UnitedSoybean

Taiwan trade delegation stops in Iowa

A delegation from Taiwan met Monday with representatives of Iowa’s corn and soybean industries to sign ceremonial letters of intent for corn and soy products.

The head of the delegation, Dr. Paul Sun, says Taiwan imports 90 percent of its corn and soy needs from the U.S.  The reasons, he says–quality and consistent supply.

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Senate cap and trade bill likely, Grassley says

A day after telling reporters that cap-and-trade climate change legislation was dead for the year, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa today says he’s learned that Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer is going to introduce a draft climate change bill in early October with tentative markup – minus the Senate Ag Committee’s input.

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Corn maturity 35% behind five year average

As of Sunday, 90% of the crop has dented, compared to 97% on average, only 37% is mature, compared to 72% for the five year average and 5% is harvested, compared to 18% on average.

It’s nearly the same story for soybeans with 63% dropping leaves, compared to the five year average of 77% and 5% harvested, compared to 18% on average.

However, both crops are still in better than a year ago condition with 68% of corn in good to excellent condition and 66% of soybeans rated in the good to excellent category.

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China’s corn crop shrinks by 10 percent

China’s corn production this year is expected to be almost 10 percent under a year ago because of drought. The US Grains Council estimates China’s corn crop to be 5.86 billion bushels. That compares to 6.53 billion bushels of corn harvested last year in China.

Despite the decrease, US Grains Council Senior China Director Cary Sifferath doesn’t look for China to increase imports.

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Kick-off at plant where Kixor will be made

Top BASF officials, along with state and local officials and BASF employees, took part in a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday at the BASF crop protection unit north of Hannibal, Missouri. “This production unit will provide our customers, the farmers, with a solution they are really waiting for,” says Stefan Marcinowski, Executive Board Member of BASF-SE.

Kixor herbicide technology received EPA approval last month. It is designed to tackle weeds that have become resistant to glyphosate.

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Weekly soybean sales over 1 million tons

According to the USDA, soybean, wheat and soybean oil sales for the week ending September 17 were larger than expected while corn and soybean meal were within pre-report estimates.

Soybeans were placed at 1,152,000 tons, with the bulk of the total purchased by China (654,500 tons), South Korea (110,000 tons) and unknown destinations (91,000 tons).

Corn was reported at 673,300 tons (26.5 million bushels), mostly to Mexico (450,100 tons) with a handful of smaller sales rounding out the total.

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AMI, RFA spar over ad on higher ethanol blends

An American Meat Institute (AMI) advertisement opposing any increase in ethanol blend levels has drawn a sharp response from a major ethanol industry group.

AMI used the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call to run a full-page ad entitled “E15?  Bad for Consumers, Bad for the Environment, Bad for Rural Communities”.  The ad urges opposition to any action that would increase the percentage of ethanol in gasoline to 15 percent. 

That brought this response from Bob Dineen of the Renewable Fuels Association: “I think that the Meat Institute’s concerns are overblown.

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Harkin drops indirect land use amendment

A Harkin spokesman tells DTN that the senator has decided not to press forward with the amendment after receiving a letter of assurance from EPA administrator Lisa Jackson.  In the letter, Jackson told Harkin that she recognizes the uncertainty surrounding the indirect land use calculations and promises to quantify them.

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Cleaning up the Mississippi

U.S. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on Thursday, September 24 a new $320 million, four-year plan to clean up the Mississippi River. Villsack says the initiative will focus on watersheds which contribute high loads of nutrients in the Mississippi River Basin as determined by the NRCS, state and local agencies in a dozen states, Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

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EPA official praises Iowa’s hypoxia reduction efforts

Bryon Griffith is the director of the EPA’s Gulf of Mexico office.  He is part of a central Iowa tour today which involves members of the Gulf of Mexico hypoxia task force.

“Iowa, from day one, has really taken an attitude of looking at this particular problem through the lens of ‘what can Iowans and what can Iowa agriculture do with its resources and its assets and its approaches to address these issues effectively, while sustaining agriculture into the future’,” Griffith says.

Task force members are touring farms and a nitrate removal wetland.  Iowa secretary of agriculture Bill Northey says Iowa has made good progress on the issue, but much more remains to be done.

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