Corn Belt Tour Examines U.S. Crops

Jun 30, 2014

Are you curious to know how the crops in the U.S. Corn Belt are doing?

If you answered yes, then you can follow an interactive site that provides a 12 day overview highlighting the progress of the corn and soybean crops across the Midwestern United States. The interactive site provides daily U.S. state videos, photos and farmer/industry analysis.

The team at Farms.com Risk Management hit the road for their third annual U.S. Corn Belt Crop Tour on Sunday, June 29 to get a glimpse of the crops first-hand. The tour, which is being led by Moe Agostino, will aim to predict the size of the U.S. corn and soybean crops, which is important in order to determine where prices are headed. Getting a closer look at the crops are important as the U.S. produces a significant amount of grain, 40 per cent of the world crop.

The tour includes the following states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. The top four corn-producing states are Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Minnesota. Together, the four states account for about half of the corn grown in the United States.

The team hopes to provide insight on the following questions:

Will the new buzz word greenhouse effect continue?
Is a record 170-180 corn average yield possible?
Did the Northern U.S. States lose 1-2 million acres of corn to soybeans because of the wet weather planting delays?

Thanks to sponsors: BASF and PRIDE SEEDS

Follow on Twitter for a daily contest: @FarmsMarketing

Invite: 2014 U.S. Corn Belt Crop Tour Outlook Dinner

Who: Growers (Southwestern, Ontario)

Date: July 21, 2014

Time: 4:30pm-9:00pm

Where:

Penta Tillage Inc.
73 Main Street, Box 760
Glencoe, Ontario, Canada
N0L 1M0

Price: $20 (pre-register) or $50 (at the door)

Register here: http://riskmanagement.farms.com/TownHall/

Video: Finding a Balance of Innovation and Regulation - Dr. Peter Facchini

Regulations help markets and industry exist on level playing fields, keeping consumers safe and innovation from going too far. However, incredibly strict regulations can stunt innovation and cause entire industries to wither away. Dr. Peter James Facchini brings his perspective on how existing regulations have slowed the advancement of medical developments within Canada. Given the international concern of opium poppy’s illicit potential, Health Canada must abide by this global policy. But with modern technology pushing the development of many pharmaceuticals to being grown via fermentation, is it time to reconsider the rules?

Dr. Peter James Facchini leads research into the metabolic biochemistry in opium poppy at the University of Calgary. For more than 30 years, his work has contributed to the increased availability of benzylisoquinoline alkaloid biosynthetic genes to assist in the creation of morphine for pharmaceutical use. Dr. Facchini completed his B.Sc. and Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at the University of Toronto before completing Postdoctoral Fellowships in Biochemistry at the University of Kentucky in 1992 & Université de Montréal in 1995.