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Seed treatments provide choice

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Seed treatments are another tool that farmers can use to be more efficient in the field.  Bernice Slutsky, vice president of Scientific and International Affairs for the American Seed Trade Association says seeds aren’t what they used to be.  “You have all the genetics inside the seed,” she says.  “Now you have the treatments around the seed.”  Slutsky adds the seed is now becoming the delivery package for farmers.

She tells Brownfield – seed treatments give farmers a more efficient and more cost-effective way of delivering inputs. 

Slutsky notes seed treatments are the new horizon for agriculture. 

“It’s all about giving the farmer choices,” she says.  “Seed treatments gives farmers more options.”  It provides farmers with a choice in how to deliver their inputs.  Seed treatments, she says, ”Provides farmers a choice in the genetics of the seed and a choice in how the seed is encapsulated.”

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

Lugar recognized for dedication to renewable energy

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Indiana Senator Richard Lugar was recognized today by the National 25x’25 Alliance for his commitment to renewable energy.  Along with Senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Senator Lugar drafted an amendment that would continue mandatory funding for a number of farm energy programs as part of the proposed 2012 Farm Bill. 

Bill Richards, a co-chair of the National 25x’25 Steering Committee says they are grateful for Senator Lugar’s efforts on behalf of energy programs that benefit farmers.  He adds the “Senator’s foresight and legislative initiatives have served to boost the economy and help create and retain jobs in our rural communities.”

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

Soy study review confirms decreased hot flashes

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

A review of nearly 20 studies about the effects of soy foods on hot flashes in women concludes that soy foods work in decreasing them. Mark Messina, executive director of the Soy Nutrition Institute tells Brownfield Ag News, “We’re seeing a very striking connection and I’m really happy to report that. This analysis included 19 studies in total and what we found was that there was a very consistent and clear benefit to consuming isoflavones, which are compounds in soybeans, for the alleviation of menopause-related hot flashes.”

Messina says it takes two servings of soy foods (soy milk, tofu, edamame, soy nuts, for example) each day to see the results. Messina says, “If you consume the equivalent of about two servings of soy foods you will expect about a 50 to 60% reduction in both the severity and frequency of hot flashes.”

While the studies reviewed dealt with soy isoflavone supplements, Messina says he has no doubt that the effects would be the same from eating soyfoods. Isoflavones are plant hormones.

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

Corn sees planting pressure, profit taking

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Soybeans were mixed with nearbys down on commercial selling and deferreds up trying to buy acreage. Also, ahead of the open, China bought 110,000 tons of new crop U.S. beans, picking up more than a half million tons since last Friday. As of Sunday, 12% of beans are planted, compared to 2% a year ago and 5% for the five year average. Soybean meal was mixed, mirroring beans, and oil was down on technical selling.

Corn was lower on profit taking and the good planting pace. Losses in the nearbys were limited by solid export demand and the firm cash basis levels, along with old crop/new crop spread adjustments. There was no real fresh news and the near term planting conditions look generally good across most of the Midwest. Planting is well ahead of schedule at 53% complete, compared to 12% last year and 27% on average, and emergence is also running ahead of average. Ethanol futures were lower. USDA’s Agricultural Attaché in Bucharest reports Romania is expected to increase planted area for corn after rapeseed losses during this past winter.

The wheat complex was lower on commercial selling, profit taking, and spillover from corn. Winter wheat is in much better than a year ago shape at 64% good to excellent and spring planting is 74% complete. Still, demand shows some signs of improvement with Saudi Arabia buying 110,000 tons of new crop U.S. hard red winter. Also, there are still open wheat tenders from Israel and Taiwan for U.S. wheat.

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

2011 a very profitable year for Wisconsin dairy producers

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Final numbers from the National Ag Statistics Service verify last year was a very profitable year for dairy producers in Wisconsin. 25.838 billion pounds of milk was utilized in the Badger State in 2011 with an average price of $20.30 per hundredweight. That works out to $5.25 billion in cash receipts from marketings. If you add in the value of milk used for home consumption, gross producer income was $5.249 billion last year.

This was the first time in the last five years that producer income fully recovered from the economic downturn of 2008. Gross producer income went from $4.96 billion in 2007 to $4.5 billion in 2008 down to $3.2 billion in 2009 recovering to $4.1 billion in 2010. Milk production did increase slightly each of the five years but the price per hundredweight varied from the high of $20.30 last year to $13.10 in 2009. On a monthly basis, the lowest all-milk price in the period was $11.30 in June of 2009 while the highest price was $22.60 in July of 2011.

Filed Under: Dairy, News Tagged With: , , ,

World food group wants changes to Senate farm bill

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The Alliance for Global Food Security is asking the Senate to make some changes to the farm bill passed by the Senate Ag Committee last week. The Alliance says the farm bill as it is right now “severely limits the use of food aid to promote development and to help crisis-prone communities become food secure and less reliant on emergency aid.” The Alliance says while the bill does a great job for emergency situations; it diminishes aid for non-emergency food aid programs.

Specifically the group says the bill reverses the focus of the Food for Peace or PL480 program cutting the minimum funding for developmental programs. Alliance officials say the program provides food aid to areas which repeatedly suffer from chronic shortfalls but would not qualify as an emergency.

The group is also concerned with changes to the monetization program which allows recipients to sell donated commodities and use the funds for other types of aid. The Senate bill does not allow the sale of commodities for less than 70 percent of the amount spent to buy and ship the product to the country. The Alliance contends it is not possible to know the price and shipping as the program is taking place plus this provision would interfere with local marketing.

The Senate bill also contains a “local-regional purchase program” to buy commodities for food aid overseas. The Alliance notes this would duplicate a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) program already in place.

The Alliance for Global Food Security is made up of voluntary organizations and cooperatives working to ease hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity around the world. Members include ACDI/VOCA, Adventist Development & Relief Agency International, Congressional Hunger Center, Counterpart International, Food for the Hungry, International Relief & Development, United Methodist Committee on Relief, Land O’Lakes, OIC International, Planet Aid, PCI, Salesian Missions and World Vision.

Read more here:

Filed Under: Human Interest, News Tagged With: , , ,

CHS the nation’s largest ag cooperative

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

2010 was a very good year for farmer cooperatives, USDA reports the nation’s 100 largest co-ops had sales of $118 billion for the year. While sales were up 4 percent from the previous year, net income increased 10 percent to $2.39 billion.

CHS Incorporated topped the list with revenue of $25.3 billion in 2010 while another St Paul-based co-op, Land O’Lakes came in second with sales of $11.1 billion. Dairy Farmers of America was third with sales of $9.8 billion. 23 of the top 100 co-ops had revenues exceeding $1 billion.

Dairy cooperatives saw the biggest increase in revenue climbing 14.5 percent from 2009 to 2010 thanks to higher milk prices. Five of the top-10 are dairy co-ops. (LOL, DFA, California Dairies, AMPI and Northwest Dairy Association of Seattle)

The ag department reports gross margins, as a percent of total sales, were up slightly to 9.2 percent. The increase in gross margins partially covered higher expenses. Gross margins plus service revenue climbed to $684 million.

Total expenses for the top 100 ag co-ops were up $575 million in 2010. The largest cost increase was for labor, where expenses climbed by 7 percent, to $4.6 billion. On the other hand, lower interest rates and less debt caused interest expense to drop 11 percent.

The asset base for the top 100 ag co-ops grew by $2.3 billion between 2009 and 2010. Current assets accounted for nearly two-thirds of that increase. Fixed assets also showed an increase of $600 million.

The complete list of top 100 ag cooperatives available here:

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

Seed and fertilizer prices nudging higher

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The latest Index of Farm Prices from USDA includes annual seed prices for 2010, 2011 and 2012.

All varieties of seed corn sold for an average $229 per 80,000 kernels in March of 2010, $237 in March 2011 and $252 this March. Biotech varieties went from $247 a couple of years ago to $249 last year to $263 this year.

All varieties of soybeans averaged $51.90 per bushel in 2010, slipped to $49.70 in 2011 back up to $52.10 this year. Biotech soybean varieties averaged $53.50 two years ago, $51.00 last year and $53.20 this year.

Spring wheat ranged from $10.00 per bushel to $14.20 and $14.80 while winter wheat seed was $13.70 in 2010, $15.40 in 2011 and $15.90 in 2012.

Proprietary alfalfa went from an average $379 per hundred pounds in 2010 to $411 in 2011 and $425 this year. Common alfalfas averaged $273, $284 and $299 respectively.

A hundred pounds of biotech cotton seed averaged $648 a couple of years ago, $702 last year and $754 this year.

On the fertilizer side: ammonium nitrate sold for an average $398 per ton in 2010, $479 in 2011 up to $506 this year. Anhydrous ammonia sold for $499 a couple of years ago, $749 last year and $783 this year. Phosphate (44-46%) averaged $507 in 2010, $633 in 2011 and $665 per ton in 2012. Potash (60-62%) cost $511 per ton in 2010, $601 in 2011 and $647 this year. Fertilizer prices vary by region.

Read the full NASS report here:

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

CME Group expanding electronic trading hours

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

The CME Group says it will expand electronic trading hours for corn, soybean, soybean product, wheat, oat, and rough rice futures and options starting Monday, May 14.

Trade on CME Globex will now be available Sunday and Monday from 5 PM to 4 PM Central and Monday through Friday from 6 PM to 4 PM Central.

Open outcry hours will remain 9:30 AM to 1:15 PM Central, Monday through Friday.

According to the CBOT’s parent company, the change is in response to an increased customer base and will ensure greater access to trade.

Filed Under: Markets, News Tagged With: , , , , ,

BSE…a week later

May 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

One week after the announcement that a BSE-positive cow was found in California, the U.S. Meat Export Federation says our foreign customers are pretty-much staying put. Indonesia did halt some U.S. beef imports although USMEF president and CEO Philip Seng says that is more a case of Indonesia seeking to boost their domestic production rather than actual concerns about BSE. Thailand had announced it was going to cut-off imports but recanted, the country only imports boneless cuts from animals under 30 months of age so no change is expected.

Seng says USMEF staff have been actively engaged “with industry partners, media contacts and other influential sources in an effort to maintain consumer confidence and dispel any misinformation about the safety or quality of U.S. beef.” Activities he sees as critical to maintaining consumer confidence in U.S. beef.

Filed Under: News, Top Stories, World Ag News/Trade Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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