Yield expectations compiled by the statistics services Lincoln field office are unchanged from a month ago, but total harvested acres are now rated at 2 million, up from 1.85 million last month. The statistics service doesnt start using field surveys to estimate the size of the corn and soybean crop at the state and national level until August. Using a late June report on planted acres and trend yields, the latest federal forecast offered in a World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimate...

The ag agent added that the disease is probably here to stay so producers will have to start budgeting for fungicide for the soybean crops. The treatment for the disease is the use of fungicide with the cost of treatment at about $25 per acre, not counting any losses that have already happened. Disease could decimate soybeans. It came late in the season last year so the plants were mature and were not impacted, he said. What might be happening in one field will be different from another...

The corn market spent the day July 16 down its trading limit as well, and obviously the soybean market is fencing with corn for acres over the next few years. Despite a meltdown on July 16, 2007, in the soy complex, I still believe that the longest-lasting soybean bull market in history is likely to remain intact. Obviously, a slow soybean market is not a problem this year, and I don t think it will be for at least a couple of crop years to come. I spent the earliest part of my career as a...

The market has already anticipated a smaller seeded acres than 2006, however if producers planted more acres to corn than previously thought, prices could push even higher. The tight world wheat stocks situation, leaves a bullish scenario for wheat values as the world should be aggressive buyers of newly harvested U. As the market perceives a smaller crop is being raised, the market will be forced to rally to ration the projected ending stocks. The month of June is not the key reproductive...

Issues facing the biodiesel industry include the high price for soy oil, the primary feedstock for biodiesel plants in Iowa, because of fewer acres planted to soybeans this year. Olson, who was senior marketing manager at the Iowa Soybean Association, said the board was created by demand from "the entire biodiesel chain" to promote biodiesel and work on industry issues and policies. They include biodiesel producers, petroleum marketers and soybean farmers. Producers and others point out...

Producers continued to irrigate corn _ which is at peak pollination _ where rain showers didn't provide enough moisture for corn. Irrigated fields rated 85 percent good or excellent, while 61 percent of dryland fields were in good or excellent condition, both above levels last year. Temperatures averaged 4 degrees below normal and ranged from highs in the mid 90s in the northwest to lows in the upper 40s in the northeast, the service's Nebraska Field Office said in its weekly report....