Dry Weather Poses Risk to Russia’s 2019 Grain Crop
Successful Farming – 9/12/2018
Dry weather in some Russian regions is posing a risk to next year’s grain crop in one of the world’s largest wheat exporters, analysts and an industry lobby group said. Russian farmers are sowing winter grains for the next year’s crop while the country is gathering this year’s harvest. Officials expect the harvest to fall to 105 million tonnes in 2018 from a record 135 million tonnes in 2017. “There is a drought in some regions, especially in the Volga region,” Arkady Zlochevsky, head of the Russian Grain Union, a non-government farmers’ lobby group, told a conference in Moscow on Wednesday. “It creates some additional risks.”
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Water Shortages to Cut Iraq’s Irrigated Wheat Area by Half
Reuters – 9/11/2018
Iraq, a major Middle East grain buyer, will cut the irrigated area it plants with wheat by half in the 2018-2019 growing season as water shortages grip the country, a government official told Reuters. Drought and dwindling river flows have already forced Iraq to ban farmers from planting rice and other water-intensive summer crops. Water scarcity was one of the issues galvanizing street protests in the country this year. An investigation by Reuters in July revealed how Nineveh, Iraq’s former breadbasket, was becoming a dust bowl after drought and years of war. This latest move is likely to significantly raise wheat imports.
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Wheat Lower on Weak Demand for U.S. Inventories
Successful Farming – 9/11/2018
Wheat turned lower overnight on weak demand for U.S. supplies. Accumulated exports of U.S. wheat since the start of the grain’s marketing year on June 1 are down 33% from the same time frame a year earlier, according to the USDA. Total commitments to purchase U.S. wheat from overseas buyers is down 25% to 9.39 million metric tons, the government said in a report last week.
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Here’s the One Ottawa Policy in NAFTA That Even Canadian Farmers Think is Unfair
Financial Post – 9/11/2018
Revamping a long-held agricultural policy that unfairly penalizes American wheat could give Canada a bargaining chip in the NAFTA talks and settle an old grievance between farmers on either side of the border, industry leaders say. At issue is Canada’s system for grading American wheat imports — or rather refusing to grade them. Under the Canada Grain Act, all American wheat delivered to primary grain elevators in Canada is automatically classified in the lowest possible category, as feed. The policy doesn’t affect the vast majority of wheat trade with the U.S., which occurs mainly through bulk commercial purchases by food manufacturers, analysts say. Nevertheless, it has been a longstanding irritant for American farmers and is one of the few agricultural issues besides dairy supply management that the U.S. wants overhauled in the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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Montana Wheat is Right on Track
Tri-State Livestock News – 9/11/2018
The wheat harvest in Montana is getting close to being wrapped up for another year. According to three farmers from the state, so far, the crop is looking good. “The farmers that I’m talking to are generally happy,” said Lyle Benjamin of Sunburst in north central Montana. Benjamin farms wheat, durum, small barley, chick peas, and lentils just south of the Canadian border. “I would say that over the area the crops have been good with high quality yields that are just a touch over average,” he reported.
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Source: U.S. Wheat Associates