Louisiana farmers planted about half as many cotton acres as last year, and their fewest in over 30 years, as they seeded more land to corn and other higher-price crops, the U. It's not just cotton losing ground to corn in Louisiana: farmers in the state also are expected to plant about one-third fewer soybean acres this year, USDA said. Cotton prices on the futures markets have improved in recent weeks, buoyed in part by stronger-than-expected cotton sales and a recognition that acreage...

Associated Press With corn prices high and demand from the ethanol industry growing, farmers planted the most acres of the crop the state has seen since 1943, the government said Friday. The new harvested wheat estimate is 100,000 acres below an earlier forecast but is still 300,000 acres more than what was harvested during last year's drought-plagued season. The total acreage for those crops is up 1 percent from last year. The latest KASS report adjusted the number of acres forecast to be...

Within the next decade those older farmers will be looking for someone to take over their operations and selling millions of acres of land. farmers produce more food than any other country in the world and are tops in corn, soybeans, milk and cattle, according to a United Nations agriculture census. At the same time, it's becoming more costly for young people to go into farming, and many of them see that they can make a better living by leaving the rural areas. Pennsylvania, Connecticut...

Although domestic fundamentals, including a large amount of stocks and weak domestic feedmeal demand, are weighing on prices, the gains on CBOT for soybean kept shorts on the sidelines, analysts said. Speculative longs seem to be in favor of CBOT soy futures, and are very sensitive to positive news; "if it continues to be the case, we're likely to see more gains," said Zeng. With market participants now becoming increasingly optimistic about soybean, the correlation between soy and corn...

The catalyst for the price surge was the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report which estimated that 2007 soybean acreage would be lower than 2006's record high acreage by 15 per cent. Whether the US soyabean futures price surge is sustainable is debatable, considering that soyabean stocks remain at record high levels. But the local palm oil futures market's performance last week also was notable, particularly its resilience. Mun LONG-term: Consolidation mode Short-term: Price surge in...