Planting season for area crops has been “hit and miss” due to uncooperative weather, said Carol Pinnell-Alison, LSU County Extension agent.
With corn planting season complete, farmers are busy fertilizing and performing weed control between rain showers on the crop.
Area farmers planted some 98,000 acres of corn last season, up from the previous year’s total of 72,000, according to Farm Service Agency (FSA) certified acreage numbers.
Read MoreWhen considering the near-term fundamentals, the soybean market remains overbought, and a turn down in vegetable oil prices might spark a significant correction.
July soybeans have consolidated below the April 27 contract high and key reversal day.
The rally in the grain and soy markets has been led by continued dryness for the second corn crop in Brazil, which is causing significant stress. A lot of key growing areas do not have rain in the 7-day forecast, and this continues to drive the corn market higher.
Read MoreThe economic impact on direct farm-level production costs from replanting soybeans can result in an increase in the number of bushels that will be required to offset the incurred production expenses associated with replanting field operations.
The severity of this will depend on the type of soybean technology employed, as differences in the prices for seed, seed treatments and seeding rate can influence the replanting costs and, hence, the number of additional bushels required at harvest to offset those costs.
Read MoreLSU AgCenter Plant Pathologist Dr. Vinson Doyle says a fungus that has been devastating to soybeans has been identified and named by one of his grad students, Teddy Garcia Aroca. Doyle says they discovered the pathogen was probably mis-identified a long time ago.
Read MoreUp. Up. Up. May 2021 corn futures topped $7 per bushel on April 27. A look at the corn price chart shows a dramatic and consistent climb higher. You can find multi-year highs in many ag commodities.
“These are one of those times that come along generally once every 30 years or so when the markets just really take off,” says Arlan Suderman, StoneX chief commodities economist. “And we just went through this about 12 years ago or so.”
Read MoreSeptember rice futures continued higher this week along with the rest of the CBOT grains. The graphs below illustrate the price trends for the major grains since March 30, 2021. New crop corn, wheat, and soybeans have all added over $1/bu following the NASS Prospective Plantings report released on March 31.
Recall the findings from the survey resulted in limit moves higher in corn and soybeans. Corn futures have caught fire this month as estimates of Brazil’s production continue to fall. From a relative price standpoint, soybeans are losing the acreage battle to corn.
Read MoreA review and forecast of the U.S. crop weather scene begins with the impact of the cold snap during the April 21-27 week. That cold event certainly left its mark. Winter wheat in either good or excellent condition declined by four percentage points overall from the previous week to 49% rated good to excellent compared with 53% the previous week. Oklahoma and Texas showed declines in the good-to-excellent totals of 9 percentage points in Oklahoma (70% to 61%) and 10 points in Texas (28% to 18%). In addition, corn planting was slowed by the cold outbreak. Planting did advance 9 percentage points to 17% complete, but fell behind the average pace of 20%.
While corn and soybean prices continue to march higher, farmers are making progress getting the 2021 crop in the ground. The latest estimates from USDA show soybean planting progress jumped from 3% to 8% in the past week, which is trending 3% ahead of the five-year average. Around 3% of the soybean crop has emerged, which is 1% ahead of last week. Louisiana trails in planting progress, but the other key soybean production states are tracking with the five-year average or even a bit ahead.
Read MoreBloomberg writers Kim Chipman and Michael Hirtzer reported on Wednesday that, “Corn prices climbed above $6 a bushel to the loftiest level in almost eight years after the U.S. said it expects China to buy an all-time high amount of the grain off global markets.
Read MoreA new soy-based dust suppressant is now available for roads, construction sites, farms and more, offering a sustainable choice for rural, urban and business communities to improve air quality for people, pets, livestock and crops. A newly released video shows how this innovation can help reduce dust on rural gravel roads near farms nationwide.
Read MoreMidsouth soybean growers have a new management tool at their disposal. An interactive website called SoyStage uses weather data to predict soybean development based on emergence date, maturity group, and location. The site was developed by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
Read MoreSoy checkoff research funding and partnership with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company has led to a long range commitment by Goodyear to phase out petroleum derived oils from its products by 2040 and use US soybean oil instead. United Soybean Board member Ed Lqmmers from Nebraska says it was all due to the soybean checkoff from Louisiana and other soy producing states
Read MoreNew row crop varieties — soybeans, wheat, rice, corn, cotton, grain sorghum, sweet potatoes and sugarcane — are released annually by private companies and university breeding programs. Each variety can vary dramatically in yield potential, agronomic traits such as maturity, and resistance to insects, diseases and environmental stress factors. It is important to note a variety with high yield potential at one location may not be competitive in another location because of a lack of adaptability to different environments, including weather patterns, soil characteristics, disease pressure and cropping systems. Furthermore, a variety achieving a high yield or quality one year may not perform as well the next year at the same location because of yearly changes in the environment, such as rainfall or disease patterns.
Read MoreA drier-than-usual year up north has Baton Rouge-area farmers and communities along the Mississippi River breathing a sigh of relief as the threat of flooding due to high water levels may not be a significant headache this year.
The river in Baton Rouge appears to have crested last week at about 38 feet, just over what’s considered a moderate flood stage. The National Weather Service projects waters will gradually continue to fall and could even reach minor flood stages by early next week, even with this week's rains.
Read MoreBy a wide margin, soybeans are the most valuable U.S. farm export, accounting for 18¢ of every $1 in sales during calendar 2020, said the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service on Wednesday. Corn, the country’s most widely grown crop, was second in export value to soybeans, which were worth a record $25.7 billion compared with $9.2 billion for corn.
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