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Bob Bowman runs his hand over a slender green corn leaf here on his Iowa farm, and sighs. "This corn should be as high as my head right now, and it is only waist high," he says, as a cool morning breeze belies the 90-degree Fahrenheit temperatures forecast to descend by afternoon in Welton, Iowa. "If we get rain real quick here, we might be down 25 percent," said Bowman of prospective losses from the persistent dryness. "If we don't get rain in the next two weeks, it will be a lot more serious."

Scorching heat and rain-less skies continued to frustrate U.S. Midwestern farmers on Wednesday, with damage to the corn and soybean crops growing more dire by the day. "There are a lot of people thinking of chopping their corn up and feeding it to cows," said University of Missouri Professor of Plant Sciences William Wiebold. "The attitude is not real good right now. For some farmers the crop is already gone. The longer we go without rain the more farmers will be in that situation."

Opening arguments were underway Tuesday in a potentially pivotal legal battle between agricultural giants Monsanto and DuPont over Monsanto's control of a popular seed technology worth billions of dollars. The rivals have been fighting for years and the trial in federal court in St. Louis represents only part of an ongoing argument over the use of lucrative seed technology that makes soybeans, corn and other crops tolerant of glyphosate-based herbicide, letting farmers spray the weed killer directly over the crops.

People in the United States and other advanced nations consume an average of 1,200 calories per day more than those in low-income countries, but even in these wealthy nations food supplies lack enough micro-nutrients, according to a report issued on Tuesday. The "Global Food Security Index" found that the United States, Denmark, Norway and France led the world in food security thanks to ample supplies, high incomes, low costs for food relative to other expenditure and significant research and development concentrated on food production. The least secure nations were largely found in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria and Mozambique.

Texas cattle rancher Gary Price knows what it is like to worry about water. With 2,500 acres of rough range land situated about an hour south of Dallas, Price relies on rain-fed soils to provide the hearty grass forage he needs to fatten his cattle. When the animals are sold at grocery meat counters, every pound of flesh spells potential profit for Price's family. "Ranching is really mostly about water and grass. So you've got to look at ways to control water," Price said in an interview at his 77 Ranch, where temperatures over 100 degrees drive his cattle into the shade every day and have spurred swarms of hungry grasshoppers.

Global agribusiness group Monsanto Co posted higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Wednesday as net revenue grew 17 percent on gains in sales of seeds and genetic traits and surprising strength in herbicides. Shares rose more than 4 percent after the company said it saw ongoing strong growth momentum and reported sales of corn seed and genetic traits jumped 35 percent in the third quarter.

A mystery is ahoof in Texas farm country where cattle have dropped dead while grazing, puzzling scientists who say it appears an unusual combination of circumstances have turned pastures toxic. Texas animal scientists said a type of grass known as "Tifton 85" bermuda grass is to blame for the poisoning of 15 head of cattle on an 80-acre ranch east of Austin. The animals went into convulsions and were dead within hours of being released into the pasture to graze. Only three cattle in that small herd survived.

Another U.S. ethanol maker is moving to diversify its revenue stream as the industry continues to suffer depressed margins as costly corn supplies dwindle. On Thursday, California-based Pacific Ethanol Inc said it was installing corn oil separation technology at one of its plants and planned to include its three other plants by the first quarter of 2013. The company said its corn oil business should start generating revenue in the first quarter of 2013.

The U.S. ethanol industry is hunkering down for another spell of deep losses, with a second producer temporarily shutting a Nebraska plant on Tuesday as diminishing corn supplies and lackluster gasoline demand crush profit margins. Valero Energy Corp is idling its 110 million gallons (500 million liters) a year plant in Albion, Nebraska, but expects it to resume operations before the autumn corn harvest, when prices should start to ease and supplies become more plentiful, spokesman Bill Day said.

Monsanto, the world's largest seed company, is suing chief rival DuPont, accusing DuPont and its agricultural crop subsidiary of treading on Monsanto's technological turf by copying key new plant breeding innovations. Monsanto's suit claims that a "seed chipping" invention, which it unveiled in 2007 as a way to speed up plant breeding, has been duplicated by DuPont in a "laser-assisted seed selection" tool introduced in 2008. Monsanto claims its business is suffering "irreparable harm" as a result.