Obama's biofuel initiative
	Obama budget riles farm groups
	REG Signs Agreement
	More on ag subsidies
	Safe trucking for agriculture
	Technology helps farmer efficiency
	Farmer's share of retail food dollar
	Wet soil leads to nitrogen loss?
	Insecticides provide benefits
	Is corn earworm becoming resistant?

As hard as it may be to believe, the summer season is knocking at the door and still corn and soybean planting remains unfinished. Progress is being made, but heavy rains are contributing to slower-than-expected planting rates in parts of the Upper Midwest. But corn planting progressed nicely in April and early May, and a little help from Mother Nature this week and next should put the finishing touches to planting operations. Also this week, the Obama administration has announced a major, concerted push by the USDA, Department of Energy and EPA to support the development and expansion of domestic biofuels. On the other side of things, the Obama administration is continuing to push for a $500,000 cap on direct payments and a new limit on total farm program payments, a move that is not pleasing farm groups.

Read about these stories and more in this issue of Crop News Weekly. Happy reading.

The Obama administration has announced a major, concerted push by the USDA, Department of Energy and EPA to support the development and expansion of domestic biofuels.

The initial effort will be done through a working group between the three agencies with renewable fuel standards, emission-reduction targets and a host of other biofuel-related issues on the agenda.

“I’m excited about this opportunity because (President Obama) has directed us to create a comprehensive biofuel marketing development program to focus on the infrastructure necessary for this industry to be a permanent part of the American economy, and to do it in a sustainable way,” said USDA secretary Tom Vilsack during a May 5 press conference. - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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The Obama administration is continuing to push for a $500,000 cap on direct payments, a new limit on total farm program payments and elimination of cotton storage credits in its budget proposals for fiscal year 2010.

Although the House and Senate budget committees rejected the proposals in their fiscal 2010 budget resolution Congress passed in April, administration officials again called for the reductions in the formal unveiling of its 2010 budget requests on May 6.

The latest request calls for Congress to eliminate direct payments to farmers with gross sales in excess of $500,000. That could mean a cotton producer with more than 870 acres of cotton would no longer be eligible for direct payments, according to budgets compiled by land-grant universities. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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Renewable Energy Group (REG) announced Monday it has entered into agreements to consolidate with three commercial‐scale biodiesel plants. Western Iowa Energy, which operates a 30-million-gallon/year (mgy) facility in Wall Lake, IA; Central Iowa Energy, LLC, which operates a 30-mgy facility at Newton, IA; and Blackhawk Biofuels, LLC, which operates a 45-mgy facility in Danville, IL, are involved in the transaction. The facilities represent an additional 105 mgy of wholly owned production capacity, which would allow the combined entity to better position itself to meet anticipated demand from the petroleum industry’s distillate fuel market. - Corn & Soybean Digest

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There is an increasing trend to store dry grain in bags throughout the US and Canada. Loftness offers the GBL10 Grain Bag Loader which will fill 10-ft. diameter bags up to 300-ft. long at capacities up to 26,000 bu/hr. It features adjustable hydraulic brakes, 17-in. loading auger, an extra-large hopper, and an adjustable bottom pan. Bags are easily loaded on the machine with a winch-operated cradle. New for 2009 is an auger attachment which will facilitate loading bags with trucks.

Ask an American living in the city about U.S. agricultural subsidies and he or she is sure to go on and on about how U.S. farm policy is destroying the livelihoods of poor farmers around the world.

But a report from Texas Tech University’s Cotton Economic Research Institute shows that agricultural subsidies are more the norm rather than the exception for 21 developing and developed countries studied. The study focused on seven commodities: corn, cotton, rice, sorghum, soybeans, sugar and wheat.

Here are highlights from selected countries in the study which was released in April... - Elton Robinson, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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The American Trucking Associations’ Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference (AFTC) recently released the “Manager’s Guide to Safe Trucking During Agricultural Planting and Harvest Season.”

The guide provides educational resources for truck drivers and their managers in the agricultural industry, encouraging active strategies to improve safety during peak times of production.

“Promoting safety is important in all agricultural operations but especially critical in the case of truck driving,” said Russell Laird, ATA’s Agricultural and Food Transporters Conference executive director. “Our members are glad to share their expertise and best practices with the whole agricultural industry to give them practical strategies they can implement to help improve safety.”

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Roy Burns started farming on his own in Navarro County, near Corsicana, Texas, in 1977 with a $15,500 tractor and a $2,500 planter. He grew wheat, milo and cotton on 200 acres of rented land. He added corn to the mix over the years and put in about 10 times more acreage this year than he did in 1977 — with a new $189,000 John Deere 8430 tractor and a $69,000 planter.

Times have changed. But his labor force is about the same as always. - Ron Smith Farm Press Editorial Staff

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Did you ever wonder how much of the retail price of food you are getting on the farm? Now you can take a quick look based upon multiple products. Retail prices are based on store brand except where noted from Safeway, Washington, D.C., May 1, 2009. Change is in relation to the farmer’s share from the previous year. - Corn & Soybean Digest

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With the recent heavy rains across parts of Kansas, saturated soils have become common in many areas. This can potentially cause loss of nitrogen from the soil, said Kansas State University agronomist Dave Mengel.

"There have been a number of questions concerning potential loss of fertilizer nitrogen applied last fall, this winter, or earlier this spring, through leaching or denitrification. These two processes are quite different, and normally occur on different types of soils," said Mengel, who is a soil fertility specialist with K-State Research and Extension.

Denitrification loss is of much greater concern than leaching loss on wet, medium- to fine-textured soils, he said. Denitrification is the conversion of nitrate to gaseous nitrogen by soil microbes in low-oxygen, waterlogged soils. There are several conditions that must be met for denitrification to occur...

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A three-year study by the Crop Protection Research Institute (CPRI) has found that for every dollar spent by farmers on insecticides, $19 is returned. "The Value of Insecticides in U.S. Crop Production" also claims that without insecticides 31 of the 50 crops surveyed would see yields drop 40 percent, or more. Seven of the crops would experience yield losses of over 70 percent.

“Consumers are being more selective with what they buy,” said Jay Vroom, chairman of CropLife Foundation (CPRI is the research branch of the foundation), during a recent press conference. “However, food remains a necessity just as it was before this economic crisis. As a result, it’s even more important (for food) to remain affordable … so no American goes hungry or sacrifices a family’s nutrition.” - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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Growers in our area have been dependent on pyrethroids for controlling corn earworm (CEW) for many years in many crops including cotton, peanuts, soybeans, sweet corn, tomato and several other vegetable crops.

There is a large selection of pyrethroid insecticides ranging from ‘old-timers’ like Ammo, Ambush and Asana XL to newer ones like Karate, Warrior, Baythroid XL, Mustang Max, Danitol, Brigade, and Prolex. - Ames Herbert, Virginia Tech\Department of Entomology

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