Wheat farmers are considering attaching seed impact mills to the back of their combines during harvest to pulverize chaff and weed seeds. The devices were the subject of a recent webinar hosted by Getting Rid of Weeds (GROW), scientist-led national network coordinating research to help farmers fight herbicide resistance. "These aren't just any old weed seeds," said Michael Flessner, Virginia Tech extension weed science specialist. "These weed seeds have beaten whatever you've thrown at them that year, whether that was your herbicide program, crop competition, they've kind of won that battle."

Who doesn’t love to indulge? Amid the stresses of everyday life, consumers are turning to their favorite cakes, pies, brownies and more as a needed pick-me-up or as a way to celebrate. And while inflation is draining consumers’ dessert dollars, they aren’t giving up their beloved sweet goods any time soon. “We know in the face of inflation, consumers are cutting back on nonessentials, but they are still indulging, which is part of the reason why sweet goods is doing so well,” explained Melissa Altobelli, principal, client insights, dairy and bakery vertical, Circana. “They still want to have a sweet treat.”

The USDA says U.S. wheat export sales hit a marketing year high during the week ending December 7th, driven by demand from China. That sales total of 1.5 million tons comes at the halfway point in the marketing year, which has been relatively disappointing, with U.S. wheat exports limited by the relative strength in the dollar and Russia’s dominance of the global market. Corn, soybean meal, beef, and pork export sales were also up on the week, while soybeans, soybean oil, rice, and cotton were down. The USDA’s next round of supply and demand estimates is out January 12th, 2024.

International wheat markets have been looking oversold for a while, and last week finally saw a price reversal. While the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report wasn’t the catalyst, it did give some clues as to the drivers of turnaround. The headline numbers for wheat in the WASDE were relatively benign. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecast world wheat production to be up 2mmt, with 1mmt of this coming from an increase in Australian production.

When Russia signed an agreement in October to supply China with 70 million tonnes of grain, legumes and oilseeds over the next 12 years, a comment made several years ago by Stefan Vogel, Rabobank’s global sector strategist for grains and oilseeds, came to mind. Vogel, in a conversation with World Grain in the fall of 2021, said given the growing political tension between longtime agricultural trade partners China and the United States, it was possible that Russia, which is more politically aligned with China, could benefit from the deepening conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) and the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) have joined several other U.S. agricultural organizations in signing a letter encouraging U.S. Customs and Border Protection to reopen rail crossings in El Paso and Eagle Point for trade as quickly as possible. Given the huge volume of U.S. wheat sales that move directly to Mexican customers by rail, the sudden decision on December 17 to close these two crucial rail crossings on the border has the potential to be a major disruption in this important trade relationship.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced that agricultural producers can now enroll in the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for the 2024 crop year. Producers can enroll and make election changes for the 2024 crop year starting Dec. 18, 2023. The deadline to complete enrollment and any election change is March 15, 2024.