Agri-Pulse: Myanmar Breaks In First Bulk Import With US Wheat
The first shipment to arrive at Myanmar’s first-ever port terminal capable of receiving bulk commodities was a 22,000 metric ton load of U.S. wheat. Although the terminal was in working order, local officials didn’t know how to set up procedures for inspecting large shipments, according to USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. FAS, the U.S. Federal Grains Inspection Service, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, U.S. Wheat Associates and U.S. Grains Council all chipped in to offer guidance. USW spokesman Steve Mercer says the shipment should be the first of many.
Planting Struggle Continues Across Heartland
According to USDA’s latest Crop Progress report, only 58 percent of the forecast corn acres had been planted as of Sunday. According to Reuters analyst Karen Braun, 99 million expected acres of corn and soybeans haven’t been planted yet. “That’s by far the largest amount of unplanted acreage at this point in the spring. The next largest amount, just over 70 million acres”.
China Pledges To Adhere To WTO Ag Trade Rulings
China will start living up to promises to import more corn, wheat and rice while scaling back its domestic subsidies, Chinese officials pledged Tuesday at the World Trade Organization in Geneva. China isn’t fighting two cases it lost to the United States, and the U.S. has agreed to a Chinese request for time to come into compliance.
An Iowa State University study concluded U.S. wheat exporters lost roughly $700 million because of China’s domestic support programs that kept the price of Chinese wheat as high as $10 per bushel. Those high prices pushed Chinese farmers to over-produce, robbing U.S. farmers of sales.
New Study: “Worldwide Phylogeography And History Of Wheat Genetic Diversity”
A team of researchers from Université Clermont Auvergne and BreedWheat in France and the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium in the U.S. has conducted genomic testing of thousands of wheat types to trace the genetic history and diversity of wheat. To develop the genetic history, the researchers studied more than 4,500 samples of wheat from 105 countries. Read the published paper here.
NWF Accepting Entries for 2019 National Wheat Yield Contest
The National Wheat Foundation (NWF) is currently accepting grower enrollment for the 2019 National Wheat Yield Contest! The Contest is divided into two primary competition categories: winter wheat and spring wheat, and two subcategories: dryland and irrigated. The Foundation is currently accepting entries for Spring Wheat. The Spring wheat entry deadline is August 1st with an early registration deadline of June 15th.
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