(Missourinet) – About 80% of U.S. soybeans are shipped between September and February. Mike Steenhoek, Director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, said flooding along the Mississippi River is delaying business. A five-mile stretch of the river near St. Louis is closed.

“There’s a real strong move to fulfill our export demand during this time of the year prior to the South American harvest, which traditionally comes online during February, March and April,” said Steenhoek.

He said winter flooding adds another uncertainty in agriculture.

“We’ve grown accustomed to having discussions about flooding on our inland waterway system due to the more unpredictable weather that we’re experiencing, but these discussions usually occur during the spring,” said Steenhoek. “What’s quite unique is to have this discussion at the end of December. It just underscores all the more that we really do live in a period of irregular weather.”

Steenhoek said the Mississippi Gulf is the leading export region.

“We see easily 800 million bushels of soybeans transported by barge down to those terminals located along the river,” said Steenhoek.

He said there will still be issues even if the river is reopened soon.

“You have to keep in mind that it’ll take several weeks for the water that’s currently in the Upper Mississippi River basin to work its way down south and finally get expelled from the Gulf of Mexico. So, this is going to be something that’s going to be with us for a number of weeks,” said Steenhoek.

Nearly 60% of U.S. soybeans and nearly 70% of U.S. corn are typically shipped through the Mississippi Gulf each year.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — With most of this year’s corn and soybeans harvested, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is boosting its expectations for the size of the crops.

An update Tuesday says farmers are expected to produce a record soybean crop totaling 3.98 billion bushels, up 1 percent from last year. That’s based on 95 percent of the crop harvested.

Illinois looks to remain the nation’s leading soybean producer with 550.5 million bushels, followed closely by Iowa.

The corn crop will be the third-largest in USDA records at 13.7 billion bushels, based on 93 percent harvested. Iowa maintains its corn production lead with 2.49 billion bushels.

The abundance is sending downward prices that are already below production costs. Farmers who rent land will struggle to make a profit. Consumers shouldn’t see much effect.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Panera Bread is the latest restaurant chain to announce plans to stop using eggs from cage-confined hens.

The suburban St. Louis-based chain said Thursday it will use 100 percent cage-free eggs in the U.S. by 2020.

McDonald’s announced in September that it will go to cage-free eggs in the U.S. and Canada over the next decade. Subway and Starbucks have also said they will switch to cage-free eggs, though they have not announced a timeline for the transition.

Panera CEO and founder Ron Shaich says the company has been working for more than a decade to reduce antibiotic use and confinement across its supply chain.

Sara Burnett, the company’s director of wellness and food policy, calls the move to cage-free eggs part of a “solution to a broken food system.”

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A new industry report shows that sales of farm tractors and combines are down in September as well down overall for the first nine months of this year.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers reported Monday that the 16,546 tractors sold nationwide in September represents a 12.5 percent drop from the same month a year ago. Year -to-date sales of tractors at 159,191 are down almost 1 percent from the same period last year.

Sales of combines are doing even worse with an almost 20 percent drop in September with 694 of them sold. Sales of combines during the first nine months of this year fell nearly 37 percent with 4,033 combines sold in the United States.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas growers are planting next year’s winter wheat crop while harvesting their corn and other fall crops.

The National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that 5 percent of the 2016 wheat crop has been seeded. That is typical for this point in the season.

The agency also is reporting that about 11 percent of the corn in Kansas has now been cut. That is slightly behind the 17 percent at this time a year ago or the 25 percent average.

About 2 percent of the sorghum in the state has been cut, which is normal for this time of the year.

Fourth cutting of alfalfa in Kansas is 65 percent finished, ahead of both last year and the average for this point in the season.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Agricultural business giant Monsanto is abandoning its takeover bid for competitor Syngenta AG after the Swiss chemical producer rejected its latest offer of roughly $47 billion.

A combination with Basel-based Syngenta would have made Monsanto the world’s largest producer of farming chemicals, on top of its market-leading seed business. But the Swiss company rejected a series of unsolicited offers from the American company.

Monsanto confirmed Wednesday that it had raised its offer last week to 470 francs per share, or roughly $47 billion, from a previous offer of about $45 billion. Additionally, the company confirmed it had raised its proposed breakup fee to $3 billion from $2 billion.

But Monsanto says the enhanced offer “did not meet Syngenta’s financial expectations.”

Monsanto shares rose more than 6 percent in morning trading.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A fungus called wheat flag smut has re-emerged in Kansas after not being seen since the 1970s.

The Kansas Department of Agriculture says the fungus is not a danger to humans or animals and doesn’t affect grain quality.

Jeff Vogel, of the KDA, says the main concern is that 15 countries have some restrictions on imports that might be infected with the fungus. He says the infestations found so far have been very low.

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports farmers are being encouraged to choose wheat varieties resistant to fungi, apply fungicides to their seeds before planting winter wheat, and delay planting.

The fungus has been found in Phillips, Smith, Rooks, Graham, Wallace, Logan, Trego, Ellis, Lincoln, Wichita, Scott, Ness, Rush, Barton, Pawnee, Edwards, Stafford, Kiowa, Pratt and Dickinson counties.