The secretary said farmers wasted no time planting crops that can be used to make ethanol. The corn crop has increased to 700,000 acres, primarily to supply ethanol plants, he said, but also to supply seed corn because bad weather damaged corn in other parts of the nation. I see a great reduction of the acreage planted in cotton and an increase in corn and feed, he said. Other unlikely crops fiber-producing plants such as high-fiber sugarcane and switchgrass are going to become...

The recently released USDA crop planting prospects indicated, not surprisingly, that farmers intend to plant much more corn this year about 12 million acres more! That along with increases in wheat, hay, grain sorghum and barley acres are being offset mostly by 8 million fewer acres of soybeans and a 3 million acre drop in cotton. One of the reasons that dual-purpose wheat systems are so popular in Oklahoma is that all too often the conditions that result in good wheat grazing conditions...

Increases in corn and wheat acreage are expected to come at the expense of soybean and cotton acreage, although intentions show a substantial increase in total acreage to be planted in 2007. For soybeans, supplies will likely remain ample even with reduced acreage in the United States due to large current supplies and record South American production. Planting intentions in western growing areas are down 4.7 million acres, while producers in the eastern Corn Belt intend to reduce acreage...

The agriculture sector, the largest contributor to Pakistans gross domestic product (GDP), would also get a boost from higher sugar and rice crops, Baloch said. Cotton and textiles account for about 60 per cent of Pakistans exports. The sowing area will remain the same as last year, at 3.26 million hectares, but we expect better yield next season because of sufficient water during the crop season, Baloch told Reuters. Agriculture growth this year is likely to be in the range of 4 to 4.2...

The reported move by the National Bee Board to set up a honeyfed (on the lines of the milkfeds and markfeds) for galvanising the marketing of honey deserves a cautious welcome. It is a different matter though that many enterprising bee-keepers, largely landless farmers, have been providing the services of bees as pollinators by shifting their bee colonies to areas around mustard, sunflower and cotton fields, largely in search of food for their bees. It is a different matter though that...

While most of the wheat across north Alabama appears to be lost, a good portion of the corn crop could actually have survived because of the severe drought in the weeks before the freeze. Bishop said that he's never seen a freeze damage so many crops. An extension office survey taken earlier in the year showed a 30 percent decline in the amount of cotton being planted this year, while the amount of corn being planted almost doubled. A hard freeze destroyed most of the wheat crop in the...

With such a disproportionate focus on farming, does the Union have any moral authority to demand liberalisation of the food trade in poor countries, where often 70 percent of people rely on agriculture to make a living? Agriculture has become the most contentious issue in the Doha round of world trade talks, which were launched at a ministerial conference in the Qatar capital in 2001. This year the European Union will spend more than 35 percent of its 115 billion euro (156 billion dollars)...

Now he's hoping to salvage a harvest from his 800 acres that had been thriving from a stretch of warm temperatures until the sudden turnaround sent temperatures plunging. Farmers are still assessing damage from frigid temperatures earlier this month that harmed a cross section of Kentucky's agricultural sector - from fruit orchards and vineyards to grain and hay fields. Most of the peach and apple crops were ruined, central Kentucky vineyards took a beating, blueberry and blackberry...

Although Rapstine is substituting corn for soybeans, he said many farmers will likely pick cotton as the crop to decrease in favor of corn-planted acres. Corn costs more to produce than many other crops due to the need for fertilizer and water, but the increase in demand is making up for that cost this year. Some local farmers are joining the nationwide trend to plant more corn this year, a decision made as a result of higher corn prices. The most common way farmers get out of compliance...