I had the chance to deliver food to Justin Brester of rural Howells on Thursday afternoon, just as the rain was starting! I don't think too many people thought the rain was a bad thing, however, that meant we were not in the field! So... Let's have lunch in the shed! Those in attendance at the Harvest Break with Justin Brester included wife Michelle, father Eugene, along with Terry Waterman and Bruce Brester. Thanks for listening and congratulations for winning a Harvest Break!
Dry Field Conditions Increase Harvest Fire Risks
The National Weather Service issued a red flag warning for fire danger for western Iowa counties this week and warned farmers to be careful as risk of field fires rises greatly in dry, windy conditions. An elevated fire danger exists in much of the rest of Iowa and will continue through the work week.
Harvest is a prime time for fire dangers, even if the weather has not been warm and dry. Fuel sources such as leaves, stalks, husks, dust, oil and fuel are always present when harvesting fields, and so are numerous sources of ignition on farm equipment or transport vehicles including exhaust, bearings and electrical wiring.
"A combine or tractor fire can halt harvest activities in an instant," said Mark Hanna, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach agricultural and biosystems engineer. "Unfortunately, equipment fires happen all too often in Iowa, causing millions of dollars in property damage, lost time and crops during one of the busiest seasons of the year."
Fire safety in the field has two key components -- prevention and preparation in case a fire does break out, according to Hanna. "Both are important, and can mean the difference between disaster and controlling the situation for a minimum of damage or work stoppage."
Hanna offers these tips to prevent combine fires:
-- Keep a clean machine, paying attention to the engine and engine compartment where 75 percent of all machinery fires start. Use a pressure washer or high pressure air to remove caked-on grease, oil and crop residue.
-- Check engine fluid levels (such as coolant and oil) at the beginning of each day.
-- Check the pressurized oil supply line to the turbocharger shaft for areas that may rub from wear and start an oil leak.
-- Frequently blow leaves and chaff off the engine with compressed air or a portable leaf blower, and remove wrapped plant materials on or near bearings, belts or other moving parts.
-- Examine exhaust or hot bearing surfaces. Repair leaking fuel or oil hoses, fittings or metal lines immediately.
Hanna advises all operators to carry two ABC-type fire extinguishers: a smaller 10-pound unit in the cab and a larger 20-pound extinguisher at the ground level on the combine. Invert the extinguishers once or twice a season and shake them to ensure that powder inside the extinguisher hasn't compacted by machine vibrations. He also suggests that operators carry a shovel to scoop dirt onto a fire and a cell phone to call fire department personnel.
In addition to the combine, Hanna said grain transport or pickup trucks with exhaust systems below the chassis also can ignite field fires. Catalytic converters operate at several hundred degrees.
"Field fires are sometimes started with the passing of a truck, and flames may not be noticed for 15 to 30 minutes," he said. "It's a good idea to not allow extra truck traffic through the field when conditions for fire are favorable."
The slight chance of thunderstorms in the forecast for western Iowa Saturday, spreading east on Sunday and Monday, is no reason to relax. Farmers should remain vigilant throughout this extremely warm, dry harvest season.
Joint SEA Conference Draws “Elite Buyers,” Increased Sales
The Southeast Asia U.S. Agricultural Cooperators Conference in Indonesia attracted “the elite of the elite buyers of Southeast Asia,” according to Frank Kralicek of the South Dakota Corn Utilization Council.
Kralicek, who delivered the U.S. and world corn supply and demand presentation, reported a record turnout of more than 180 people representing major feed milling, integrated feed-meat-food producing and trading companies from the region.
He praised Adel Yusupov, USGC regional director, for the quality of the program and the turnout. “I got a lot of questions even before speaking,” Kralicek reported. “Not just about quality and supply, but even about farm programs, the markets, and whether we have the transportation facilities to supply enough corn to Southeast Asia. They asked questions the whole time I was there.”
The conference, sponsored by the Council and the American Soybean Association, offered ample time and activities for participants to consult privately with speakers and guests and to network among themselves, according to Yusupov. “Southeast Asian grain buyers took advantage of the direct contact with U.S. exporters to purchase corn, corn products and substantial amounts of soybeans and soybean meal,” Yusupov said.
Trades negotiated at the conference increased from $368,939,351 worth of commodities in 2010 to $461,901,280. Wheat sales dropped from 2010 and soybean sales declined slightly, but corn, distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and soybean meal sales registered major gains (see graph).
“This conference continues to receive tremendous support from the industry. We hope with each passing year to continue providing this platform to help the region’s agricultural industry progress,” Yusupov concluded.
Kralicek also rated the conference a success: “If anything, we should probably have more people there.”
Search for a Pesticide Permitting Fix Continues As Deadline Nears
(from NAWG newsletter)
Key Members of Congress are quickly looking for solutions to a pesticide permitting debacle set to hit farmers and other users of crop protection products at month’s end.
That problem was created by a January 2009 Sixth Circuit Court decision saying pesticide discharge is a point source of pollution subject to additional regulation under the Clean Water Act.
This means agricultural producers seeking to control aquatic plant pests, urban public health officials seeking to control disease-spreading mosquitoes and others would have to apply for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits to use products already regulated and permitted under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) – spending tens of millions of dollars without adding any environmental benefit.
The decision has been stayed twice to allow time for government agencies to implement it, though regulators at the state and national levels remain uniformly unprepared to review and issue permits for an estimated 5 million applications annually.
A draft pesticide general permit produced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) only applies to aquatic applications of pesticides, meaning farmers are not covered by EPA’s pending permit, unless the application happens to end up in a “water of the United States” – itself an ill-defined legal term.
In that case, farmers could face potentially catastrophic financial liability. Fines for those found to be out of compliance could reach $37,500 a day - enough to put most producers out of business quickly.
The unclear regulations and permitting process also open farmers up to lawsuits from activists who have proven themselves hungry for court fights based on process issues.
A bill to amend FIFRA and the Clean Water Act to clarify Congressional intent and eliminate the requirement for additional permits for applications approved under FIFRA has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate Agriculture Committee, but remains stalled due to multiple holds by Democratic Senators.
This week, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) filed an amendment that would have attached the provisions of H.R. 872 to a pending bill on Chinese currency. Though the amendment was ultimately not chosen by leadership to move forward, the proposal was an important effort to add H.R. 872 to legislation that could move forward, showing the seriousness with which agriculture leaders in Congress are taking the deadline.
Earlier in the week, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) also spoke out, urging a vote on H.R. 872 on the Senate floor.
Despite the seemingly partisan nature of recent moves, H.R. 872 has achieved widespread bipartisan and bicameral support from Congressional leaders concerned about increasing regulation without environmental benefit and burdening government officials and farmers with new and complicated requirements in a time of tighter budgets.
It was approved in June by the Senate Agriculture Committee, without amendment and by a voice vote. It passed the House in March by a 292 to 130 vote.
Renewable Energy Share Reaches U.S. Production Milestone of 12.25 Percent
The DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) released data this week showing renewable energy sources biomass and biofuels, geothermal energy, solar power, wind energy and hydropower provided 4.687 quadrillion Btus of energy, or 12.25 percent, of U.S. energy production during the first six months of 2011. By comparison, renewables accounted for 11.05 percent of domestic production during the first half of 2010 and 10.50 percent during the first half of 2009.
Renewables represented 9.45 percent of total U.S. energy consumption, which also includes power generated by fossil fuels and nuclear power, the EIA data shows.
Energy production from renewable energy sources in 2011 was 17.91 percent more than that from nuclear power, which provided 3.975 quadrillion Btus and has been declining in share in recent years. Energy from renewable sources is now equal to nearly 80 percent of that from produced from domestic crude oil.
When considering all energy sectors, including electricity, transportation and thermal, renewable energy production, including hydropower, has gone up some 15 percent when compared with the first six months of 2010, and by nearly 23 percent compared to the first half of 2009. Among sources of renewable energy produced in the first six months of this year, biomass and biofuels accounted for 46 percent (54 percent of that from biomass and 46 percent from biofuels), hydropower at 37 percent, wind energy at 13.4 percent, geothermal power at 2.33 percent and solar power at 1.22 percent.
In the electricity sector alone, the EIA says that renewable energy sources (biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) accounted for nearly 14 percent of net U.S. electrical generation from January through June of 2011, up 26 percent from the same period in 2010. Hydropower accounted for nearly 9 percent, wind for 3.24 percent, biomass for 1.33 percent, geothermal energy for 0.41 percent and solar power for 0.04 percent. Non-hydro renewable resources accounted for just more than 5 percent of U.S. electrical generation. Comparing the first six months of 2011 to the same period last year, solar-generated electricity expanded by nearly 44 percent, wind by 35 percent, hydropower by 30 percent, and geothermal by nearly 5 percent. Biomass dropped - by 4.4 percent.
New Online Book Features History of Soybeans
William Shurtleff, cofounder of what would become the SoyInfo Center, invites members of the American Soybean Association to learn about the history of the soybean industry in a new book titled, "William J. Morse - History of His Work with Soybeans and Soyfoods (1884-1959)".
The 482 page book contains 126 photographs and illustrations.
"W. J. Morse of USDA was the mainstay of ASA for most of its early history from Sept. 1920 to the 1940s," Shurtleff said. "This is the story of his life's work."
Morse served as ASA President 1923-24, 1924-25, and again 1931-32. ASA awarded Morse an honorary life membership in Sept. 1946.
The book is free and available online. No printed and bound edition of this book will be published.
"This is not a typical book that you read, Shurtleff added. "It is a reference book and the key to using this book is to search it using Adobe Acrobat. Please share it with anyone you wish."
The book can be downloaded at: http://www.soyinfocenter.com/books/147.
Canadian Hunger Project Sets Record 120 Combines in One Field
It seems nothing could stop Harvest for Hunger from achieving its goals of raising awareness for global hunger through a fastest soybean combine attempt. Even after two rain delays and damp soil, more than 120 combines took to the field to combine 160 acres of soybeans in a record-setting 11 minutes and 43 seconds--all in benefit of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
As a major sponsor and long-time supporter of the Canadian Foodgrains Bank, BASF donated crop protection products to the Harvest for Hunger program which played a key role in achieving fundraising goals.
"We chose Frontier Max and Conquest LQ followed by Headline for the crop because we believe it to be the highest-performing weed and disease control program for soybeans with high yield potential," says Tim Trinier, Senior Business Representative at BASF Canada. "Getting the most out of every acre for a worthy cause was our main priority."
Soybean bushels were available for auction post-combine with all proceeds donated toward global hunger relief projects through the Canadian Foodgrains Bank.
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