At this fall’s National Association of Farm Broadcasting meeting in Kansas City, we had the opportunity to visit with Don Schafer, senior soybean marketing manager for Pioneer. We talked about Pioneer’s Y Series soybeans and Plenish high oleic soybeans—and we also discussed the importance of matching soybean traits with each field’s particular needs.
An update on Pioneer’s soybean offerings
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Early harvest, politics top 2010 agriculture stories
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
2010 will be known not for record crops, but for good crops that led to one of the most trouble-free harvests in recent memory. It will be known not for glutted markets, but for demand-driven prices that held up even through the gathering of the crop.
Quite opposite from the previous year, corn went through the growing season challenged by heat in some areas, and by deluge in others, but it dried down in the field in time for many growers to finish combining in shirtsleeves.
The political pendulum swung out of the Democrats’ favor and into the Republicans’ favor in 2010, resulting in a shift in power in the U.S. House of Representatives and a closer balance of power in the Senate. That shift, and the election defeat of Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln, will result agriculture committee leadership changes in both chambers. The lame duck lawmaking session proved to be active, however. It was characterized from either side of the aisle as being productive.
Sweeping tax legislation provided for an extension of ethanol tax incentives, renewed incentives for biodiesel and reformation of estate taxes that have vexed farm organizations for decades.
African American and Native American farmers received a settlement from the USDA to conclude what Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack referred to as a “sad chapter” of discrimination in U.S. history.
Animal rights activists appealed successfully to Missouri voters to pass restrictions on dog breeders. But animal agriculture interests campaigned vigorously for the measure’s defeat, fearing that further efforts at ballot initiatives may adversely affect their operations. These and other agriculture stories, including voices of the newsmakers, are part of Brownfield’s 2010 Year in Review.
Live and feeder cattle mixed ahead of this week’s cash trade
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle futures were mixed ahead of widespread cash business. Contracts hit new 27 month tops on the recent higher boxed beef trend, cash optimism and the higher move in corn before pulling back. Also, even with that recent higher move in boxed beef, consumer and wholesale demand remains at least somewhat in doubt. December was up $.55 at $105.45 and February was down $.15 at $107.80.
Feeders were mixed, pretty much following the live pit’s lead while ignoring corn. January held steady at $120.70 and March was $.22 lower at $123.45.
Direct cash cattle markets were pretty quiet Tuesday with no bids and no real packer inquiry. Asking prices are holding around $107+ in the South and $168 to $170 North with significant trade probably not in the cards until Wednesday or even Thursday. Boxed beef was higher on moderate demand and light to moderate offerings with Choice up $.95 at $161.27 and Select $1.56 higher at $154.77. The estimated slaughter of 131,000 head was down 1,000 on the week but up 4,000 on the year.
Hogs were mixed with nearbys lower on profit taking and the premium to cash. Deferreds were up on expectations for tighter market ready numbers connected to Monday’s quarterly hogs and pigs update, in addition to the higher corn and expected higher price of feed. February was down $.22 at $78.62 and April was $.25 lower at $82.50.
Bellies were unchanged in pretty quiet trade. February settled at $106.25.
Cash hogs were mostly steady to higher on solid packer demand. The Eastern Cornbelt was up $.36 with a weighted average of $68.97, the Western Belt was $1.04 higher at $69.52 and Iowa/Southern Minnesota was up $1.13 at $69.73. Terminals were mostly steady to $1.50 higher with tops at $44.50 to $48 and Missouri Direct was steady to $1 higher at $62 to $65. Pork trade was slow to moderate with mostly light demand and light to moderate offerings and the cutout down $.34 at $76.72. The estimated slaughter of 428,000 head was up 1,000 on the week and down 9,000 on the year.
Foot and mouth spreads in South Korea
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The South Korean government has confirmed a new case of Foot and Mouth Disease in an ongoing outbreak that has now reached five of the nation’s eight provinces. Chinese news agency Xinhua says the affected hogs and cattle have been culled and the Korean Ag Ministry indicated last week it would expand vaccinations of cattle since quarantine and other efforts have failed to prevent the disease from spreading. It’s the largest outbreak off foot and mouth in South Korea with more than 50 animals infected and more than 471-thousand livestock from over two-thousand farms culled so far.
EPA moving forward on GHG regs
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
The Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with greenhouse gas regulations – announcing last week the timetable for new global warming rules for power plants and petroleum refineries that would go into effect in 2012. Draft rules for both would be issued next year, 2011. A New York Times editorial on Saturday said Republicans in the next Congress are set on “limiting the (EPA)’s authority under the Clean Air Act to regulate a wide range of air pollutants even if that means denying the agency money to run its programs.” The editorial pointed out that it is not yet clear where the White House stands.
Wheat higher on purchase by Egypt
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Soybeans were mostly higher on consolidation trade, profit taking and speculative buying. Contracts did make new 28-month highs prior to pulling back. Traders continue to watch the much hotter and drier than normal conditions in key growing areas of Argentina. That said – with planting around 75% complete, most of the crop is not in one of the key development phases yet and conditions in Brazil are comparatively good. In any event, the fundamental outlook is tight and only gets tighter with crop loss in South America.
Corn was higher on speculative and technical buying. Those conditions in Argentina are more supportive for corn than beans at this time as an increasing amount of their corn crop is in the pollination phase. Argentina’s the world’s second largest producer of corn. Past that – export demand has been slow, but the trade expects continued strong demand for ethanol use. Ethanol futures were higher.
The wheat complex was higher on speculative and fund buying. Egypt picked up 180,000 tons of wheat, 60,000 tons of that U.S. soft red winter, the rest from Argentina. Traders continue to watch the dry conditions in the Southern U.S. Plains and cold, dry weather in parts of China. European wheat was higher with a new contract high in Paris on the good demand and the Euro losing ground against the dollar.
Closing Grain and Livestock Futures: December 28, 2010
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
March corn closed at $6.23 and 1/4, up 8 cents
January soybeans closed at $13.75 and 3/4, up 2 and 3/4 cents
January soybean meal closed at $368.60, up $2.20
January soybean oil closed at 56.82, down 33 points
March wheat closed at $7.98 and 1/4, up 18 cents
December live cattle closed at $105.45, up 55 cents
February lean hogs closed at $78.62, down 22 cents
February crude oil closed at $91.49, up 49 cents
March cotton closed at 144.35, down 141 points
January Class III milk closed at $13.10, unchanged
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 11,575.54, up 20.51 points
DuPont offers pasture weed control solutions
December 28, 2010 By 1 Comment
Controlling weeds in pastures is a big challenge many ranchers face. Roxy Gutschenritter, project manager for range and pasture products for DuPont Crop Protection, says her company has made a significant investment in the research and development of new products for range and pasture. One of those is Pastora herbicide for control of winter annual weeds in bermudagrass pastures.
Monsanto’s new ‘Roundup Ready PLUS’ program
December 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Monsanto has introduced what it calls “a new weed management platform” for managing weeds in the absence or presence of glyphosate-resistance. According to the Monsanto U.S. Crop Protection marketing lead Matt Helms, the Roundup Ready PLUS platform provides weed management recommendations for Roundup Ready crops for each farm situation, by pairing crop protection products from Monsanto and other companies. He says it places emphasis on residual control designed to manage tough weeds, including resistant pigweed and tall waterhemp—and there are some cash incentives to boot.
Census portends less congressional clout for ag
December 28, 2010 By 1 Comment
The latest census numbers indicate that, while urban areas continue to grow nationwide and will add new Congressional seats, rural areas will have less representation in Congress.
That scenario could make it even tougher to build support for federal farm programs. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack hopes that isn’t the case.
“Because we have agricultural production that is the best in the world, consumers have a tremendous advantage in America,” Vilsack says. “We only spend about ten percent to fifteen percent of our paycheck for groceries. Part of the reason we do that is because we have a strong safety net for those producers who are faced with bad weather or bad markets. That allows them to stay in business.”
One of Vilsack’s main missions in office has been to revitalize the rural economy. He says it’s essential if we want to repopulate rural communities and return political strength to rural America,
“Part of that is a strong safety net for agriculture, for farmers, for farm families. Part of it is strategies to allow small farm producers to migrate into mid-sized operations,” he says. “We saw from the last ag census that we added about 100,000 new farmers to the 2.2 million who farm in this country–very small operations–we need strategies to allow them to migrate into larger scale facilities.”
Vilsack made his comments during an appearance on Iowa Public Television’s Iowa Press program.
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