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 Monday, Nov. 17, 2008, RFD-TV Live! with Syngenta will
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Logan
Hawkes
11/12/08
Crop News Weekly
Winter weather has returned to parts of the
Midwest and farmers continue to fight the elements to get the last of
the corn out of the field. All in all, corn harvest is about where it
should be for the year (as compared to last year). But forget the
natural elements for a moment. The bigger question perhaps is how will
the political weather change over the next four years? Will
President-elect Barack Obama be a friend of agriculture, or are storm
clouds brewing on the horizon? In this issue we take a look at what we
know so far. Also this week, and speaking of politics, who will lead
USDA into the next decade and beyond? While we (or anyone else) can't
answer that question with certainty, we do have some insight to share
this week.
Continuing with a look at politics and how they will affect agriculture,
now that the elections are over, everyone will be theorizing what’s
going to happen when the new administration and Congress sweep into
Washington mid-January. Depending on who’s doing the theorizing, the
scenarios range from unbounded optimism to anything’s-better-than-now
to outright gloom and doom. We dig into it below. Also in this issue, a
Web site dedicated to the exchange of information on switchgrass and
other biomass energy crops has been launched, and offers the perfect
tool for farmers contemplating how they might get on the wagon of the
growing energy issue. Finally, a farm economy that's swung from
unparalleled optimism to uncertainty in a matter of months might
resurrect fears of a crisis similar to one that occurred two decades
ago. While people may be seeing similarities, there is more to the story
than meets the eye. Get the full skinny below.
You'll find these stories and more in this issue of Crop News
Weekly. Happy reading.
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Buis,
Vilsack, Peterson possible ag secretary
Three names have emerged in the first round of
speculation about who will be the secretary of agriculture in an Obama
administration: National Farmers Union President Tom Buis, former Iowa
Governor Tom Vilsack and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin
Peterson. Before joining the NFU, Buis was the senior agricultural aide
to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle and worked as legislative
director for Rep. Jim Jontz, D-Ind. In the 1980s, he was a grain and
livestock farmer in Indiana with brothers Mike and Jeff, who continue to
operate the family farm. Vilsack served two terms as governor of Iowa
before launching a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in
2007. He ended his campaign in February after failing to win any major
primaries. (To read the complete article, click on the headline
above)
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 “I’ve definitely seen advantages of
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unlike with BT traits. Also, by controlling secondary pests, Force can
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Force is a Restricted Use Pesticide.
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Obama
presidency: what to expect
Now that the voters have spoken — finally — what
can farmers anticipate from a Barack Obama administration? Don’t
expect any major policy pronouncements right away — the
president-elect may have to focus on a little thing like fixing the
economy first. (A call to the Obama transition office about possible
secretaries of agriculture brought a polite “We’ll have to get back
to you” response.) For now, farm organization leaders and ag writers
are left having to review the Obama campaign’s previous statements on
agricultural issues to such groups as the National Corn Growers
Association and the National Farmers’ Union to get a sense of what he
might do. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Obama...new
tack on EPA regs and trade?
Now that the elections are over (praise be!), everyone
and his dog will be theorizing what’s going to happen when the new
administration and Congress sweep into Washington mid-January. Depending
on who’s doing the theorizing, the scenarios range from unbounded
optimism to anything’s-better-than-now to outright gloom and doom.
While President-elect Obama’s campaign centered around change, that
goal will be hampered to a large extent by an economy in the toilet and
a myriad of other problems that will require superhuman effort, if not
downright magic, to resolve. A couple of comments along that line were
offered, a few days prior to the election, by Hunter Moorhead, a
Greenville, Miss., native who is special assistant to the president for
agriculture, trade, and food assistance, and the Bush administration’s
point person for agricultural issues. - Hembree Brandon, Farm Press
Editorial Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Farming
on auto pilot
Dan Huebner read and heard about the magic of GPS
automatic steering systems for several years. But a $40,000-50,000 price
tag was out of his and most other growers' league. Not anymore. For a
$10,000 investment, the southwestern Nebraska grower is enjoying more
efficient corn and soybean production and a more comfortable ride in the
tractor and sprayer. Huebner grows corn, beans and wheat out of Hershey,
NE. And like the name of his town, “sweet” is the way to describe
the addition of his GPS system to his John Deere 8300 tractor. -
Larry Stalcup, Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Corn
harvest advances; final crop insurance estimates
Less than 30% of the corn remained to be harvested in
most areas of south-central and southwest Minnesota as of Nov. 3, which
is about normal harvest progress for early November. The dry weather
pattern that existed during the last few days of October and early part
of November has allowed for most producers to show significant harvest
progress, with several producers completing their 2008 corn harvest in
recent days. There is still over half of the corn remaining to be
harvested in some parts of southeastern and central Minnesota, which
received more rainfall this fall and had later planting dates last
spring. - Kent Thiesse, Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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through canopy takes on a whole new meaning when you step up to
Lumax® herbicide. While others may talk about residual
control, research proves nothing outperforms Lumax, especially on weeds
such as foxtail, waterhemp, pigweed and lambsquarters. In both
glyphosate-tolerant and conventional corn. To learn more, click here or visit lumax-herbicide.com. Lumax is
a Restricted Use Pesticide.
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Web
site dedicated to farmers cultivating energy crops
A Web site dedicated to the exchange of information on
switchgrass and other biomass energy crops has been launched at
www.BiomassConnections.com. "The focus of the site is to allow producers
and stakeholders to openly share ideas and experiences gleaned from
raising and marketing switchgrass and other biomass energy crops," says
site host and switchgrass farmer Andy Bater. - Corn & Soybean
Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Repeat
of 1980s for agriculture unlikely
A farm economy that's swung from unparalleled optimism
to uncertainty in a matter of months might resurrect fears of a crisis
similar to one that occurred two decades ago. While people may be seeing
similarities, there is more to the story than meets the eye, say Mike
Boehlje and Chris Hurt, two Purdue University agricultural economists.
Although commodity prices are cascading in response to the global
financial crisis, farmers should not expect a return to the tough times
of the 1980s, say Boehlje and Hurt. - Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Back
to brown bag beans
Roundup Ready soybeans still may be the easiest to
grow, but not necessarily the most economical anymore, according to
Grover Shannon, University of Missouri (MU) agronomist at the Delta
Research Center. As chemical prices continue to climb and weed
resistance follows it up the chart, farmers have been calling Shannon
and other soybean specialists across the country to talk about
alternatives. “Roundup costs went from $15/gal. in 2007 to $40-50/gal.
in 2008. That was a pretty good shock to growers,” Shannon says.
“I've heard reports that in 2009, the cost of Roundup Ready seed could
go as high as $50/bag.” - John Russnogle, Corn & Soybean
Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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VeraSun
granted emergency financing
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware
on Monday granted ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corp.'s emergency
request for debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing, which will help keep
the company's doors open while Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings take
their course. "The relief granted by the court (Monday) will allow us to
focus on our operations and, at the same time, provide VeraSun with the
liquidity and ability to continue operations, which means producing
ethanol and distillers grains, paying suppliers and satisfying customer
needs for product," Chief Executive Officer Don Endres said in a
statement. - Richard Brock, Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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ROAD
WARRIOR: Should I sell my land?
Dave Kohl writes: "Recently my Road Warrior
travels took me to Harrah’s Casino near Omaha to address an
agrilending technology conference. Since I am not a big player of the
tables, my pre-talk routine involved working out in the exercise room.
This time a business owner in his mid-40s from Omaha was pumping iron
and using the treadmill. During our conversation, he discovered I am an
agricultural economist; thus, the story begins. Lately his wife had been
pestering him to sell their farm in eastern Nebraska because land prices
were high. He asked my thoughts on this situation. My first question for
him was, “How does the land fit into your business, family and
personal goals?” - Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Waste
not, want more
More than 16,000 U.S. wastewater treatment facilities
serving more than 220 million people produce sewage sludge, according to
a survey cited by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A
significant portion of that material is turned into biosolids available
to farmers for fertilizing crops. And, as commercial fertilizer costs
continue to soar, those biosolids are increasingly prized for their
ability to reduce crop fertilizer bills by providing nitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P) and some secondary and micronutrients for crops. They
also provide organic matter. - Dave Howe, Corn & Soybean
Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Gene-silencing
to be deployed against soybean fungus
The soybean rust fungus Phakopsora pachyrhizi may meet
its match, thanks to a gene-silencing technique that scientists of the
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) plan to deploy to identify genes
that enable plants to naturally resist this fungal foe. Molecular
biologist Kerry Pedley, at the ARS Foreign Disease-Weed Science Research
Unit at Fort Detrick, Md., will use gene silencing to discover plant
genes that play a role in orchestrating defense responses to P.
pachyrhizi in resistant soybeans. The fungus causes substantial losses
to soybeans worldwide, and its September 2004 detection in the
continental United States has accelerated efforts to protect the $18
billion U.S. soybean crop. Gene silencing allows scientists to identify
a gene’s function by disabling that gene in plants or other organisms,
challenging the organism in some way — such as with exposure to a
pathogen — and observing the consequences that result from that gene
having been “missing in action.” In Pedley’s studies, the
gene-silenced plants will be inoculated with spores of P. pachyrhizi,
and monitored for a breakdown in resistance. (To read the complete
article, click on the headline above)
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Uncertainty
pushes producers toward risk-management
What happens to grain demand in times of economic
slowdown? Does grain demand change or is it such a fundamental commodity
it is immune from some of the impact? These and more questions were
answered by Dr. Mark Welch, Texas AgriLife Extension Service
economist-grain marketing of College Station, at a recent crop field day
held in Randall County. “We saw an increase in grain demand the last
couple years due to ethanol,” Welch said. “But with a worldwide
economic slowdown, we are much more vulnerable to seeing that come
down.” Nationwide, planted acres of corn are expected to remain
stable, while soybean acres are expected to increase and wheat acres are
expected to decrease, he said. But in Texas, that doesn’t seem to be
the case. (To read the complete article, click on the headline
above)
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Plan
early to save on 2009 crop inputs
Recent fluctuations in the commodity markets and input
prices have left farmers wondering whether to purchase next year's
inputs now or wait to see if prices drop. Regardless of the price
fluctuations, there are several things grain crops producers can do now
for the next growing season to better manage costs in their agricultural
operations, says Chad Lee, grain crops Extension specialist in the
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture. When deciding which crops
to grow next spring, farmers can do partial budgets with current prices
to identify costs and potential returns. But given the volatile markets,
the best option is to maintain crop rotations. Both soybean and corn
yield better when annually rotated. However, available credit and cash
flow may be the deciding factors for which crops are grown in 2009. -
Katie Pratt, University of Kentucky
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Drought-hardy
soybean lines coming soon
A team led by Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
plant geneticist Thomas Carter will soon release advanced soybean
breeding lines that carry slow-wilting traits. These lines perform well
under drought conditions, and also show good yield potential when
rainfall is plentiful. Private seed companies and public soybean
breeders can use the drought-tolerant lines as breeding stock to develop
high-yielding varieties adapted to stressful U.S. summers. Carter is
with the ARS Soybean and Nitrogen Fixation Research Unit in Raleigh,
N.C. - Rosalie Marion Bliss, United States Department of
Agriculture
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Farm Industry News
Product
of the Week
View and read about the Farm Industry News Product of the
Week.
Click here to visit farmindustrynews.com
Corn & Soybean Digest
Market News
Richard A. Brock
Check out the latest corn and soybean market advice from
marketing guru Richard Brock by visiting cornandsoybeandigest.com
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