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Logan
Hawkes
03/05/08
Crop News Weekly
A new month has arrived and we're now less than
three weeks away from the official start of the spring season. This is
the time of year producers are busy preparing for the start of a new
growing season; a time that demands our full attention if we have any
hope at all of a successful crop year. (Except, perhaps, for a little
time watching the primary returns.) It's also a good time of year to
start thinking about this year's crop insurance. Grower's have until
March 15 to make their final selections. In the top of the news this
week, word from the Hill has it that President Bush may not be pleased
with the payment limit issue. At least that's what we hear from one
expert after a briefing with Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner
on the impact of the administration's proposed $200,000 adjusted gross
income limit. Also this week, an unapproved biotech trait was found at
"extremely low" levels in some 2006- and 2007-crop U.S. corn, but the
grain poses no safety threat and export trade is not likely to be
affected, the USDA is reporting. Finally this week, the National Corn
Growers Association (NCGA) is optimistic that a farm bill will be
completed by March 15. House and Senate lawmakers are currently focusing
on a spending level of approximately $9 billion above the budget
baseline over a period of 10 years. A final spending agreement might be
reached this week.
You'll find these and other stories featured in this issue of Crop
News Weekly. Happy reading.
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President
peeved over payment limits
Ever since the Environmental Working Group began
posting the names of farm payment recipients on its Web site, farmers
have been wondering how the negative publicity would play out in the
farm bill debate. It now appears the EWG's massive propaganda effort and
the thousands of negative stories it generated about farm programs may
have reached the one person who counted the most, the president of the
United States. Bill Bridgforth, an attorney from Pine Bluff, Ark., who
has quietly built a reputation as one of the foremost experts on payment
limit rules, says that's the impression he received while briefing
Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner on the impact of the
administration's proposed $200,000 adjusted gross income limit. -
Forrest Laws and David Bennett, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Waiting
for the other shoe to drop on commodity prices
In the 30 years he's been farming, John Thaemert says,
there have been three years when he felt as optimistic about the wheat
outlook as he does in 2008. Two days before Thaemert, the president of
the National Association of Wheat Growers, said that, nearby spring
wheat futures briefly touched an astounding $25 a bushel on the
Minneapolis Grain Exchange. But Thaemert says farmers have seen plenty
of other years when wheat futures were trading below the loan rate,
which is why his and other farm organizations are pushing so hard for a
new farm bill. "We simply can't forget about the farm bill," Thaemert
said in an interview at the Commodity Classic in Nashville. "We need a
safety net to make sure we can keep farmers on the land and rural
communities from disappearing when prices decline." - Forrest Laws,
Farm Press Editorial Staff
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APHIS:
Unapproved corn no threat
An unapproved biotech trait was found at "extremely
low" levels in some 2006- and 2007-crop U.S. corn, but the grain poses
no safety threat and export trade is not likely to be affected, the USDA
said on Friday. The unapproved biotech trait, known as Event 32 (E-32),
was found at levels of approximately 3 seeds/1,000 in samples of the
Herculex RW and Herculex XTRA Rootworm Protection corn varieties
produced by Dow AgroSciences LLC, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co. -
Richard Brock, The Corn & Soybean Digest
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glyphosate-resistant weeds in 18 different states, Prefix helps achieve
a weed-free field all season, maximizing the potential for higher
soybean yields at harvest. For more information on Prefix herbicide,
please visit www.prefix-herbicide.com.
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Thiesse's
Thoughts: Corn insurance decisions
During the next couple weeks, many farm operators will
be finalizing their crop insurance decisions for the 2008 crop year;
March 15 is the deadline to purchase crop insurance for the 2008 crop
year. Producers need to analyze how crop insurance fits into their risk
management and grain marketing strategies for the coming year. The USDA
Risk Management Agency (RMA) has announced that the biotech yield
endorsement (BYE) corn crop insurance policies will be available to
producers in Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana for the 2008 growing
season. - Kent Thiesse, The Corn & Soybean Digest
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"My
Ag Lender is Worth 100 Basis Points"
Road Warrior Dave Kohl writes: "At a recent
seminar in St. Cloud, MN, a farm couple stated, "My ag lender is worth
100 basis points." With farm and ranch customers becoming more
interest-rate-sensitive their response was a surprise to the audience.
One participant challenged the couple saying, "It is nice for you to say
that when commodity prices are high, but I bet you were not saying that
when corn was $2.25/bu. and milk was $12/hundredweight. "Their
passionate response was to the contrary. The farmer and his wife
indicated that the ag lender had built the 100 basis points (or 1%)
advantage in suppressed commodity prices and tight economic times. How
did the lender do it?" - The Corn & Soybean Digest
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NCGA
pleased progress being made on farm bill
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is
optimistic that a farm bill will be completed by March 15. House and
Senate lawmakers are currently focusing on a spending level of
approximately $9 billion above the budget baseline over a period of 10
years. A final spending agreement might be reached this week. "Our
growers need a farm bill passed before March 15 so that they can make
planting decisions," says NCGA President Ron Litterer. "It is imperative
that Congress pass a farm bill with a strong revenue counter-cyclical
program that reflects the current realities and risks in today's
marketplace. We do not want to revert to the permanent rules from 1938
and 1949." - The Corn & Soybean Digest
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Acreage
and Yield
The corn and soybean markets need to offer the right
incentives for corn and soybean acreage in 2008, says University of
Illinois Extension Marketing Specialist Darrel Good. "That means prices
should generally favor corn over soybeans for the U.S. spring planting,
and then soybean prices should be high enough from about August forward
to encourage more soybean acres in South America," says Good. "The
market appears to be giving the correct signals for now, but must avoid
the mistake of 2006 when prices encouraged too large a shift from corn
to soybeans." - The Corn & Soybean Digest
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UNL
extension offers crop scout training in March
Crop scouts will learn how to better manage pests
during a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Crop Scout Training
for Pest Managers program on March 17. The training provides in-depth
and detailed information from university specialists and
private-industry representatives. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m., and
the workshop is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the university's Agricultural
Research and Development Center near Mead. - The Corn & Soybean
Digest
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Soy
stain gives concrete a clean look
Soy technology is popping up everywhere you look, and
the United Soybean Board and soybean checkoff are working with companies
to commercialize soy-based products. Soy-based concrete stains are one
market where soybean oil is being used as a replacement for potentially
harmful chemicals. One such concrete stain manufactured by SoyCrete uses
soybean oil to make an acid-free, nontoxic concrete stain that works for
all interior and exterior surfaces such as concrete, masonry, brick,
stucco, fiber cement and natural stone surfaces.
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National
Agriculture Day March 11
National Agriculture Day takes place on the first day
of spring as a way to celebrate American agriculture and the farmers who
help provide the food, fiber, shelter, energy and other materials we use
on a daily basis. The Agriculture Council of America (ACA) is
coordinating events in Washington, D.C. on March 11, 2008, to celebrate
the importance of agriculture to America's economy and society. "Fewer
than 2 percent of our population is directly involved in production
agriculture," said Gerald Tumbleson, ACA chairman and Minnesota farmer.
"National Agriculture Day is a great time to create awareness of the
significance that agriculture plays in our everyday lives."
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NCGA
announces completion of draft corn genome
The National Corn Growers Association announced a
group of scientific organizations and private companies has completed a
draft of the corn genome, the first mapping of the corn genome in the
world. NCGA officials, who announced the breakthrough at the Commodity
Classic in Nashville, said the National Science Foundation Plant Genome
program dedicated three years and $30 million to achieve the goal of
gaining a better understanding of the corn plant's DNA. "Valuable data
provided by Ceres, Inc., Monsanto Co., and DuPont business Pioneer
Hi-Bred over several years was made available to researchers through
NCGA's MaizeSeq program," the Corn Growers said in a press release.
"This database of pooled knowledge provided a comprehensive resource to
researchers while the NSF program was under way." - Forrest Laws,
Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Twin-row corn
didn't exactly start out that way
Southeast Missouri farmer John Engram didn't consider
himself a twin-row corn producer when he first started experimenting
with it in 1993. Instead, he was trying to find the optimum raw spacing
for ultra-narrow-row corn on beds. Engram, speaking at the National
Conservation Systems Cotton and Rice Conference in Tunica, Miss., was
encouraged by yield increases seen by Midwest producers moving from
30-inch rows to 20-inch rows and even narrower. "I was excited about
that, but since I was a ridge-tiller, I didn't want to give up my beds.
I liked not having to do a lot of tillage in the spring. I wanted to see
if there was a way to make UNR corn work and still keep my beds. In
1993, I wasn't doing twin-row corn, I was experimenting on UNR on beds."
- Elton Robinson, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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House
leaders going to brink with president on farm bill?
If you think that giant clucking sound you've been
hearing is Congress and the White House playing chicken with the farm
bill, you might not be far off the mark. While farmers can only sit and
wonder what might be in store for them, congressional leaders and the
administration are trying to see who blinks first on farm program
spending and "reforming payment limits." Ed Schafer, the new agriculture
secretary, told participants in USDA's annual Agricultural Outlook Forum
that if an agreement cannot be reached, there probably will be no new
farm bill this year, and the 2002 law would have to be extended. -
Forrest Laws, Farm Press Editorial Staff
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Nitrogen
efficiency reduces corn costs
With the high cost of nitrogen fertilizer, farmers
need to get optimum use of the product. Reviewing their management plan
and making needed changes can potentially save money without
compromising yield. Most recent research shows it takes about three
quarters of a pound of nitrogen per bushel to reach corn's maximum yield
potential, but some producers use much higher rates, said John Grove,
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture soil and crop management
specialist. With today's high cost of nitrogen, using it more
efficiently, and thereby lowering rates, can have a major impact on
profitability. - Laura Skillman, University of Kentucky
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