Chicago | Reuters –– The Chicago Mercantile Exchange saw all of its live cattle and all but two feeder cattle futures contracts fall by the daily trading limit on Monday, pressured by technical selling and weakening wholesale beef prices, traders and industry analysts said. Meanwhile, CME lean hog contracts continued their slump on Monday, dropping […] Read more

U.S. livestock: Technical trading, holiday fears sour hog, cattle futures

U.S. grains: Wheat eases off four-week high on export slump
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat eased off a four-week high on Thursday amid disappointing export sales and forecasts for more rain relief in dry U.S. growing belts, which offset concerns about adverse harvest weather in Australia and turned traders’ attention back toward large global supplies. The firmer dollar also made U.S. wheat less attractive […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat futures up despite U.S. rain, corn down amid big crop forecast
Chicago/Reuters – Chicago wheat futures ticked up on Wednesday on technical buying, despite rain forecasts across U.S. grain belts adding to worries about weather woes overseas. Corn futures ended the day slightly lower after private forecasters raised their estimates for U.S. production, while soybeans rose on bargain-buying and robust U.S. exports. Chicago Board of Trade […] Read more

Deere & Co. to buy Monsanto’s Precision Planting farm equipment business
Chicago/Reuters – Monsanto Co’s Climate Corp subsidiary on Tuesday announced a definitive agreement to sell its Precision Planting farm equipment business to Deere & Co for an undisclosed sum. The deal also allows nearly real-time data connections between certain John Deere farm equipment and Climate’s farming software programs, Climate FieldView. Climate will keep its digital farming […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat hits biggest weekly gain in nearly four months
Chicago / Reuters – U.S. wheat futures prices jumped 1.5 per cent on Friday and posted their biggest weekly gain in nearly four months, as traders positioned themselves ahead of a highly anticipated U.S. Department of Agriculture November supply and demand report. Chicago Board of Trade December soft red wheat closed at $5.22 a bushel, […] Read more

U.S. grains: Wheat, corn close firm on technical buying; soybeans slip
CHICAGO / Reuters – U.S. wheat futures rallied nearly 2 per cent on Thursday, supported by a round of short-covering and signs of improving export demand, traders said. A pickup in exports also boosted corn futures, as technical buying lent further support to both corn and wheat after prices dipped during the overnight trading session. […] Read more

California considers adding meat to cancer-alert list
Reuters — California is examining new World Health Organization findings to determine whether to add red meat and foods such as hot dogs, sausages and bacon to a cancer-alert list, setting the stage for a potential battle with the meat industry over warning labels. The inclusion of meat and processed meat on the list could […] Read more

Monsanto to shut three R+D centres next year
Chicago | Reuters –– Agrichemical company Monsanto plans to shutter three research and development centers in 2016 with a loss of about 90 jobs, it said Monday, as it restructures operations to cut costs in a slumping agricultural commodity market. The centers are in Middleton, Wisconsin, and Mystic, Connecticut, both of which focus on seed […] Read more

U.S. grains: Wheat jumps more than four per cent on weather concerns
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures surged more than four per cent on Monday as recent floods in parts of Texas and forecasts for continued dry weather in the U.S. Plains buoyed the market that had been falling in recent weeks. Futures prices for corn crept higher as U.S. farmers continued to cling to […] Read more

Monsanto clears USDA regulatory hurdle for new GM corn
Chicago | Reuters — The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday signed off on a new genetically modified type of corn developed by Monsanto after a review concluded it posed no significant threat to agricultural crops, other plants or the environment. USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced it would deregulate Monsanto’s MON […] Read more