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Ohio Farm Bureau sees membership growth

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

For the 43rd time in the past 44 years Ohio Farm Bureau Federation has seen its membership numbers grow, this year to a total statewide membership of 214,391.

“Everything we accomplish in Farm Bureau, including membership growth, is because of our dedicated member-volunteers,” said Jack Fisher, OFBF’s executive vice president. “I want to congratulate our volunteers, county and state leaders, our friends at Nationwide and our staff members for making this a very productive year.”

The state’s largest farming and food organization says membership for both farmer members and associate members increased.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News Tagged With: ,

NCBA hopeful on FTAs

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

An official of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) says he hopeful that the U.S. House of Representatives will extend the Trade Adjustment Assistance program when it returns to work in October. 

Kent Bacus says that would clear the way for President Obama to submit those three pending free trade agreements to Congress for final approval.

“Ultimately, the ball is in President Obama’s court,” Bacus says. “We need him to be a leader right now and send the FTAs to Congress as soon as possible. Otherwise, we will continue to run the risk of losing market share to our competitors.”

Bacus points out that beef exports to South Korea are up nearly 50 percent in value from last year—despite a hefty tariff being paid on those exports.

“Unfortunately, with that massive 40 percent tariff, that means that we have paid over 172-million dollars in tariffs to Korea this year alone,” he says. “The demand is there—we just need better access to those consumers.  We need to be able to sell more of our product at a more affordable price—and the greatest way to do that is to improve access through the Korean FTA.”

Bacus is manager of legislative affairs for NCBA.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Livestock, News, USDA/Government, World Ag News/Trade Tagged With: , , , ,

Feedlot operators looking for higher cash prices

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There were a few starter bids in the cattle on Wednesday afternoon at 116.00 in the South. Feedlot operators should like the fact that packers are starting with steady money with last weeks. This suggests that live prices could be at least $1.00 to 2.00 higher due to the pull of the October live premium forcing even greater spending. DTN says, given the lackluster beef demand, it would appear  that tight late month fed supplies promise to be the driving force. Asking prices are around 120.00 plus live and 190.00 plus dressed. The cattle kill totaled 130,000 head, 1,000 below last week and 4,000 larger than 2010.

Boxed beef was generally steady on moderate demand and offerings. Choice beef was down .05 at 183.00, and select was up .15 at 168.81.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange live cattle contracts settled mostly lower. Futures trended higher much of the session but backed off by midsession as a lull of buying interest was seen through the end of the morning. Most commodities were lower on the day due to poor economic indicators. October settled .20 lower at 120.40, and December was the only contract higher at 120.85 up .20.

Feeder cattle ended the session 25 points lower to 20 higher with only the spring 2012 contracts in the red. Traders focused on the movement in the live cattle market and pressure through the grain trade. October settled .10 higher at 139.62, and November was up .07 at 141.92.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Closing Futures & Livestock Briefs, Markets Tagged With: ,

Closing Grain and Livestock Futures: September 28, 2011

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Dec. corn closed at $6.30 and 3/4, down 21 and 1/2 cents
Nov. soybeans closed at $12.23 and 1/2, down 39 and 1/2 cents
Oct. soybean meal closed at $315.40, down $11.20
Oct. soybean oil closed at 51.55, down 102 points
Dec. wheat closed at $6.38 and 3/4, down 19 and 1/2 cents
Oct. live cattle closed at $120.40, down 20 cents
Oct. lean hogs closed at $88.77, up 15 cents
Nov. crude oil closed at $81.21, down $3.24
Dec. cotton closed at 99.60, down 55 points
Oct. Class III milk closed at $17.21, down 17 cents
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 11,010.90, down 179.79 points

Filed Under: Closing Futures & Livestock Briefs, Markets Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Celebrating 75 years in the seed business

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

When you’ve been in business for 75 years, like Ruff’s Seed Farms at Amanda, Ohio, you’ve done something right. Dave Russell talked with General Manager Allan Reid at Farm Science Review about the company and how things are looking in 2011.

Audio: Allen Reid, General Manager, Ruff’s Seed Farms (3:15 MP3)

Filed Under: 2011 Events, Ohio Farm Science Review, Special Reports Tagged With: , , , , ,

Project aims to improve feed efficiency

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

During the recent American Hereford Association media event, we received an update on the National Program for Genetic Improvement of Feed Efficiency in Beef Cattle from Matt Spangler, assistant professor in animal science and Extension beef genetics specialist at the University of Nebraska –Lincoln.

The genetic improvement/feed efficiency program is multi-faceted project  involving eight universities as well as USDA researchers.  The goal is to “sustainably reduce feed resources required to produce beef via the rapid development and deployment of novel nutritional, genomic and genetic improvement technologies.”

Here’s our interview with Matt Spangler.

AUDIO: Matt Spangler (2:55 MP3)

Link to project web site–beefefficiency.org

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: , , ,

Hog herd a little larger than expected

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

USDA’s Quarterly Hog and Pig inventory report shows a slightly larger than expected herd, but the results hewed pretty closely to pre-report estimates.

As of September 1, the total U.S. herd was 66.599 million head, up 1% on the year, a little bit bigger than anticipated and 385,000 head larger than the five year average quoted by Dow Jones Newswires.

By size, hogs weighing less than 50 pounds were nearly unchanged at 19.696 million head, with the 50 to 119 pound herd also essentially steady at 14.459 million head, while the 120 to 179 pound inventory was up 1% at 12.762 million head, and the 180 pound and over category increased 3% to 10.876 million head.

The breeding herd was reported at 5.806 million head, a 1% year to year rise, with the market inventory at 60.793 million head, also up 1% from last year.

The June to August pig crop also topped expectations at 29.084 million head, a 1% increase, with farrowings down 1% at 2.901 million head, and pigs per litter a record high for the third quarter at 10.03.

September/November farrowing intentions are projected at 2.874 million head, just under the actual for September/November 2010, and December/February intentions are seen at 2.857 million head, which would be slightly above the previous year.

46% of U.S. hogs are on large scale operations, 5,000 or more head, compared to 43% a year ago.

The numbers look neutral to slightly bearish for CME lean hog futures.

Filed Under: Livestock, News, Top Stories Tagged With: , , ,

Plenty of grain storage available in Indiana

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Purdue University Extension ag economist Chris Hurt says reduced corn and soybean yields will mean Indiana will have the most unused storage space in commercial grain elevators and on-farm grain bins in nearly 10 years.

“We have about 1.2 billion bushels of permanent storage space in Indiana, but it appears in our estimates this year given USDA current thoughts on the size of Indiana crops is that we’re not going to be using about 175 million bushels of that space,” Hurt said. “In major production areas of the state we see big piles of corn, we’re not going to see those piles be as high this year and we’re not going to see as many piles as we have in past years.”

Because there will be a lot of competition for available grain this year, Chris Hurt says growers should look for opportunities for reduced storage fees at local elevators.

“That can vary a good bit by area of the state, we’re certainly going to have areas of the state more restricted on yields and have more of this surplus storage,” said Hurt. “Other areas of the state may have closer to normal yields and there you won’t see the incentive to provide some sort of break in storage costs or other incentives.”

Filed Under: Crops, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

AHA focused on genetic improvement

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The American Hereford Association’s (AHA) media event September 19-20 featured information about Hereford genomics, Hereford research projects and the National Reference Sire Program (NRSP). The highlight of the event was touring one of the NRSP test sites, Olsen Ranches of Harrisburg Nebraska.

In an interview with Brownfield, AHA’s chief operating officer and director of breed improvement, Jack Ward, discussed some of the research programs designed to document the efficiency of the Hereford breed (including feed intake) and improve the rate of genetic improvement.

AUDIO: Jack Ward (5:11 MP3)

 

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: ,

Late season crop concerns

September 28, 2011 By Leave a Comment

“It’s wet,” that’s how Chasitie Euler, Pioneer Account Manager in Northwest Ohio describes conditions in her area. Euler tells Brownfield the recent rain could be cause for concern for stalk quality, but an even bigger concern she says is for ear molds.

“We’re starting to see some Gibberella and Fusarium in those ears, especially on some of those ears that haven’t dropped yet,” Euler said. “They’re basically standing up straight and just collecting water.”

Audio: Chasitie Euler, Pioneer Account Mgr. NW Ohio (5:25 MP3)

Silage harvest in Northwest Ohio is also being hampered by the recent rains.

Traveling down to Southwest Ohio, Pioneer Account Manager Brad Ott says crop stress is showing up in a number of ways and some of the stress is due the crop running out of nitrogen.

“When we were pretty wet in the spring we lost some due to leeching or de-nitrification, or it got on late, so we had some cannibalization in the stalk, along with poor root systems from being wet early, along with stalk quality issues from disease pressure,” said Ott.

Audio: Brad Ott, Pioneer Account Mgr. SW Ohio (6:00 MP3)

Both Euler in Northwest Ohio and Ott in Southwest Ohio believe soybean yields may be better than first thought, but that’s not to say there won’t be some effects from heat stress showing up in some fields.

Filed Under: Crops Tagged With: , , , ,
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