Crop News Weekly: Accelerated Equipment Depreciation

Fall like weather invades the Upper Midwest today, the first breath of cool air and perhaps a hint of the coming harvest. The growing season isn't over yet however, but it does serve as a reminder that fall is not that far away. Some beneficial rain has fallen across parts of the Midwest, a nice boost to late season crops.

On the farm front this week a change in CFTC has removed a provision allowing certain speculators to exceed federal speculative position limits on agricultural commodities. CFTC is withdrawing two no-action letters that provided relief from federal agricultural speculative positions limits set forth in CFTC regulations. Also this week, farmers have until December 31 to take advantage of the accelerated depreciation schedule for most farm equipment. The bonus depreciation measure was extended until the end of 2009. Elsewhere, USDA soybean yield estimates dropped a bushel from 42.6 to 41.7 per acre. Total production estimates were lowered from 3.26 billion bushels to 3.2 billion. The reduction is over 60 million bushels of beans.

You'll find these stories and more in this issue of Crop News Weekly. Thanks for dropping by.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has removed a provision allowing certain speculators to exceed federal speculative position limits on agricultural commodities.

The CFTC announced today that it is withdrawing two no-action letters that provided relief from federal agricultural speculative positions limits set forth in CFTC regulations.

“I believe that position limits should be consistently applied and vigorously enforced,” CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler said. “Position limits promote market integrity by guarding against concentrated positions.”

In a letter dated May 5, 2006, the CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight granted no-action relief to DB Commodity Services LLC, a commodity pool operator and commodity trading advisor, permitting the DB Commodity Index Tracking Master Fund to take positions in corn and wheat futures that exceeded federal speculative position limits set forth in CFTC regulations. - Farm Press

Farmers have until December 31, 2009, to take advantage of the accelerated depreciation schedule for most farm equipment. The bonus depreciation measure (which reduced the depreciation schedule for most ag equipment from seven to five years) was extended until the end of 2009 under the economic stimulus package passed this year.

There is no guarantee the accelerated depreciation schedule will be extended again, says Paul Kindinger, president and CEO, North American Equipment Dealers Association (NAEDA). In fact, the measure almost did not pass this year. If the new economic stimulus package works, Congress will likely have less enthusiasm for an accelerated depreciation tool because it costs the U.S. Treasury and is supposed to be a temporary tool, Kindinger says. - Lynn Grooms, Farm Industry News

USDA soybean yield estimates dropped a bushel from 42.6 to 41.7 per acre. Total production estimates were lowered from 3.26 billion bushels to 3.2 billion, the reduction is over 60 million bushels of beans.

Ending supply stock estimates were down 40 million bushels. World ending stock estimates were lowered 1.5 million tons from 51.8 million to 50.3 million.

Soybean crush used 121 million bushels, a 19 percent drop and 3 million below market expectations.

Soybean export inspections fell to 5.6 million bushels from 10 million last week. The estimated numbers were bearishly more negative than market expectations. - Ray Nabors, Heartland Ag Network

Max Rothschild has spent much of his career looking at the DNA of pigs.

World Food Prize Laureate announcedHis work at Iowa State University has won numerous awards, including the American Ag Editors Association’s Distinguished Service Award, which was presented to him at the Ag Media Summit in Ft. Worth, Texas, Aug. 4.

Rothschild, responsible for numerous inventions such as three gene tests that are leading to significant increases in pig litter size, says changes in technology have made it possible for scientists to determine the DNA sequence of all major livestock species. - Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff

Dr. William (Bill) R. Raun has been named as the Nutrients for Life Foundation Professor of Soil and Food Crop Nutrition at Oklahoma State University (OSU). The professorship, which is funded in-part by the Nutrients for Life Foundation, The Fertilizer Institute (TFI) and the International Plant Nutrition Institute (IPNI), will explore the linkages between fertilizer use and the nutritional quality of food. Dr. Raun accepted the professorship duties on July 1, following the OSU Board of Regents’ recommendation.

“I believe ours is the most progressive nitrogen management program in the world,” said Dr. Raun. “This is the result of a team effort that has been ongoing since I arrived with Dr. John Solie (Mechanical Engineer), Dr. Marvin Stone (electrical engineer), and a host of incredibly dedicated graduate students.”  The Nutrients for Life Foundation Professor of Soil and Food Nutrition is in the Department of Plant and Soil Science located within the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The cross-disciplinary position will work closely with the college’s Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center. Dr. Raun will teach a class each semester about fertilizer’s role in healthy food, while also researching this important issue.

Vermeer Corporation introduces the CCX770 Cob Harvester that is towed behind a combine for collecting corncobs. The new cob harvester is one of the first pieces of equipment developed to handle biomass materials for ethanol production. The harvester works with select combines.

Vermeer officials report that they developed the harvester as more growers, especially in Iowa, look ahead to cob harvesting for ethanol plants that will use biomass materials.

The self-contained CCX770 Cob Harvester holds up to 8,000 lbs. of material and unloads in about 90 sec. It includes a patented separation system that redistributes leaves and husks back to the ground. The harvester will unload into high-box semitrailers or wagons with its flexible unloading heights that range from 9 ft. 7 in. to 15 ft. 6 in. - Farm Industry News

Allowing organic crop producers to gain certification for biotech crops could encourage the development of a new type of environmentally sustainable agricultural production, with greater benefits for the consumer.

Heresy?

No, says Cyndi Barmore in a report prepared for the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, “Unexplored Potential of Organic-Biotech Production.”

Noting up front that the organic movement rejects biotech “as inherently contradictory to its fundamental goal of promoting environmental protection in agriculture,” she nonetheless says, “A governmental decision to change organic regulations to permit the use of biotechnology could have far-reaching policy implications.” - Hembree Brandon, Farm Press Editorial Staff

I am enjoying the e-mails I am receiving from around the country regarding Palmer pigweed. Several have related their experiences with glyphosate-resistant pigweeds — some good and some not so good. Others have e-mailed just to tell me they suspected they might have had a problem last year and this year those suspicions have been confirmed.

Recognition of the problem is the first step in trying to correct it. A lot of folks recognize the problem now, I just wish more did. - Ford L. Baldwin, Practical Weed Consultants, LLC.

Fairness, innovation and competition are what the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) wants to see within the U.S. seed industry. The group asserts that concentration and unfair trade practices have limited the availability of top seed and genetics at competitive prices and weakened the federal government’s role in regulating the industry.

OCM members met in St. Louis recently to discuss pursuing “aggressive and appropriate premarket regulation.” OCM has publicly opposed biotechnology, stacking trait technologies and concentrated animal-feeding operations (CAFOs). In its Crop Seed Concentration Project findings, officials noted, “Monsanto’s effort to enforce licensing agreements and protect its patent rights has dramatically altered American agriculture.”

Monsanto spokesperson Lee Quarles disagrees with the findings, pointing to industry rival DuPont’s financial support of OCM. “It is disappointing that they would openly attack a company that is completely committed to agriculture and helping farmers improve yields through the development of biotech traits. Their funds would be better spent elsewhere in doing something positive for farmers,” he says. - Corn & Soybean Digest

EDITOR'S NOTE

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