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“There’s going to be a lot of yellow corn”

June 11, 2013 By 1 Comment

Expect a lot of yellow corn and plan to do something about it now says a University of Missouri soil scientist. Peter Scharf says nitrogen loss is likely the heaviest in areas that have gotten more than 16 inches of rain since April. Those areas include northeastern Missouri, western Illinois and eastern Iowa.

Scharf tells Brownfield Ag News, “Something like 24,000 square miles in Iowa and 20,000 square miles in Missouri and 18,000 square miles have already had something like 16 inches of rain since the first of April. So, there’s a lot of ground out there that’s at definite risk, since the nitrogen that went down early is not there anymore.”

Any anhydrous ammonia applied last fall, Scharf says, is gone so farmers need to side dress or find almost any way they can to apply nitrogen to their growing corn now.

“Any way that you can get it done is good except I wouldn’t spray liquid nitrogen across the canopy after it’s about a foot tall.”

Scharf tells Brownfield liquid application gets riskier the taller the corn gets.

“When it was two feet tall it was more like 20 or 25 bushels, when it’s three-and-four feet tall it’s more in the 50 or 60 bushel range. So, the burn is just too great when you’re putting on a large application.”

Because of all the wet weather, farmers got corn in as quickly as they were able this year and most didn’t stop to apply nitrogen. Scharf advises letting your fertilizer dealer know of your plans to apply nitrogen so they do not run out.

AUDIO: Peter Scharf (8:00 mp3)

2013 NITROGEN WATCH – UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

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Vitamin D supplements for sows

June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

New research shows vitamin D supplements benefit swine. Known as the “sunshine vitamin” for humans, Vitamin D supplementation has been shown to help with increased cases of metabolic bone disease in sows in gestation, according to Pork Network.

Two scientists with the University of Kentucky Animal and Food Sciences Department have found that by supplementing the swine diet with vitamin D3, it helps breeding swine utilize Vitamin D2 more efficiently.

Since pigs are raised in environmentally controlled conditions, the researchers say, they aren’t getting as much sunshine as they once did. Sunshine helps convert vitamin D into a helpful substance in the body.

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

Monsanto update on RR wheat investigation

June 5, 2013 By 1 Comment

Monsanto Company says it is taking a science-based approach to its investigation of the finding of its RoundUp Ready wheat in an Oregon wheat field. Rob Fraley says while not yet provided with actual samples of the wheat finding by the USDA, which is doing its own investigation, Monsanto has done broader testing and finds no presence of the “CP4 event” in the commercial wheat supply.

Fraley tells reporters all of their evidence, thus far, points to a single occurrence. He says, “It seems likely to be a random, isolated occurrence more consistent with the accidental or purposeful mixing of a small amount of seed during the planting, harvesting, or, during the follow cycle in an individual field.”

When asked directly if they suspect sabotage could be involved, Fraley answered, “We’re considering all options at this point and that’s certainly one of the options that we’re looking at.”

Monsanto says they have provided the ONLY reliable test methodology to detect CP4 to the USDA and to the governments of Japan, Korea and Taiwan. He says they do not know if it is being used but respect the time the USDA’s APHIS researchers are taking for the investigation.

AUDIO: Monsanto officials conference call w/ reporters (40:00 mp3)

BROWNFIELD – GMO INVESTIGATION/SUIT FILED

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Farmers talk Farm Bill crop insurance with Scuse

June 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Crop insurance led the discussion of the farm bill this week between the USDA’s Acting Deputy Agriculture Secretary and farmers in Nebraska.

Deputy Michael Scuse tells Brownfield Ag News there was some opposition among those he met with Tuesday about limiting crop insurance subsidies to larger farming operations, as included in the Senate version of the farm bill.  He says, “To limit the subsidy, to have it means-tested so that certain sized producers wouldn’t receive it – there was very little support for that and some in the room spoke out against it.”

Scuse, who met with a group of farmers in Omaha, said the top discussion was about ensuring a good crop insurance program.

“The feeling is it’s something that works. It works really, really well. This past year, many of them pointed out, proved that it is a great program and they want to make sure it’s going to be in both the House and the Senate’s version of the Food, Farm and Jobs bill.”

Whatever Congress determines in the next farm bill, Scuse says, the USDA “will certainly administer.”

AUDIO: Michael Scuse (7:00 mp3)

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Black cutworms in MO a risk to young corn

May 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

While corn planting is late in many areas and emergence has just begun, growers should be mindful of the threat of black cutworms. Missouri Extension Entomologist Wayne Bailey says there have been sightings of black cutworms in Missouri. He’s not concerned about an explosion in the number of those worms, but he says they could do a lot of damage to small corn. Bailey tells Brownfield Ag News, “They’re going to grow in size and so if you happen to plant and the corn is just now peeking out and you have large worms, they can do a lot of damage really fast.”

As farmers know, cutworms can cut plants above AND below ground.  Bailey says, “We use a threshold of about a 2-percent cutting in a field. We’d go ahead and probably treat that field to take out the black cutworm if we didn’t have an insecticide down or a seed treatment down.”

Bailey tells Brownfield that True Army Worms are also a threat in Missouri, and perhaps other areas, to fescue and wheat. They’ve been spotted in some pastures.

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Website details N loss risks in Midwest

May 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The risks of nitrogen loss are mapped out for Midwest growers in a special website compiled by a University of Missouri Plant Scientist and Extension specialist. Professor Peter Scharf’s Nitrogen Watch 2013 identifies “danger areas that are on track to have widespread problems with nitrogen loss.”

Scharf says the areas on the map haven’t lost enough nitrogen, necessarily, to cause serious N deficiency in corn – but he says they could, depending on the amount of additional rain that comes. This year, Scharf recommends planting first in appropriate conditions and applying nitrogen later.

“Really, nitrogen application timing is timing-neutral from planting until the corn is 4-foot tall. I think there really are some yield gains by waiting and some yield losses by waiting and they about balance each other out.”

Scharf says you’re playing an odds game when you farm.  He tells Brownfield Ag News, “I see, looking at all the available research that the odds are equal any time during that time frame and you’re really not giving yourself any big problems by delaying unless there are equipment problems. And, if you can figure out how to solve that you don’t need to worry about not having it done before you plant.”

Last year’s droughted corn left a lot of nitrogen in fields, most of which is likely gone by now. Scharf says “nitrogen is safe in the bin or in the tank” but there is going to be a lot to get done in a short time.

Nitrogen Watch 2013

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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: , , , ,

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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APHIS aims to extend review of some GE products

May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The USDA says it’s going to extend its reviews of new herbicide-resistant Genetically Engineered (GE) crops from both Dow AgroSciences and Monsanto which are seeking deregulation of those products.  Dow says today’s announced decision by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will delay getting its Enlist products to farmers into 2015.  APHIS announced it will prepare two separate environmental impact statements (EIS) for crops genetically engineered to be resistant to 2,4-D and Dicamba.

Dow’s Enlist Weed Control system for corn and soybeans and Monsanto’s double herbicide-resistant cotton and soybeans are subject to the additional reviews. 

In response, Dow says by the USDA’s own admission, these herbicides have been “safely and widely used” for decades.  A Dow statement further says that adverse trends of glyphosate-resistance and hard to control weeds will continue without its state-of-the-art Enlist system. The company says it will keep working with USDA/APHIS to get those technologies approved to give farmers more crop planting options.

Under federal law, APHIS says it is required “to evaluate the potential environmental impacts that could result from a deregulation of new GE plants by the Agency.”

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

Bill clarifies margin requirements exemption

May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns is one of the co-sponsors of a bill that clarifies the exemption for farmers and ranchers from margin requirements in the Dodd-Frank financial reform law.

Johanns says the bill ensures that farmers can continue to use derivatives to manage their risks and insure against extreme price fluctuations on commodities and inputs, “without facing costly margin requirements meant to cover day-traders who play the markets”.

“Clearly, farmers and ranchers aren’t using these tools to get rich quick.  What they’re trying to do is to defend against unexpected market shifts,” Johanns says. “This bill clarifies currently law by explicitly stating that these folks are not the same as speculators and should not be subject to the costly new rules and requirements.

Johanns says that, despite Congress’ intent with Dodd-Frank, there has been a debate over how broadly the end-user exemption would apply.

An identical bill received unanimous approval from the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee earlier this week.

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