**After months of negotiating, divesting and waiting, Bayer and Monsanto will fully merge.

The German-based company says the integration of Monsanto into the Bayer Group can begin following the completion of the divestment by Bayer to BASF of certain Crop Science businesses.

According to agrimarketing.com, while the name Monsanto will eventually disappear, brand names such as Dekalb, Asgrow and Channel remain untouched.

Bayer became the sole shareholder of Monsanto in June.

**In 2005, farmer-directors of the Kansas Wheat Commission agreed to invest wheat farmer checkoff dollars into the newly formed International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium in an effort to sequence the wheat genome, long considered too large and too cumbersome to sequence.

Agriculture.com reports, now, 13 years later, that initial $100,000 investment has led to the completion of the effort.

The effort will pave the way for the production of wheat varieties better adapted to climate challenges, with higher yields, enhanced nutritional quality, and improved sustainability.

**A small group of negotiators will write the final version of the $87-billion-a-year farm bill in the weeks ahead, under pressure from high-ranking conservatives in Congress to require millions to work at least 20 hours a week to qualify for food stamps.

Food stamps account for three fourths of farm bill spending and are the biggest issue in reconciling House and Senate versions of the panoramic legislation, which ranges from crop subsidies to food aid and rural development.

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