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Illinois Soybean says House bill lacks flexiblity

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Planting flexibility and market orientation fall short in the House Ag Farm bill, according to the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA).

ISA Chairman Bill Wykes, a soybean farmer in Yorkville, Illinois, says unlike the Senate’s Agricultural Risk Coverage, or ARC, program, the House wants to “recouple” target prices with much higher support levels. And that, he tells Brownfield, can distort the market.

“We need to continue to let the market tell us what we should be planting and not having the government, because of a support program they’ve laid out there, that you can’t plant this, that, or whatever.”

But to see the farm bill process get underway this past week, says Wykes, is very encouraging.

“There’s hope when you see movement {laughter}. So, we’ll go with that.”

Reference target prices under this House Ag farm bill’s Price Loss Coverage (PLC) program, are the same as last year’s proposed farm bill with soybeans at $8.40 per bushel. Farmers would have to make choice between Price Loss Coverage or Revenue Loss Coverage, RLC.

AUDIO: Bill Wykes (3:00 mp3)

Filed Under: Crops, News, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , ,

MO multi-issue ag bill heads to governor

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A multi-issue agriculture bill has been passed by Missouri lawmakers and sent to the governor for his signature, on this last day of the legislative session.

Among other provisions, the omnibus ag bill protects the right of children under 16 to work on family farms.

It makes the theft of Missouri livestock a Class B felony.

It allows for additional civil penalties to be imposed for violations of the Missouri Livestock disease control law.

It creates farmer market tax exemptions for producers with annual sales of less than 25-thousand dollars.

It expands the definition of eggs for inspection to include not only chicken but turkey, duck, goose and guinea eggs that are intended for human consumption.

It allows for the creation of University of Missouri Extension councils.

Filed Under: Crops, Livestock, News, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Illinois Winter Wheat Tour next Tuesday

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The  Southern Illinois Winter Wheat tour is Tuesday, May 21st where growers will have the opportunity to tour several wheat field sites. They will collect data at the sites and from that, determine wheat yield estimates.

Wheat variety information and field trial results will be shared. Wheat development and wheat diseases will also be discussed. The event will wrap up at the University of Illinois Brownstown Agronomy Research Center.

Southern Illinois Winter Wheat Tour

Illinois Wheat Association Events

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Cool, wet and record Missouri weather

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Cool, wet and record setting are the months of April and May in Missouri this year – far different from those two months last year.

University Extension ag climatologist Pat Guinan says several inches of snow in May has only happened a few times in the more than 100 years that records have been kept in Missouri.

He says March and April were the coolest since 1997 and all the rain in April “erased nearly all the drought in Missouri.” Far northwestern Missouri has had residual drought conditions but that may have been alleviated by rain over the last few weeks, he says.

Unprecedented were the high temperatures on May 3rd in Missouri, which never got beyond the 30s.

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Chemical use on ’12 soybean crops outlined

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The top monitoring practice for managing pests in U.S. soybean crops last year was scouting for weeds, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, NASS.  The agency’s Chemical Use Survey Data for soybeans and wheat was released Wednesday.

For soybeans, it found that 94 percent of planted acres were scouted in the 19 states surveyed for the 2012 crop year. 96% of the soybean acreage used chemicals. Phosphate and potash were the most widely used fertilizers, applied to 37 percent of planted acres. Nitrogen was applied to 27 percent of planted acres. The survey found that farmers applied herbicides to 98 percent of planted soybean acres…followed by 18 percent insecticides and 11 percent fungicides.

Eighty-percent of planted winter wheat acres had chemicals applied – in the 13 states surveyed for chemical use.

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Chemical use report on wheat crops in ’12

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Thirteen states were surveyed by the USDA for chemical use on 2012 wheat crops and 80-percent had chemicals applied on winter wheat acres (including Nebraska, South Dakota, Missouri, Illinois and Ohio).

The National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) says 91 percent of spring wheat, excluding durum, had chemicals applied on four states surveyed.

Chemicals were applied on 88 percent of the durum wheat acres in two surveyed states.

Nitrogen was applied to nearly all durum and spring wheat excluding spring durum. Eight-five percent of winter wheat acres had nitrogen applied.

The report says herbicides were the most extensively used pesticide.

 

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Colombia/U.S. FTA’s first anniversary

May 16, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The US Embassy of Colombia in Washington says the US./Colombian Free Trade Agreement has generated 28-and-a-half Billion in trade for both countries in its first year, benefitting ag trade both ways.

The embassy reports that US ag exports to Colombia increased 68 percent – the main products being soybeans, soybean meal, rice and pork.

Colombian ag exports (excluding coffee) increased by 7 percent. Colombia is the 12th largest ag supplier for the U.S.

This is the one year anniversary of the implementation of the long-sought agreement.

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Vilsack on more options for organic ag growth

May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has unveiled a number of changes and initiatives at the USDA designed to support the growth organic agriculture production.

Vilsack says the USDA’s Risk Management Agency’s federal crop insurance program will have more options for organic producers this year and will increase those options next year. He says the RMA will also lift the current 5% organic rate surcharge on all future crop insurance policies as of January 1, 2014.

Vilsack says organic agriculture “is one of the fastest growing segments of American agriculture” and helps organic farmers “receive a higher price for their product as they strive to meet growing consumer demand.”

The organic food production industry now exceeds $30 Billion a year, and Vilsack says it continues to increase market share every year.

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STL Fed – 1st quarter farm income/spending up

May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

First quarter farm income and capital spending both rose in the Midwest and Mid-South, compared to this time last year, according to the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. Both income and spending were higher than expected.

But, the fed cautions that risks remain with the “ongoing weakness in the US economy and higher producer input costs.”

The results were fromm 55 ag bank leaders in the Eight Federal Reserve District which includes all or parts of seven states including Illinois, Indiana and Missouri (also, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee).

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KC Fed says non-irrigated farm land values up

May 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Values of non-irrigated farm land rose in parts of the U.S. Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains in the first quarter of the year, according to the Kansas City federal reserve bank, via Dow Jones newswires.

They say the biggest rise in non-irrigated farmland values were in portions of western Missouri.

District wide, the value of non-irrigated farmland rose 19 percent above this time last year.

But they says farmers face rising production costs and an expected drop in crop prices in what the government expects to be record harvests this fall. Ongoing drought conditions and livestock price decline affected first-quarter profitability.,

The district covers ag lenders in Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, western Missouri.

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