AP Photo / Mikhail Metzel

Russian wheat - first came the drought, now comes the fire

     First the wheat dried up, then it burned. Drought and fires have destroyed one-fifth of Russia's wheat crop this year. Russia is the world's third-largest wheat exporter most years, but expects to cut wheat exports this year by some 30 percent. That news has sent wheat prices around the world soaring, but Russian farmers are expected to hold onto the wheat they do harvest in expectation of higher profits. Associated Press writer Nataliya Vasilyeva reported on Monday that uncontrolled wildfires raging through much of western Russia have spread to wheat fields. Pavel Grundinin, director of the Lenin State Farm, talked to a TV reporter on Monday and said that their crop had gone up in smoke the day before they planned to harvest it. December wheat futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange topped $7.00 a bushel earlier today, the highest they've been in more than two years. Growers in the U.S. and other exporting countries should be big gainers. American and European consumers may see a slight increase in the price of bakery products as the result of Russia's woes. People in other parts of the world will be harder hit. In Yemen, for example, the price of bread tracks more closely to the price of flour. You can read about Russia's wheat woes here: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/business/20100802_ap_badrussianwheatharvestboostsusfarmers.html

Brian, left, and Russ Cotner.

     Buying local - 3 million bushels at a time. The locavore movement resonates a little more loudly in Danville, Pa., where the Cotner family operates a soybean buying-processing-marketing facility that uses beans grown mostly on nearby Susquehanna River Valley farms. Their Boyd Station facility has 20 employees working three shifts six days a week year-round, and they really do go through a lot of soybeans. Don Cotner and three Cotner offspring - Brian, Shannon and Russ - started the operation in 2002 and have been rolling ever since. Lancaster Farming correspondent Lisa Z. Leighton called on the Cotners to talk about their buy-local-sell-local philosophy and prepared a report for our current edition. You can also read it on our website: http://lancasterfarming.com/node/3088. The Boyd Station website is here: http://boydstation.com/.

     Helping Joey out down under. http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/will-you-hold-my-joey/26id1ceq