
Uruguay’s is expecting a record wheat crop for the second year running in 2009 while the barley harvest is forecasted as the largest in the last ten years according to the Statistics Office from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries.

A team of British soldiers has helped castrate sheep on the Falkland Islands after tragedy hit two farm workers, reports the Belfast Telegraph.

The New York Times dedicated a long piece to the quality and rising pre-eminence of Uruguayan beef in world markets, contrary to what is happening in neighbouring Argentina, still considered “king of the best beef in the world”

The European Parliament has approved a 122.9bn Euro EU budget for 2010 - nearly half of which is to go to agriculture and natural resources. It is a 6% increase on the 2009 budget, which was worth 116bn Euros.

A soy bean bumper crop in South America in early 2010 will ease world reserves of grains, currently at very low levels, and will also have an impact on international prices according to Oil World.

One of the major ills of Cuba’s state-run agricultural enterprises is “the excess of non-productive personnel,” Communist Party daily Granma said this week. The newspaper estimated the number of redundant employees in the state farming sector at 89,000, or 26% of the total.

Still hurting from a yearlong drought, Argentina is turning to Chile for wine imports in order to keep up with popular demand for wine.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced a 650-million Euro exceptional aid plan for France's subsidized but still struggling farmers, along with one billion Euros in cheap loans. He also called on the European Commission to limit market speculation on agricultural commodities prices.

With the lowest wheat area in 111 years, Argentina expects a 2009/10 crop of 7.5 million tons, the worst in the last 32 seasons, which means exports, --and tax revenue--, will be ten times less than the 2007/08 crop according to the Argentine Rural Society Economics Department.

Argentina’s farmers will be investing 4.878 billion US dollars in the 2009/2010 crop season which represents a drop of 32.6% compared to the previous cycle according to different farmers organizations quoted this week in Buenos Aires media.