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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.

Global conglomerate BASF is rolling out a series of new plant science and plant protection products for farmers in the United States as it aims to increase its share of fast-growing markets, executives of the German chemical giant said. South America is also a target as BASF shifts its agricultural emphasis -- and millions of dollars in research and development --away from Europe to markets more accepting of the genetically modified crop technology it says will be key to food security as world population grows.

New genetically altered corn aimed at helping farmers deal with drought offers more hype than help over the long term, according to a report issued on Tu esday by a science and environmental advocacy group. The Union for Concerned Scientists (UCS) said the only genetically altered corn approved by regulators and undergoing field trials in the United States has no improved water efficiency, and provides only modest results in only moderate drought conditions.

Shares in global agricultural giant Monsanto Co. jumped more than 3 percent after the world's largest seed company said on Wednesday it expected fiscal 2012 earnings to grow 25 percent over last year, with continued strong growth into 2013. Company Chairman Hugh Grant said that the company is raising 2012 earnings per share guidance to the range of $3.65 to $3.70 on an ongoing basis and $3.73 to $3.78 on an as-reported basis.

A damaging global dry spell is wilting wheat crops in Kansas, threatening exports from Russia and slowing sowing in Australia, serving a timely reminder to hedge funds that a new era of surplus grain is far from assured. In their biggest surge since 1996, Chicago wheat prices jumped by more than 17 percent last week and reached a nearly 9-month high of more than $7 a bushel on Monday, a rally stoked by short-covering among big speculators -- a group that had amassed a near-record short position betting on falling prices.