Wednesday November 9 Ag News

NEBRASKA’S NOVEMBER 2011 CROP PRODUCTION

Based on November 1 conditions, Nebraska’s corn crop is forecast at 1.52 billion bushels, unchanged from last month and 3 percent above last year due to more acres for harvest, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Nebraska Field Office.  Yield is forecast at 160 bushels per acre, unchanged from last month and 6 bushels below last year.  Acres to be harvested for grain, at 9.5 million, are 7 percent above a year ago.

Soybean production is forecast at 257 million bushels, down 2 percent from last month and 4 percent below last year.  Yield is forecast at 53 bushels per acre, down 1 bushel from last month but slightly above the 52.5 bushels per acre produced in 2010.

Sorghum production is forecast at 6.32 million bushels, up 5 percent from last month, 6 percent below a year ago and the smallest since 1953.  Yield is forecast at 89 bushels per acre, up 4 bushels from the previous month but down 1 bushel from last year.  

Sugarbeet production, at 1.28 million tons, is up 13 percent from 2010.  Potato production is forecast at 7.8 million hundredweight, up 2 percent from a year ago.

Iowa 
As of November 1, Iowa’s 2011 corn for grain yield was forecast at 171 bushels per acre, up 2 bushels per acre from  October  1.    Production  is  forecast  at  2.33  billion bushels  for  the State, up 8 percent  from  last year.   As of October 30, 87 percent of corn acres had been harvested, 19 days ahead of the five-year average.

The  November  1  soybean  yield  forecast  of  50.5 bushels per  acre  is  unchanged  from  the  October  1  forecast,  but down  half  a  bushel  per  acre  from  2010.    Soybean production  is  forecast  at  468  million  bushels,  down  6 percent  from  last  year.   As  of October  30  soybean  acres harvested were 98 percent, 2 weeks ahead of  the average pace.



USDA:  Corn Production Down 1 Percent from October Forecast; Soybean Production Down Slightly

Corn production is forecast at 12.3 billion bushels, down 1 percent from the October forecast and down 1 percent from 2010. If realized, this will be the fourth largest production total on record for the United States. Based on conditions as of November 1, yields are expected to average 146.7 bushels per acre, down 1.4 bushels from the October forecast and down 6.1 bushels from 2010. If realized, this will be the lowest average yield since 2003. Area harvested for grain is forecast at 83.9 million acres, unchanged from the October forecast.

Soybean production is forecast at 3.05 billion bushels, down slightly from the October forecast and down 9 percent from last year. Based on November 1 conditions, yields are expected to average 41.3 bushels per acre, down 0.2 bushel from last month and down 2.2 bushels from last year. If realized, the average yield will be the second lowest since 2003. Area for harvest is forecast at 73.7 million acres, unchanged from October but down 4 percent from 2010.

All cotton production is forecast at 16.3 million 480-pound bales, down 2 percent from the October forecast and down 10 percent from last year. Yield is expected to average 794 pounds per harvested acre, down 18 pounds from last year. Upland cotton production is forecast at 15.6 million 480-pound bales, down 12 percent from 2010. American Pima production, forecast at 737,200 bales, was carried forward from last month.



Former Air Pollution Control Official Warns of Penalties in California Carbon Modeling
Scheduled guest speaker at November 10 Ethanol Board meeting

In a new report to be released Thursday, the implications of new California fuel standards on ethanol use will be presented.  The new report concludes that the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard unfairly penalizes domestic ethanol and could effectively ban Midwest ethanol from that market over the next several years.

Bill Roddy, Director of Environmental Compliance with ERI Solutions, and Director of Kern Air Pollution Control District in California, will address a meeting of the Nebraska Ethanol Board on Thursday, where he will discuss the potentially significant consequences resulting from indirect land use change (ILUC) penalties incorporated into both federal and California regulatory modeling.  Carbon Modeling and ILUC—Separating Fact From Fiction is a new White Paper authored by Roddy in which he explains the process under which ethanol must meet a “carbon intensity” standard.  According to Mr. Roddy, California has adopted a model that assumes a far greater penalty for ILUC than is reasonable.  Roddy argues no crops grown in the United States have been displaced to the point they must now be grown in other countries and there should be no penalty assigned to indirect land use assumptions.

The punitive assumptions in the models result in ethanol being rated as more carbon intensive than the gasoline with which it is blended.  “There are a number of peer reviewed carbon models in the public domain but they differ by as much as 40% in terms of their results,” said Roddy.  “There is a shared belief by many in the European Union and the U.S. that ILUC carbon modeling science does not yet exist to support any ILUC penalty,” he said.  There is no land use change penalty in the European models.

In his presentation to the Nebraska Ethanol Board and in the White Paper, Mr. Roddy presents comparisons between some of the accepted peer reviewed models and points out the discrepancies.

Todd Sneller, Administrator of the Nebraska Ethanol Board, said, “It is important our ethanol producers understand the ramifications of this ILUC provision and work to have it modified.  California represents 20% or more of the fuel market in the US and it is preposterous to claim ethanol has a higher carbon content than the gasoline it replaces.”

Sneller also serves as Chairman of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition and the Clean Fuels Foundation that are working to have these issues resolved at both the EPA and state level.

The White Paper is part of an ongoing series produced by the Clean Fuel Foundation and the Ethanol Across America education program.  To download a copy log on to www.ethanolacrossamerica.net, www.ne-ethanol.org or contact either the Clean Fuels Development Coalition or the Nebraska Ethanol Board for print copies.



USDA Farm Service Agency Reminds Producers of Livestock Disaster Program Deadlines

Thurston County USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Executive Director Josie Waterbury reminds eligible ranchers and livestock producers who had livestock losses or grazing losses during the 2011 crop year, that the deadline for applying for benefits under the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) and the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP) is January 30, 2012.

“It is imperative that producers meet the deadline for disaster assistance as there are no late file provisions for LIP and ELAP," said Waterbury.  “To ensure a smooth application process, producers should have all required supporting documentation with them at the time they apply for benefits,” she said.

Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) 
LIP provides payments to eligible livestock producers who have suffered livestock death losses due to eligible adverse weather conditions that occurred before October 1, 2011.  Eligible livestock under LIP include beef cattle, alpacas, buffalo, beefalo, dairy cattle, deer, elk, emus, equine, goats, llamas, poultry, reindeer, sheep, and swine.  Some of the eligible weather conditions include extreme heat/cold, blizzards, flooding, hail, tornadoes, and lightning.  Eligible losses include death losses directly attributed to the weather condition that occur up to 60 days after the event.

A notice of loss must be filed the earlier of 30 days after the loss is apparent or December 29, 2011.  After filing the notice of loss, eligible ranchers and livestock producers have until January 30, 2012 to apply for LIP benefits.

Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program (ELAP)
ELAP provides emergency assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish who have losses due to adverse weather or other conditions, including losses due to blizzards and wildfires that occurred before October 1, 2011.  ELAP assistance is for losses not covered under other disaster assistance programs established by the 2008 Farm Bill.

Producers who experienced livestock death losses must file a notice of loss the earlier of 30 days after the loss is apparent or December 29, 2011.  Producers who suffered livestock grazing and feed losses must have filed a notice of loss no later than October 31, 2011 and have until January 30, 2012 to submit an application for payment for livestock death losses and livestock grazing and feed losses.

Program Requirements:
In order to qualify for ELAP, the applicant must have purchased insurance coverage through FSA’s Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program (NAP) or the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage Insurance-Rainfall Index for Grazing (PRF-RI) program offered through the Risk Management Agency (RMA).  Producers who meet the requirements of a socially disadvantaged, limited resource, or beginning farmer or rancher do not have to meet the Risk Management Purchase Requirement (RMPR).  The LIP program does not have the RMPR requirement.  Program applicants should note that certain payment limitation and adjusted gross income eligibility requirements must be met in order to qualify for LIP and ELAP.



Center for Rural Affairs to Assist Farm Aid in Dispersing Flood Relief Funds
Applications available to Farmers affected by Missouri River Flooding

Farmers and ranchers affected by flooding from the Missouri River may be eligible for assistance from the Missouri River Flood/Disaster Relief Fund.

The fund is made possible by a grant from Farm Aid to the Center for Rural Affairs to provide immediate disaster relief assistance to sustainable family farmers who have experienced losses due to the Missouri River flooding. The Center for Rural Affairs will be reviewing applications and assisting in distributing relief checks to qualifying farmers.

According to John Crabtree of the Center for Rural Affairs, the purpose of these funds is to assist farmers and ranchers - especially beginning and socially disadvantaged, sustainable or organic family farmers and ranchers (and those doing local and direct marketing, in particular) - who have been impacted directly by the Missouri River flood and who have suffered hardship as a result.

Applicants can apply for a grant of up to $500 in emergency relief toward the cost of any uninsured loss or family expense related to the flood – for example if you had to move from your home due to the flood and had additional costs because of that. Farmers should first ask for emergency funds that will cover immediate needs not covered by other sources.

"The damage done by the flooding is almost impossible to imagine until you see it yourself.  We know that we cannot help everyone who needs help but we are proud to stand with our friends at Farm Aid and humbly help farmers and ranchers in what ways we can," said Crabtree.

Things that will be considered for funding include: damage and loss of personal property, unexpected costs related to activities of daily living while flooded or displaced, loss of saleable products; temporary fencing repair to reopen pastures; purchase of emergency feed; organic re-certification for vegetable producers; or testing for contaminants from runoff; for example.

Items that will not be funded include any loss that is subject to a successful insurance claim, any loss covered by other sources, and any damage not resulting from the Missouri River Flooding.

For full application guidelines visit: http://files.cfra.org/pdf/mo-flood-guidelines.pdf

Application forms are available here: http://files.cfra.org/pdf/mo-flood-application.pdf

Successful applicants will be notified as soon as possible. Applications will be accepted and reviewed on an ongoing basis until funding is gone. If you have questions, please contact Traci Bruckner or John Crabtree by calling (402) 687-2100 or emailing them both at tracib@cfra.org or johnc@cfra.org



SIGNUP BEGINS FOR THE SUPPLEMENTAL REVENUE ASSISTANCE PAYMENTS PROGRAM (SURE) FOR CROP LOSSES IN 2010

Signup for the 2010 Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments Program (SURE) will begin on November 14, 2011 stated Bruce Coffey, County Executive Director of the Colfax County FSA Office.  The 2010 SURE program is for those producers who suffered crop production losses during crop year 2010 only.

This program takes into consideration crop losses on all crops grown by a producer nationwide. SURE provides assistance in an amount equal to 60 percent of the difference between the SURE farm guarantee and total farm revenue.  Producers with a farming interest physically located in Colfax County must have suffered at least a 50 percent production loss on a crop of economic significance with one exception.  That exception regards producers that have land physically located in Platte County.  The reason for this exception is Platte County is contiguous to a disaster declared county for the 2010 crop year noted Coffey.  Thus a producer that has land physically located in Platte County will be eligible if they suffered at least a 10 percent production loss on a crop of economic significance.

Eligibility for the program requires that the producer meet the risk management purchase requirement by either having a policy or plan of insurance under the Federal Crop Insurance Act or NAP coverage for all economically significant crops.  Producers considered socially disadvantaged, a beginning farmer or rancher, or a limited resource farmer may be eligible for SURE without a policy or plan of insurance or NAP coverage.  Coffey noted that crops of little economic significance do not need coverage.  Forage crops for grazing do not need coverage.  Please call the office for an appointment if you think you may qualify for this program.  If you want more details or want to make an appointment to discuss this program, please call the Colfax County FSA office at (402) 352-5200.

NINE-MONTH CROP LOANS AVAILABLE AT THE FARM SERVICE AGENCY
Farmers with eligible crops can obtain a nine month loan on those crops by making a loan application at the local FSA office stated Bruce Coffey, County Executive Director, of the Colfax County FSA Office.   The grain harvested from a farm in the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program must be maintained separately from the grain harvested from a regular Direct and Counter Cyclical (DCP) farm.  The reason is the loan rates for the grain harvested from an ACRE farm are 30% lower than for the grain from the DCP farm reminded Coffey.

Two types of crop loans are available based on where the grain is stored.  Thus a producer could have either a farm stored or a warehouse stored loan.   Producers that want a farm stored loan must self measure the quantity of grain plus know the test weight and moisture before contacting the office to apply for the farm stored loan.  Producers with grain stored in the warehouse/elevator must provide the office with a warehouse receipt when they apply for the crop loan stated Coffey. 

Loan applicants should realize that liens will be checked and lien waivers will be required from lending institutions or others that have liens on crops used as loan collateral.   Interest is charged on the loan until the loan is repaid or matures.   A minimum fee of $45 is assessed per loan for processing and for corn loans marketing assessments are deducted noted Coffey.  The basic loan rates for grain stored in Colfax County are as follows:
Farm not in ACRE is Corn $1.92 per bushel and Soybeans $4.85 per bushel
Farm in ACRE is Corn $1.34 per bushel and Soybeans $3.40 per bushel



Platte Valley Cattlemen November meeting Coming Up

The November meeting of the Platte Valley Cattlemen is scheduled for Monday, November 21, at Wunderlich’s Catering.  The social hour at 6:00 P.M. will be sponsored by Rosendahl Farms Feed & Seed and Terry Ramold of Kent Feeds.  The meal will start at 7:00 P.M., with the meeting to follow.
For this meeting Allan Vyhnalek, UNL Extension Educator in Platte County, has arranged for Twig Marston, NEREC District Director-UNL, to be our speaker.  Twig will discuss how to improve cowherd genetic potential without sacrificing low-cost production opportunities. Also, Chuck Folken, Nebraska Cattlemen President, will update us on issues at the state and national level.



Northeast Nebraska RC&D  Annual Meeting
When:   (Monday) November 28, 2011
Where:  Olde Tavern, 413 St. James Ave., Wynot, NE  (West side of main street)
Social Time:  6:00 p.m.  -  Dinner:  6:15 p.m. - Choice of Pan Fried Chicken or Roast Beef (both include potato, vegetable, dessert, coffee or tea)   
Guest Speaker:  7:15 p.m. - Gary Howey, Outdoorsmen Productions
Business Meeting:  8:00 p.m. - Elections & Special Recognition w/Door Prizes



Greenhorn Grazing Session Looks at Stockpiled Grazing

Stockpiled grazing is a primary topic of the final 2011 Greenhorn Grazing event in southwest Iowa. Organizer Joe Sellers said that while the final session builds upon those held earlier in the year, the Nov. 15 program also will interest new participants.

"The session starts at 10 a.m. at the Jim and Ann Werner farm near Diagonal," Sellers said. "The $15 per person fee is payable that day."

Sellers, an Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach beef specialist, said this final session will cover evaluating cow body condition, stockpiled grazing, cornstalk grazing and winter feeding strategies. A pasture walk of stockpiled pastures on the Werner farm will be a large portion of the agenda. A lunch prepared by the Ringgold County Cattlemen's Association is included in the fee.

The Greenhorn Grazing series is sponsored by ISU Extension, Iowa Beef Center, Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture and the Southern Iowa Forage and Livestock Committee.

For more information about the southwest Iowa Greenhorn Grazing program, contact Sellers by phone at 641-203-1270 or by email at sellers@iastate.edu, or NRCS Grasslands Specialist Rick Sprague by phone at 712-542-8765 or by email at richard.sprague@ia.usda.gov.



National Pork Board to Mark 25th Anniversary

Meeting 25 years and a few days after the first National Pork Board convened, members of the National Pork Board will gather November 15-16 in Des Moines, Iowa, to celebrate the board's silver anniversary and to continue the work begun with the launch of the Pork Checkoff in November 1986.

"I was looking at the minutes of that first meeting recently and noticed some striking similarities with today's board," said Everett Forkner, a Richards, Missouri, pork producer and president of the National Pork Board. "Virgil Rosendale of Illinois was the first elected producer leader of the new board and he noted at that first meeting that there were many challenges ahead. The minutes show he also talked about how ensuring producer involvement would be very important to the new board's success. I can say the same things today," Mr Forkner said.

The board's observance of its 25th anniversary will include a luncheon where members of the National Pork Board will honor staff and the nine employees who have 25 years of service.

Prior to 1986, the pork industry had a voluntary Checkoff created in 1966 by a visionary group of producers known as the "Moline 90." But by the early 1980s, pork producers were sensing shifting consumer preferences toward leaner meat and feeling new market pressure from other proteins. Producer leaders determined they were going to need additional resources to compete and agreed the best solution was to ask Congress for legislation requiring every pork producer who benefitted from national promotion, research and education efforts to help support those programmes.

Congress created the framework for the new Checkoff in the 1985 Farm Bill. The legislation required that for the Checkoff to continue, a majority of producers must approve it. That referendum was approved overwhelmingly by producers in 1988.



U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance Builds on Initial Successes

USFRA Meeting in Kansas CityThe U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance is holding committee meetings, a board meeting and its annual meeting for all affiliates this week in Kansas City. The National Corn Growers Association is represented by NCGA Chairman and USFRA Board of Directors Executive Committee Vice Chairman Bart Schott, NCGA and USFRA Advisory Committee CEO Rick Tolman and NCGA Communications Director Ken Colombini, a member of the USFRA Communications Advisory Committee.

"We are extremely excited by the progress made over the past year," said NCGA Chairman Bart Schott. "From the growth of this unprecedented movement to the attention generated during our launch, the Alliance brings farmers and ranchers to the table for the conversation on food in a meaningful way. Now, we have a chance to regroup and find the most effective ways to become more engaged and in-tune with consumers concerned about farming today."

During these meetings, Jane Ade Stevens, executive director of the Indiana Corn Growers Association, joined the USFRA board of directors. She was appointed as part of her role as executive of the Indiana Soybean Alliance, a new board-level affiliate of USFRA.

In addition to these meetings, the Alliance held a follow-up to its September 22 Town Hall meeting in the form of an hour-long online video chat on the role of biotechnology, held Nov. 2. The session, created in response to an ongoing discussion on the USFRA Facebook page, featured two of the original Town Hall participants, Dr. Pam Ronald of the University of California at Davis and Michael Dimock of Roots of Change.



FDA Rejects Livestock Antibiotic Ban

The Food and Drug Administration Wednesday rejected two similar petitions asking the agency to ban some uses of antibiotics in treating livestock.

The FDA, in a letter to several groups that submitted the petitions in 1999 and 2005, said it shared their concern about "the use of medically important antimicrobial drugs in food-producing animals for growth promotion and feed efficiency," but still denied the petition.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest and other groups told the FDA in the petitions that they feared the growing use of antibiotics for livestock to promote growth and as a cautionary measure to prevent illnesses in herds would result in bacteria becoming resistant to the drugs.

"When such resistance develops, bacterial growth is no longer stopped by the antibiotic, and, thus, the antibiotic is no longer capable of treating or curing the disease," the groups said in the 1999 petition. "Antibiotic resistance can transform infections from easy to treat to illnesses that require prolonged treatments, necessitate lengthy hospitalizations, or cause death."

The FDA stressed the strain on its resources to comply with the petition, pointing out how the process of revoking a drugs approval can "consume extensive periods of time and agency resources."

Instead, the FDA said, it is "pursuing other alternatives to address the issue of antimicrobial resistance related to the production use of antimicrobials in animal agriculture."

The FDA said it has begun to address the issue by declaring that the use of medically important antibiotics in livestock "should be limited to those uses that are considered necessary for assuring animal health" and only used after a veterinarian is consulted.

Livestock in the U.S. consumed about 29 million pounds of antibiotics in 2010 according to the latest data available from the FDA.

"FDA's decision leaves the status quo unchanged, in which the overwhelming majority of all antibiotics sold in the country (80%) are for use in animals and such use continues to pose an unnecessary danger to public health," according to the Natural Resources Defense Council, another of the petitioner groups.

The National Pork Producers Council recently rejected any claims that antibiotic usage by the livestock industry contributes to antibiotic resistance.

"Not only is there no scientific study linking antibiotic use in food animals to antibiotic resistance in humans, as the U.S. pork industry has continually pointed out, but there isn't even adequate data to conduct a study," the group said.

But antibiotic resistant bacteria in contaminated food does pose a higher risk to people than traditional bacteria, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Commenting on a recent outbreak of antibiotic-resistant salmonella in contaminated ground turkey, the CDC said: "This antibiotic resistance may be associated with an increase in the risk of hospitalization or possible treatment failure in infected individuals."



New Edition of Veterinarian Johne’s Disease Handbooks Available

Dairy and beef producers and their veterinarians who want to help prevent or control Johne’s disease in their herds often ask where they should start with the process. The answer: Begin by conducting an on-farm risk assessment, then develop and follow a management plan specific
to a farm or ranch.

Three recently updated handbooks—“Handbook for Veterinarians and Dairy Producers,” “Handbook for Veterinarians and Beef Producers” and “How to do Risk Assessments and Develop Management Plans for Johne’s Disease”—are available for dairy and beef producers and their veterinarians who are serious about addressing Johne’s disease and stopping the financial drain of this devastating disease. This fourth edition of the handbooks reflect the USDA’s updated Program Standards for the Voluntary Bovine Johne’s Disease Control Program and are significantly more user friendly.

“The team in charge of developing the 2011 edition of the handbooks brainstormed long and hard to develop easy-to-comprehend and easy-to-complete information and forms, and I think all three handbooks are homeruns,” states Dr. Elisabeth Patton, chairman of U.S. Animal Health Association’s Johne’s Disease Committee.

Patton explains that the handbooks are for use by veterinarians with dairy and beef clients to improve biosecurity and reduce pathogens, particularly Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis or MAP, the bacteria known to cause Johne’s disease. The ‘how to do risk assessments and develop management plans’ handbook is a companion piece to the other two.

“Together the three handbooks are a veterinarian’s manual to help dairy and beef producers reduce or prevent Johne’s disease in their herds,” Patton adds. “That said, many of the management practices developed to address Johne’s disease should help reduce the presence of other pathogens as well.”

The “Handbook for Veterinarians and Dairy Producers” is short and to the point: one page is devoted to “current herd health status and concerns” while the remaining six pages address risk assessment and management recommendations related to calving area, pre-weaned heifer calves, post-weaned heifers, bred heifers, cows and bulls, and replacements and additions. The “Handbook for Veterinarians and Beef Producers” has just eight pages: one page for recording “current herd health status and concerns” and six pages dedicated to risk assessment and management recommendations related to calving area, nursing calves, weaned heifers and bulls, bred heifers and yearling bulls, cows and bulls, and replacements and additions.

The 23-page “How to do Risk Assessments and Develop Management Plans for Johne’s Disease” goes more in depth and covers seven key steps to helps reduce or prevent Johne’s disease. Step 1--collect information on current herd health status and production; Step 2—Collect history, owner goals and biosecurity data and estimate Johne's disease prevalence; Step 3—Assess risks for transmitting Johne’s disease among specific animal groups, with descriptive guidelines for scoring risk factors for dairy herds or beef herds; Step 4—Consider Johne’s disease management efforts will benefit and integrate with other health and performance issues; Step 5—Select critical management practices to include in the management plan; Step 6—Build the elements of a testing strategy; and Step 7—Do a reality check. Will the plan work? Plan to monitor it.

The Fourth Edition. 2011, of the three handbooks were developed by National Johne’s Disease Education Initiative and approved for distribution by the Johne’s Disease Committee of the United States Animal Health Association (USAHA), the National Johne’s Working Group and the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary Services (VS).

Pdf’s of the dairy and beef veterinarian handbooks and the “How to do Risk Assessments and Develop Management Plans for Johne’s Disease” are online at www.johnesdisease.org. Please contact your State Designated Johne’s Disease Coordinator for specific information related to your state.



Brazil's CONAB Lowers Soybean Crop Forecast

The Brazilian Agriculture Ministry early Wednesday marginally lowered its already conservative 2011-12 soybean estimate as it became clear that summer corn is creeping further into areas traditionally reserved for the oilseed.

CONAB, the ministry's research arm, forecast output will total 71.5 million metric tons to 73.0 mmt this season, down from 72.2 mmt to 73.3 mmt in October.

The figure is considerably lower than most private estimates, which pack fairly tightly around the 75 mmt mark. The disparity can principally be explained by the fact that CONAB is using five-year averages to project yields, while private analysts are betting that the recent upward trend in yields will continue.

However, CONAB's soybean planted area figure is also slightly lower than average market estimates at 60.3 million to 61.5 million acres and that projection was trimmed 1% from October to reflect a massive move to summer corn planting in the south this season.

CONAB's forecast is the most exhaustive, although unlike in October, the November survey did not involve field visits.

CONAB raised its corn estimate to 58.4 mmt to 59.5 mmt from 57.3 mmt to 59.0 mmt last month, reflecting the desire among farmers to take advantage of high prices and handsome margins.



Wal-Mart Stocks Stores With Higher-Quality Beef

Wal-Mart is bringing higher-quality beef to its U.S. stores in an effort to boost food sales, according to Market Watch. The company said Monday it will now sell choice-grade beef at all its 3,800 U.S. locations, after previously only selling select-grade beef. The move has had a definite effect on the U.S. beef market, causing choice beef prices to rise and select beef prices to decline. Wal-Mart's change has also expanded the price difference between choice and select beef to 19 cents a pound, from only 3 cents a pound a few months ago. Wal-Mart said its decision was a response to customer demand for more selections of cuts, but it will continue to offer lower grades of meat for value-conscious consumers.