Weather forecasts through May 10 indicate the crop will get planted at about an average pace, therefore the market is slowly removing weather premium from prices. Our spring wheat crop is currently being seeded and producers will finish in May. This is when seasonal price trends turn lower as the market prepares for the impending winter wheat harvest. WHEAT Wheat futures have rallied sharply so far in the month of April due to frost damage that occurred over the Easter weekend. Producers...

Biver, who calls himself the Straw Boss on his business cards, said straw production also may be hurt along with the wheat crop. There is no doubt that the hay crop already has suffered from the killer frost in early April. There is some evidence that hay in northern Illinois was not hit as hard by the freeze because growing patterns there are two or three weeks behind this area. He predicted that people may be bailing things they normally don't, such as road ditches and fence lines. But...

A harsh April freeze and a dry spring have combined to create difficult conditions throughout Tennessee's $20 billion agriculture industry from the winter wheat and hay that farmers are just beginning to harvest to the soybeans and tobacco plants they are trying to get in the ground. Complaining about the weather may be a pastime as old as farming itself, but this year, farmers have reason to be worried, meteorologists and agriculture experts say. A harsh April freeze and a dry spring have...

usDiggRedditYahooMyWebGoogleWhat's this? Threshing Bee set this weekend at Patrick Ranch E-R Staff Article Launched:06/08/2007 02:15:53 AM PDT DURHAM Demonstrations at the annual Patrick Ranch Threshing Bee and Farm Equipment Display Saturday and Sunday will show how farm families lived and harvested wheat 100 years ago. usDiggRedditYahooMyWebGoogleWhat's this? Threshing Bee set this weekend at Patrick Ranch E-R Staff Article Launched:06/08/2007 02:15:53 AM PDT DURHAM Demonstrations at the...

The government last week announced the single desk system would continue but disgraced marketing and export company AWB, which paid kickbacks to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, would not be involved. The decision has angered some Liberal backbenchers who wanted the single desk system to be abolished. May 27, 2007 - 11:09AM Deputy Prime Minister and Nationals leader Mark Vaile says a large majority of wheat growers want the single desk system for wheat exports retained. Get free news...

By Philip Scott SURGING demand from China, the growing fashion for alternative fuels and some of the driest weather conditions on record have pushed crop prices to their highest levels for years, leading some analysts to suggest we are at the start of a multi-year bull market in everything from wheat to milk. By Philip Scott SURGING demand from China, the growing fashion for alternative fuels and some of the driest weather conditions on record have pushed crop prices to their highest...

With the region looking at what appears to be its best wheat harvest in a decade, producers are increasingly concerned about having enough fuel to keep the combines and trucks rolling. Co-op manager Pat Peterson said the shortages are likely to affect most of the western third of Kansas -- the area expected to have the heaviest wheat harvest. A shortage of diesel fuel supplies is the result of a combination of weather and maintenance problems at refineries and terminals in the region that...

In particular, high-protein crops like soybeans that are necessary feed for dairy cows are in short supply in some regions, forcing some companies to import them from as far away as China. They make up only a small slice, about 3 percent, of the nation's food market, but increasing demand is pushing more farmers to make the switch in hopes of higher returns. Demand for consumer organic dairy products has grown by more than 20 percent each year, a trend that is expected to continue at least...

Now, fears that the Fed won't cut rates - or may raise them - have pressured the commodities markets, and gold in particular. Increasingly bullish economic data and recent comments from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke have quashed market hopes for an interest rate cut sometime this year. A shifting view on the direction of the Federal Reserve's benchmark interest rate roiled the commodities markets this week. Crude oil prices shed more than $2, corn and soybean futures settled lower while most...