Crop News Weekly: Stimulus For Agriculture?

Federal stimulus funds will soon be distributed to about 2,000 farmers coast-to-coast as part of USDA's stimulus funds allocation to improve the economy of rural America. USDA officials say most of the funds will be in the form of loans to cover operating expenses for beginning and "socially disadvantaged" farmers. The idea, says USDA, is to help out family farm operations. Meanwhile, there's been a little USDA back-pedaling on reducing direct-payments to agribusinesses with sales of more than $500,000, and a few farm groups are not happy.

In fact, there's plenty of news and issues to explore in this issue of Crop News Weekly. So get started, and happy reading.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said USDA will begin making $145 million in direct operating loans to farmers as one of the first steps in distributing the $28 billion earmarked for the Department in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Vilsack said the $145 million will go out almost immediately to 2,042 farmers as the first installment of $173 million designated for USDA’s direct operating loan program. He said 50 percent of the recipients are beginning farmers and 10 percent socially disadvantaged producers.

“These loans will be used to purchase items such as farm equipment, feed, seed, fuel and other operating expenses and will stimulate rural economies by providing American farmers funds to operate,” he said. “Currently, farmers are struggling with the high costs of running family farms, seriously affecting beginning and socially disadvantaged producers.”

His comments came during a briefing on Monday for reporters on how USDA will distribute the first wave of economic stimulus funding. He also answered questions about the Obama administration’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal to phase out direct payments to producers with more than $500,000 in annual sales. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Various indicators point to surface drainage problems negatively affecting soybean yields, especially in wet years. One common-sense indicator is to just view a young soybean field that has low spots following some big rains. The plants in the low locales are stunted, or maybe even dead. Data from irrigators in the southeast Missouri region provided to the annual Bootheel irrigation surveys also points in the same direction.

First, growers indicated in the surveys that soybean yields are 4 bushels to 5 bushels per acre higher in fields that have been laser-leveled. Second, yields are higher if the field was bedded up. Interestingly, the yield increase from both lasering and bedding is always greater on full-season soybeans than it is for double-crop soybeans. - Joe Henggeler, University of Missouri

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

I suppose somewhere there is actually someone smart enough to wade through the morass of minutiae in the much ballyhooed and debated 1,100-page economic stimulus package and understand just what’s in it.

I certainly don’t pretend to be one of them.

Apparently, from reports circulating in the mainstream media, most of the members of Congress aren’t either, but they passed it anyhow on a one-sided party vote, and anywhere they can find a TV camera they prattle on and on about whether it represents salvation or farce, depending on party and constituency. - Hembree Brandon, Farm Press Editorial Staff

The Obama administration appears to be having second thoughts about its proposal to phase out direct payments to agribusinesses with sales of more than $500,000 and replace them with “green” payments.

Facing criticism from farm organizations, members of Congress from both sides of the aisle and university professors, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack back-pedaled on the idea when asked about the budget proposal during a press briefing on Monday.

“At the outset, let me say we are absolutely dedicated to preserving the safety net for farmers,” Vilsack said during the briefing, which was held to announce the first wave in USDA’s distribution of its share of the economic stimulus funding. “President Obama has made that clear on many occasions. - Forrest Laws Farm Press Editorial Staff

In mid-February, the Global Crop Diversity Trust announced it is on track to save some 100,000 different varieties of food crops from extinction. This new effort, with seeds to be gathered from 46 countries, is unprecedented and means “we are moving quickly to regenerate and preserve seed samples representing thousands of distinct varieties of critical food crops like rice, maize, and wheat … that were well on their way to total extinction,” said Cary Fowler, executive director GCDT. “I think it is fair to say that without this effort, many of them would have been lost forever.”

Fowler, born and raised near Memphis, currently resides in Rome. He recently spoke with Delta Farm Press about saving seeds from extinction, the Svalbard seed vault and how the GCDT’s work has been received. - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

The Renewable Fuels Association joined with Growth Energy, the American Coalition for Ethanol, the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition, and other groups in filing an official waiver request with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking it to approve for general use gasoline blended with up to 15 percent ethanol (E15).

RFA President and CEO Bob Dinneen issued a statement about the move. Read the full report by clicking on the headline above.

Keep it clean.

That’s the first piece of advice David Eyster, Custer County, Okla., farmer, gave to participants at the recent No-till Oklahoma Conference in Oklahoma City.

“Start with a clean field,” said Eyster, who farms land his grandfather homesteaded back in 1892. “Try to kill weeds long before you intend to plant.”

He recommends terminating a cover crop “early enough to allow time for a rain before planting. Give it at least 30 days,” he recommended. - Ron Smith, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Though confronted by numerous challenges, America’s young farmers and ranchers express a high level of optimism about agriculture and say they are better off than they were five years ago. Those are the general findings of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 17th annual survey of young farmers and ranchers.

The young farmers, ages 18-35, said the availability of land and facilities, overall profitability and economic challenges continue to rank as their top concerns. However, reflecting a high degree of economic improvement, 89 percent of the respondents said they are better off than they were five years ago.

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FROM OUR EDITORS

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