PARIS, Feb 5 (Reuters) – France has launched a move to restore a ban on genetically modified (GMO) maize annulled by its top court to prevent sowings this spring that could raise public outcry in a country strongly opposed to GMO crops. A Senator of the ruling Socialist party submitted a draft law on Tuesday […] Read more
Stories by Reuters News Service
Taiwan to accept more Canadian beef
WINNIPEG, Manitoba, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Taiwan has agreed to accept Canadian bone-in beef and other products from cattle under 30 months of age, Canada’s agriculture and international trade ministers said on Wednesday. The arrangement was signed on Feb. 3 and was to go into effect no later than 30 days later, Agriculture Minister Gerry […] Read more
U.S. Senate passes long-overdue farm bill, sends to Obama
WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval on Tuesday to a farm bill, costing an estimated $956 billion over a decade, that trims food stamps for the poor, expands federal crop insurance and ends direct payments to farmers, and sent it to President Barack Obama for his expected signature. The […] Read more
U.S. wheat deteriorates after a brutal January
CHICAGO, Feb 4 (Reuters) – The condition of U.S. winter wheat grown across the southern Plains deteriorated during January as a combination of dryness and arctic temperatures took a toll on the dormant crop, according to government crop reports. In the top U.S. wheat state of Kansas, 20 percent of the crop was rated poor […] Read more
Dairy prices rise, volumes fall at auction -NZ’s Fonterra
Feb 4 (Reuters) – International milk prices edged up in the first auction this month, while volumes fell in the sale held by New Zealand’s Fonterra Co-operative Group, the world’s biggest dairy exporter. Fonterra’s GDT Price Index, formerly the Global Dairy Trade-Trade Weighted Index, rose 0.5 percent, with an average selling price of $5,042 per […] Read more
Farm machinery maker Agco forecasts weak demand for 2014
Feb 4 (Reuters) – Agriculture machinery maker Agco Corp warned of weak demand in 2014 due to reduced farm income and forecast current-quarter earnings well below Wall Street expectations. Economic uncertainty in Europe, coupled with a slowdown in demand from U.S. farmers, has weighed on Agco as corn prices continue to slide, pressured by a […] Read more
Ukraine grain exports fall 40 percent in January
KIEV, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Ukraine’s grain exports fell by around 40 percent month-on-month to 2.79 million tonnes in January, the Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday. Ukraine, which harvested an all-time-high harvest of 62.9 million tonnes in 2013, exported 21.9 million tonnes of grain in the first seven months of the 2013/14 season which runs […] Read more
PED meetings planned for Alberta
Information sessions for Alberta hog producers about porcine epidemic diarrhea virus are planned in February and March at various locations. A meeting in Fort Saskatchewan is scheduled Feb. 18 in the Lakeview Hotel. Another is planned Feb. 19 at the Coast Hotel in Lethbridge and a third will run Feb. 20 in Red Deer at […] Read more
Iowa research lab identifies new strain of deadly pig virus
Feb 3 (Reuters) – A new strain of Porcine Epidemic Diarrhea virus, or PEDv, has been identified in samples taken from Illinois and Missouri, a top veterinarian at Iowa State University said on Monday. “We found that there is a variant out there that appears to be quite different than the original,” Rodger Main, the […] Read more
Cash price jitters rattle CME hog futures, live cattle down with beef
By Theopolis Waters CHICAGO, Feb 3 (Reuters) – Chicago Mercantile Exchange hog futures retreated on Monday, led by profit-taking in anticipation of weaker cash prices in the near term, traders and analysts said. The morning’s average cash hog price in the eastern Midwest dropped $1.14 per hundredweight (cwt) to $78.71, according to U.S. Department of […] Read more
