Monday March 26 Ag News

NE March Weather Report

Agricultural Summary:  
To date for the month of March 2012,  temperatures averaged 8 degrees above normal for  the Panhandle, 12 degrees above normal for the middle third of the State and 14 degrees above normal for the eastern third, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Nebraska Field Office.    Precipitation was limited until the third week of March with amounts of an  inch or more  falling  in Southeastern counties.   However,  little or no  rain was recorded  in Panhandle  counties  and  for most of  the  state,  precipitation  for  the month was below normal.  Winds have dried  soils  leaving  topsoil  moisture  short  or  very  short  in  about  half  the  State.    Driest  conditions  were  recorded  in Northeastern counties.  During the last week of the month, soil temperatures ranged from 50 to 57 degrees.  The coolest soils were in the Panhandle.  Soils across much of the eastern third were above the 55 degrees needed for germination of corn;  however,  only  isolated  fields  had  been  planted  to  date.   Marketing  grain,  preparation  for  spring  planting  and livestock care were the main activities during the month.  Wheat condition continued well above year ago levels.  Due to the mild conditions, most feed supplies are adequate.  Cattle and calves are in good to excellent condition and calving was progressing well with the above normal temperatures.

Weather Summary: 
Temperatures averaged 12 degrees above normal for the month.   Highs were recorded in the 80’s while lows were mainly in the upper 20’s and 30’s.   The second week saw temperatures spike to over 20 degrees above normal across the state.  

Field Crops Report: 
Wheat conditions statewide rated 1 percent very poor, 3 poor, 25 fair, 64 good, and 7 excellent, well  above  40  percent  good  to  excellent  last  year.   Hay  and  forage  supplies  rated  1  percent  very  short,  5  short,  88 adequate and 6 surplus, near year ago levels.

Livestock, Pasture, and Range Report: 
Cattle and Calves condition rated 0 percent very poor, 0 poor, 7 fair, 77 good, and 16 excellent, above last year.  Calving progressed to 60 percent complete, equal to last year with calf losses average to below average across the state.

County Reports:
BOONE: Some moisture (.25 inch) at the end of the week but not enough to make a real difference.  Not much field work being done yet.
CEDAR:  Mild weather favorable for calving. Some moisture was received but it's still dry. Clearing of trees and some tillage has begun.
DIXON:  Conditions over the past two weeks have felt more like mid to late spring.  Spring work is far ahead of normal.  Dry conditions have carried over from the fall here in Northeast Nebraska.
KNOX:  Primary activities have been marketing grain, calving, and preparation for spring field work. Warm conditions have caused grass and trees to be at least three weeks ahead of normal.
MADISON:  Warmer temperatures and below normal winter moisture have caused continued loss of soil moisture. Recent rain has helped the top soil, but below 6 inches, the soil profile is short. Spring rains will be needed; otherwise, crops will be dependent on timely rains.
DODGE:  Some early field work of fertilizing fields and getting planters ready are the main activities. 
GAGE:  First few corn fields planted last week.
NUCKOLLS:  Need more rain, and continued temperatures above freezing!
RICHARDSON:  Received some much needed moisture this week!



Enrollment Reminder for Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payments and Other FSA Programs

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) Administrator Bruce Nelson today reminded producers that the 2012 deadline to enroll in the Direct and Counter-Cyclical Payment (DCP) program is June 1.

“I encourage all producers interested in DCP to visit the service center where their farm is administered and sign up before the busy planting season gets underway,” said Nelson. “Enrollments cannot be accepted after the deadline, so enrolling early may help producers avoid missing the deadline during one of the most demanding times of the year.”

DCP provides payments to eligible producers on farms enrolled for any of the 2008 through 2012 crop years. There are two types of DCP payments: direct payments and counter-cyclical payments. Both are calculated using the base acres and payment yields established for the farm. DCP is authorized by the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (2008 Farm Bill).

In addition to DCP, other FSA programs also have enrollment deadlines approaching:
Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program: Check with the FSA service center for dates; GRAZE-OUT – March 31 for calendar year 2011 crops; Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) General Sign-up 43 – April 6; Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) – June 1; Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payment Program (SURE) – July 1 for crop year 2010; 2011 ACRE Production Evidence – July 15; Certification of Planted Acres – Various deadlines, but no later than July 15; Farm Reconstitutions (changes) – August 1, 2012 for the 2012 crop year; MILC –Sept. 30, 2012; Crop Insurance – Contact a crop insurance agent or the regional RMA office.



'Pink Slime' Maker Halts Some Plants

The company that makes "pink slime" suspended operations Monday at three of four plants where the beef ingredient is made, saying officials would work to address recent public concern about the product.

Beef Products Inc. will suspend operations at plants in Amarillo, Texas; Garden City, Kan.; and Waterloo, Iowa, according to Craig Letch, the company's director of food safety and quality assurance. The company's plant at its Dakota Dunes, S.D., headquarters will continue operations.

"We feel like when people can start to understand the truth and reality then our business will come back," Letch said. "It's 100 percent beef."

Federal regulators say the ammonia-treated filler, known in the industry as "lean, finely textured beef," meets food safety standards. But critics say the product could be unsafe and is an unappetizing example of industrialized food production.

The low-cost ingredient is made from fatty bits of meat left over from other cuts. The bits are heated and spun to remove most of the fat. The lean mix then is compressed into blocks for use in ground meat. The product is exposed to ammonium hydroxide gas to kill bacteria, such as E. coli and salmonella.

The result is a product that is as much as 97 percent lean beef, Letch said.

The product has been used for years, but it wasn't until earlier this month that social media suddenly exploded with worry and an online petition seeking its ouster from schools garnered hundreds of thousands of supporters. The U.S. Department of Agriculture decided to allow school districts to stop using it and some retail chains have pulled products containing it from their shelves.

About 200 employees at each of the three plants will get full salary and benefits for 60 days during the suspension, Letch said. The plant in Amarillo produced about 200,000 pounds a day, while the Kansas and Iowa plants each produced about 350,000 pounds a day.



AMPI reports $2 billion in sales

Staying focused on maximizing members’ returns helped Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) achieve positive results in 2011. Leaders announced today the dairy marketing cooperative owned by 3,000 Upper Midwest dairy farmers achieved sales of $2 billion last year.

Though weak milk volume challenged all dairy manufacturers in the region last year, the cooperative’s diversified manufacturing network increased returns in key areas.

“Our cheese-packaging plant in Portage, Wis., and the New Ulm, Minn., butter plant contributed stellar returns to the bottom line,” AMPI President and CEO Ed Welch told some 400 delegates and guests gathered for the co-op’s annual meeting at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Bloomington, Minn.

The 2011 performance marks the fifth consecutive year of growth in both consumer-packaged butter and cheese. The cooperative’s butter business increased 22 percent and packaged cheese sales climbed 43 percent in five years.

Following a performance review, AMPI Chairman of the Board Steve Schlangen focused on the future, talking about the cooperative’s advocacy related to the 2012 Farm Bill. “We want legislation that includes growth management to reduce market volatility and supports America’s dairy farm families, not just milk volume,” he said.

Operational highlights include:
-    A $7.5 million investment to purchase and install 18 technologically advanced cheese vats to improved production efficiency and cheese yield.
-    Cheddar cheese produced in Blair, Wis., and salted butter produced in New Ulm, Minn., were both awarded gold medals in the 2012 World Championship Cheese Contest. The competition attracted 2,500 entries from around the globe.
-    The co-op’s three consumer-packaging plants all achieved Safe Quality Food certifications; all 12 plants will have designation in 2012.
-    For the third consecutive year, the number of members earning the AMPI Milk Quality Award increased. More than 450 producers received the award for consistently achieving the cooperative’s high milk standards.

The annual meeting culminates tomorrow with delegates considering resolutions and reviewing the cooperative’s legislative priorities.



CWT Assists with 4.7 Million Pounds of Butter and Cheese Export Sales

Cooperatives Working Together (CWT) has accepted 13 requests for export assistance from Dairy Farmers of America, Darigold, and United Dairymen of Arizona to sell a total of 1,288 metric tons (2.840 million pounds) of Cheddar cheese and 855 metric tons (1.884 million pounds) of butter to customers in Asia, Central America, the Middle East, and Africa. The product will be delivered March through September 2012.

In 2012, CWT has assisted member cooperatives in making export sales of Cheddar, Monterey Jack and Gouda cheese totaling 37.0 million pounds and butter totaling 32.2 million pounds to 19 countries on four continents. On a butterfat basis, the milk equivalent of these exports is 1.044 billion pounds. Those CWT-assisted exports will utilize the equivalent of nearly 60% of the 1.780 billion pounds of increased milk production through February 2012.

Assisting CWT members through the Export Assistance program positively impacts producer milk prices in the short-term by reducing inventories that overhang the market and depress cheese and butter prices. In the long-term, CWT’s Export Assistance program helps member cooperatives gain and maintain market share, thus expanding the demand for U.S. dairy products and the farm milk that produces them.

CWT will pay export bonuses to the bidders only when delivery of the product is verified by the submission of the required documentation.



4-H Members Explore Issues Affecting Youth at the 2012 National 4-H Conference

Today 200 4-H members from across the country came to the nation's capital to make their voice heard as part of the 2012 National 4-H Conference, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Dr. Jill Biden, Second Lady of the United States, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack addressed the delegates during the morning general session.

"These 4-H members are extraordinary role models and mentors in their communities," Dr. Biden said. "Just as our military men and women serve our country on the battlefield, these young people lead in our communities. Over the next few decades, one of the tasks that will define their generation will be their support for our returning veterans and our military families."

"For almost 100 years, USDA and 4-H have partnered to produce some of our nation's best and brightest, including farmers and ranchers who have supported the American economy and put food on our tables," Vilsack said. "You all are tomorrow's leaders. We need you to think big, innovate and help tackle the important challenges standing between us, a stronger middle class and a stronger nation."

Dr. Biden, a longtime educator, spoke to conference participants about Joining Forces, the initiative she started with First Lady Michelle Obama to encourage all Americans to support military families. Dr. Biden encouraged 4-H members to not only continue their longtime support of military families, but to continue to act as role models and mentors in their communities.

Participants at this year's conference will engage in personal development experiences that increase their knowledge, resources and skills on issues that matter most to them. As in previous years, delegates will participate in roundtable discussions with partnering federal agencies about topics specific to issues affecting youth and communities nationwide and the role 4-H can play in addressing those issues. Issue topics for this year's conference include: alcohol and drug use prevention, youth suicide prevention, healthy eating and living, equal education for under-represented groups, integration of veteran and military families into local communities, and using science and technology to improve local communities.

Also during this year's conference, delegates will learn about a new partnership with the Department of Homeland Security focused on cyber security. The Stop.Think.Connect Campaign will provide 4-H participants with the tools and resources to help raise awareness among teens and young adults regarding emerging online threats and the importance of cybersecurity. This partnership builds on the campaign's efforts to highlight resources available to schools and communities, as well as to promote cyber awareness and educate America's youth about safe online practices.

Since the first conference in 1927, the National 4-H Conference, known as the "Secretary's Conference," continues to be USDA's premier forum to engage youth in developing recommendations for the 4-H Youth Development Program.



IRS Waives Fines for MF Global Victims

U.S. tax officials will not penalize farmers who could not properly file their taxes because they had accounts at bankrupt broker MF Global.

The Internal Revenue Service said in a press release on Friday it would waive fines for farmers who underpaid their taxes because they did not receive forms reflecting profits and losses in MF Global accounts before a March 1 deadline.

The tax forms, known as 1099s, are normally delivered around the beginning of February.

However, the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of MF Global, which had a large number of agricultural clients, pushed back the deadline for mailing the forms as he investigated an estimated $1.6 billion shortfall in customers' accounts. That forced many former clients to piece together their earnings based on personal records and submit their best estimates to the IRS.

Farmers must file their taxes by March 1 if they earned at least two-thirds of their gross income from farming and did not file an estimate of what they owe in mid January. The earlier-than-normal deadline is a trade-off for not paying estimated taxes throughout the year.

"Because so many farmers take advantage of that special rule, it became an issue" when they did not receive the tax forms before March 1, said IRS spokesman Eric Smith, who did not have an estimate of how many farmers were impacted. He said it was not uncommon for the agency to waive penalties in extreme circumstances, including natural disasters.



HSUS Ends Petition Drive in Missouri

A spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States-funded "Your Vote Counts" initiative has announced that the group will will end their petition drive. The news comes after a year-long effort by Missouri Farmers Care and allied groups to educate the public on the failings of the proposed constitutional amendment.

"This is a great day for everyone that believes Missourians should determine how our state government should operate and not animal-rights activists and Washington, D.C.,-based special interests," Missouri Farmers Care Chairman Don Nikodim said.

The Your Vote Counts initiative would have radically altered the Missouri Constitution by requiring any legislative changes to future ballot initiatives to be approved by a three-fourths supermajority. Nikodim says this change would have effectively ended any potential input by the governor or legislature on initiative petitions and made Missouri only the third state in the nation with such a law.

"Your Vote Counts was a front for HSUS so they could more effectively attack agriculture in the future, but it would have opened a floodgate of outside money on any number of issues," Missouri Farmers Care Treasurer Dale Ludwig said. "The fact that 77% of Your Vote Counts' money came from HSUS is a pretty clear indicator that animal-rights groups wanted this change so they could attack agriculture again."

Fundraising reports show that animal-rights groups HSUS and ASPCA put over $380,000 into the Your Vote Counts effort. Only 1% of Your Vote Counts' funding came from Missouri residents or businesses.



LAST CALL TO OWN A PIECE OF THE DEKALB® BRAND’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

It’s not too late for bidders to stake their claim on the DEKALB 100th Anniversary Bike, as the online auction for the chopper ends on Sunday, April 1, at 8 a.m. Central Time at www.dekalb.com/100.

To date, the custom-built, commemorative chopper designed by Paul Jr. Designs of Discovery Channel’s “American Chopper – Senior v. Junior”, has received 55 bids, with the current high bid at $57,300. All proceeds from the chopper auction will be donated to the American Red Cross.

The chopper has been a revved-up addition to the anniversary celebration that pays homage to the generations of DEKALB farmers and dealers and the brand’s 100-year legacy of strong performance and industry-leading innovations. The bike was built with farmers in mind, with features such as a vintage tractor-seat, winged-ear wheel spokes and a retro wood finish to represent the wooden agricultural crates used when DEKALB was created 100 years ago.

The bike was unveiled at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Ill., and has since been touring rural America on a 30-stop tour to various farm shows and industry meetings. The bike’s new owner will take possession of this impressive piece of machinery at the 2012 Farm Progress Show in Boone, Iowa.

“The DEKALB brand would like to thank all of those individuals who have submitted bids thus far to help support the important work of the American Red Cross,” says DEKALB Marketing Lead Jason Hoag. “We are proud to have the chopper proceeds go to such an honorable organization that continues to help rural America.”