The U.S. Grains Council issued a report on this year’s corn harvest quality, saying a good growing season resulted in record yields that had very good quality. The report says the majority of crop conditions in 2017 were good-to-excellent. That led to strong plant size, good kernel health, and a projected record yield of 370.3 million metric tons, or 14.58 billion bushels. If the projection turns out to be accurate, it would be the second-largest harvest on record. The report says just over 95 percent of America’s corn crop rated at U.S. grade number 2 or better. That result came from an extended planting period, a warm and wet vegetative period, a cool and dry grain-filling period, and a warm, wet, and slow harvest. The average test weight came in at 58.4 pounds per bushel, higher than the five-year average, and shows excellent kernel-fill and maturation. Roughly 98 percent of samples tested below the Food and Drug Administration’s action-level for aflatoxins, which is 20 parts per billion. 100 percent of the samples tested below the FDA-mandated advisory level for vomitoxins.

The Arkansas Plant Board is scheduled to meet on January third, in order to consider possible revisions to previous proposed regulatory changes regarding dicamba application. The Administrative Rules and Regulations Subcommittee of the Arkansas Legislative Council requested the meeting. They’ll discuss potential revisions to the proposed changes during a pesticide committee meeting that day and then a full board meeting will start after that. The state’s Plant Board voted on November 8 to approve changes to the state regulations on dicamba application, including no dicamba application from April 16 through October 31. The subcommittee then met in December and voted to hold the proposed rule and recommended that the Plant Board consider possible revisions based on a number of factors. They want the board to consider possible changes based on scientific-based evidence, a dividing line to create north and south zones, as well as ambient temperature and humidity applicable to temperature inversion during nighttime hours. The Rules and Regulations Subcommittee will meet on January 16 to consider the outcome of the meeting with the Plant Board.

U.S. soybean exports will undergo a new procedure to meet new phytosanitary requirements for shipping to China, starting on January first. A Bloomberg report discussed the new rules for American soybean shipments. The U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service says the new procedure applies to both bulk and container shipments of raw and unprocessed American soybeans to China. APHIS says compliance with the new rules will be necessary to maintain uninterrupted shipments to China. Greg Ibach (EYE-baw), USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs, issued a statement saying that the agency worked closely with China and U.S. soybean industry representatives in coming up with an acceptable procedure. Earlier this year, China said the U.S. soybean shipments that were coming into the country contained too much foreign material in each load, including dirt and weed seeds. Chinese officials said the foreign material exceeded their standards and some of the weed seeds were of possible quarantine concern. Under the new procedure, APHIS will now notify China of any shipments that exceed one percent foreign material. China has assured the U.S. that all shipments will be allowed to continue while America develops new farm-to-export procedures to meet the new requirements.

A Drovers article says officials in Brazil are still expecting to resume exporting fresh beef product to the U.S. early next year. The Brazilian Ag Minister spoke at a recent news conference, saying that his country expects beef exports to the U.S. will “resume very soon.” However, the USDA still hasn’t commented on whether or not they will lift its ban on fresh beef from Brazil. It was back in June that the U.S. suspended beef imports from Brazil over safety concerns. That came after the U.S. had previously rejected 1.9 million pounds of Brazilian beef from March to June. Authorities say the rejections came from abscesses on the meat products caused by a bad reaction to the Foot-and-Mouth vaccine. Brazil is the world’s largest beef exporter and the country is forecasting exports to grow by 10 percent next year, after going nine percent higher in 2017. The nine percent increase came in spite of a corruption scandal that led to food safety concerns and the temporary loss of export markets around the world. The bullish projections are based, in part, on the U.S. lifting its ban next year, as Brazil is expecting.

While advanced biofuels are still thought of as the next generation of renewable fuels, corn-based ethanol still makes up most of the nation’s fuel supply. An Agriculture Dot Com article says, in addition to reducing the carbon footprint for America’s vehicles, bio-based ethanol was supposed to provide jobs to rural communities and give farmers new revenue sources. Ten years’ worth of federal incentives were supposed to encourage investment in cellulosic technologies, but just three plants have been built in the Midwest since 2014. Cellulosic ethanol is much harder to manufacture than grain ethanol because it uses the inedible parts of plants, making it harder for machines to process. Cellulosic companies also faced challenges like finding a steady supply, fluctuating markets, and stalled policy decisions. Of the three major plants in the Midwest, the one in Kansas went up for sale in 2016. DuPont announced in November that it’s looking for a buyer to take over its plant in Nevada, Iowa. That just leaves Project Liberty in Emmetsburg, Iowa. The industry also wasn’t helped by the Environmental Protection Agency, which lowered 2018 the cellulosic ethanol mandate in the Renewable Fuels Standard but not by as much as it initially proposed.

As a part of the Global Sustainable Development Goals set in 2015, the United States made a commitment to help end global food insecurity by 2030. America enacted the Global Food Security Act in 2016, which seeks to reduce food insecurity and poverty in a variety of ways, including agricultural growth and a broad commitment to improved nutrition. Improvements in global food security are measured by assessing factors like food availability and food access. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says the percentage of undernourished people in developing countries around the world dropped from 23 percent to 12 percent between 1995 and 2015. The International Food Security Assessment finds that undernourishment has more than halved from 1995 to 2015 in the 76 low-and-middle-income countries that the USDA regularly tracks. Almost 40 percent of the world’s children were stunted and 25 percent were underweight in 1990. That number has dropped to less than 25 percent stunted and less than 15 percent underweight in 2015.

Compared to other soybean-supplying countries around the world, the protein content of U.S. soybeans is losing ground. A Bloomberg report says the world is eating more meat, poultry, and dairy products than ever, but U.S. farmers may be losing some ground to Brazil in the competition to feed the world’s animals. South America and Europe expanded their soybean sales this year, driving the number of American soybean exports lower. After a wet harvest season, especially in the Midwest, the harvest yielded soybeans with less protein content, a key ingredient that helps those animals build muscle. This year’s protein content was 34.1 percent per bushel, tied with 2008 for the lowest number since USDA began keep track. U.S. exports often have to contend with higher-protein soybeans from Brazil, with Brazilian beans typically around 37 percent. However, the widening gap between U.S. and Brazil soybeans potentially means an erosion in buying demand, especially from China, which is the world’s largest buyer. Brazil’s share of the soybean export market is expected to rise to 43 percent this season while the U.S. share falls to 37 percent.