For fund investors, good bets are the Market Vectors Agribusiness ETF (MOO), whose top holdings include ag biotech giants Monsanto and Syngenta and tractormaker Deere, and the Invesco Powershares Agricultural ETF (DBA), which invests in a range of commodities futures, from Kansas wheat to feeder cattle to soybeans, cocoa and corn.

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In the fall of 1997 the company began ramping up its feeder- cattle position.

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