Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Hedge funds turned less downbeat over wheat futures ahead of last week's data showing a surprise slump in US sowings, potentially limiting the prospects of further price rises, but appear caught out in cotton. Managed money, a proxy for speculators, hiked its net long position in futures and options in the top 13 US-traded agricultural commodities, from coffee to corn, by more than 95,000 contracts in the week to last Tuesday, analysis of data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission regulator shows.
In his annual message, John Deere's Chairman, Sam Allen, described the company's long-term prospects as "bullish," but added, "We don't mean to minimize the challenges we're facing at the present time there are signs that some of our key markets may be approaching a bottom, but we are not anticipating a turnaround in 2017." USDA's most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates released on Jan. 12, provided some credence to Allen's remarks.
Secretary Tom Vilsack left the Agriculture Department a week before his tenure ends and before President-elect Donald Trump has chosen his replacement. Vilsack, who has led USDA for eight years and was President Barack Obama's longest-serving Cabinet secretary, told employees in an email that Friday is his final day.
In the middle of 2016, prices for the pulse crop had plunged from record highs on the outlook for large global harvests. Now, the curry-and-soup food staple has rebounded more than 40 percent since August after rain and snow damaged a bumper crop in Canada, the world's top exporter.
In this Dec. 28, 2016, file photo, customers look at eggs at a discount store in Seoul, South Korea, a day after government officials announced that millions of chickens would be culled because of an outbreak of bird flu. Because of the spreading bird flu outbreak, South Korea has asked the United States for the first time to ship it shell eggs.
Schoolchildren watch as the California sea lions are fed fish at the Central Park Zoo in New York on January 10, 2007. Children keep getting more expensive to raise -- fashion is pricier and so are doctor visits and day care, according to the U.S. government.
Children keep getting more expensive to raise - fashion is pricier and so are doctor visits and day care, according to the U.S. government. At least food's still relatively cheap.
The Department of Agriculture says the estimated cost of raising a child from birth through age 17 is $233,610, or as much as almost $14,000 annually. That's the average for a middle-income couple with two children.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a pilot program that would allow participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to purchase groceries online. Seven retailers will begin accepting food stamps online as part of an effort to make healthy food more available to Americans dependent on the SNAP program.
Chicago Board of Trade agriculture grains futures finished mixed on Friday with Corn, Wheat futures finishing the last trading day of the year on a high note. Wheat futures are lifted by a setback in the USD, which in theory makes US grains more competitive, and strong weekly exports .
University of California-Davis plant geneticist Jorge Dubcovsky examines one of the wheat plants being raised in an indoor growth chamber. Photo courtesy of Karin Higgins/UC Davis DAVIS, CALIFORNIA, U.S. - With funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture , researchers are attempting to identify and characterize the genes controlling wheat yield.
Sonny Perdue III, the former governor of Georgia, is president-elect Donald Trump's leading candidate to be his U.S. secretary of agriculture, according to a person familiar with the matter. Perdue, 70, would succeed secretary Tom Vilsack.
Readers who aren't part of the "settled science" warmist community should probably keep in mind how the "Global Warming" science became "settled." Don't think in terms of universal application and agreement, like the law of gravity, but more in terms of a coup.
U.S. officials are urgently seeking an agreement with South Korea that would allow imports of American eggs so farmers can cash in on a shortage caused by the Asian country's worst-ever outbreak of bird flu. The two sides are negotiating over terms of potential shipments after South Korea lifted a ban on imports of U.S. table eggs that it imposed when the United States grappled with its own bout of bird flu last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Bonilla made his comments Friday after traveling to Florida for a meeting at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, telling reporters that the meeting "went very well" and that he remains under consideration for the post. "I didn't ask him about other interviews or who else has been through here but I sense that they're close to making a decision, they've got quite a few people, that's my understanding."
The Buenos Aires Grain Exchange reported that Argentina's corn planting was about 71.3 percent done. U.S. Corn used for last week's ethanol production totaled 107.94 million bushels, for the crop year total corn used for ethanol production is now 1.71 billion bushels.
The Tama County Farm Service Agency Office is pleased to welcome Darren Thiessen as a member of the County Committee. The Farm Service Agency is a part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and provides financial assistance through disaster assistance, conservation, commodity and price support programs, and farm loans.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced a new policy designed to allow farmers to take land out of a conservation program early if it is to be transferred to the next generation of farmers. Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary Lanon Baccam says beginning Jan. 9, the USDA will offer an early termination opportunity for certain Conservation Reserve Program contracts.