Wet Autmun to Cut Wheat Area in France, UK in Setback for Next Harvest
Reuters – 11/29/2019
Heavy autumn rain is expected to lead to a fall in wheat sowings in France and Britain, raising early doubts over prospects for next year’s harvest in Europe, analysts said. After drought hampered drilling of rapeseed in late summer, a shift to wet weather from October has disrupted the subsequent wheat and winter barley sowing campaigns, with French and British farmers facing particularly soggy field conditions. “It’s now a given that there will be a significant decrease in wheat area in France. There is wheat that won’t be sown at all and sown crop that is under water,” Nathan Cordier of consultancy Agritel said. “We’re looking at a similar situation in Britain.” In France, nationwide rainfall in France for October and November is expected to be 70% above the seasonal average, according to public weather service Meteo France.
Italian Pasta Increasingly is Made of Wheat From the U.S. and Canada
BNN Bloomberg – 12/02/2019
Italy, the world’s biggest pasta consumer, can’t abandon the North American wheat used to make spaghetti and macaroni after smaller plantings and foul weather curbed output in the European Union. Exports of durum wheat by the U.S. and Canada are booming, foiling efforts by Italy to protect its farmers by adopting country-of-origin labeling rules in 2017, effectively damping imports. EU production of the wheat variety for the season that began in July fell 10% to 7.78 million tons, European Commission data show, triggering demand for North American supplies. Italian importers took advantage of U.S. and Canadian durum of “excellent quality” at “historically cheap values,” Niccolo d’Andria, vice president of the Rome-based grains group Associazione Nazionale Cerealisti, or Anacer, said in an email. A second round of imports may loom in April, he said.
China Wants U.S. Tariffs Rolled Back in Phase One Trade Deal
Global Times – 12/01/2019
Beijing’s top priority in any phase one trade deal with the United States is the removal of existing tariffs on Chinese goods, China’s Global Times newspaper reported on Sunday, amid uncertainty on whether the two sides can end a 17-month trade war that has depressed global growth. “Sources with direct knowledge of the trade talks told the Global Times on Saturday that the U.S. must remove existing tariffs, not planned tariffs, as part of the deal,” according to the report…The United States is poised to impose an additional 15% tariff on about $156 billion of Chinese products on Dec. 15. It is widely expected that those tariffs will be averted if a deal is struck, but China is pressing for rollbacks of previous tariffs. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said Washington was in the “final throes” of a deal aimed at defusing the trade war with China, a few days after Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed his desire for a trade agreement. Top trade negotiators for both countries also spoke again and agreed to keep working on the remaining issues.
Genetic Capabilities Cut Time For Potential Texas Wheat Lines to Make Field Appearance
AgriLifeToday – 11/28/2019
Chenggen Chu, Ph.D., a geneticist, joined Texas A&M AgriLife Research’s wheat program at Amarillo two years ago, and his doubled haploid wheat pure lines are already making it to field yield trials this fall. Since moving to Amarillo, Chu has built a wheat doubled haploid production pipeline from scratch that can be shared with AgriLife Research’s wheat breeding programs in both Amarillo and College Station. He is training other personnel on the process. The major advantage of using doubled haploid plants is to shorten time in developing genetically pure lines from five to six years in a traditional winter wheat breeding scheme, to only two or three years, said Shuyu Liu, Ph.D., AgriLife Research wheat geneticist, Amarillo. “Texas A&M’s wheat breeding programs are very strong, but did not include anyone with the skills Dr. Chu brought with him,” Liu said. “The wheat doubled haploid line development procedures require some skilled steps in the laboratory.
Mission for Farming: Keesling a Spokesperson for Kansas Grains
Leavenworth Times – 12/01/2019
Growing up, Doug Keesling, the son of a farmer in Chase, never expected he would be a spokesperson for Kansas farmers in front of the U.S. Congress or at the United Nations. Neither did he ever imagine he would be on a U.S. president’s agricultural advisory committee. He was a farm kid, and now he’s a farmer — with a mission — to help his fellow farmers. Keesling understands farmers need to be heard, and he helps speak out for them by being a part of organizations that advocate for the farmer. He was just named to the Board of Directors for the National Sorghum Producers and also serves on President Donald Trump’s Agriculture Advisory Committee.
“Farmers elected me to boards in order to help them do what I can to promote Kansas grains,” Keesling said. “I never saw myself traveling so much, but there is a need to promote our products.”..Keesling served on the Board of Plains Grains, the Wheat Foods Council, U.S. Wheat Associates and International Grains Program Institute. He is also a former chairman of Kansas Wheat and a member of the U. S. Agricultural Coalition for Cuba. In addition, he is a founding board member of Heartland Plant Innovations.
Source: U.S. Wheat Associates