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 “Waterhemp is a
significant problem in soybeans, and the potential for it to be an even
bigger problem is huge. I’ve seen a yield reduction of 40 to 50
bushels per acre when it’s taken over the field. It’s one of those
weeds you have to remove from the field—physically remove. If you just
pull it up and leave it there, it’ll re-root and remain or gain as a
problem.” Ken Dahlenburg, grower, central Illinois. Learn more at www.resistancefighter.com
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Logan
Hawkes
12/3/08
Crop News Weekly
I am sure I'm not the only one, but I find
myself getting tired of waiting about this time of year. That may not be
true every year, but it is certainly so in a presidential election year,
especially when a new face is about to occupy the Oval Office. What will
the pending change mean for agriculture? How will the change affect the
economy, the biofuel industry, the price of eggs in China? You see what
I mean? I'm tired of waiting for the answers. It's a little like
watching corn grow. Over time you can see the result, but overnight
there's rarely much change.
In the news this week, agricultural biotechnology is making substantial
footholds in small and large countries worldwide and must remain a part
of sustainable agriculture so farmers and consumers can reap the
benefits. So says Sharon Bomer-Lauritsen, executive vice president, food
and agriculture section, Biotechnology Industry Organization. She says
U.S. farmers grow biotech crops on about 300 million acres presently.
That's about 48 percent of the harvested crop acreage. That number will
(and should) increase in the years ahead. Read more in our featured
article below. Also this week, while the fundamentals of the U.S. corn
market remain strong, that may be overwhelmed — at least in the
short-term — by outside influences. Corn trades consistently with oil
and the situation in the financial sector — those issues and others
are in the driver’s seat rather than corn market fundamentals. Read
about it in this issue. And the soybean, its use once limited to
agriculture, is cementing a place in industry as a biodegradable
substitute for petroleum in a variety of commercial products. In an
effort to promote and commercialize the most promising soybean-based
products and materials, the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center (OBIC) is
leading a yearlong effort to assess current national soy-based
technologies. Get the details below.
You'll find these stories and more in this issue of Crop News
Weekly. Happy reading.
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Ag biotech:
Critical to global sustainability
Agricultural biotechnology is making substantial
footholds in small and large countries worldwide and must remain a part
of sustainable agriculture so farmers and consumers can reap the
benefits. Sharon Bomer-Lauritsen, executive vice president, food and
agriculture section, Biotechnology Industry Organization, Washington,
D.C., says U.S. farmers grow biotech crops on about 300 million acres
— about 48 percent of the harvested crop acreage. “Biotechnology has
saved the fruit and vegetable industry from destruction,” said
Bomer-Lauritsen. She spoke about ag biotech’s virtues and challenges
during the California Association of Pest Control Advisers conference in
Anaheim, Calif. BIO represents over 1,100 biotech companies, academic
institutions, and related organizations in the United States and 31
other nations in the research and development of health care,
agricultural, industrial, and environmental biotechnology products. -
Cary Blake, Farm Press Editorial Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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more at cruisermaxxbeans.com
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Corn market
fundamentals overshadowed
While the fundamentals of the U.S. corn market remain
strong, that may be overwhelmed — at least in the short-term — by
outside influences. “Corn trades consistently with oil and the
situation in the financial sector — those issues and others are in the
driver’s seat rather than corn market fundamentals,” says
Mississippi State University Economist John Anderson, who spoke at the
Southern Regional Outlook Conference held in Atlanta. The corn and other
feed grain markets have been unsettled, says Anderson. “It’s a
unique situation and a unique time to try and analyze this. If you look
at where we’ve been in 2008, we’ve had this early-season market in
all our grains, and it has created a credit crunch for our grain
elevators,” he says. - Paul L. Hollis, Farm Press Editorial
Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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VeraSun
bankruptcy raises concerns
VeraSun Energy Corporation, based out of Sioux Falls,
SD, and 24 subsidiaries filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Oct. 31,
2008. VeraSun operates 17 ethanol plants in eight states, including two
plants in Minnesota at Janesville and Welcome, and five plants in Iowa
at Albert City, Charles City, Dyersville, Fort Dodge and Hartley.
Chapter 11 bankruptcy is for re-organization and protects a company from
collections by certain creditors while the business continues to operate
and is being reorganized. - Kent Thiesse, Corn & Soybean
Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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insecticide allows corn rootworm to die without actually biting the root
unlike with BT traits. Also, by controlling secondary pests, Force can
add to a grower’s yield, which is the main goal of any grower.“
Retailer from Greenview, IL. Click here for more details
on this quote and the economics of using Force over traited corn.
Force is a Restricted Use Pesticide.
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VeraSun
reports possible buyer
Bankrupt U.S. ethanol maker VeraSun Energy Corp. late
on Monday said it recently received a “non-binding indication of
interest” from an unidentified third party to acquire substantially
all of VeraSun’s assets. The largest publicly traded U.S. ethanol
producer said it intends to pursue the indication of interest to its
conclusion and also evaluate any other proposals it may receive in
accordance with the Chapter 11 bankruptcy code. - Richard Brock, Corn
& Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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ROAD
WARRIOR: Family Living and Concrete
Dave Kohl writes: "Recently I stopped in
Louisville, KY, to conduct an agrilending workshop with my academic
peers from Tennessee and Kentucky. They shared a piece about family
living cost from Clark Garland at the department of agricultural
economics, University of Tennessee. In many cases, family living cost or
projections are the least reliable figure reported in cash flow
statements. This has been particularly true in recent years with high
commodity prices and the use of credit cards. Family living expense is
similar to concrete..." - Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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BioProducts
Center pursuing soy-based technologies
The soybean, its use once limited to agriculture, is
cementing a place in industry as a biodegradable substitute for
petroleum in a variety of commercial products. In an effort to promote
and commercialize the most promising soybean-based products and
materials, the Ohio BioProducts Innovation Center (OBIC), along with the
Ohio Soybean Council and PolymerOhio, is leading a yearlong effort to
assess current national soy-based technologies. OBIC, housed on Ohio
State University's College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental
Sciences campus, is an alliance of industry and academic organizations
and institutions focused on the commercialization of bio-based
technologies and products that combine Ohio's strongest industries:
agriculture and polymer materials. - Corn & Soybean Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Reduce
costs of irrigation pumping plants
To save energy and money, Nebraska irrigators should
check their irrigation pumps for maximum efficiency, Tom Dorn, a
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator, says. Irrigation
pumps that operate at the average efficiency found in university tests
are using 30% more energy than necessary, says Dorn, Extension educator
in Lancaster County. "At today's energy prices, identifying a pumping
plant that needs adjustment or repair could save hundreds if not
thousands of dollars per year," Dorn says. "Now that irrigation season
is over, look at your records and decide which of your pumping plants
should be looked at by a professional. If you do it now, you have all
winter and early spring to have those repairs made." - Corn & Soybean
Digest
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Soybean
rust target of gene-silencing
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. - Jan Suszkiw, United States Department of
Agriculture
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Manure
shows promise for on-farm fuel
Manure from livestock could someday be used as a
value-added bioenergy fuel for on-farm heating and power, according to
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists studying this approach.
This will be good news to U.S. livestock producers, who need
environmentally friendly ways to manage the manure generated by about
96.7 million cattle and 67.7 million hogs and pigs. ARS Agricultural
Engineer Keri Cantrell, Environmental Engineer Kyoung Ro, and Research
Leader Patrick Hunt work at the ARS Coastal Plains Soil, Water and Plant
Research Center in Florence, S.C. They have teamed up to study how to
use a technique called wet gasification to convert wet manure slurry
into energy-rich gases and produce relatively clean water. - Ann
Perry, United States Department of Agriculture
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Advice
to farmers: Get creative in 2009
Farmers are typically thought of as classic
left-brainers — realists who bring cold, hard logic to bear on tough
marketing and planting decisions. But as they look ahead to what may
prove to be one of the most challenging crop years in 2009, they may
have every incentive to complement their left-brain thinking with some
right-brain out-of-the-box creativity. No other facet of farming will
require a bigger investment of creative thinking than finding ways to
contain production costs. "It's always been important to know your cost
of production," says Max Runge, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System
economist. "But with the economic situation we're facing now, it's more
critical than ever." - Jim Langcuster, Auburn University
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Preaching
to the choir: thanks to farmers for food
There weren't any helium-filled balloons depicting a
farmer, tractor, combine, or cotton picker in the Macy’s Thanksgiving
Day parade this year. As millions watched the spectacle, it’s doubtful
any thought turned to the agricultural connotations of the day’s
origin, or of the scant numbers of modern era farmers who provide a
cornucopia of food and fiber products unimagined in the Pilgrims’
celebration nearly four centuries ago. It’s doubtful, too, that
you’ll see many newspaper articles or TV segments noting that the week
leading up to Thanksgiving has been officially designated in a White
House proclamation as National Farm-City Week to commemorate U.S.
farmers and their contributions to this nation’s progress. -
Hembree Brandon, Farm Press Editorial Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Important
documents ignored in Yazoo Project veto?
Why would the Environmental Protection Agency choose
to ignore documents that appear to indicate the Yazoo Backwater Project
should have been exempt from provisions of the Clean Water Act? That’s
the question Mississippi Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, both
Republicans, are asking EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson after
Johnson intervened to veto the project, a key element of efforts to
relieve flooding in the south Delta of Mississippi. At the time of the
move in late August, EPA officials said the project could be exempt from
the Clean Water Act if there was proof a 1982 Environmental Impact
Statement had been submitted to Congress in advance of appropriations
for its construction. Section 404(r) of the Clean Water Act provides for
such an exemption. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Syngenta:
2009 AgriEdge corn and soybean programs
Syngenta says its 2009 AgriEdge corn and soybean
programs will offer growers more rewards while they invest in agronomic
solutions that can maximize yield performance. AgriEdge Programs offer
incentives for growers who plant NK Brand soybeans with the Roundup
Ready trait and Garst, Golden Harvest or NK Seeds corn hybrids with one
or more Agrisure traits, and apply Syngenta Crop Protection products.
“AgriEdge Programs are unique among seed and crop protection company
incentive programs because the rewards are based on high-yielding
agronomic practices,” said Pat Steiner, agribusiness corn lead for
Syngenta. (To read the complete article, click on the headline
above)
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Giving
back part of holidays
In a holiday season that can seem only about getting,
many parents are looking for ways to teach their children about giving
instead. Carla Stanford, Mississippi State University Extension Service
child and family development area agent in Pontotoc County, said the
best way to encourage a giving spirit at Christmas and all year is
through role modeling. “A parent who is not willing to be generous on
a daily basis and let children know this is important will have a more
difficult time raising a giving child,” Stanford said. “A family’s
participation in a community event to help others is a good way to model
a spirit of citizenship and giving.” Stanford said this giving
attitude is important because the ability to think of others and
contemplate their needs is a skill and virtue needed for healthy
emotional growth and maturity. - Bonnie Coblentz, MSU Ag
Communications
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Volatility
makes risk management critical
Change was the watchword of the political season, but
volatility may be the best description of agriculture, says Nueces
County, Texas, farmer Jimmy Dodson. And that volatility may alter the
way farmers look at risk. “We now have to do just as good a job
managing risks as we do in managing yields,” says Dodson. “Our risk
profile has changed and volatility (in both production costs and
commodity prices) is a bigger factor.” The volatility in markets has
even disrupted risk planning for professionals, he says. “Strategies
that have worked in the past have not worked recently, and may be less
reliable in the future. Historic high basis levels caused grain prices
received on hedge-to-arrive contracts to be more than a dollar a bushel
less than expected. - Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff
(To read the complete article, click on the headline above)
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Forage
based ethanol offers promise for fuel
Forage-based ethanol production will not solve all of
the nation’s energy woes, but it’s a good place to start. “Forage
ethanol is not the only answer to our energy needs, but it is a big
answer,” says Carol Jones, stored product engineer at Oklahoma State
University. Jones discussed the dual challenges of storage and
transportation for forages used in ethanol production at a biofuels
field day at the South Central Research Station in Chickasha. “We have
a lot of work to do and it will take a lot of money,” Jones said. She
said current preference for corn and other grain-based ethanol is partly
due to ease of transportation. “Grain is easy to store and the
delivery process is already in place.” - Ron Smith, Farm Press
Editorial Staff
(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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