$1 Billion Success in Brazil For U.S. Wheat

Nov 24, 2014

U.S. Wheat Associates' education and engagement with millers in Brazil helped generate $1 billion in sales during the 2013/14 marketing year on a $100,000 investment. Read the full story here.

Year after year, U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) tells the story of reliable, high-quality, American-grown wheat to Brazilian millers. This paid off last year when they could not import enough wheat from Argentina and their government suspended a 10-percent tariff on wheat from the United States.

When the tariff was lifted in April 2013, USW brought representatives from Brazil's largest milling company to Manhattan, Kan., to visit the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, the International Grains Program, the USDA Center for Grain and Animal Health Research and a local wheat farm.

Over the next few months, USW sponsored seminars in Brazil for flour mills and purchasing managers, providing technical and market information.

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Video: Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes | Field Talk Friday

Field Talk Friday | Dr. John Murphy | Root Exudates, Soil Biology, and How Plants Recruit Microbes

Most of us spend our time managing what we can see above ground—plant height, leaf color, stand counts, and yield potential. But the deeper you dig into agronomy, the more you realize that some of the most important processes driving crop performance are happening just millimeters below the surface.

In this episode of Field Talk Friday, Dr. John Murphy continues the soil biology series by diving into one of the most fascinating topics in modern agronomy: root exudates and the role they play in shaping the microbial world around plant roots.

Roots are not passive structures simply pulling nutrients out of the soil. They are active participants in the underground ecosystem. Plants constantly release compounds into the soil—sugars, amino acids, organic acids, and other molecules—that act as both energy sources and signals for soil microbes.