No family wants to end up in court arguing over how inherited farmland will be divided. It's even more discouraging when one owner wants to keep the land, but the court orders all the owners to sell. Iowa just passed a law in 2018 that allows a way to equalize the property without a sale. The result: Person(s) wanting to sell can get cash out, while owner(s) preferring to keep the family farm are not forced to sell. [node:read-more:link]
It’s been two weeks since the merger between Bayer AG and Monsanto officially began its integration, two months since the deal closed and nearly two years since the planned deal was announced. Despite that, newly appointed Bayer officials are vague on how they plan to handle the mountain of lawsuits inherited from Monsanto over pesticides such as glyphosate and dicamba. These lawsuits have plagued Monsanto, most recently in an August 10 court decision that ordered the company to pay $289 million in damages. [node:read-more:link]
The agriculture industry in the U.S. is dealing with a lot of uncertainty. Falling prices and trade wars top the list. We expect our exports to grow faster than our imports. However, for 3 years in a row, that has not been happening. We are losing ground. Looking to 2019, pork exports are expected to decline by $300 million and beef by $100 million.A little bit of good news – poultry will be up slightly, and also wheat. Net farm income is forecast to drop $9.8 billion. [node:read-more:link]
Bayer said the number of American plaintiffs alleging its recently acquired weedkillers cause cancer has risen sharply, adding to concerns about potentially lengthy and costly litigation stemming from its acquisition of Monsanto. The German chemicals company on Wednesday also lowered its full-year earnings outlook because of delays in closing its $63 billion purchase of Monsanto, which included a portfolio of herbicides that contain glyphosate, notably flagship product Roundup.Bayer said it faced some 8,700 plaintiffs across the U.S. [node:read-more:link]
U.S. dairy exporters are losing money as they try to maintain their hard-won footholds in the Chinese market amid the rising tariffs resulting from President Donald Trump’s trade war. Some U.S. exporters – sellers of relatively low-cost nonfat dry milk powder – have already had to give up, but many who depend on China to buy whey, cheese and other pricier products are hanging on for now, says U.S. Dairy Export Council (USDEC) President and CEO Tom Vilsack.It’s a tough situation that’s only degrading as U.S. companies lose ground to competitors in Australia, Europe and New Zealand. [node:read-more:link]
The attorneys general of 15 states are waiting to see if the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a pair of cases by Missouri and Indiana against California and Massachusetts over what they see as a violation of interstate commerce by trying to regulate agricultural production in other states. [node:read-more:link]
Agriculture amounts to a small part of NAFTA trade volume but it is a major sticking point for U.S. and Canadian negotiators who are scheduled to resume negotiations on the new NAFTA on Wednesday. The second-largest U.S. farm group said the White House ought to adopt the dairy supply management system that it reportedly is trying to eliminate in Canada and reinstate country-of-origin labeling on beef. Canada is unlikely to yield on supply management, which has broad domestic political support, wrote associate professor Michael von Massow of the University of Guelph. [node:read-more:link]
The Maine wild blueberry industry harvests one of the most beloved fruit crops in New England, but it’s locked in a downward skid in a time when other nutrition-packed foods, from acai to quinoa, dominate the conversation about how to eat. And questions linger about when, and if, the berry will be able to make a comeback. The little blueberries are touted by health food bloggers and natural food stores because of their hefty dose of antioxidants. [node:read-more:link]
Cranberry farmers buried under a glut of the tart fruit are seeking permission for a radical way to dig themselves out: destroying millions of pounds of their crops. [node:read-more:link]
Despite another bin-busting U.S. corn-belt production year, trade tensions and the plunging Brazilian real, grain prices are relatively stalwart. For prices to sustain lower, it appears the near-perfect bear-market storm conditions need to endure — that’s unlikely. Led by wheat, the Bloomberg Grains Spot Index is up almost 2% in 2018 to Aug. 28. Broad agriculture is down almost 5% on the back of a 20% slump in the softs and real. Total returns are lower due to steep contangos but indicating improvement. The wheat one-year future curve leads major commodities moving toward backwardation. [node:read-more:link]
