This view is further supported by the anticipated union strike in Nigeria, general violence and exposure to militant oil strikes in that country (Chevron has pulled workers throughout the country due to the violence), disruptions in gasoline refineries and the general exposure to weather issues given the current low levels of gasoline supplies heading into the high demand summer driving season. This view is further supported by the anticipated union strike in Nigeria, general violence and...

The conference agenda will focus on a variety of identity preserved (IP), specialty grain markets, including presentations on the Japanese Natto soybean market and both domestic and international pulse crop market opportunities. The conference also features an industry specific trade show, consisting of over 50 firms offering a wide variety of products and services to the emerging IP, specialty grain industry. Other sessions will cover transportation challenges & opportunities and biofuels...

Biodiesel is made primarily from soybean oil, and the price of soybeans is up as farmers put more and more land into production of corn, the more lucrative crop of the two. And that shift, from corn to soybeans, pushes up the price of soybeans further, making biodiesel production even dicier. A new study by economists at Iowa State University suggests the biodiesel market won't grow substantially unless the government requires its usage or adds more subsidies. Europe is moving as...

In northeast Iowa, farmers were able to plant 31 percent of their corn crop and 42 percent of their soybean crop. South central Iowa farmers could only plant 8 percent of their corn and 3 percent of their soybean crop last week, the report said. Mostly dry weather allowed farmers to get 77 percent of their intended corn acres planting, which is one week behind last years planting. Thirty-six percent of the corn planted has emerged compared to last years 39 percent and the five-year average...

Agriculture experts say farmers should be on alert, but not panicked, by the discovery of Asian soybean rust in a kudzu patch in Iberia Parish. The fungus, often lethal to soybeans, has been found in southern Louisiana earlier than last year. Soybeans that have emerged are still in the vegetative phase, and ASR is more of an issue for the later reproductive stages, he said, noting that monitoring for the disease goes on year-round. Rust did not show up last year until late in the growing...