Pests gain on GM corn?
(Reuters) — Researchers in Illinois are finding significant damage from rootworms in farm fields planted in a rotation with a genetically modified corn that is supposed to protect the crop from the pests, according to a new report.
Evidence gathered from fields in two Illinois counties suggests that pest problems are mounting as rootworms grow more resistant to control efforts, including crop rotation combined with use of the biotech corn, according to the report issued by Michael Gray, a professor of crop sciences at the University of Illinois.
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In the Aug. 27 report, crop damage was found in fields where GM corn had been planted in a rotation following soybeans, a practice that typically helps beat back the rootworm problems because western corn rootworm adults typically lay eggs in cornfields and not in soybean fields.
But a large number of adult western corn rootworms were collected in both the damaged corn fields and from adjacent soybean fields, Gray said.
Monsanto introduced genetically modified corn designed to protect from the rootworms in 2003. The corn contains a protein referred to as Cry3Bb1.
Last year, a group of academic corn experts warned the Environmental Protection Agency that they were worried about long-term corn production prospects because of growing rootworm resistance to the genetic modifications in corn.
Argentina needs rain
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) — Argentina’s recently planted wheat fields need more rains to ensure good yields, observers said.
“If we don’t get rains in the next two to three weeks we will start worrying about yields,” said David Hughes, who manages 17,000 acres of farmland in northern Buenos Aires province.
He said recent frosts in Argentina have so far not posed a threat to crops, but dryness is becoming a worry.
The South American grains powerhouse is a global wheat exporter with most of its shipments going to neighbouring Brazil, where import demand is growing after its own wheat crop has been hurt by frosts.
Argentina’s 2013-14 wheat harvest is expected to total 12 million tonnes, up from 10 million tonnes in the 2012-13 crop year.
Wheat estimates raised
LONDON, U.K. (Reuters) — The International Grains Council recently raised its forecast for 2013-14 global wheat production by four million tonnes to 691 million, reflecting upward revisions to crops in Canada, the European Union, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
The global wheat crop is now expected to be almost six percent above the previous season’s 654 million tonnes.
Global carryover stocks at the end of 2013-14 are expected to rise a modest two million tonnes on the year to 176 million, as a jump in China’s import needs is expected to absorb some of the production increase.
Ukraine sees record harvest
KIEV, Ukraine (Reuters) — Ukraine’s agriculture ministry raised its forecast for this year’s grain harvest to an all-time high of 57.9 million.
The new forecast was significantly higher than the previous record of 56.7 million achieved in 2011 and was up from the earlier estimate on Aug. 1 of 57.1 million tonnes.
Battle on for Smithfield; counter offer floated
CHICAGO (Reuters) — Activist hedge fund Starboard Value LP said it is working with investors interested in paying “substantially” more for Smithfield Foods Inc. than the price China’s Shuanghui International Holdings Ltd. had agreed to.
Starboard, a New York-based fund that holds a 5.7 percent stake in Smithfield, said in a letter to the company’s shareholders on Sept. 3 that it had received “nonbinding written indications of interest” from other parties willing to pay more than the $34 per share cash deal proposed by Shuanghui.
While the counter-proposal was not completed, the hedge fund said it planned to vote against the Smithfield-Shuanghui merger to buy more time to get such a bid finalized.
Smithfield, the world’s largest pork producer, has scheduled a special shareholder meeting on Sept. 24 to vote on the proposed acquisition by Shuanghui.
The deal, struck in May and valued then at about $7.1 billion including debt, would be the biggest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese one.
