Chicago | Reuters — Short-covering and hopes for improved export demand lifted U.S. soybean futures to three-month highs on Friday, marking the longest rally for the market’s most active contract in four years. Corn futures touched a two-week high on technical buying and export demand, capping the grain’s biggest weekly advance since December, while wheat […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soybeans set 2016 high on short-covering, export demand

U.S. grains: Weather fears, short-covering lift prices
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. grain futures edged higher Tuesday on concerns that unfavourable crop weather could threaten domestic production, as markets temporarily shook off the weight of massive global inventories. Technical buying and short covering ahead of a monthly U.S. Department of Agriculture report on Wednesday helped fuel the gains, traders said. Wheat traders […] Read more

U.S. grains: Hefty supply pushes soy to 10-week low
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell on Friday, with the nearby contract touching its lowest level in more than 10 weeks, under pressure from hefty global supplies, while soybean meal futures approached a six-year low. Expanding inventories and concerns about sluggish demand also pushed front-month corn futures to their lowest price in more […] Read more

U.S. grains: Wheat lowest since June 2010 on bumper supplies
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures sank to 5-1/2-year lows on Wednesday under pressure from large global supplies and sluggish demand, in the markets’ fifth consecutive session of declines. Corn and soybean futures each fell for a second day, pressured by the prospect of bumper crops in South America coming to market. Follow-through selling […] Read more

Cargill to stop selling seed, inputs in Black Sea region
Chicago | Reuters –– Cargill will stop selling seeds, fertilizer and crop chemicals to farmers in the Black Sea region, as the global trader continues to cut back operations in the face of sliding commodity prices. The 150-year old company, one of the world’s largest privately held corporations, is in the middle of a restructuring […] Read more

U.S. grains: Wheat drops to lowest since 2010 on record supply estimate
Chicago | Reuters –– U.S. wheat futures dropped to their lowest level since 2010 after the U.S. government on Thursday said year-end global supplies would be the biggest in history. Prices crumbled as the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s forecasts for record-large world wheat production and ending stocks fuelled fears about excessive inventories. Concerns about large […] Read more

U.S. grains: Soybeans set new 2016 low as rains hit dry Argentina
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures slid to seven-week lows on Monday after weekend rains across major exporter Argentina reduced the likelihood that dry weather would curb yields. Wheat futures dropped to a one-month low and corn dropped to its lowest level in three weeks as losses in other markets, including equities and energy, […] Read more

Online cattle auction aims to shake up U.S. market
San Diego | Reuters — A proposal for an online auction that could shake up the U.S. pricing model for cattle is set to make its public debut on Friday after a test run last week, with the support of a unit of the world’s largest meatpacker. Producers have worried for years that the country’s […] Read more

U.S. deploys new bird flu plan to protect humans, poultry
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. farm and health officials are racing to assess the threat that a type of bird flu never before seen in the country poses to humans and poultry, employing emergency plans drawn up in the wake of a devastating outbreak in birds last year. The federal government sprang into action on […] Read more

U.S. finds first avian flu in poultry since June
Chicago | Reuters –– An Indiana turkey flock has been infected with a deadly type of bird flu in the first new case of the disease in U.S. poultry since June, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Friday. The flock in Dubois County, Indiana, was infected with a highly pathogenic (“high-path”) strain of H7N8, […] Read more