Crop News Weekly: Aphid-Resistant Soybeans

As the holiday season approaches farmers all across the Midwest are rushing to complete the harvest. Thanks to improved weather conditions across much of the region, real progress is now being made. But not without usual late season problems. For one, long lines at the elevator are common in some areas as the bulk of the corn crop is rolling in at the same time, and along with the rush, drying operations are overtaxed and working overtime. Yet moisture has improved thanks to a late break in the weather and yields are still reported as healthy considering the late hour. It all makes for a very strange harvest season.

In the news this week, weather problems continue to plague not only Midwest growers but much of the Southland as well, raising concern about market stability. Also this week, have you wondered about soybean farming in the Far East? Greg Lamp takes you on a journey. Elsewhere, alternative energy use doubles, boosting the need for more fuel crops.

Check out these and other stories in this issue of Crop News Weekly. Happy reading

Aphid management is vital to the success of Ohio’s soybean crop, and several programs to fight aphids are being made possible with funding from the USDA, Ohio State University’s (OSU) Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and the Ohio Soybean Council (OSC) and soybean checkoff.

Also known as plant lice, aphids rapidly reproduce and live on sap from host plants. These insects deform or kill plants and invite other worrisome insects to infected cropland because of their honeydew secretions. Aphids can also be infected with fungi, viruses and bacteria to further damage crops, and have the potential to greatly impact Ohio’s 26,000 soybean farmers and their multifaceted industry valued at $1.9 billion. - Corn & Soybean Digest

Corn & Soybean Digest (CSD) Editor Greg Lamp spent last week in Thailand with the Thailand Government Board of Investment media tour. Among the places visited were a shrimp farm, where they feed the shrimp soy meal, Ford and GM plants and a Jelly Belly plant.

For photos and videos, go to the CSD Facebook page. - Corn & Soybean Digest

The estimated crop loss for the 2009 Arkansas harvest so far has risen to $309 million, not including lost wages of about $83 million due to decline in nearly 3,000 full- and part-time agriculture-related jobs, the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture said.

The estimate, which provides a week-by-week snapshot of crop conditions, is compiled by UA Division of Agriculture economists, and is based on data from USDA, National Agricultural Statistical Service (NASS), current marketing prices, quality loss estimates from local elevators, and yield loss and additional fieldwork from University of Arkansas Extension specialists.

In addition to the decline in full- and part-time jobs, the report also shows a decline of nearly $162 million in economic value-added, which encompasses soy, corn and rice processing, cotton ginning and reduced household spending by Arkansans whose incomes are tied to agriculture. - Mary Hightower, University of Arkansas

Much of the time this column focuses on current issues in US agricultural policy: food safety rules, farm program payments, crop insurance, ethanol, and CAFOs, among others. But one of the things that we try to keep at the forefront of our analysis is that policies that are good for US farmers must not come at the expense of farmers elsewhere in the world.

The reason for this is that that the dynamics that determine the nature of US agriculture and agricultural markets are the same dynamics faced by farmers in other countries as well. For starters, one could identify weather-determined variability in production, diseases like Asian Soybean Rust and bovine spongiform encephalopathy, long periods of low prices punctuated by a sudden peak and subsequent decline in prices, and international markets that are controlled by a relatively few firms on both the input and marketing sides.

We recently attended a meeting where the concerns of farmers in developing countries were the focus of the discussion. As we listened and talked, it became apparent to us that if we were asked to help a country become more food secure so that it could ensure that its citizens had access to a reliable supply of nutritious foods, our answer would be the same whether we were asked the question two centuries ago, two decades ago, or two weeks ago. - Daryll E. Ray, Agricultural Policy Analysis Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Kirk Beekley wanted the advantages of bulk soybean seed, but not the cost of new paint. So, he built his own bulk seed tender that's right-sized for his 350-acre, Crete, NE, farm.

Beekley used angle iron and 12-gauge steel to form two 2,500-lb.-capacity hoppers with slide gates that feed into a 4-in. unloading auger. The bulk bins sit on a frame built with 2×4-in. tubing. - Corn & Soybean Digest

Oklahoma State University and its partner institutions in industry are receiving $4.2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to continue groundbreaking work in the development of biofuels.

The OSU Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources’ Ray Huhnke said the funding received through USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture represents great news for the public and diverse stakeholders within Oklahoma’s bioenergy industry.

“These funds will enhance key work being done by our cooperating scientists and engineers to develop advances in practices and technologies necessary to ensure efficient and sustainable production of cellulosic ethanol feedstocks,” he said. - Donald Stotts, Oklahoma State University

On Nov. 4, Gus Wilson took a sample of soybeans with 100 percent damage.

“It was the first time I’ve seen that,” says the Chicot County, Ark., Extension staff chair. “The situation here is bad, bleak. We’ll be lucky to make half the crop we’ve made in the last three to four years. That’s strictly due to the weather.”

Chicot County in extreme southeast Arkansas has caught huge rains all fall. Now, watching crops deteriorate, Wilson says he’s not seen “a group of growers who’ve been more discouraged. Those who were planning to plant wheat may be out of luck. If there’s wheat planted and emerged in Chicot County, I don’t know where it’s at.”

As in the rest of the Mid-South, the county has had several good days of weather. But fields “are rutting up big-time. The cost to our farmers for field preparation next year is going to be high. Rice ground will definitely have be disked a couple of times and landplaned — we’ve got major ruts. The lower ends of fields are horrible. - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

The use of alternative energy sources doubled to 11 percent since Rabobank’s last bi-annual Farm and Ranch Survey was released in April.

"By using alternative energy, U.S producers have found that they can reduce their costs while minimizing their impact on the environment,” said Michael Whitehead, Rabobank food and agribusiness research and advisory executive director.

Additionally, the survey found 64 percent of farmers have taken steps toward sustainable agriculture. For example, U.S. producers are using direct seeding (64 percent), minimizing the use of chemicals (42 percent), and using water conservation practices (22 percent).

Seventy U.S. trade organizations received more than $234 million in fiscal 2009 to help promote American food and agricultural products overseas.

“Agricultural trade is absolutely crucial to the U.S. economy and by providing this funding to U.S. organizations during these difficult economic times will help open new global markets for American food products,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

The funding was allocated under the Market Access Program (MAP) and the Foreign Market Development (FMD) Cooperator Program, both administered by USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). - from USDA

The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry will hold a field hearing in Little Rock, Ark., Monday, Nov. 23, at 1 p.m. The hearing — “Revitalizing Rural America” to examine ways to strengthen and grow Arkansas’s rural economy — will be hosted by the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service at the Great Hall of the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln, chairman of the committee, is organizing a statewide Agriculture and Business Leadership Breakfast on Nov. 24 to examine the impact of U.S. agriculture, rural development and forestry policy on the state’s rural and small business economy. That event is scheduled from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Association of Arkansas Counties Board Room, 1415 Third Street in Little Rock.

As November took over from October, rains finally eased across a waterlogged Mid-South and many of the region’s producers were able to restart harvest. Still weeks behind and facing yet-to-crest rivers and a forecast predicting more rain the week of Nov. 9, harvest had picked up even more urgency.

By Nov. 6, Mississippi soybeans were about 70 percent harvested. The last third will “take some time and be fairly slow going,” says Trey Koger, Mississippi Extension soybean specialist. “Probably half that 30 percent is in really bad shape. So, there’s 15 percent of our total crop that might be abandoned.” - David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff

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