While wheat supplies seem plentiful, it should be noted that many countries will not have a bumper crop. Australia is currently harvesting a smaller crop, pegged at 24.5 mmt and Argentina's wheat crop has been reduced by drought coming in at 16.5 mmt. With wheat prices back to historically lower price levels, will additional end users step up purchases? After all, there are two global wars to contend with, and any flare up may affect commodity prices. Will end users want to get in front of that to secure supplies? Or have end users gone back to a complacent “hand to mouth” purchase mentality, and will only buy when needed?

Forging stronger political ties, Russia and China also are expanding agricultural trade, promising changes for the global grain market. In October, Food Export Trade, a Russian grain exporting firm, signed a $26 billion contract to supply China with 70 million tonnes of grain, legumes and oilseeds over the next 12 years. This is one of the biggest contracts in the history of the Russia-China trade relationship, said Karen Ovesepyan, head of the New Land-Based Grain Corridor Initiative, an infrastructure project designed to facilitate grain exports to China.

Over the last few weeks, we have explored all the major modes of the U.S. supply chain, evaluated recent trends, and highlighted how each type of transportation plays an integral role in the U.S. supply chain. Barging, rail, and oceangoing vessels work together to create the dependable supply chain importers of U.S. wheat expect. In periods of increased risk and volatility, a trustworthy, reliable supply chain is essential for providing customers with the wheat they need.

Idaho is losing too much open space, including farmland, according to a new voter survey and study. Idaho’s rate of population growth led the U.S. during the past decade and drives development that consumes agricultural ground and other open spaces, said Leon Kolankiewicz, scientific director for NumbersUSA, a nonprofit that advocates for less immigration. Some 77% of the sprawl in Idaho counties from 1982 to 2017 was related to an increase in the number of residents, he said. A rise in per-capita land consumption drove the rest, referring to the average amount of land occupied by each person

Two members of Congress plan to investigate the White House Council on Environmental Quality's involvement in the mediation of an environmental lawsuit over management of the four lower Snake River dams. A coalition of environmental and fishing groups in 2020 sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and Bonneville Power Administration over their dam operations plan.

Rural Minds will be presenting a one-hour webinar on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time. The free webinar will feature Chrisa Hickey’s lived experience with managing her adult son’s schizophrenia in rural Wisconsin and overcoming mental healthcare barriers. Dr. Monica Taylor Desir, a community psychiatrist, will share her expertise with treating patients living in rural America with various mental illnesses.

China is set to import record volumes of wheat this year, trading sources say, with rain damage to its crop and worries over dry weather in exporting nations fueling Beijing's appetite to buy while prices are low. Traders said China's frantic buying is likely to support global prices, which have dropped more than a quarter this year - based on the Chicago futures benchmark price - amid abundant supplies from top exporter Russia.