Cash supplies of winter wheat exhibited the greatest appreciation in value this week, with rising futures prices more than offsetting a 1- to 3-cent decrease in average interior basis. Spot soybean markets were almost unchanged, as soft basis nearly erased all of a modest futures rally. With previous rain delays limiting harvest progress to no more than one-quarter the usual pace entering the week, July winter wheat futures closed 6 3/4 cents higher at the Chicago Board of Trade and 11...

Maryland farmers have until the end of the month to sign up for $8 million in state money earmarked to pay for winter cover crops. The program, administered through local Soil Conservation Districts and managed by the Maryland Agricultural Water Quality Cost-Share Program (MACS), is designed to encourage farmers to plant grains such as barley, wheat and rye on fields after their summer crops are harvested. Carroll County Times: Westminster, Maryland , The program, administered through...

Weather forecasts through May 10 indicate the crop will get planted at about an average pace, therefore the market is slowly removing weather premium from prices. Our spring wheat crop is currently being seeded and producers will finish in May. This is when seasonal price trends turn lower as the market prepares for the impending winter wheat harvest. WHEAT Wheat futures have rallied sharply so far in the month of April due to frost damage that occurred over the Easter weekend. Producers...

Biver, who calls himself the Straw Boss on his business cards, said straw production also may be hurt along with the wheat crop. There is no doubt that the hay crop already has suffered from the killer frost in early April. There is some evidence that hay in northern Illinois was not hit as hard by the freeze because growing patterns there are two or three weeks behind this area. He predicted that people may be bailing things they normally don't, such as road ditches and fence lines. But...

A harsh April freeze and a dry spring have combined to create difficult conditions throughout Tennessee's $20 billion agriculture industry from the winter wheat and hay that farmers are just beginning to harvest to the soybeans and tobacco plants they are trying to get in the ground. Complaining about the weather may be a pastime as old as farming itself, but this year, farmers have reason to be worried, meteorologists and agriculture experts say. A harsh April freeze and a dry spring have...