Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation’s statistics section, showing prices for wheat and canola over the last four years up to Jan. 1, 2025.

As you can see in those graphs, the trend has been down since the highs of 2022 and at the time of this writing (March 15, 2025), wheat is in the $9/bu. ($330/tonne) range and canola is in the $13.50/bu. ($600/tonne) range. Those are the forward prices that are available at this time and the values we will use in this analysis.

Also, we’ll assume that input costs will be a little higher in 2025 ($400 per acre) versus 2024 ($380 per acre). We’ll use six per cent interest for this year.

To illustrate the situation for 2025, we have attached a scenario for a hypothetical 5,000-acre farm (see the tables). We have kept the expected 2025 gross income at $500 per acre, the same as in our 2024 article. The only other changes were the interest rates on the loans. Variable costs are also assumed to be the same as 2024, at $60 per acre.

For 2025, the interest rates used are six per cent on the current debt, intermediate and long-term debts. For 2024, the interest rates used were seven per cent for all the debt. The bottom line shows 2024 had a $483,000 deficit and 2025 could be even worse, with a projected $547,500 deficit.

Here are some qualifying factors and steps you could consider to alleviate a possible financial dilemma.

Sharpen your pencil

Calculate your own costs and returns for 2025. Hopefully you can do better than our projections. One way to project costs is to look at the history for each line item for the past three to five years and use that as a base to do your 2025 projection. Try to reduce your own expenses as much as possible and watch for market price rallies. When rallies occur, lock a portion of your crop in at the higher prices.

It’s unlikely that you will be at the maximum of $500,000 for your operating loan for the whole year. Also, all your loans will probably not be at six per cent. Hopefully you will have some from lower-interest years in the four to five per cent range.

Cash advances

Last year the federal government announced the interest-free portion of the cash advance program was up to $250,000, which may be available if you qualify under certain conditions. Also, farmers were eligible for cash advances for another $750,000 (on top of the $250,000 interest-free portion) at preferred rates, which will likely be considerably less than our projected six per cent.

Input loans

Some crop inputs suppliers are offering loans for crop inputs at preferential rates until February 2026. This may reduce your current interest charges.

Negotiate

Depending on your financial situation and credit rating, you may be able to negotiate better interest rates than those posted by the lenders. Usually, their first offer is not their best offer.

All this information is intended for you to be very cautious about your expenditures for this year. Try to save on expenses wherever you can. Be extra-careful about new capital expenditures such as machinery, buildings, land and major equipment. We regularly see situations where people have made capital expenditures they couldn’t pay for (or make the payments) and they wind up in the Farm Debt Mediation Program. So, please do cash flow projections for your operation this year to see if you will be able to make your payments on time.

If you foresee problems, talk to your creditors before the problems become serious. If you have to replace equipment this year, consider alternatives such as sharing with a neighbour, buying used, or arranging short-term rentals.

To do cash flow projections we use a farm financial spreadsheet called the Agricultural Business Analyzer (ABA), which does all the calculations mentioned above and many more. It is a really good tool to analyze your present situation and do forward projections for new purchases before you buy them. ABA is a free download from the Farm Management Canada website.

If you would like some help with doing financial projections, please contact either of us.

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Syngenta in late February announced it’s bought the agricultural rights to Novartis’ repository of natural compounds and genetic strains, while Novartis keeps the exclusive rights to any pharmaceutical uses of those same chemistries and genetics.

Syngenta, in its announcement, didn’t put a dollar figure to the deal, which is expected to close in June. It will also include the transfer of Novartis’ natural products and biomolecular chemistry team to Syngenta, plus a lease on Novartis’ fermentation pilot plant and science labs in Basel, Switzerland.

Access to the Novartis chemical and genetics roster gives Syngenta “an important source of novel leads for agricultural research,” the company said.

If you’ve been in farming for a while, of course you’ll remember the name Novartis not just from drug advertisements, but from when it had its own ag chem arm — which it spun off into a merger with the agribusiness arm of AstraZeneca back in 2000, forming Syngenta.

Several acquisitions and mergers later, Syngenta, Adama and the ag businesses of ChemChina and Sinochem gathered under the Syngenta Group banner in 2020. — D.B.

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Keep it Clean is a joint initiative of the Canola Council of Canada, Cereals Canada, Pulse Canada and the Prairie Oat Growers Association. The group releases an annual product advisory with information on potential market risks associated with agrochemical use.

Sethoxydim, a post-emergent herbicide, is one of the products removed, largely because BASF stopped making the product.

Chlorothalonil, a fungicide active ingredient, was the other removal. It was added to the list a few years ago, after the European Union prohibited all agricultural use of the product and dropped the maximum residue limit (MRL) to a default level of 0.01 parts per million.

MRLs are the legally permitted amount of pesticide residue that can remain in or on food and feed products.

“At the time, we didn’t have much real-world data to understand what the potential trade risk was,” said Greg Bartley, Pulse Canada’s director of crop protection and crop quality. “So, it was more of a precautionary approach to make sure that we aren’t causing unnecessary trade concerns.”

After residue testing at the farm level, the organization considered the risk to be virtually nonexistent.

“It shows that even if farmers are using this product according to label directions, it doesn’t cause a trade concern,” said Bartley. “This gives us enough confidence to remove (chlorothalonil) from the advisories, which is always good news.”

But the product isn’t out of the woods yet. A proposal to ban all uses of chlorothalonil is being reviewed by Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which started looking into the chemical shortly after the EU ban. Bartley said the PMRA will likely announce its decision this year.

“We’re watching that one closely,” he said, adding that the product is important to pulse growers.

Keep it Clean’s 2024 advisory contained no new products on its list for cereals this year, and it hasn’t made any changes to advisories for other crops since last year’s release.

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While VRT is gaining popularity in Western Canada, many producers remain concerned about the cost of adopting the practice.

Olds College of Agriculture and Technology in Olds, Alta., is helping to address this through ongoing research aimed at providing farmers with a better understanding on the return on investment of variable rate fertilizer applications.

“The objective is to apply the right amount of fertilizer in relationship to the projected yield for that field,” says Herman Simons, manager of Smart Ag Applied Research at Olds College. “We’re trying to help producers more easily quantify the value of VRT on their farms by expressing it in monetary value.”

The Centre for Innovation at the college is assessing the economic viability of variable rate fertilizer as part of a partnership with Telus Agriculture that’s aimed at testing and developing innovative ag tech that enhances yields, efficiency and sustainability on Prairie farms.

The research started in 2022 and continues this year on Steckler Farm, a 2,000-acre farm within the Olds College Smart Farm system that contains fields with five different soil zones.

Last year, Simons and his team conducted a break-even analysis, which factored in crop rotations and yields, production inputs and field variability. An economic model was used to help determine what level of field variability was required to make VRT investment worthwhile.

Costs associated with variable rate fertilizer applications, such as soil sampling, labour and professional fees for agrologists and precision ag providers, were weighed against the benefits, which included lower fertilizer requirements, higher yields and the potential environmental value in reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The model did not factor in capital costs needed to implement VRT.

Early results

Simons says early results suggest incorporating variable rate fertilizer in normal farming operations can help producers reduce their environmental footprint while staying productive, especially if they can capitalize on carbon credit programs that VRT would qualify them for.

He adds results also indicate a focus on boosting yields by determining where in fields fertilizer is most needed and applying it to those locations would likely drive bigger economic returns for farmers than if they focus on savings achieved by reduced fertilizer use. This is based on early 2022 fertilizer prices compared with 2021.

Simons says the research is being expanded to consider different crop types and variable rate options as well as capital cost investment. Researchers are also increasing the level of detail on field variability in the model to make it more farm and field specific.

“If we can use this technology to become more competitive, then I think it will become a no-brainer. The problem is proving how VRT impacts different farms because every farm is different,” says Simons.

“Each producer needs to look at their own scenario on their own farm before making a decision on whether variable rate technology will work, and that’s where the thinking behind this model came from.”

Simons says studies show the price tag for implementing variable rate fertilizer is only one consideration for western Canadian farmers.

Other factors that influence adoption include whether VRT is backed up by data, whether producers have seen it work on other farms in their area, and how easily the technology can be integrated into existing farm operations.

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Now, facing a global shortage of commercial fertilizers made worse by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, more U.S. growers are knocking on his door. Sandquist says they’re clamouring to get their hands on something Old MacDonald would swear by: old-fashioned animal manure.

“I wish we had more to sell,” said Sandquist, founder of Natural Fertilizer Services Inc., a nutrient management firm based in Iowa. “But there’s not enough to meet the demand.”

Some livestock and dairy farmers, including those who previously paid to have their animals’ waste removed, have found a fertile side business selling it to grain growers. Equipment firms that make honeywagons are also benefiting.

Not only are more U.S. farmers hunting manure supplies for this spring planting season, some cattle feeders that sell waste are sold out through the end of the year, according to industry consultant Allen Kampschnieder.

“Manure is absolutely a hot commodity,” said Kampschnieder, who works for Nebraska-based Nutrient Advisors. “We’ve got waiting lists.”

Sky-high prices for industrial fertilizer are projected to reduce American farmers’ corn and wheat plantings this spring, according to U.S. government data. That further threatens global food supplies as domestic wheat inventories are the lowest in 14 years, and the Russia-Ukraine war is disrupting grain shipments from those key suppliers.

While manure can replace some of the nutrient shortfall, it’s no panacea, agriculture specialists say. There’s not enough supply to swap out all the commercial fertilizer used in the U.S. Transporting it is expensive. And prices for animal waste, too, are rising on strong demand.

It’s also highly regulated by state and federal authorities, in part due to concerns about impacts on water systems.

Manure can cause serious problems if it contaminates nearby streams, lakes and groundwater, said Chris Jones, a research engineer and water quality expert at the University of Iowa.

Livestock farmers say it’s a heavy lift to meet all the government rules and track how manure is applied.

Race for waste

Regardless of the drawbacks, demand is booming.

In Wisconsin, three dairy farmers told Reuters they turned down requests to buy their manure sent via text and Twitter messages.

North Carolina-based Phinite, which makes manure-drying systems, says it’s fielding solicitations from growers as far away as Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa and Indiana.

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, has noticed the shift at the U.S. hog farms that supply its slaughterhouses.

“We’re definitely seeing farmers move toward manure with the increase in fertilizer prices,” said Jim Monroe, a spokesperson for the company, which is owned by Hong Kong-listed WH Group.

Industrial fertilizers such as nitrogen require a lot of energy to produce. Prices started to surge last year amid rising demand and lower supply as record natural gas and coal prices triggered output cuts by fertilizer manufacturers. Extreme weather and COVID-19 outbreaks also roiled global supply chains.

War in Ukraine has made the situation worse by reducing fertilizer exports from Russia and its ally Belarus due to Western sanctions and shipping snags. That threatens to shrink harvests around the world at a time of record food inflation. Combined, Russia and Belarus accounted for more than 40 per cent of global exports of potash last year, one of three critical nutrients used to boost crop yields, according to Dutch lender Rabobank.

As of March, commercial fertilizer prices reached a record high, with nitrogen fertilizer jumping four-fold since 2020 and phosphate and potash up three-fold, said London-based consultancy CRU Group.

One person left bereft is Dale Cramer, who grows corn, soybeans and wheat on about 6,000 acres at Cambridge, Nebraska. Searching for alternatives, he has sniffed around feedlots for manure since last August with no luck.

“A lot of people have put their names in for the same thing,” Cramer said.

Honeywagon scramble

With demand for manure surging, prices have followed, delivering an unexpected windfall to livestock producers and cattle feedlots.

Prices for good-quality solid manure in Nebraska alone have reached $11 to $14 per ton, up from a typical price of $5 to $8 per ton, consultant Kampschnieder said (all figures US$). A dry winter helped drive up prices by leaving manure with less water in it, making it more concentrated, and thus more valuable, he said.

Iowa farmer Pat Reisinger is relieved he has dung from the pigs and dairy cows he raises to fertilize the corn, soybeans and hay he grows to feed those animals. He sold a little manure to one neighbor and is getting phone calls from others in need.

“If I sold any more, I’d have to turn around and buy commercial fertilizer, which makes no sense,” Reisinger said.

The boom has also has lifted machinery companies that make spreading equipment for solid manure as well as so-called honeywagons: wheeled tanks hitched to trucks and tractors for transporting and applying liquefied waste.

In Ontario, Husky Farm Equipment is sold out of honeywagons. The company built its first contraption back in 1960 as a way to make collecting and spreading manure more efficient, according to company president Walter Grose. Today Grose sells directly to farmers and machinery dealerships, and he can’t keep up.

“We have people looking for equipment right away and we’re sold out for six months,” said Grose who sells honeywagons in several sizes. Bigger tanks come with a $70,000 average price tag.

CNH, the American-Italian farm and construction equipment giant, said it has seen strong demand for its New Holland brand box spreaders — essentially, a steel box that attaches to a tractor to haul and spread solid manure.

Kansas equipment dealership KanEquip Inc. is sold out of New Holland spreaders, even though prices have jumped 10 per cent from the normal list price of $30,000, said regional manager Bryndon Meinhardt. He said the dealership has ordered 10 more to meet demand.

No poop for you

Even in states where large livestock herds generate massive quantities of manure, there’s not enough to replace commercial fertilizer completely. Iowa, the top U.S. producer of pork and corn, already applies all of its manure on land covering about 25 per cent of its corn acres each year, said Dan Andersen, an associate professor at Iowa State University who specializes in manure management.

On average, Iowa uses about 14 billion gallons of manure annually, said Andersen, known as @DrManure on Twitter. He expects Iowa growers may suck out an extra billion gallons this year from storage in tanks on farms to substitute pricey commercial fertilizer.

Part of the current supply problem is rooted in the evolution of the U.S. farm economy. As America’s livestock sector has consolidated, there are geographical hubs where animals are raised for eggs, milk or meat, and where the most manure is produced. As a result, some places have too little, while others have too much and have wrestled with ways to dispose of it.

Last October, Pennsylvania dairyman Brett Reinford thought he might be tight on manure storage space over the winter. So he made an offer to local farmers: You come and haul it away, you can have it for free. He got no takers.

Fast forward six months and Reinford is now sitting on liquid gold. “We’re keeping it all and I wish we had more,” he said.

Manure could become even more precious later this year, as U.S. livestock herds and poultry flocks shrink.

The number of hogs in the United States has dropped to its lowest level in about five years, as producers grapple with swine diseases and rising costs for feed and other inputs. Bird flu, meanwhile, has wiped out more than 22 million chickens and turkeys on commercial U.S. farms since February.

But even hard-hit poultry farmers could have something to use: Their dead birds can be composted and applied as fertilizer, according to the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship.

— Reporting for Reuters by P.J. Huffstutter and Tom Polansek in Chicago and Bianca Flowers in Chicago and New York. Additional reporting by Leah Douglas in Washington, D.C.

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The inquiry stems from the Biden administration’s July 2021 executive order to promote competition across the U.S. economy, the agency said in a release Friday.

Global supply chain problems and inflation have sent fertilizer and other farm input prices soaring, limiting farmers’ ability to capitalize on decade-high grain prices. Fertilizer is expected to be even more scarce as global markets shun Russia, a fertilizer exporter to North and South America, following its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine.

“Concentrated market structures and potentially anticompetitive practices leave America’s farmers, businesses, and consumers facing higher costs, fewer choices and less control about where to buy and sell, and reduced innovation — ultimately making it harder for those who grow our food to survive,’ Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in the release.

Vilsack said in February that he hoped that fertilizer and agricultural input supply companies would not take advantage of the crisis in Ukraine to push already high prices higher.

The Iowa attorney general’s office is also investigating high fertilizer prices. Prices for urea and potash are up more than 200 per cent since January 2021 and liquid nitrogen is up 290 per cent, the office said in February.

USDA will collect comments for 60 days.

The Department also announced a US$250 million grant to support “independent, innovative and sustainable American fertilizer production.”

— Leah Douglas reports on U.S. agriculture and energy policy for Reuters from Washington, D.C.

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But this year she is looking to find another crop for those 500 acres near Wilton as she has been unable to find the fertilizer needed to grow the yellow grain. So instead of planting corn, Meyer is leaning toward soybeans, as she has been found the pesticide needed to get that crop through the growing season.

“That’s one of the biggest things,” Meyer said. “Finding something that you can use to kill all the weeds.”

Global supply chain problems and inflation have sent fertilizer prices soaring and left many suppliers sold out. Limited plantings of wheat and corn, which require heavy use of high-cost fertilizer, could drive up the cost of bread, cereal and other staple foods. And demand for U.S. wheat and corn could rise further if Ukraine and Russia engage in a full-blown war and disrupt shipments from those two key export countries.

Russia is a major potash producer and exporter of natural gas, a key input in producing nitrogen fertilizer.

Russia and Ukraine together account for a combined 29 per cent of global wheat exports and 19 per cent of corn exports, and some traders are scrambling to secure alternative supplies as tensions escalate. Read full story

Cereal and bakery goods contributed to U.S. consumer prices jumping to their highest annual gains in 40 years and tight crop supplies could keep food inflation rising in 2022. Soybeans, meanwhile, are used primarily in animal feed and biofuel.

U.S. farmers did boost their winter wheat seedings in the fall but a dry winter in states such as Kansas and Oklahoma has raised concerns about a crop shortfall that could provide a further shock to prices.

Prices that also are enticingly high for other Plains crops, including oats, barley and canola, may limit the amount of spring wheat that is planted. Private analysts have already scaled back their expectations for spring wheat planting.

“If you do the math on budgeting, wheat is toward the bottom of the list, from a return per acre basis,” said Frayne Olson, an agricultural economist at North Dakota State University.

Furthermore, supplies of spring wheat seed are scarce in some areas as last year’s drought that wreaked havoc across the northern U.S. Plains crippled production of the seed that farmers will need to plant this year’s crop.

“I have about 20 per cent of what I normally have, and I am sold out,” said Bryan Jorgensen, who grows and sells seed wheat near Ideal, S.D. “It’s going to be tight.”

The U.S. will give its latest 2022 acreage forecasts on Thursday. Analysts polled by Reuters estimated corn acreage to fall by 1.6 million acres, or 1.7 per cent, from last year and soy plantings to increase by two million acres, or 2.3 per cent. Soybeans require less fertilizer than corn or wheat.

Even as prices for wheat surged in recent days as tensions between Russia and Ukraine escalate, U.S. farmers are still eyeing crops that do not cost as much to maintain over the course of the growing season.

“The value of all crops is good,” said Dennis Haugen, a retired farmer in North Dakota who sells seeds. “These prices are just crazy. There are guys going to plant beans and peas because they can get by with less fertilizer expense.”

— Mark Weinraub and Julie Ingwersen are Reuters commodities correspondents in Chicago.

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Lake Country Co-op and Prairie North Co-op announced Tuesday they have agreements in place to buy the assets of Melfort-based Paragon Ag Service from owners Sherman Boland and Don Nash for an undisclosed sum.

The terms of the deal, expected to close mid-month, call for Prairie North to take over Paragon’s sites just west of Melfort and at Brooksby, about 35 km northwest of Tisdale.

Lake Country, meanwhile, will take up Paragon’s dealership at Kinistino, about 30 km west of Melfort, and an anhydrous ammonia site near Gronlid, about 20 km north of Brooksby.

Taking up the Paragon business “will strengthen these local co-ops by growing their footprint and adding dry fertilizer and anhydrous ammonia assets,” the co-operatives said in a release.

Paragon’s full-time staff will be offered “similar employment” with the local co-ops, which said they will continue to deliver fertilizer, seed and crop protection services to customers in the area.

“Finding a partner who shares our values and could keep our business local was important to us,” Boland said in the co-ops’ release Tuesday.

Paragon has operated in the Melfort area since 1999, selling a “full complement” of crop input products and services including crop protection products, canola seed, dry fertilizers and anhydrous.

The co-ops noted they’ve made “strategic investments” to build up their ag businesses over the past year.

Most recently, Lake Country announced plans in December to build a new agro centre at Shellbrook, about 45 km west of Prince Albert. A fertilizer facility is already under construction there, the co-op said, with the rest of the site work due to begin in the spring. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Wheat eased from a two-week high hit earlier on Thursday as weaker crude oil prices and a firmer U.S. dollar offset tightening global supplies.

Corn edged lower, supported by a daily export notice and higher input costs heading into next year.

The most-active soybean contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) ended 21-1/2 cents lower at $12.24 a bushel (all figures US$).

Wheat lost eight cents to $7.41-1/4 a bushel, after hitting $7.52-1/2 overnight, its highest level since Oct. 7. Corn eased seven cents lower to $5.32-1/4 per bushel.

South American soybean crops look to benefit from rains forecast across Argentina and Brazil in the coming six to 10 days.

“If you’re putting some subsoil moisture down in Brazil,” said Kristi Van Ahn-Kjeseth, chief operating officer of consulting firm Van Ahn and Co. “That’s going to do wonders for them on their bean crop.”

Technical resistance for the most-active soybean contract at the 20- and 50-day moving averages also added pressure.

U.S. soybean export sales for the week ended Oct. 7 were 2.88 million tonnes, primarily due to sales to China, beating trade expectations, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Corn losses were eased by a daily export sale of 130,000 tonnes to Mexico, as well as strong weekly ethanol production.

Corn markets were also underpinned by concerns of rising fertilizer prices, which will impact corn more than soybeans, as farmers consider planting decisions for the 2022 season.

“I think the inputs story is really what’s keeping support under the corn market,” said Andrew Jackson, broker at Producers Hedge. “There are growers seriously considering going heavier beans next year.”

U.S. weekly corn exports of 1.27 million tonnes were up 67 per cent from the previous four-week session, the USDA said, near the high end of analyst expectations.

Wheat eased, pressured by a firmer U.S. dollar.

U.S. weekly wheat exports of 362,400 tonnes were down 36 per cent from the previous week, but in line with analyst expectations.

— Reporting for Reuters by Christopher Walljasper in Chicago; additional reporting by Naveen Thukral and Sybille de la Hamaide.

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U.S. wheat futures rose as Minneapolis Grain Exchange spring wheat futures set a nine-year top on tightening global supplies of high-quality milling wheat.

Additional support stemmed from a weaker dollar, which tends to make U.S. grains more attractive on the world market. The dollar dipped as risk sentiment improved.

Chicago Board of Trade December corn settled up nine cents at $5.39-1/4 per bushel after reaching $5.40, its highest since Oct. 6 (all figures US$). November soybeans ended up 17-1/2 cents at $12.45-1/2 per bushel.

CBOT December wheat finished up 13-1/4 cents at $7.49-1/4 per bushel and MGEX wheat reached $9.94-1/2, the highest on a continuous chart of the spot contract since July 2012.

With the U.S. harvest of corn and soybeans more than halfway complete, some end-users are raising their basis bids as they work to draw out supplies from farmers. Grain offerings have been limited by rains slowing fieldwork in the eastern Midwest, and worries among growers about rising costs for crop inputs such as fertilizer.

“With inputs going up, the producer is uncertain what his costs are going to be. So he is selling the excess (grain) that he can’t store, but holding on to the rest because of inflationary fears,” said Don Roose, president of Iowa-based U.S. Commodities.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said weekly production of corn-based ethanol in the latest week rose to 1.096 million barrels per day, the biggest weekly total since June 2019, while stockpiles rose to 20.08 million barrels.

Tightening global supplies of vegetable oil lent support to the soy complex. Malaysian palm oil futures rose more than two per cent to a record closing high; ICE canola futures surged to life-of-contract highs, with November closing Wednesday at C$949.30; and November rapeseed futures on Paris-based Euronext rose to 700 euros (C$1,005) a tonne, matching a record price set earlier this year.

CBOT December soyoil futures recorded a higher close for a sixth straight session, settling up 2.31 cents at 64.7 cents/lb. after reaching 64.9 cents, the contract’s highest level since July 30.

In China, constant rains in recent weeks have slowed wheat seeding and autumn harvesting, a government official said on Wednesday.

— Reporting for Reuters by Julie Ingwersen in Chicago; additional reporting by Gus Trompiz in Paris and Naveen Thukral in Singapore.

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