“Right on the heels of that, the tax credit lapsed, the industry went into a downturn and contraction, and so now the industry has come back and the conference is coming back with more excitement and enthusiasm than ever,” said Jobe, in an interview with Brownfield Ag News prior to the event.

Total biodiesel volume in 2011 was a record at nearly 1.1 billion gallons, according to Jobe. The previous record for biodiesel production was 690 million gallons in 2008.

Soybean growers produce the feedstock of choice for most biodiesel production. That relationship thrives, according to Jobe.

“Without American soybean farmers, we wouldn’t have an American biodiesel industry,” said Jobe. “Soybean farmers are still there, they’re still supportive, they’re still working to help support and grow this industry.”

The biodiesel tax incentive expired again at the end of 2011, although the biodiesel industry is trying to get it reinstated. Meanwhile, the EPA has proposed boosting biodiesel volume under the Renewable Fuels Standard to 1.28 billion gallons in 2013.

“And the Expo has grown so much from its humble beginnings to really become, on an annual basis one of the top 10 largest events in Central Ohio, “ said Elizabeth Harsh, Executive Director of the Ohio Cattlemen’s Association. “A huge event that has over 30,000 people in attendance, with participants from over 25 states and Canada, a great event with a lot of different pieces and parts and over 1,300 head of cattle there that weekend.”

The Ohio Beef Expo will feature a trade show all three days, breed consignment sales and a number of youth activities.

Audio: Elizabeth Harsh, Executive Director, Ohio Cattlemen’s Assn. (2:35 MP3)

The Northern Ohio Crops Day will be held at Ole Zim’s Wagon Shed from 9 to 3. Information is available by contacting Mark Koenig in the Sandusky County Extension office.

The Soybean Workshop on February 14th will be held from 9 to 3 at the OARDC’s Northwest Ag Research Station at Custar. Information is available by contacting Alan Sundermeier at the Extension office in Bowling Green.

The grants are designed to provide funding for smaller, community based groups.

This year’s grant recipients and projects:

• Clintonville Farmer’s Market, Connecting Farmers and Emerging Market Customer Population, $2,000;

• Community Food Initiatives, Dig in for Health, $2,500;

• Cuyahoga Soil and Water Conservation District, Conservation From the Ground Up: From Soil to a Healthy Ecosystem, $2,266;

•Fairfield Soil and Conservation District, Soil Testing for Fields Receiving Municipal Biosolids and Digester Biosolids, $700;

• Ohio State University Scarlet & Gray Ag Day Committee, Agriculture: Superheroes in Our Fields, $3,000;

• Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District, Kids Farm Safety Day, $1,100;

• Ohio State University Ag Safety and Health, Farm Safety Round Up, $3,000;

• Preble County Farm Bureau, Preble County Grow It Know It Expansion Grant, $3,000;

• Rural Action, Developing a Local Food, Regional Distribution System, $3,000;

• Seneca Soil and Water Conservation District, Agriculture Technology for Youth by Soil and Water, $3,000;

• Southeastern Correctional Institution, The Green Zone Community Garden, $2,966;

• Stratford Ecological Center, Stratford’s Children’s Program, $3,000.

CattleFax analyst Kevin Good says, as that transition takes place, the industry will have to address excess feeding and packing capacity.

“Just doing some rough math here—look at the reduction that we would forecast within the next two years,” Good says. “It would suggest we will have 1.4 million less non-fed slaughter cows—and 0.8 million less fed.  The combination is 2.2 million.  That’s roughly about 8,500 head on a daily basis.

“We’ve got that much over-capacity within two years, compared to today, if we are right in assuming that we’re going to start to expand the cow herd—and we think that’s the right assumption as we look at it today.”

Good says a one million head reduction in fed cattle supplies in the next two years equates to removing one packing plant and more than 600 feedlots with a one-thousand head capacity—or 67 feedlots with a 10-thousand head capacity—or 27 feedlots with a 25-thousand head capacity.

Photo courtesy of Tom Campbell, Purdue Agricultural Communication.

During the annual Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry at the Indiana State Fairgrounds this past weekend, the Alumni Association recognized eight agriculture leaders with its highest award.  Donya Lester, the association’s executive director says the Purdue’s Ag Alumni is honored to recognize such a distinguished group of professionals. 

The recipients of the 2012 Certificate of Distinction from the Purdue University Agricultural Alumni Association:

• Phillip E. Boring of New Palestine, Ind., president of Boring Farms Inc. and LOI Farms Inc. Boring has been an innovator with his farming operations, his farm becoming one of the earliest family farms in Indiana to incorporate. He has innovated with new and non-traditional crops such as cucumbers and canola, as well as tomatoes and popcorn, which he still grows along with corn, soybeans and wheat. He and his wife, Janice, have hosted senior diplomats from the State Department to learn about agricultural production and policy, and many state and national delegations and international farmers and visitors have toured their farm. Boring has served on numerous national panels and symposia boards on topics including pork production, farm business transition and estate planning. He received a bachelor’s degree in general agriculture from Purdue in 1961.
• Susan A. Hayhurst of Terre Haute, Ind., a freelance writer. Her work appears in agricultural publications including Indiana Prairie Farmer, where she writes her “Hayhurst Haylofts” column and for more than 10 years has been a panelist for the magazine’s Young Farmer Forum. She also has written for Farm World, AAA Hoosier Home & Away, the Indiana Farm Bureau’s My Indiana Home and the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. She speaks to community groups about her farm life and has been a presenter at the Midwest Women in Ag Conference. Hayhurst previously worked in communications in Indianapolis and for the Purdue Alumni Association. In 1989 she joined her husband, Terry, in his family farming operation and continued her career in public relations at St. Mary of the Woods College. She received a bachelor’s degree in child development from Purdue in 1982.
• Hubert R. “Hub” Johnson of Frankfort, Ind., whose 50-year career has included positions with meat processors, service as a U.S. Department of Agriculture staff officer, a member of the Purdue faculty in meat science and many years as a consultant to the meats processing industry. Johnson has played a major role in transforming regulatory policy affecting the meat industry. His expertise earned him the nickname “The Ham Doctor.” Johnson also has served his profession through service on numerous industry committees and boards. A varsity basketball player at Purdue, he received a bachelor’s degree in animal sciences in 1961 and went on to earn a master’s degree, also in animal sciences, and a doctoral degree. After his stint at Purdue, in 1977 he launched his own company, H.B. Ham Inc. in Rossville, Ind.
• George F. Patrick of West Lafayette, Ind., a professor in Purdue’s Department of Agricultural Economics, where he has served since 1973. He earned both his master’s and doctorate in agricultural economics at Purdue in 1966 and 1970, respectively. Following graduation, he spent three years as project specialist for the Ford Foundation’s work in Brazil. Patrick’s career has had three major areas of impact: in his applied research and Extension education program on risk management; as a leader in tax education in Indiana and the nation, directing the Purdue Income Tax School since 1976; and in leadership in Extension at the departmental, regional and national levels. Among his other work in agriculture, Patrick was a founding director of the American Agricultural Economics Association Extension Section and served as its president.
• Rolf O. Peterson of Houghton, Mich., a professor in the School of Forestry and Wood Products at Michigan Technological University, where in 2009 he was named as the Robbins Endowed Chair in Sustainable Management of the Environment. He has spent his entire career at MTU, establishing himself as an authority on wolf biology and the predator-prey relationship of wolves and moose. Peterson for 37 years has been involved in research at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan that began in 1958 and has become the longest continuous predator-prey research ever conducted. It is the baseline for virtually all wolf-moose research in the world and is the template for a study now being conducted on the reintroduced wolf population in Yellowstone National Park. He received a doctorate in wildlife ecology from Purdue in 1974.
• Harold L. Thompson of Danville, Ind. Thompson’s career spanned nearly 40 years with the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, formerly the Soil Conservation Service. He provided technical assistance to producers in soil and water conservation systems, mostly in southwest Indiana, and served on the Indiana NRCS Leadership Team in assistant state conservationist positions. He became known for his ability to coordinate NRCS resources with other state and local agencies to complete successful conservation projects in watershed protection and flood prevention and to protect the highly erodible soils of southwest Indiana. Thompson served in leadership roles during his 42-year membership in the Hoosier Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society. He received a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from Purdue in 1971.
• S. Richard “Rick” Tolman of Ballwin, Mo., chief executive of the National Corn Growers Association. Under Tolman’s leadership, the group has grown in membership, checkoff funds, size and stature of the annual Commodity Classic, and in market opportunities for corn farmers. He led the NCGA Corn Board in its 2006 call for production of 15 billion bushels of corn, a third of which could be used for production of 15 billion gallons of ethanol by 2015. The plan was part of energy legislation that President George W. Bush signed in 2007. Tolman previously was executive director of the U.S. Grains Council, marketing planning manager for the Advanced Harvesting Systems Group at International Harvester Co. and a market research analyst for the farm equipment maker Gehl Co. He earned a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Purdue in 1978.
• J. William “Bill” Uhrig of West Lafayette, Ind., is a retired Purdue professor of agricultural economics. He served in the Air Force Reserves as a pilot and at Iowa State University as an Extension economist before moving in 1967 to Purdue, where he made his mark over a 33-year career as an educator and grain marketing economist. Uhrig was co-developer of Purdue’s Top Farmer Crop Workshop and organized Purdue’s schools for agricultural banking, farm income tax and marketing on Indiana Higher Education Telecommunication System TV. He developed a farm marketing video series offered through closed-circuit television, one of the first such offerings by an agricultural economics department in the United States. He also developed AGEC 420, the undergraduate grain marketing course, which he taught for 20 years.

The proposed rule requires all cattle operations meeting the regulatory definition of a CAFO to report a long list of information about their operations to EPA, including the exact location of the production area.

NCBA deputy environmental counsel Ashley Lyon says the rule is not only a serious overreach of EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act, it could also put the nation’s food system at risk.

“This information will be uploaded to EPA’s web site on an easily-searchable database—and that is accessible across the globe,” Lyon says.

Which raises numerous concerns, Lyon says. “One of which is harassment by environmentalist extremist groups here in the states—as well as terrorist  attacks from foreign and domestic entities.”

A representative of EPA who attended NCBA’s annual meeting in Nashville last week—Ellen Gilinksy—told the group that the agency understands the industry’s biosecurity and privacy concerns, and is open to ideas on how to improve the proposal. 

Lyon said she was encouraged by the comments made by Gilinsky.  But she says the way the reporting rule was developed by EPA—through a consent decree or settlement agreement with environmental groups—is also a big concern.

“We call those sweetheart agreements that require the agency then to promulgate rules that they may not even have the authority to do under the law,” she says.

“That’s obviously extremely concerning and we only see the agency engaging in more of those agreements and promulgating more rules—where the industry is not at the table—and that are going to be economically devastating to the cattle industry and agriculture as a whole.”

According to the EPA, the final CAFO reporting rule will be released in mid-July.

AUDIO: Ashley Lyon (3:21 MP3)

International travel, Tatman says provides students with an eye-opening experience that helps to make students better professionals.  He adds it helps them understand that the world of agriculture is much bigger than the United States and helps them develop flexibility skills and work through different professional situations.

This year’s group is headed to Southeast Asia. 

Upon completion of the program, students are required to make three presentations to college groups or community organizations about the value they received from the program. 

The deadline for applications is February 15, 2012.  More information can be found HERE

The forum is February 14^th at Pfendler Hall Deans Auditorium in West Lafayette and is free of charge.  

A link for more information can be found HERE.

Speaking at the Purdue Ag Alumni Fish Fry on Saturday, February 4, Buffett challenged farmers to do their part and donate the proceeds from 1 acre to their local food bank.

“Who better than American farmers to set an example for other Americans and show the importance of helping those in their own community,” Buffett said. “No farmer would allow their neighbor to starve and yet someone close to us, everyone sitting here, when you go home in every one of our communities someone is going hungry.”

Audio: Howard Buffett, Pres. The Howard Buffett Foundation (1:45 MP3)

To learn more about the work of the Foundation go here.