USDA this week extended the comment period for the agency’s proposed rule regarding revised organic livestock and poultry production standards. The extension comes following a request by the House and Senate Agriculture Committee’s last month. The lawmakers say their constituents were concerned about possible unintended consequences like reduced access to organic products, substantially increased organic food costs for consumers, increased exposure to disease and mortality for organic poultry, according to The Hill. The rule, first proposed in April, clarifies how organic producers and handlers must treat livestock and poultry throughout the animals’ lives, including when they are transported and slaughtered. The comment period will be extended 30 days to July 13th, 2016.

Monsanto is working with the U.S. farm sector to keep Xtend soybeans separate from varieties approved in all major export markets, according to Jim Sutter, CEO of the U.S. Soybean Export Council. Xtend soybean seeds have been engineered to resist the herbicides glyphosate and dicamba. The variety was launched before garnering approval of shipments from Europe, something that has yet to come. As a result, Pro Farmer’s First Thing Today reports some of the world’s top grain handlers have said they will reject deliveries of such soybeans engineered to resist the herbicides glyphosate and dicamba. Richard Wilkins, president of the American Soybean Association, also said the company is working on a plan for Xtend soybeans in case approval from Europe does not come over the summer as expected.

Farmers are growing more pessimistic regarding the overall agriculture economy, according to the latest Agriculture Economy Barometer by Purdue University and CME Group. After a surge in producer sentiment in April, spurred in part by a favorable swing in commodity prices, producer sentiment settled lower in May at a value of 97. The dip in May brings the index back in line with readings provided by producers in January and February of this year, reading 98 and 96. The base period score is 100. So if the index falls below 100, the measure would indicate sentiment has declined. A score greater than 100 means sentiment regarding the health of the agriculture economy has increased. Some of the decline in producers’ sentiment during May was attributable to changing perceptions about the livestock sector. Further, just 10 percent of the 400 farmers surveyed said they expect profitability to improve in the next year. However, the outlook on farmland prices was more favorable as 52 percent respondents rated farmland favorably and nearly one-quarter of survey respondents provided a neutral rating for farmland as an investment.

The future of glyphosate as a tool to kill weeds in the European market is in doubt after a proposal to extend its sales authorization didn’t get enough votes. Glyphosate’s EU license expires at the end of this month, and reauthorizing the weed killer is running into opposition from member states as conflicting scientific reports about its ability to cause cancer continue to circulate. The majority of member states backed the extension, but because the more populous countries like France, Germany and Italy abstained from voting, the extension didn’t meet the 65 percent population threshold requirement. The EU’s executive arm had proposed extending the sales license by 12 to 18 months. That would have allowed the European Chemicals Agency to come up with a finding on the health impact of glyphosate, the main ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup.

A yellow flower called Butterweed is popping up in hay and wheat fields across a good chunk of the country and it’s poisonous to livestock. A DTN report says the winter annual often pops up in no-till corn and soybean fields. It’s native to the United States and found from Texas east into Florida, up the east coast through Virginia, and back west all the way to Nebraska. The plant is poisonous to grazing animals like cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and to humans as well. Burndown herbicides are used in the spring when the plants are smaller, but that’s not an option in forage crops and in wheat. The plant is most poisonous during the bud-to-flower stage, and most likely to affect the first cuttings of alfalfa. It doesn’t typically regrow after the first alfalfa cutting of the season. Bales that wind up with a lot of butterweeds in them should immediately be discarded.