Articles Tagged with ''soybeans''

Grain traders are still unsure of actual planted cropland after USDA dropped planted corn acres estimates by just over 1 million in its June Acreage report Friday. Many traders find that difficult to believe after farmers in the eastern Corn Belt struggled to plant a crop this spring.

USDA on Friday reported an export sale of 544,000 metric tons of soybeans to China, just a day before President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping meet in a renewed bid to end the two countries’ trade war.

Much attention has been focused of late on the implications for Latin America of the US-China trade war, including in the agricultural sector, where Brazil has seemingly benefitted from growing demand for its abundant soy. Recent tariffs have pushed China to intensify trading with Latin America, contributing to the expectation that Brazil will become the leading soybean exporter for 2019-20, a distinction previously held by the US.

As farmers struggle to plant crops or take prevented planting options this growing season, they aren't the only ones hurting. Ag retailers fear millions in losses and leftover inventory.

Farmers in five Midwest states have claimed almost half of the $8.5 billion in trade assistance payments that USDA has provided so far as compensation for losses due to retaliatory tariffs.

A bipartisan group of senators joined some Corn Belt farm groups in appealing to the Agriculture Department to ease restrictions on haying and grazing of cover crops that farmers will plant on acreage they were unable to sow to corn or soybeans this year.

USDA’s top lawyers have confirmed that unplanted crop acreage will be ineligible for trade assistance payments under the Market Facilitation Program, a government official tells Agri-Pulse.

USDA's Economic Research Service cited trade tensions, African Swine Fever, and weak commodity prices in trimming its export sales forecast for fiscal 2019 by $4.5 billion.