AGCO announced an agreement to acquire the Precision Planting equipment business from The Climate Corp., a subsidiary of Monsanto Co. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

When we launched No-Till Farmer in 1972, paraquat was the No. 1 burndown herbicide. While it has lost much of its popularity to glyphosate, Mark Loux says it is one of those herbicides (marketed as Gramoxone by Syngenta) that could have been used much more in recent years to help control marestail and to interrupt the continuous glyphosate use cycle. The Ohio State University weed scientist says paraquat is most effective on small annual weeds.

A proposed sale to Bayer, antitrust concerns, stockholder value, worries over future use of Roundup in Europe and a failure to be paid for GMO traits by farmers in India and Argentina are major concerns facing executives these days at Monsanto’s headquarters in St. Louis. Unfortunately, few of these situations appear favorable to American farmers who are concerned that the proposed ag chemical company mergers will lead to even higher crop input prices.