CON-European Union to release emergency grain supplies. The EU said it might sell as much as 1.08 million tons of "intervention" stockpiles that can only be sold in Europe, which could further reduce export possibilities for the U.S.
PRO- OCT 20: India, set to become the world’s biggest wheat buyer this year, said two million metric tonne of the grain had arrived at ports since February, when the country began importing after a six-year gap.
Another 5,52,152 tonne of the grain is scheduled to arrive by November 15.
CON-Arkansas Farmers Seeding More Acres With Wheat This Year
LITTLE ROCK (AP)--Stretches of dry weather, rising wheat prices and a lowering in the cost of fertilizer have encouraged Arkansas' wheat farmers to plant double the amount of acres this year compared to 2005, an extension service wheat specialist says.
Jason Kelley, wheat specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service said farmers are expected to plant at least 750,000 acres this year, compared to about 375,000 acres of wheat last year.
PRO-Maltsters feel pinch as growers get break
FORDYCE MAXWELL RURAL AFFAIRS EDITOR ( fmaxwell@scotsman.com)
IT WAS music to the ears of malting barley growers who have waited a long time to hear it - a squeal of pain from maltsters.
Not only that, an unprecedented panic-stricken appeal to farmers to keep growing the crop .
Too late? Possibly. Arguments between growers and buyers of grain about price is as old as harvest - "It's a fat year, Joseph; ten shekels a bushel, you supply the donkey haulage, best I can do" - and in Scotland and the north of England that has been particularly true of malting barley.
"It's an emotive subject," said Roger Baird, a director with Scotland's biggest independent grain merchant, WN Lindsday. "It always has been." But more so in the past few years as good natured, on-farm haggling has been replaced by serious criticism that maltsters were squeezing growers too hard.
That led a few years ago to an NFU Scotland campaign for fixed forward contracts at £100 a tonne. No contract, no barley was the threat. Farmers being farmers an attachment to what has been Scotland's staple, and in the good years extremely profitable, crop, the next spring most grew their usual acreage.
Maltsters, struggling with their own problems of over- supply at home and abroad, banked on that happening and prices continued to hover in the £70s. No more. Malting barley production in Scotland was down more than 12 per cent this year and even with prices now past £100 per tonne for the first time in a decade, there is no indication the slump will end.
Partly that is because maltsters have succeeded, as one put it, "in p***ing farmers off". Partly it is because wheat prices have rocketed, although easing this week, because of world shortage and wheat yields are much higher than malting barley.
Partly it is because of a flurry of announcements about biodiesel plants to process oilseed ****, yet another option.
"We had over-capacity for malt production in Scotland and relied a lot on exports," said Baird this week before an NFU Scotland seminar for grain growers at Carfraemill. Now both capacity and export market have shrunk dramatically. But so has production. "It's the merchant's job to ensure smooth supply and a sustainable return to the farmer," said Baird. "And that got out of kilter."
Didn't buyers of malting barley see the train coming? He said: "Perhaps. But we didn't expect it to arrive so quickly, or realise that the acreage was so low. Now supply and demand is working. It's up to the trade to take the emotion out of an emotive subject and pay what's needed."
Roger Woodley, chairman of the cereals committee of the Maltsters' Association of Great Britain (MAGB) - its members buy about 1.6 million tonnes of malting barley a year - made his heart-rending appeal to growers earlier this week. He said: "A number of factors may lead growers to consider whether they plant malting barley. We urge them to do so and want to assure farmers that UK maltsters will pay an attractive price."
Whoopy-do, John Kinnaird, NFU Scotland president, almost said, the message had finally got through: "But it is now essential that maltsters come out with clear, transparent contracts so that farmers know what price to expect before they sow a crop."
Common agricultural policy reform and a single farm payment not tied to crops or livestock, he said, meant no farmer need grow unprofitable crops.
Maltsters and merchants, particularly the biggest, are shy. They do not like publicity or dropping a hint to competitors about their plans. But some are now offering malting barley contracts for the next two harvests at more than £100 a tonne. It's their only chance.
PRO-EDMONTON - Beef patty producer Sun Valley Foods is planning a major expansion that will almost double the 30,000 square foot space at its Spruce Grove plant.
PRO- OCT 20: India, set to become the world’s biggest wheat buyer this year, said two million metric tonne of the grain had arrived at ports since February, when the country began importing after a six-year gap.
Another 5,52,152 tonne of the grain is scheduled to arrive by November 15.
CON-Arkansas Farmers Seeding More Acres With Wheat This Year
LITTLE ROCK (AP)--Stretches of dry weather, rising wheat prices and a lowering in the cost of fertilizer have encouraged Arkansas' wheat farmers to plant double the amount of acres this year compared to 2005, an extension service wheat specialist says.
Jason Kelley, wheat specialist with the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service said farmers are expected to plant at least 750,000 acres this year, compared to about 375,000 acres of wheat last year.
PRO-Maltsters feel pinch as growers get break
FORDYCE MAXWELL RURAL AFFAIRS EDITOR ( fmaxwell@scotsman.com)
IT WAS music to the ears of malting barley growers who have waited a long time to hear it - a squeal of pain from maltsters.
Not only that, an unprecedented panic-stricken appeal to farmers to keep growing the crop .
Too late? Possibly. Arguments between growers and buyers of grain about price is as old as harvest - "It's a fat year, Joseph; ten shekels a bushel, you supply the donkey haulage, best I can do" - and in Scotland and the north of England that has been particularly true of malting barley.
"It's an emotive subject," said Roger Baird, a director with Scotland's biggest independent grain merchant, WN Lindsday. "It always has been." But more so in the past few years as good natured, on-farm haggling has been replaced by serious criticism that maltsters were squeezing growers too hard.
That led a few years ago to an NFU Scotland campaign for fixed forward contracts at £100 a tonne. No contract, no barley was the threat. Farmers being farmers an attachment to what has been Scotland's staple, and in the good years extremely profitable, crop, the next spring most grew their usual acreage.
Maltsters, struggling with their own problems of over- supply at home and abroad, banked on that happening and prices continued to hover in the £70s. No more. Malting barley production in Scotland was down more than 12 per cent this year and even with prices now past £100 per tonne for the first time in a decade, there is no indication the slump will end.
Partly that is because maltsters have succeeded, as one put it, "in p***ing farmers off". Partly it is because wheat prices have rocketed, although easing this week, because of world shortage and wheat yields are much higher than malting barley.
Partly it is because of a flurry of announcements about biodiesel plants to process oilseed ****, yet another option.
"We had over-capacity for malt production in Scotland and relied a lot on exports," said Baird this week before an NFU Scotland seminar for grain growers at Carfraemill. Now both capacity and export market have shrunk dramatically. But so has production. "It's the merchant's job to ensure smooth supply and a sustainable return to the farmer," said Baird. "And that got out of kilter."
Didn't buyers of malting barley see the train coming? He said: "Perhaps. But we didn't expect it to arrive so quickly, or realise that the acreage was so low. Now supply and demand is working. It's up to the trade to take the emotion out of an emotive subject and pay what's needed."
Roger Woodley, chairman of the cereals committee of the Maltsters' Association of Great Britain (MAGB) - its members buy about 1.6 million tonnes of malting barley a year - made his heart-rending appeal to growers earlier this week. He said: "A number of factors may lead growers to consider whether they plant malting barley. We urge them to do so and want to assure farmers that UK maltsters will pay an attractive price."
Whoopy-do, John Kinnaird, NFU Scotland president, almost said, the message had finally got through: "But it is now essential that maltsters come out with clear, transparent contracts so that farmers know what price to expect before they sow a crop."
Common agricultural policy reform and a single farm payment not tied to crops or livestock, he said, meant no farmer need grow unprofitable crops.
Maltsters and merchants, particularly the biggest, are shy. They do not like publicity or dropping a hint to competitors about their plans. But some are now offering malting barley contracts for the next two harvests at more than £100 a tonne. It's their only chance.
PRO-EDMONTON - Beef patty producer Sun Valley Foods is planning a major expansion that will almost double the 30,000 square foot space at its Spruce Grove plant.
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