Be8 breaks ground on ethanol plant
Be8, a Brazilian renewable energy company, said it has agreed with Praj, an Indian company and global leader in bio-energy, to establish its first ethanol plant in Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul. The plant, which will convert wheat into ethanol, will be the first large-scale refinery in Rio Grande do Sul to produce biofuel...
Brazil corn production, exports to drop
Brazil expects to harvest 4.6 billion bushels (116.8 million tonnes) from its three corn crops in the 2023-24 season, a drop of 12% from last year’s record harvest, according to the National Supply Company (Conab), the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois said in its farmdoc daily. Despite the drop...
USDA lowers US wheat production estimate
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Aug. 12 lowered its estimate for US all-wheat production this year based on forecasts for lower soft red winter, other spring and durum wheat production that more than offset increased hard red winter and white winter wheat forecasts. The Department lowered its forecast for 2024-25 global and US...
Cargill earns two BIG Sustainability Awards
Business Intelligence Group (BIG) has named Cargill the winner of a pair of 2024 BIG Sustainability Awards in recognition of the company’s global efforts within the agriculture and food value chains. Cargill was the recipient of both the Sustainability Leadership Award and Sustainability Initiative of the Year Award for its Hatching Hope program. These BIG...
Canada funds work to develop more resilient soybeans
The government of Canada awarded up to C$2.3 million over four years to Performance Plants Inc. (PPI) to develop change-resistant, high-yielding soybeans. The award is through the AgriScience Program–Projects Component, an initiative under the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership. PPI’s objective is to create soybean varieties that are more heat and drought-tolerant, herbicide-resistant, use water efficiently...
Canada, Russia wheat production threatened by dryness
A recent insurgence of heat and dryness in western and south-central Canada’s Prairies has raised concern about spring cereal production. The region had one of its best starts to the growing season in years, and dryness kicks in while wheat and barley are reproducing, sending some chills up many producers’ spines. The marketplace does not...
Grain market review: Coarse grains
The last several weeks have seen a mixed trend for maize (corn), although there was weakness in the United States on planting and yield expectations. The July World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report from the US Department of Agriculture added more bullish ideas on demand to the factors involved. In its Grain Market...
USDA: largest spring wheat production since 2020
When scouts fan out across North Dakota fields in the third week of July, they will be looking to confirm or moderate expectations of a high-yielding spring wheat crop forecast this month by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). The USDA on July 12 forecast production of spring wheat other than durum in the United...
US wheat, corn, soybean stocks up from 2023
The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on June 28 said domestic stocks of wheat, corn and soybeans on June 1 were up more than 20% from a year earlier. The USDA, in its quarterly Grain Stocks report, estimated June 1 old-crop all wheat stocks, which comprise the 2024 carryover, at 702 million bushels, up 23%...
Key US crop areas battle too much, too little rain
Weather typically is the main force affecting agricultural commodity markets, from planting in the spring (or fall for winter wheat) to harvest in the fall (or summer for winter wheat), especially during the growing season for all crops. The most recent examples were from Russia, the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Brazil, the world’s largest...