Time to check/make corn decisions
	Glyphosate resistance traits
	Is food inspection reform coming?
	Grain elevator : Plan ahead
	World's Largest Planter
	Biofuels future for replacing gasoline
	Formalize rental land agreements
	NRCS seeks proposals
	LibertyLink new soybean option for '09
	Turning on 'Phaucet' good choice
	Vilsack to speak at Agricultural Forum

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Last week's eventful stimulus bill debate and conclusion captured the attention of most Americans as the Nation awaits to discover how government action is going to shore up the economy and restore confidence and credit. President Obama signed the bill on Tuesday and plans to roll out the stimulus program are expected to follow in the days and weeks ahead. While most Americans agree something must be done to get the economy back on track, many are wondering, including farmers, just how the new administration's policies are going to effect them in the years ahead.

We're loaded up again this week with the latest on the developing issues, plus we have a number of new video offerings for your review. Take the time to take our monthly poll if you haven't already, and surf through this week's features and stories to stay on top of what's happening in the wide world of agriculture. And thanks for stopping by.

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Last fall there were several Integrated Crop Management articles about the quality and handling of the 2008 corn crop. This type of corn has roughly half the storage life of normal corn under the same moisture and temperature conditions.

At that time the corn was coming out of the field very wet, with soft texture, low test weight and low protein content. These were consequences of the cool, wet growing season; much of Iowa corn never reached full maturity. Elevators and producers alike filled bins with wetter-than-normal corn, up to 24% moisture in some cases. There were also cases of emergency piles of 18-22% moisture corn that did not get picked up until January. - Corn & Soybean Digest

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The discovery of new glyphosate- and other herbicide-resistance transgenes is providing more weed management options to growers of crops, according to a report published in Weed Science.

Glyphosate-resistant crops are grown worldwide and have been associated with effective weed control, increased profits and less need for tillage. Low prices for glyphosate have further encouraged its use. Soybeans, corn, cotton and canola are some of the glyphosate-resistant crops that have been grown commercially. - Corn & Soybean Digest

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Until now, a motley crew of federal agencies was responsible for managing the safety of the U.S. food supply.

But following the recent 43-state salmonella outbreak eventually traced to peanut butter processed at a Blakely, Ga., plant, a growing number of people both inside and outside the new Obama administration have decided this crew should be considerably less motley and more streamlined.

Regulating a food supply that has grown more complex and globalized is proving too daunting a challenge for this patchwork of agencies to handle, critics contend. - Jim Langcuster, Auburn University

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Grain elevator operators should be planning now on how they can adapt to the changes ethanol production will bring to their industry, a Texas AgriLife Extension Service specialist said.

Dr. Steve Amosson, AgriLife Extension economist, told more than 90 people attending the Texas High Plains Grain Elevator Workshop in Amarillo that expanded ethanol production is a given if the nation is going to meet the renewable fuels mandate.

While the ethanol industry has flattened out for the past year, Amosson said, mandates call for 11.1 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be used this year. Figures go upward from there to 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels by 2022. - Kay Ledbetter, Texas A&M University

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Imagine you’re planting down the middle of your local high school football field. With John Deere/Bauer Built’s newest planter, the DB120, you’d only have 20 ft. from each outside row unit to the sidelines – thanks to its 120-ft.-wide toolbar.

“As growers get bigger, they’re looking for more productivity from their equipment to plant more acres per day,” says Rob Rippchen, Deere’s division marketing manager for the new planter. “At 120 ft., the DB120 has 30% more productivity than our 36-row, DB90 planter and will match up wit­­­­h our 12-row corn heads.”

Depending on field conditions, the DB120 should plant 90-100 acres/hour at the recommended 5-5½ mph, according to Rippchen. - Corn & Soybean Digest

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Plant and forestry waste and energy crops could sustainably replace nearly a third of gasoline use by 2030, according to a new study published by Sandia National Laboratories and General Motors Corporation. The “90 Billion Gallon Study” assumes that 75 billion gallons of ethanol would be produced from cellulosic feedstocks while 15 billion gallons would be made from corn. The study focused on agricultural residue from corn stover and wheat straw; forest residue; energy crops such as switchgrass; and short-rotation woody crops including willow and poplar trees. It also focused on the costs of producing, harvesting, storing and transporting these cellulosic sources to biorefineries. For full story, go to: http://blog.farmindustrynews.com/biofuellines/.

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A simple nod, followed by a firm handshake, is how many farmers and landowners arrange short-term land rental agreements. But it’s a luxury many of them no longer can afford, says one expert.

As economic conditions worsen, he says it behooves farmers and landowners alike to formally spell out these rental agreements. Most important from the farmer’s perspective, land rental should be managed like any other risk factor associated with farming, says Max Runge, an Alabama Extension economist.

“With spiking input costs and market uncertainties, producers are going to need to manage their risks as best they can, and land is no exception,” Runge said. - Alabama Cooperative Extension System

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Up to $58.4 million in financial assistance is available to agricultural producers identified in partnership proposals through the Agricultural Water Enhancement Program (AWEP), established in the new farm bill to promote ground and surface water conservation and water quality improvement.

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is seeking project proposals from potential partners through this program. A Request for Proposals has been published in the Federal Register. Proposals must be submitted by March 2, 2009. Potential partners may submit proposals online here.

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It seems as though truly new technology does not come along very often anymore. This has certainly been the case for the past few years in soybeans.

With the exception of Valor and Prefix, there really have been no developments in soybean weed control. Even Prefix is a new pre-mix of older chemistry, used in a new way.

So, I have been excited to have LibertyLink soybeans and Ignite herbicide in testing for the past two years. I do not work for Bayer, nor do I have anything against the Roundup Ready technology, but the fact is that we have been relying on one chemical far too long in soybeans. We now have five confirmed glyphosate-resistant weeds in Arkansas as proof of this. - Robert C. Scott, Extension Weed Specialist, University of Arkansas

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Steve Stevens says the first time his employees heard about the new irrigation program he wanted to try on his farm they weren’t exactly thrilled at the prospect.

Stevens, who raises 4,300 acres of cotton, corn, rice and soybeans around Tillar in southeast Arkansas, decided last spring to test the “Phaucet” computer program on six fields to see if it could reduce his irrigation costs.

“When they saw how much work was involved in setting up the fields, they kind of balked at it,” he told persons attending a session on the Phaucet program at the National Conservation Systems Cotton and Rice Conference in Marksville, La. “And I think they may have seen it as criticism of the job they were doing. But once we began using the program on more fields, and they realized they were finishing on Thursday and Friday rather than having to work Saturday and sometimes Sundays, they began to see the program in a different light.” - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that Secretary Tom Vilsack will deliver the keynote address for the 85th annual Agricultural Outlook Forum, “Global Agriculture & Rural America in Transition,” Feb. 26, at the Crystal Gateway Marriott Hotel in Arlington, Va.

This year the Forum will focus on a broad range of topical issues related to energy, trade, technology, farm policy, risk management and rural America. The Forum also will feature traditional commodity supply and demand and food price outlooks.

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