The ag ministry for France says additional testing confirmed the suspected bovine spongiform encephalopathy (in-sef-o-lop-athy), or BSE, case. The European Union’s reference laboratory confirmed that the animal died from BSE. This will compromise France’s BSE risk status with the World Organization for Animal Health and will likely lead to bans on exports from the country in some markets. France has reported the isolated case to the European Commission and the World Organization for Animal Health. This is the third single case of BSE detected in Europe since 2015, according to the ministry. French officials were expected to implement management measures. The ministry has said that the detection of this isolated case demonstrates the effectiveness of France’s monitoring system that is in place throughout the food chain.

Archer Daniels Midland, or ADM, filed a lawsuit against the Canadian Pacific Railway over service disruptions in 2013 and 2014. Reuters reports the lawsuit alleges the Canadian Pacific Railway delays at corn processing plants in North Dakota and Minnesota stemmed partly from cost-cutting and the Canadian railroad’s pursuit of merger partners. Chicago-based ADM is one of the world’s largest grain traders and processors and filed the suit this month in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois. The lawsuit says ADM is seeking damages “resulting from one of the worst and most persistent railroad service failures experienced by ADM in many years.” However, the same day, Canadian Pacific filed a claim against ADM in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota seeking payment of overdue charges. In early 2014, after months of worsening delays crippled the U.S. farm transportation system, farmers in the Upper Midwest held the largest grain stocks in years.

The Nation’s largest milk processor now faces competition from its biggest customer. Wal-Mart plans to start building its first milk processing plant this summer. Wal-Mart accounts for 16 percent of Dean Foods processing, the largest milk processor in the United States. Bloomberg reports Wal-Mart’s Indiana facility is expected to be one of the largest in the milk industry and will begin supplying the retailer’s private label Great Value brand next year. The store-owned processor will start supplying milk to Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and northern Kentucky. The plant will allow Wal-Mart to lower cost and lengthen shelf life by bringing the production closer to the point of sale. More than 600 Wal-Mart stores and Sam’s Club locations are expected to be supplied by the new factory. Dean currently produces milk for the Great Value brand and will continue to be a supplier in other parts of the country. Still, the move came as a surprise and introduced a new threat to Dean’s fresh dairy volumes and margins. For now, Wal-Mart has no plans of building more milk processing plants across the nation.

The CME Groups is one step closer to launching long-planned European Union wheat futures. The news comes after CME has resolved contract issues with grain silo operators in France, according to Reuters. CME Group is the world’s largest futures exchange and could announce the EU wheat market within weeks. Several sources told Reuters trading the EU contracts was expected to start in June of this year. A CME spokesperson said the group does not have a launch date to announce yet. A launch would put CME in competition with Euronext in Paris, whose milling wheat contract is a benchmark in the European Union. The 28-country Union is collectively the world’s biggest wheat grower and exporter. Market upheaval caused by a rain-hit French harvest two years ago, which led the port silos that acts as Euronext’s delivery points for wheat to impose extra quality requirements, fueled interest in CME’s rival project.

Michigan State University says meeting the targets for reducing phosphorus in Lake Erie will be a challenge, but adds the targets are achievable. Last month, the U.S. and Canadian governments called for a 40 percent reduction, from 2008 levels, in phosphorus runoff from farms and other sources into Lake Erie. The University says large-scale changes to agricultural practices will be required to meet the goal. The nutrient feeds an oxygen-depleted “dead zone” in the lake and has also contaminated drinking water in the past. A new study by the University says that meeting the 40 percent reduction target will require widespread use of strong fertilizer management practices, significant conversion of cropland to grassland and more targeted conservation efforts.