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...
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...
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...
Australian winter crop totals expected to increase 9%
Australia’s overall winter crop production is expected to increase 9% to 51.3 million tonnes in 2024-25 and be the fifth highest on record, according to the June report from ABARES. Wheat production is forecast to increase by 12% to 29.1 million tonnes, while barley production is estimated at 7% to 11.5 million tonnes. Canola production...
Untimely rains impacting French grains
Recent rains have dampened France’s wheat and barley outlook while slowing maize (corn) planting in the European Union’s largest grains producer, Reuters reported, citing data from farm office FranceAgriMer. A warm, sunny stretch earlier in May had helped crops and soil dry out after a damp growing season. Still, recent showers have raised concern that wet...
USDA: Corn, wheat acres down; soy up
The US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) March 28 Prospective Plantings report provided a few surprises along with insight into potential 2024 acreage and crop sizes. This year’s report comes with mostly favorable weather across key growing areas, along with commodity prices below those of the past couple of years in many cases.
CoBank: Grain, oilseed prices continue to slide
Grain and oilseed prices continued to slide last quarter under pressure of a strengthening US dollar, arrival of the South American harvest and plentiful domestic inventories, according to a new quarterly report from CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange. Corn, grain sorghum, barley and oats all saw major reductions since last year, while soybeans, cotton, spring wheat and durum wheat each experienced increases, the report said.
Brazil’s corn and wheat crops revised lower.
Due to adverse weather conditions related to El Niño, the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture has lowered its forecast for corn and wheat production in Brazil in marketing year 2023-24. In its Global Agricultural Information Network report, released April 1, the FAS trimmed its corn harvest projection by 2 million tonnes from the previous forecast, to 122 million, down from 135.5 million in 2022-23. The agency also slashed its projection for Brazil corn exports by…