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Logan
Hawkes
04/26/06
Crop News Weekly
Spring has sprung across most of North America
and growers in the High Plains and Midwest are busy preparing for the
upcoming growing season. Some heavy rains are making things difficult in
parts of the country while the opposite is true for the remainder of the
country. If we could just figure out a way to even it out...
In the world of news this week, disaster relief legislation is getting
support from rice growers. The USA Rice Federation supports emergency
comprehensive agricultural disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers,
including S. 2438, the Emergency Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of
2006, introduced recently by Sen. Kent Conrad. In other news, reduced
tillage, technology and successful boll weevil eradication efforts are
helping Oklahoma farmer Clint Abernathy win the battle of the balance
sheet. Meanwhile, things aren't looking so good for DOHA. Analysts are
now saying there may be no hope remaining for what some are calling an
ill-fated issue. Meanwhile, and back on the home front, if you're
struggling with weeds - like most of us area - there is online help
available. Western Farm Press' Web site offers a new 3-hour
continuing education course on one of the most important topics today in
production agriculture, managing weeds to reduce herbicide resistance.
Elsewhere this week (and back to the subject of weather), recent rains
in parts of the country may have eased drought concerns since last year,
but not done away with them. Arkansas farmers have their fingers crossed
that more rain will offer final relief in 2006.
You'll find these stories and more in this issue of Crop News
Weekly. Happy reading!
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Congressmen
push for agricultural disaster legislation
04/24/06
The USA Rice Federation supports emergency
comprehensive agricultural disaster assistance for farmers and ranchers,
including S. 2438, the Emergency Agricultural Disaster Assistance Act of
2006, introduced recently by Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) and 23 of his
bipartisan Senate colleagues.
The bill contains a supplemental direct payment provision that is key
for rice producers who suffered significant natural disaster-related
losses during the 2005 crop season. Sen. Conrad held a news conference
recently on Capitol Hill to rally support for agricultural disaster
assistance and referenced the March 7 letter calling for emergency
comprehensive agricultural disaster assistance. - Farm Press
Editorial Staff
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Technology,
less tillage helping overcome rising costs
04/21/06
Reduced tillage, technology and successful boll weevil
eradication efforts are helping Altus, Okla., cotton farmer Clint
Abernathy win the battle of the balance sheet. Abernathy, like most
Southwest farmers, faces significantly higher production costs as he
approaches the 2006 planting season. And, like most, he's experienced
weather problems of one kind or another over the past few years and is
looking for production practices that help limit crop losses. - Ron
Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Ding-dong,
is Doha dead?
04/20/06
If you follow the posturing, badgering, and
multinational sniping that surrounds the ongoing Doha Round of world
trade talks (and could anything possibly be more brain-numbing?), you
know the latest bit of fodder for the news mills is that the whole
shootin' match just might collapse. Probably not, but all the
speculation keeps the pot stirred. While many of the parties involved
have been optimistically saying that Doha Round issues -- of which
agriculture has been one of the most contentious -- can be resolved by
the end of this year. - Hembree Brandon, Farm Press Editorial
Staff
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New
3-hour weed resistance management course online
04/20/06
Online now at Western Farm Press' Web site
(www.westernfarmpress.com) is a new 3-hour continuing education course
on one of the most important topics today in production agriculture,
managing weeds to reduce herbicide resistance. The course, sponsored by
Monsanto, covers resistance management in both row crops as well as the
key tree and vine crops in the West. It is accredited for 3 hours for
all California Department of Pesticide Regulation licensees (AA, PA, QC,
QL /AP/JP); all Arizona Department of Agriculture licensees and
Certified Crop Advisers (CCAs) in California and Arizona. - Harry
Cline, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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New from the Top of the
Hill
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Energy
production offers opportunities to farmers
04/20/06
Despite the negatives, and there are plenty of those,
America's farmers face significant opportunities as they gear up to help
solve the nation's energy crisis. "Fuels from the farm," says Tom Buis,
president of the National Farmers Union, provides agriculture the chance
to capitalize on its ability to produce grains and cellulose and to
harness the wind to wean the country from reliance on fossil fuels from
foreign sources. - Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Louisiana
considering two percent biofuel mandate
04/22/06
The Louisiana Legislature is preparing to debate a
bill that would require a two percent use of biofuels by the state's
motorists if production of products such as ethanol and biodiesel reach
20 million to 50 million gallons annually. Supporters say House Bill 685
would create investment opportunities, while giving Louisiana farmers
another market to sell corn, soybeans and sugarcane. The bill, sponsored
by Rep. Francis Thompson, D-Delhi, is scheduled to be debated in the
House Tuesday. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Biodiesel
on Arkansas, Mississippi legislative agenda
04/21/06
The Arkansas and Mississippi state legislatures
recently ended spring sessions. While biodiesel was on the agenda in
both state capitols, politicians predict 2007 sessions will see more
substantial, favorable legislation regarding the fuel. At least that's
the hope. "What we did this session was a technical correction, really,"
says Sen. Steve Higginbotham, who farms outside Marianna, Ark. "When we
passed legislation during the last session calling for a tax refund on
biodiesel, we were told there was a need to cap it at a 2 percent blend.
That (cap) was needed because the state couldn't afford to credit blends
at 5, 10 or 20 percent. - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial
Staff
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Patience
plays an important role in precision farming
04/19/06
Oklahoma farmer Keeff Felty says technology allows
farmers to transition from theory to reality. "In college we learned a
lot about theory but in the field we see a lot less black and white and
a whole lot more gray." Patience may be one of the most important
virtues a farmer needs if he's interested in adopting precision
agriculture. Keeff Felty, an Altus, Okla., cotton and wheat farmer, says
a precision guidance systems, for instance, provides "one of the best
tools we've ever had. But it takes time and a willingness to work things
out. We have to have the patience and the temperament to work with
glitches, especially with the narrow planting window we have." - Ron
Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Expansion:
It's more than where we are in the cycle
04/17/06
Road Warrior Dave Kohl writes: "On a recent
11-day road warrior trip that took me to each corner of the U.S. and to
Canada, I was asked numerous times, "Should I expand?" Whether it was
hog, dairy or greenhouse growth, or the purchase of more land, I noticed
that many progressive producers were weighing the decision. I can't tell
you whether you're in the right part of the cycle for expansion, but
there are specific criteria that should fuel an objective judgment to
keep you out of the minefield that often goes with growth..." - Dave
Kohl, The Corn & Soybean Digest
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USDA sets
timetables for animal ID program
04/20/06
The USDA is ratcheting up its efforts to implement a
national animal identification system. Secretary of Agriculture Mike
Johanns has announced that four new phases of the overall plan,
initiated in 2004, have been finalized, citing increasing pressures on
timelines due to global marketplace demands. Johanns said timetables and
benchmarks for the system have been established, based partly on
feedback from industry producers in recent months. Foremost, Johanns
said the animal tracking database technology, called the Animal Trace
Processing System, is on schedule to be in place by early 2007 with a
goal of achieving full producer participation by 2009. - Andrew Bell,
Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Got a
good machinery idea?
04/26/06
Got a whiz bang machinery idea? Please tell our Corn
And Soybean Digest editors about it. They're searching for shop-built or
modified farm machinery projects that you've worked on over the winter.
No idea is too big or too small. They're interested in machinery that's
been built from scratch, or several pieces of equipment that have been
torn down and re-assembled as a single unit, or simple modifications to
existing equipment. It's always interesting to see planters, anhydrous
applicators, sprayers and tillage tools that farmers have constructed to
help them farm better, bigger or more efficiently. If you have an idea
you'd like to share, please send an e-mail to csd@prismb2b.com or click
on the link below to enter your project.
http://www.pbm3.com/trk/ct.aspx?x=3695.1188a.165020
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2005
drought causes 2006 concerns
04/19/06
As the 2006 growing season opens for business,
Arkansas farmers want no repeat of last year's dry conditions. Recent
rains have eased drought concerns but not done away with them. "Some
time ago, we began to notice a long-term trend of less water flow in the
state," says John Terry, director of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS)
Arkansas Water Science Center. "It's gotten to the point that (in
mid-March) readings on 26 of our stream and river gauges were at
all-time lows. Some of those gauges have been in place for 30 years."
- David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Thiesse's
Thoughts: Spring planting
Like the start of a big race, or the beginning of a
championship game, farmers in Minnesota are anxiously awaiting the
initiation of full-scale field. Above normal temperatures throughout
most of early April have farm operators poised to start tillage
practices, and to begin planting corn. However, heavy rainfall that fell
across extreme Southern Minnesota and Northern Iowa during the first
week of April, followed by some smaller rainfall events, has kept most
fields too wet to begin spring fieldwork. Further north where rainfall
amounts were less, there has been some initiation of spring fieldwork.
Some early peas have been planted, and some small grain and alfalfa have
been seeded, in areas with drier field conditions. - Kent Thiesse,
The Corn & Soybean Digest
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Chinese
delegation purchases U.S. soybeans
04/19/06
China's shopping trip to the United States in early
April to purchase cotton and soybeans was more of an affirmation of the
relationship between China and the United States than something the
market was interested in. Nonetheless, the purchases indicate what a
huge trading partner the country has become. In Chicago, a delegation
represented by the president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce
announced that China had signed agreements with U.S. companies to
purchase 4.9 million metric tons of soybeans (roughly 182 million
bushels) from just Illinois alone. The total production of soybeans in
Illinois last year was 247 million bushels. - Elton Robinson, Farm
Press Editorial Staff
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Sign Up for
MarketMaxx
04/26/06
Sign up and play The Corn And Soybean Digest's fantasy
grain game called MarketMaxx. It's easy, fun and hopefully you'll learn
a little more about how to market the corn and beans your raise. It's
easy to sign-up. Just log on to http://www.marketmaxx.net and
register at the top left and begin trading your fictitious 100,000 bu.
of corn and 50,000 bu. of soybeans. If you're a winner at the end of the
game on October 31 you could take home the grand prize of a year's use
of a Massey Ferguson tractor or combine. Or, win additional prizes such
as a computer system from Syngenta Crop Protection, customized rugged
mobile computers from Grayhill Custom Mobile Solutions or a high-speed
satellite Internet service from Agristar Global Networks. - The Corn
& Soybean Digest
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