Corn, Wheat Crops At Record Production Levels -- Nothing Like A Bit Of Additional CO2 To Help -- September 6, 2016

Whether or not you agree with or appreciate the "tone" of this linked article, the fact is that a) clement weather for the past ten years; and, b) growing atmospheric CO2 concentrations -- minimal as they are -- crop yields are growing (almost) exponentially in the US.

From American Interest quoting Financial Times:

Extensive planting and benign weather have forced analysts to repeatedly raise crop outlooks. The International Grains Council last week increased its global wheat production forecast to a record 743m tonnes, up 1 per cent from last year. […]

The recent US winter wheat harvest was 45m tonnes, up 21 per cent from 2015, according to the US Department of Agriculture. 

Merchants who have run out of room in silos are piling wheat outdoors. 

Storage concerns are also growing in Russia, which is this year set to become the largest wheat exporter after hauling in more than 70m tonnes. In Canada, the government anticipates the second-largest wheat crop in 25 years, of 30.5m tonnes. Australia’s imminent wheat harvest is forecast at 26.5m tonnes, the most in five years.

From an earlier post:

Speaking of blended gasoline, did you all read the WSJ article today that said there's a glut of US corn, and prices are falling fast. By the way, did you see one of the reasons why there are record crops this year?

Clement weather this summer has fueled expectations that U.S. farmers will harvest the largest U.S. corn and soybean crops in history. The USDA earlier this month projected that the nation’s corn crop will reach about 15.2 billion bushels, and the soybean crop about 4.1 billion bushels.

So much for "extreme weather" destroying US crops. And, oh, by the way, that little bit of CO2 is doing great things for corn crops. Both "upstream" and "downstream." 

In addition to clement weather, minimally higher atmospheric CO2, my hunch is technology and government policies have driven a lot of this increase in production.

This will be an interesting story to follow, and thus the new tag, "Agriculture_2016."

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NAWG On Wheat

Linked here, the September 1, 2016, newsletter:

Record yields across the U.S. and favorable conditions around the world this harvest season have brought the lowest price of wheat in nearly a decade, with wheat futures down, causing a dilemma for elevator operators as an oversupply of wheat has caused over-capacity in some areas.

Affecting everyone from farmers to agriculture suppliers, these depressed prices are contributing to a general downward spiral of the farm economy, exacerbated by the threat of cut to certain programs in the Farm Bill, such as crop insurance and Title 1 programs, which protect farmers in times like this. With stagnant markets, many producers aren’t able to cover their cost of production.

Farmers in North Dakota have two "relative" advantages compared to previous years of record harvests.

• taking lessons learned from oil patch on storage
• huge railroad infrastructure buildout during Bakken boom