CBOT July 2022 wheat (candlesticks) with 20-, 50- and 100-day moving averages (yellow, orange and dark green lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: CBOT wheat, soybeans firm on tighter stocks

Corn firm, ending stocks unchanged

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat, corn and soybean futures firmed on Friday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) assessed global supply and demand, reflecting the impact that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had on Black Sea exports. Grain prices remained underpinned by Russia’s six-week-old invasion, which has stalled large amounts of Ukrainian exports […] Read more

CBOT May 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with Bollinger bands (20,2). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans, corn firm ahead of WASDE

Wheat down, but supported by winter crop stress

Chicago | Reuters — Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures climbed on Thursday, bolstered by eroding South American production and steady U.S. export sales. CBOT wheat and corn futures eased ahead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s monthly global supply and demand report due Friday, expected to reflect the potential impact of the war in […] Read more


A custom hauler spreads dairy manure on hay ground using a Husky 18000L Slimline liquid manure spreader on a farm at Wallenstein, Ont., north of Kitchener, in the spring of 2018. (Husky Farm Equipment handout photo via Reuters)

No poop for you: Manure supplies run short as fertilizer prices soar

Ontario honeywagon maker all sold out

Chicago | Reuters — For nearly two decades, Abe Sandquist has used every marketing tool he can think of to sell the back end of a cow. Poop, after all, needs to go somewhere. The Midwestern entrepreneur has worked hard to woo farmers on its benefits for their crops. Now, facing a global shortage of […] Read more

CBOT May 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with 10-, 20- and 50-day moving averages (yellow, green and black lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Chicago soybeans, corn consolidate

CBOT wheat mixed pending sanctions

Reuters — Chicago soybeans and corn eased on Wednesday, consolidating after two days of gains, as traders watch U.S. weather and planting, while wheat traded mixed pending further sanctions against Russia following reports of civilian deaths in Ukraine. The most-active soybeans on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) eased 11-1/2 cents to $16.19-1/2 a bushel […] Read more



Refugees from Ukraine wait at the Ukrainian-Slovakian border on March 4, 2022, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine which began on February 24, 2022.

Comment: Agriculture and hope go hand in hand

It’s no coincidence that War and Famine ride together as part of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Humans have known for a long time that war breeds hunger, and hunger brings war, so it’s not surprising that knowledge is encoded in a major religious text such as the Bible. Of course, pestilence is also […] Read more





Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow’s Red Square on June 24, 2020. (File photo: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov)

Putin ally warns agriculture supplies could be limited to ‘friends’

Reuters — One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s allies warned on Friday that Russia, a major global wheat exporter, could limit supplies of agriculture products to “friendly” countries only, amid Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over the Ukraine crisis. Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of […] Read more

CBOT May 2022 soybeans (candlesticks) with 20- and 50-day moving averages (yellow and green lines). (Barchart)

U.S. grains: Soybeans hit one-month low on record acreage view

Chicago corn futures, MGEX wheat up

Chicago | Reuters — U.S. soybean futures fell to their lowest in a month on Thursday after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected farmers would plant the most acres on record to the oilseed this spring while reducing corn acres. Corn futures rose on the acreage outlook, with the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) […] Read more