Tag Archive for 'corn'

Biofuels become a victim of own success – but not for long | Damian Carrington

Published on January 10, 2012 in Alternative Energy, Biofuels and General Ag News and Notes.


Biofuels have become a victim of own success, it appears: for the first time in a decade global production has dropped. Production in 2011 dropped a touch from 1.822m barrels a day in 2010 to 1.819m in 2011, according to IEA statistics (p30) highlighted by the Financial Times.

The key reason has been the rising cost of the feedstock for most biofuels, corn, sugar and vegetable oil. And the main reason for the rising food prices is, many argue, the huge quantity consumed by biofuels. It’s a big business. The global biofuels business would, if a nation, rank 16th in the world for oil production, just above the UK and Libya and a bit below Norway and Nigeria, all major oil producers. In the US, 40% of the corn crop now gets diverted into fuel tanks, giving the US 50% of global biofuel production.

On top of the peaking of production, the US has just phased out some fat subsidies and tariffs protecting the domestic biofuel industry from international competition. So is the biofuels boom over?

In a word, no. The key driving factor is the price of ordinary oil. In the medium and long term, crude prices seem very likely to remain high and vulnerable to shocks, such as the current Iranian situation. “Once oil is over $70 a barrel, conventional and new generation biofuels become cost competitive, certainly with tar sands and shale, and with oil from much of the Middle East and Brazil’s new offshore fields,” said Jeremy Woods, at Imperial College, when I spoke to him in March. Today, Brent crude is at $113. The IEA predicts a 20% rise in biofuel production to 2.2m b/d by 2015, although that is a slower rise than in the past.

This brings us to the environmental crux. “The less biofuel you have the more gasoline you need,” Amrita Sen, oil analyst at Barclays Capital in London, told the FT. Continue reading ‘Biofuels become a victim of own success – but not for long | Damian Carrington’

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Farmers worried as Indonesia plans to cut beef imports

Published on December 16, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Livestock.


AUSTRALIAN cattle farmers fear a plan by Indonesia to drastically cut the amount of beef it imports next year will be a massive blow to the domestic industry.

Indonesia will only allow for 280,000 cows to be imported, down from 520,000 permits this year. Live exports to Indonesia are believed to be worth $300 million to Australian farmers.
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Indonesia will also limit the boxed beef it buys from overseas to 34,000 tonnes. Last year, Australia exported 48,500 tonnes of boxed beef to Indonesia.

Indonesia has indicated it wants to be self-sufficient in beef by 2014.

The Cattle Council of Australia president, Andrew Ogilvie, said Indonesia’s decision had dealt the industry a huge blow.

”Industry is pretty disappointed that there has been a reduction but we recognise Indonesia’s determination for self-sufficiency,” he said.

Mr Ogilvie said he did not believe the decision was in retaliation to Australia’s suspension of trade in June.

The live cattle trade was suspended by the Australian government for a month this year after the ABC’s Four Corners program sparked animal welfare concerns. The trade was later reinstated.

The Australian Live Exporters Council chief executive, Lach McKinnon, told the ABC any drop in exports would be massive blow to the cattle industry in the northern states.

”It’ll put us under a lot of pressure and we’ll have to work very hard to get through this,” he said.

”It’s like any of these particular trade issues – it’s about government to government and working through what it is both parties want to get.”

This month the Labor Party’s national conference rejected a push to phase out live cattle exports altogether. Continue reading ‘Farmers worried as Indonesia plans to cut beef imports’

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GM crops promote superweeds, food insecurity and pesticides, say NGOs

Published on October 19, 2011 in GMO, General Ag News and Notes, Seed Crops, Seed Industry and Sustainability.


Genetic engineering has failed to increase the yield of any food crop but has vastly increased the use of chemicals and the growth of “superweeds”, according to a report by 20 Indian, south-east Asian, African and Latin American food and conservation groups representing millions of people.

The so-called miracle crops, which were first sold in the US about 20 years ago and which are now grown in 29 countries on about 1.5bn hectares (3.7bn acres) of land, have been billed as potential solutions to food crises, climate change and soil erosion, but the assessment finds that they have not lived up to their promises.

The report claims that hunger has reached “epic proportions” since the technology was developed. Besides this, only two GM “traits” have been developed on any significant scale, despite investments of tens of billions of dollars, and benefits such as drought resistance and salt tolerance have yet to materialise on any scale.

Most worrisome, say the authors of the Global Citizens’ Report on the State of GMOs, is the greatly increased use of synthetic chemicals, used to control pests despite biotech companies’ justification that GM-engineered crops would reduce insecticide use.

In China, where insect-resistant Bt cotton is widely planted, populations of pests that previously posed only minor problems have increased 12-fold since 1997. A 2008 study in the International Journal of Biotechnology found that any benefits of planting Bt cotton have been eroded by the increasing use of pesticides needed to combat them.

Additionally, soya growers in Argentina and Brazil have been found to use twice as much herbicide on their GM as they do on conventional crops, and a survey by Navdanya International, in India, showed that pesticide use increased 13-fold since Bt cotton was introduced. Continue reading ‘GM crops promote superweeds, food insecurity and pesticides, say NGOs’

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Keeping weeds down in a wet year

Published on April 28, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes.


Add weed control to the list of elements of growing your 2011 crop that is being complicated as cool, wet weather continues to delay planting in the bulk of the Corn Belt.

If you’re too far delayed in your planting and were originally planning on using a quick tillage trip to knock down early-emerging weeds, you may not be able to pull that off this spring. “Preplant tillage operations can effectively control existing vegetation while preparing a seedbed,” says University of Illinois Extension weed specialist Aaron Hager. “However, as weeds become larger, the effectiveness of tillage to control weeds before planting can be reduced.”

Even if you are able to squeeze in a round of tillage as things start to dry out, it may lose some efficacy, Hager says. “Reduced weed control may also occur when fields are slightly wet during the preplant tillage operation,” he says. “Soil disturbance may not be as extensive when soils are retaining moisture, and clods are more likely to be formed. Weeds sometimes take root again after tillage when soil disturbance is inadequate and soil moisture is abundant.”

So, what’s the answer? If tillage is already done, you don’t have enough time before you plant, or you were already thinking of a burndown application anyway, Hager says you can control winter annual weeds with a little stronger rate of burndown herbicide to “account for the large and dense vegetation.” Continue reading ‘Keeping weeds down in a wet year’

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Corn closes ‘limit’ down

Published on April 28, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes.


Mike McGinnis

CHICAGO, Illinois (Agriculture.com)–The CME Group corn market closed limit down on improved planting weather outlooks Thursday.

The July corn futures settled down the 30 cent ‘limit’ at $7.29 1/4. The contract traded around $7.24, synthetically. The July soybean contract closed 31 cents lower at $13.53 1/2. The July wheat futures closed 34 1/2 cents lower at $7.76. The July soybean meal futures settled $7.60 per short ton lower at $354.20. The July soyoil futures closed $1.48 lower at $56.93.

In the outside markets, the NYMEX crude oil is $0.10 per barrel higher, the dollar is lower and the Dow Jones Industrials are up 36 points. Since 1980, silver hit a new record price of $50.

“As I said yesterday, with exact scenario today, we left technical gap areas below and the first one was $7.49,” one CME Group corn pit trader says. But, I believe it’s merely about healthy corrections. Otherwise, the market is still bullish long term.”
Tim Hannagan, PFGBest.com senior grain analyst, says corn, wheat and beans continue to remove the recent weather premium, as this last system is now over and there’s not another appreciable rain until next Thursday now. “This has the trade thinking some spring wheat and corn could be planted early next week in the upper Plains. But, even if planting occurs, heavy rains enter on May 6 & 7 and then again May 11 & 12, leaving us generally well behind on planting,” Hannagan says.

Rich Feltes, RJ O’Brien market analyst, says, weather concerns don’t stop after planting. “The market is still going to be hanging on the edge needing to know the crops will be getting timely precipitation in the absence of summer heat. For that matter, for the late planted areas, we will need later than normal frostings. And we won’t know that for months,” Feltes says.

Corn, Market Analysis, Agricultural Markets | Agriculture.com

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Is Sugar Toxic?

Published on April 14, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Sugar Cane.


On May 26, 2009, Robert Lustig gave a lecture called “Sugar: The Bitter Truth,” which was posted on YouTube the following July. Since then, it has been viewed well over 800,000 times, gaining new viewers at a rate of about 50,000 per month, fairly remarkable numbers for a 90-minute discussion of the nuances of fructose biochemistry and human physiology.

Lustig is a specialist on pediatric hormone disorders and the leading expert in childhood obesity at the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine, which is one of the best medical schools in the country. He published his first paper on childhood obesity a dozen years ago, and he has been treating patients and doing research on the disorder ever since.

The viral success of his lecture, though, has little to do with Lustig’s impressive credentials and far more with the persuasive case he makes that sugar is a “toxin” or a “poison,” terms he uses together 13 times through the course of the lecture, in addition to the five references to sugar as merely “evil.” And by “sugar,” Lustig means not only the white granulated stuff that we put in coffee and sprinkle on cereal — technically known as sucrose — but also high-fructose corn syrup, which has already become without Lustig’s help what he calls “the most demonized additive known to man.”

It doesn’t hurt Lustig’s cause that he is a compelling public speaker. Continue reading ‘Is Sugar Toxic?’

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Brazilian company JBS dominates world beef industry from farm to fork

Published on April 14, 2011 in General Ag News and Notes and Livestock.


The founder, who began by slaughtering one or two head a day in 1953, raises calves far in the countryside. Six of his children are in JBS’s management. And ranchers such as Edson Crochiquia, who is 69 but rounds up cattle on horseback near here, spare no detail to provide the company with healthy, 1,000-pound animals.

Even a decade ago, JBS was still mainly focused on selling in Brazil. But by acquiring American giants such as Swift and Pilgrim’s Pride, JBS grew from a $1 billion private company into a $40 billion behemoth that slaughters 90,000 head of cattle a day, employs 125,000 workers and exports to 150 countries.

JBS is now the world’s biggest provider of meat, its footprint felt by feedlots, packing plants and chicken processors from Argentina to Italy to the American Midwest.

In Brazil, it is not uncommon to find banks, steel mills and other companies that evolved from family businesses into global giants. But JBS stands out, using an alliance with Brazil’s development bank and an aggressive acquisition strategy to become a vital pillar of the country’s efforts to project its economic power abroad.

To Wesley Batista, JBS’s 40-year-old chief executive and the founder’s fourth child, the company is still run “a simple way,” using a management model without “a lot of layers, not a lot of fancy things, not a lot of time spent on PowerPoint presentations.” Continue reading ‘Brazilian company JBS dominates world beef industry from farm to fork’

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Ohio silo collapses, unleashing ’sea of corn’

Published on December 1, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes.


NORWALK, Ohio — An Ohio fire chief says a metal grain silo collapsed into a “sea of corn” up to 12 feet deep that pushed a nearby home off its foundation.

Chief Doug Coletta in Norwalk says no one was hurt in Tuesday’s collapse that spilled more than 100,000 bushels of corn.

He says corn that flowed like water knocked over a fire hydrant and created a “one-block mess” in the community about 50 miles southwest of Cleveland.

Neighbors described hearing an explosion, but Coletta says what they likely heard was the sound of the bin breaking apart.

The chief said Tuesday it was not clear what caused the silo to give way.

Afterward an attached but empty grain dryer, resembling a smaller bin, was leaning. Coletta said it would be dismantled.

Ohio silo collapses, unleashing ’sea of corn’

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In the autumn, a flower aficionado’s fancy turns to poppy seeds

Published on November 11, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes.


In northern gardens, poppies are the languid wildlings of summer, the stuff of picnics in the meadow and memorable afternoons. They can be tricked into a great show in the Washington garden, where they explode on the scene in May, linger for two or three weeks collectively and then shrivel in the face of the accumulating heat.
They are part of an enormous late-spring bacchanalia that begins with clematis and peonies and embraces catmint, larkspur and the first of the roses and lavender. Even in this crowd, poppies seem outlanders from the north, and their show is all the more tasty for its sense of migration.

Perennial oriental poppies are outrageous in their size and markings, but if their bloom coincides with a precocious hot spell, as it usually does, the show is over before it begins. Annual poppies flower around the same time, but their smaller size is compensated by lots of buds, successively offered. Even in the heat, they have a tangible season.

Now is the moment to buy poppy seed. Getting it to sprout can be a little hit-or-miss, so poppy maniacs sow seed in November, after the fallen leaves have been cleared or mulched, and again in February. Keep the February seeds safely stored in the refrigerator over the winter and make a note on your iPoppy to sprinkle them around Valentine’s Day. Continue reading ‘In the autumn, a flower aficionado’s fancy turns to poppy seeds’

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Corn Prices Raise Worry Over Expensive Food

Published on October 12, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes.


By WILLIAM NEUMAN

First it was heat and drought in Russia. Then it was heat and too much rain in parts of the American Corn Belt. Extreme weather this year has sent grain prices soaring, jolting commodities markets and setting off fears of tight supplies that could eventually hit consumers’ wallets.

In the latest market lurch, corn prices dropped in early October, then soared anew, in response to changing assessments by the federal government of grain supplies and coming harvests.

The sudden movements in commodities markets are expected to have little immediate effect on the prices of corn flakes and bread in the grocery store, although American consumers are likely to see some modest price increases for meat, poultry and dairy products.

But experts warn that the impact could be much greater if next year’s harvest disappoints and if 2011 grain harvests in the Southern Hemisphere also fall short of the current robust expectations.

“We can live with high commodity prices for a period without seeing much impact at the retail level, but if that persists for several months or a couple of years, then it eventually has to get passed on” to consumers, said Darrel Good, an emeritus professor of agricultural economics at the University of Illinois. Continue reading ‘Corn Prices Raise Worry Over Expensive Food’

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Monsanto Income Drops by Nearly Half

Published on October 6, 2010 in GMO, General Ag News and Notes and Seed Crops.


Executives of Monsanto told skittish investors on Wednesday that earnings per share would grow 13 to 17 percent in the next fiscal year and that the company was on its way to fixing problems in its seed business that have undermined the confidence of Wall Street.

The remarks, in line with some previous assurances by company executives, were made as Monsanto reported that net income for the year that ended Aug. 31 had dropped by nearly half from a year earlier.

“I believe we’ve taken steps to allow our company to return to growth,” Hugh Grant, the chief executive, told analysts and investors Wednesday on a conference call.

He said the seed business was going to offer “more products at more price points” to help regain the trust of farmers who have been put off by high seed prices and lower-than-expected yields for some products, particularly Monsanto’s new SmartStax corn. Continue reading ‘Monsanto Income Drops by Nearly Half’

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In Italy, a Battle Over Genetically Modified Corn

Published on August 23, 2010 in General Ag News and Notes and Seed Crops.


VIVARO, Italy — Giorgio Fidenato declared war on the Italian government and environmental groups in April with a news conference and a YouTube video, which showed him poking six genetically modified corn seeds into Italian soil.

In fact, said Mr. Fidenato, 49, an agronomist, he planted two fields of genetically modified corn. But since “corn looks like corn,” as he put it, it took his opponents weeks to find his crop.

The seeds, known as MON810, are modified so that the corn produces a chemical that kills the larvae of the corn borer, a devastating pest. Yet while European Union rules allow this particular seed to be planted, Italy requires farmers to get special permission for any genetically modified, or G.M., crop — and the Agriculture Ministry never said yes.

“We had no choice but to engage in civil disobedience — these seeds are legal in Europe,” said Mr. Fidenato, who has repeatedly applied for permission, adding that he drew more inspiration from Ron Paul than Gandhi.

The World Trade Organization says that general bans on genetically modified crops constitute an unfair trade barrier, because there is no scientific basis for exclusion. But four years after a W.T.O. panel ruled that European Union policies constituted an illegal “de facto moratorium” on the planting of genetically modified seeds, some farmers, like Mr. Fidenato, and seed producers like Monsanto complain that Europe still has not really opened its doors. Continue reading ‘In Italy, a Battle Over Genetically Modified Corn’

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GM corn health risks identified – General – North Queensland Register

Published on December 16, 2009 in General Ag News and Notes and Seed Crops.

16 Dec, 2009 03:45 PM

AN INTERNATIONAL study of three Monsanto genetically manipulated maize (corn) varieties shows clear evidence of health risks, according to anti-GM lobby group Gene Ethics.

It says that the study analysed data from 90-day rat feeding trials of: insecticide-producing Mon 810 and Mon 863 GM maize; and Roundup herbicide tolerant NK 603 GM maize.

Adverse impacts were found on the kidneys, livers and the dietary detoxifying organs of experimental rats, and also some damage to heart, adrenal glands, spleen and the haematopoietic system.

The research was conducted by French scientists from the universities of Caen and Rouen and is published in the International Journal of Biological Sciences.

According to Gene Ethics, the report shows the GM maize events contained novel pesticide residues that will also be present in human food and animal feed where they may pose grave health risks.

Continue reading ‘GM corn health risks identified – General – North Queensland Register’

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Crop Science Society of America Award

Published on October 7, 2009 in General Ag News and Notes.

ASA, CSSA, SSSA to present awards in Pittsburgh

October 7th, 2009

The American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) will recognize the following individuals during the scientific societies’ Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, www.acsmeetings.org, on November 1-5, 2009. The annual awards are presented for outstanding contributions to education, national and international service, and research.

Recipients:  Crop Science Society of America Award

James L. Brewbaker, University of Hawaii – Seed Science Award.

James L. Brewbaker has served as a plant breeder and geneticist for the University of Hawaii Department of Tropical Plant and Soil Science since 1962. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University in plant breeding and has served as a visiting scientist in nine countries. His research is on the genetic improvement of tropical crops, with a focus on maize and tropical leguminous trees. He also founded Hawaii’s Crop Improvement Association and Hawaii Foundation Seeds, where he serves as director.

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Money Grows Out of the Ground | The Financial Planner’s Briefcase | TheStreet.com

Published on October 5, 2009 in General Ag News and Notes.

DECATUR, Ill. (TheStreet) — Agriculture and fair competition have had a strained relationship.

Price-fixing scandals, such as the lysine conspiracy, have marred the industry. (Lysine is a vital component of livestock feed and the subject of the new movie "The Informant.")

Regardless, the industry is growing in appeal as the world’s population expands, straining food production. More food is needed from less space as cities grow, claiming more farm land. Companies such as Archer Daniels Midland(ADM) is a big source of food, and its shares will benefit as a result. Archer Daniels has risen 37% over the past year, compared with a decline for the benchmark S&P 500 Index. Archer Daniels’ growth potential is all but guaranteed.

Still, not all food producers have risen quite like Archer Daniels. Bunge(BG) and Corn Products International(CPO) declined during the past year, while The Andersons(ANDE) is little changed. Some of the biggest players in the industry, such as Cargill, are closely held.

Global population growth stands at 1.1% a year, which doesn’t sound like much, but in reality means there will be 77 million more people every year, taxing an already stretched food supply and leaving a huge hole to fill by food producers. Food isn’t a complex industry to understand: Everyone needs it, and it’s all basically the same.

That last point gives the industry most of its character. Commodities, be they corn, grain or lysine, require hedging, which is a huge task. Archer Daniels, for example, has nearly $2 billion in derivative contracts to help guard against a decrease in price or other events that could affect profits, such as foreign-exchange risk.

Money Grows Out of the Ground | The Financial Planner’s Briefcase | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

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Monsanto Plowed Down (MON)

Published on September 11, 2009 in General Ag News and Notes.

It’s becoming increasingly harder to figure out whether Monsanto (NYSE: MON) is a bargain or a value trap. Yesterday, the agriculture giant announced less-than-stellar guidance for its 2010 fiscal year, which started at the beginning of the month.

It’s really a tale of two product lines for Monsanto. The seed and trait business is growing and competing well against — and sometimes with — DuPont (NYSE: DD), Dow Chemical (NYSE: DOW), and Syngenta (NYSE: SYT).

Its Roundup product, on the other hand, is headed in the wrong direction. Once a cash cow, Roundup now faces generic competition, and a glut of chemical herbicides in the supply chain is pushing down prices. Unlike drug companies such as Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Merck (NYSE: MRK), which can pretty much kiss off most of their sales once generic competition starts, Monsanto does expect to bring in $650 million to $750 million in gross profits from Roundup in the coming year. Still that’s a long drop from the nearly $2 billion in gross profits that the herbicide brought in during fiscal 2008.

In a couple of years, it’s not going to matter much: By 2012, the company expects that seeds and licensed traits will make up 85% of the company’s total gross profit. But in the meantime, the drop is hurting the bottom line.

Earnings per share, after adding back restructuring charges, are expected to come in between $3.10 to $3.30, a sharp decline from the $4.40 or so that’s expected from the recently completed year. Trading at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of more than 24, Monsanto is a little cheaper than we’ve seen in the past, but it doesn’t leave investors much breathing room, if Roundup sales continue to fall faster than expected.

Monsanto Plowed Down (MON)

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