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Market report - 4th December 2019

 Despite a lack of fresh dynamic market drivers, US wheat futures have seen volatile trade over the past three trading days following their Thanksgiving break last Thursday. On Friday they rallied 20 cents per bushel – equivalent to over £5 per tonne – which raised overall gains to more than 10% since mid November. This was supposedly triggered by cuts to yields in the primary wheat production areas of Argentina.

However, yesterday all of the gains made on Friday were lost as it became apparent that US wheat is too expensive to capture any substantial share of the current export opportunities.

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Market report - 27th November 2019

America's benchmark CBOT traded almost 16 cents firmer on Monday, mainly due to short covering ahead of this week's Thanksgiving holiday. There was also some spill over support from the EU where news of delayed drilling continues to filter through. The US corn harvest is now 84% complete with more heavy snow forecast for the long weekend. 

Despite this, a common theme continues to burden US wheat and corn prices in a distinct lack of price competitiveness on the global market. For wheat, Europe and the Black Sea continue to mop up the bulk of demand while for corn, cheaper cargoes from South America and Ukraine are the main competition. 

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Spring crop switch? Seeking information now will increase options

We've experienced a quite extraordinary start to the cropping year and as I look at news reports showing land under water I can only imagine the extent of the challenges being faced by some farmers. By now, in England, most would have hoped to finish drilling never mind not even started in some cases.

Understandably and economically getting a winter cereal crop is still the goal right up to February, depending on the variety, for those who can. However, for some that ship has already sailed and a new 'Plan B' will be the reality. For many, even those not so dramatically affected, some change of cropped area is underway with a shift towards spring crops inevitable. 

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Market report - 21st November 2019

North Africa remained an active buyer, with Tunisia buying 75,000 tonnes earlier this week and Algeria – traditionally supplied by France – holding a tender for January delivery.

The latest data puts EU wheat exports more than 50% ahead of this time last year with over 10 million tonnes shipped, although this is seen as an underestimate. However, this pace will need to be maintained to keep markets buoyant. Analysts, Stratégie Grains estimate EU-28 wheat exports at 28.8 million tonnes – 8 million tonnes higher than last year. 

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Market report - 31st October 2019

Fast export pace maintained across EU Since their low point at the end of August, the world's wheat markets continued to move higher this week. This increase in prices was illustrated by the purchases Egypt made on Tuesday in their latest tender for shipment during the first half of November. Egypt bought 235,000 tonnes at an average of over $235/t...

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What value can MySOYL bring to your farm business?

In my role as MySOYL Business Lead, I regularly talk to customers who are looking to find new technology to make their farms more efficient and profitable. In these conversations, one of the most common questions I get asked is "What is MySOYL and how can it help me?" For those of you wondering the same, I thought I'd use this blog to answer this q...

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Market report - 24th October 2019

Australian drought continues while China offers US soy quota As Australia nears harvest, its market hit seven-week lows yesterday but there is zero export potential at this stage. On Friday, the National Australia Bank reported that the wheat crop could be capped at 15.5 million tonnes due to extreme dryness. US markets fell slightly as the EU and ...

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Do you have a phosphorus problem?

In the UK, we don't have a domestic supply of artificial phosphorous fertiliser and so are therefore reliant on imported sources of nutrient phosphorus. Part of this means that we often experience some volatility in pricing, usually influenced by fluctuations in currency, available volume, country of origin and – more recently – political developme...

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What is MyFarm?

​While some of our customers are already familiar with our farm management platform, MyFarm, a recent upgrade has led to some exciting developments to its applications and overall functionality. Free to all Frontier customers, the latest version has been designed as a result of farmer-feedback. The platform now provides a one-stop shop to manage ev...

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Creating your own seed rate trials using MySOYL

 Choosing the seed rate is a crucial decision that every grower has to make before drilling, but how can you ensure you're using the optimum rate for your field? As well as the usual calculation, SOYL's MySOYL application – available as part of Frontier's MyFarm farm management platform - can help you to conduct specific trials to gain a bette...

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Get a better view of your farm

Using satellites to get a different perspective of your farm really can open up a wealth of opportunities. Of course, we all know that satellite imagery isn't a new thing – people have been using it to take images of crops since 1995. However, the accuracy, resolution, frequency and our overall understanding of the technology has drastically improv...

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Market report - 14th August 2019

​Markets fall following USDA corn and wheat predictions Another USDA report has been and gone without providing any fodder for the bulls. Instead, the report shocked the market by increasing the US corn and wheat output and markets tumbled to lower limits by close of play on Monday. The biggest surprises were the acreage and yields for corn. The ac...

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Midweek market report - 31st July 2019

Harvest halted by poor weather as markets react to fluctuating currency With the UK wheat harvest underway, our domestic market this week has been dominated by sterling volatility and patchy weather. At the weekend, the new UK Prime Minister signalled the real possibility of a no-deal Brexit which rattled currency markets and caused sterling to dro...

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Midweek market report – 12th June 2019

Of late, the primary wheat market driver has been the delayed US corn planting. Earlier this week, the trade patiently waited for two sets of data about the situation to help gain a steer on the next likely wheat price movements. The first of these data sets came on Monday evening in the form of the latest weekly US crop report. It put the drilled ...

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Maximizing grassland production

Much of the grass in Herefordshire, where I am based, suffered during the difficult weather conditions of 2018 and consequently producers should focus on optimising nutrition to restore both quality and yield potential to former levels, with K and S being essential in this process. This season NKS fertilisers containing potash and sulphur alongside...

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Market report - 6th June 2019

Disastrous planting conditions in the US continue to hamper progress. As of Monday, the reports were of 69% planted compared to the 96% average. It is difficult to quantify total crop losses until the final drilling dates and these vary in each state, however, there is already talk of 8 million acres of Prevented Planting insurance already claimed....

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Midweek market report - 29th May 2019

Globally, wheat prices have continued to rise on the back of the US corn planting pace. Currently the single market driver, corn planting progress is now at a record low following adverse wet weather. Crops planted at this late stage lose yield potential, with some at risk of not being planted at all. Last night, the United States Department of Agr...

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High res imagery; allowing innovation and intervention

Remote sensing in agriculture is nothing new. However, with drones gaining more publicity over the last few years, some would argue it has felt somewhat revolutionary all over again. Rather than new sensors, what actually came along were new platforms and all too often it is only these that get the attention. We're all made aware when the latest se...

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22nd May 2019 - Midweek market report

Tomorrow marks the last trading day for May London futures and, over the last few weeks, we've seen a large volume of futures tendered right the way from Edinburgh to Kent. As such, the added weight of physical grain has pushed prices around £10 lower since the start of the month. Consumers are well aware of this and are therefore in no rush to cov...

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OSR - The final nutrition decision

It has been somewhat of a harrowing year for the OSR crop, with wide spread establishment issues followed by flea beetle larval damage leading to a number of crops unfortunately being ripped up.The remaining crops have gone on to endure some late frosts during flowering but, thanks to recent rainfall and warm weather, the good crops are now coming ...

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