Crop News Weekly: Market Oversight Bill

You can tell the spring season is not that far away. This coming Sunday morning, like most Americans, I will probably rise to discover I have lost an hour of the day before it ever gets started, thanks to the return of daylight savings time. If you happen to live in Arizona or Hawaii or Puerto Rico, then your life stays the same and your clocks do not change. For the rest of us, we must endure the twice-a-year ritual with or without consent. The idea, I am told, is an attempt to minimize energy use. And that seems to make some sense. But for the farmer, it doesn't matter what time the clocks reads. On the farm, as you know, the day starts long before the sun comes up and doesn't end until long past setting. Changing the clocks doesn't give the farmer an extra hour to work - or sleep. And an argument could be made that if you are a grower of biofuel crops, then saving an extra hour of work doesn't help the energy situation. Instead, it takes time away from producing energy. But as Teddy Roosevelt used to say, it's not how much time you have to spend that counts, it's how you spend the time you have. Welcome to daylight savings time.

There's plenty to review in this week's Crop News Weekly. So get started, and happy reading.

One of agriculture's most versatile crops – soybeans – could one day play a role in combating climate change, Purdue University research shows.

In addition to using soybeans in beverages, biofuels, lip balm, crayons, candles and a host of other products, Purdue Agricultural Engineers Al Heber and Jiqin Ni found that soybean oil reduces greenhouse gas emissions when sprayed inside swine finishing barns. - Corn & Soybean Digest

An ambitious bill to tighten regulations and oversight on financial markets passed the House Agriculture Committee Feb. 12. Prior to the bipartisan voice-vote that passed the bill, Chairman Collin Peterson said the legislation was sure to “upset” many on Wall Street, something that seemed to cause him little worry.

For months Peterson warned that a turf battle over financial market regulation was brewing. While there still may be some jostling with several congressional committees — including the House Financial Services Committee — on the best method of market oversight, Peterson’s committee threw its backing to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Under the proposed rules, the CFTC would have expanded authority including criminal prosecution power over those that violate antifraud rules. The new bill also removes the Federal Reserve from regulating the derivatives markets. -David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is trying to sell commodity groups on the idea of replacing traditional farm programs with so-called green payments or carbon credits. The groups aren’t buying it.

The hook Vilsack is using is the $1 trillion deficit the federal government may incur due to the massive stimulus package and other rescue bills that have been enacted or discussed in Washington.

He cited the need to reduce spending in speeches outlining his vision for USDA at the USA Rice Federation Government Affairs Conference, a joint meeting of the National Association of Wheat Growers and U.S. Wheat Associates and the National Cotton Council’s annual meeting. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Farmers will now be able to analyze their natural resource use and key corn and soybean (and other crops) production inputs using a new online tool introduced at Commodity Classic by Field to Market, The Keystone Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture.

The Fieldprint Calculator is a free, confidential online tool – developed with input from a diverse group of grower organizations, agribusinesses, food companies, economists and conservation groups – to help farmers evaluate natural resource use on their operation compared to industry averages. These measures could help improve production efficiencies and profit potential. The calculator will be available at http://www.fieldtomarket.org beginning March 15 for grower testing and feedback. - Corn & Soybean Digest

Many farmers in America are feeling a sense of betrayal right now. What transpired over the last month of the Bush administration could best be described as a slap in the face to the U.S farming community.

It began the day after Christmas when farmers all over America began receiving letters from USDA’s Farm Service Agency explaining that any federally-owned land they leased “will have base acres terminated effective for the 2009 crop year unless that land is subject to a lease agreement which was executed before Dec. 23, 2008, and is in effect beyond the 2009 crop year.”

USDA took advantage of a rule written way back in the 1996 farm bill and carried over in every farm bill since which states, “The owner of a farm may reduce, at any time, the base acres for any covered commodity for the farm.” - Elton Robinson, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Using their new value-based checkoff assessment, sorghum growers across the country are taking steps that can help them see extensive research and promotion that hopefully will rival that for corn, soybeans and wheat.

Research on cold tolerant hybrid varieties, weed technology, renewable fuels usage and other traits are among the many areas that should benefit from the checkoff, says Dr. Jeff Dahlberg, director of research for the United Sorghum Checkoff Program, headquartered in Lubbock, Texas. The checkoff began last July and is assessed based on the value of sorghum. - Larry Stalcup, Southwest Farm Press

USDA projected a 40 million-bushel increase in sorghum use in February based on indications of increased sorghum use by ethanol plants in the Southern and Central Plains. Sorghum prices are well below those for corn in these areas and supplies are plentiful with this year’s slower export pace.

USDA’s Feb. 10 World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates also reported that ethanol blender and producer margins have recently improved and weekly production of gasoline blends with ethanol has risen. Ending stocks of sorghum were projected 30 million bushels lower. - USDA projected a 40 million-bushel increase in sorghum use in February based on indications of increased sorghum use by ethanol plants in the Southern and Central Plains. Sorghum prices are well below those for corn in these areas and supplies are plentiful with this year’s slower export pace. - Elton Robinson, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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