“That’s protected outside of state government for us to dedicate those funds for new nutrient efficiency and water quality programs — and really try to focus a lot on on-farm research where we can manage nutrients better to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous losses through tile drainage and runoff,” says Jean Payne, president of the IFCA.

She tells Brownfield the ag industry wanted to step up to the plate – so - a specified tonnage amount of fertilizer sold in Illinois will go to the protected fund established with the support of ag and environmental groups.

In a recent speech on the Senate floor, Grassley noted that LightSquared hired dozens of lobbyists, including a former governor and nine former members of Congress, to push for approval of its planned high-speed wireless network.  But Grassley says while those lobbyists provided entry into the FCC and the White House, they couldn’t change the fact that LightSquared’s network couldn’t co-exist with GPS.

The FCC granted LightSquared a conditional waiver last year to develop the network, but later pulled the waiver and blocked the network after tests showed it would interfere with GPS devices. Many agricultural groups opposed the LightSquared plan, fearing it would interfere with farming GPS devices. 

Grassley says he still wants to know why the FCC granted LightSquared the conditional waiver in the first place.

“It seems strange that a project that was so obviously flawed was allowed to go so far, but LightSquared had help,” Grassley said, pointing to the influential lobbyists.

The FCC has denied giving LightSquared any special treatment.

“Basically the June Area Survey, we select land areas and we’re picking up what they actually have planted in the field and what they intend to harvest and we’re picking up grain storage also,” said Turner. “The June Agricultural Survey is our quarterly crop survey that we do, we do them in March, June, September and December and again we’re picking up plantings, grain storage and capacity.”

For the agricultural survey, Turner says they’ll be collecting data electronically, by phone, or by mail from around 1500 farmers in Ohio, data for the area survey will include randomly selected tracts of land then interviews with operators on that land.

Audio: Cheryl Turner, Deputy Director, Ohio NASS (2:40 mp3)

Frozen beef came out at 517.528 million pounds, up 3% on the month when the average guess was for a less than 1% increase, and 17% more than this time last year. Boneless beef cuts made up most of the total at 446.062 million pounds.

Pork in cold storage was pegged at 659.532 million pounds, 8% above a month ago and 20% larger than a year ago. That’s just below the all-time end of April record of 663.4 million pounds set in 2008. The closely watched pork belly stocks were pegged at 74.780 million tons, an increase of 13% on the month and 41% on the year.

Chicken supplies were also larger than expected, despite improved export demand and slower production projections. The average pre-report estimate was 597.6 million pounds. Chicken totaled 606.583 million pounds, 6% more than last month but 18% less than last year, with all poultry at 1.048 billion pounds.

Poultry and livestock slaughter numbers are out Friday.

The five projects involve seven states—Arkansas, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says that, when fully implemented, the projects will prevent sediments and nutrients from entering waterways, decrease flooding and improve bird and fish habitat.

NRCS estimates the funding will help restore 11,400 acres to wetland habitat.

In Iowa, the funding will help with the North Raccoon River Wetland Initiative.

“We look to see improvements on about 1,020 acres in the Prairie Potholes region of Iowa,” Vilsack says. “We believe this will ultimately improve water quality and wildlife habitat.  It should also assist flood-affected landowners by providing some flood relief opportunities in the Raccoon and Des Moines River watersheds.”

USDA is providing more than six-million dollars and will partner with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources on the project.

Missouri will be part of a six-state project to restore Lower Mississippi River Batture hardwood forest and wetlands.

“We hope to restore roughly 7,280 acres of bottomland hardwoods in 2012—and up to 30,000 acres when the project is fully completed,” says Vilsack.

USDA is providing more than 20-million dollars and will partner with the Mississippi River Trust on the project.

AUDIO: Excerpts from conference call with reporters–Tom Vilsack and NRCS conservationist Tom Christensen (12:47 MP3)

Link to USDA news release