Wednesday May 9 Ag News

Nebraska Agricultural Leadership Council Elects New Officers

The Nebraska Agricultural Leadership Council recently elected new officers and board members during its annual meeting.  Newly elected officers include chairman of the board, Bob Campbell of Lincoln; vice chair, Jaclyn Wilson-Demel of Lakeside; secretary, Burdette Piening of Lincoln; and treasurer, Bob Balfany of Lincoln.  Newly elected board members include: Jarid Childears of North Platte, Ron Pavelka of Glenvil and Leland Poppe of North Platte. Re-elected for a second three-year term were Balfany and Rob Robertson of Hickman.

Other board members include: Robert Andersen of Lincoln, Don Batie of Lexington, Bob Dickey of Laurel, Kelly Hodson of Osmond, Tom Hoegemeyer of Lincoln, Greg Ibach of Sumner, Mike Maranell of Omaha, Larry Pearson of Bennington, Terry Schutte of Lincoln, Jodi Storer of Sutherland and Jill Brown of Lincoln who serves as the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources liaison representative.

The council’s president is Terry Hejny, who also serves as the director of the Nebraska LEAD Program.

The Nebraska LEAD Program includes men and women, currently active in production agriculture and agribusiness and is a two-year leadership development program under the direction of the Nebraska Agricultural Leadership Council in cooperation with the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

For more information, or to request an application for Nebraska LEAD XXXII which will begin in September of 2012, contact the Nebraska LEAD Program, 318 Biochemistry Hall, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68583-0763; call 402-472-6810 or email sgerdes2@unl.edu. Applications are due June 15.



For Rural America, the Future Belongs to Those Who Embrace New Realities

This is not your grandparents' rural America, and it's time to quit wishing it still were so.

That was one message at the opening of the University of Nebraska's first Rural Futures Conference Tuesday night, as several speakers noted there's a vibrant future to be built in rural America but only for those communities and leaders willing to adapt and adjust to new realities.

The conference, which continues Wednesday and Thursday at the Cornhusker Hotel, has drawn several hundred participants for what Ronnie Green, NU vice president for agriculture and natural resources, has described as a way to rethink and reinvigorate higher education's role in supporting rural America.

Green said the time is right for such a reckoning. This year marks the 150th anniversary of two critical pieces of legislation that helped make America what it is -- the Homestead Act that helped populate the Plains and the Morrill Act that established land-grant universities such as the University of Nebraska-Lincoln -- as well as the transcontinental railroad that proved key in establishing communities across the nation's mid-section.

NU is establishing a new Rural Institute, and the conversations at this week's conference are expected to help inform its mission.

Although agriculture was the foundation of rural America, and still is a critical part of its economy, that's not all there is, said Green, who also is Harlan vice chancellor of the university's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources.

"It's not just an economy of production," he said. "It's a natural resources economy. It's a knowledge economy."

UNL Chancellor Harvey Perlman noted that many are nostalgic for the past when they think about rural America. "It seems to me this is at heart a very pessimistic view," he added.

Noted photographer Joel Sartore, a UNL graduate, echoed those thoughts. Showing some photos of idyllic rural scenes, he said, "I want that, I like that.

"But it's a new day. It's time to step it up," added Sartore, who showed several examples of rural communities that have been creative in marketing themselves, from a town with an annual rattlesnake festival to another that attracts birders eager for a chance to see, or even just hear, a rare ground sparrow.

Gov. Dave Heineman and others said leadership in rural communities is key. "We know communities in Nebraska that have great leaders, and they're going to move their communities forward no matter how small they are."

A few of those young leaders participated in a panel discussion and wove their own experiences of returning to their Nebraska roots after leaving them for a time.

Anne Trumble, executive director of Emerging Terrain in Omaha, remembers the mantra when she moved from her family farm to UNL. "Oh, you've got to get out of here, you've got to move away. And I did that," she said.

Fifteen years later, in New York City, "it just dawned on me … they were wrong. It was hard for me to find a place there," Trumble said. She moved back to Nebraska.

Others addressed that theme, too -- that finding one's place in the world is leading more and more natives of rural America back to their roots.

Caleb Pollard, executive director of Valley County Economic Development in Ord, said young people want to "live in places where they can have meaning and purpose," and rural America can offer that.

"I have a very strong sense of place. I appreciate where I came from," said Amanda Crook, a Nebraska City native who's now a graduate assistant at UNL. Echoing Pollard's comments, she said rural America can be a place where "people find where their strengths and their passions meet."

Green invited panelists' perspective on the role universities can play.

Pollard said the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act is an excellent time for land-grant universities to commit themselves, just as they did when they were established, to "change the trajectory of rural America."

One longtime university administrator said the challenge to universities is compelling.

Indeed, changing the culture within academia -- knocking down silos, getting over past disagreements and working together across campuses and disciplines -- will challenge universities in ways they haven't been before, said Bob Bartee, vice chancellor for external affairs for the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

But he agreed it's key that universities partner with communities to help rural America succeed.

"Government doesn't have to be the driver. It won't be the driver. But we can do it," Bartee said.



Biomass Expansion Would Revolutionize World Politics, Economies

Replacing foreign oil with domestically grown biomass would revolutionize world politics and economies, with states such as Nebraska emerging as potentially huge winners, says a former Clay County farm boy who's now one of the world's leading biotechnology scientists.

Jay Keasling, a professor of biochemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, spoke Tuesday on "The Bold Future of Alternative Energy," as the final guest in the 2011-12 Heuermann Lectures at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Using 2009 statistics, Keasling said that of the 94.5 quadrillion BTUs of energy used in the United States, 83 percent came from fossil fuels. The U.S. now imports about half that oil, and those oil imports account for roughly half of the nation's trade imbalance. And, of course, fossil fuels emit high levels of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Future oil shortages are predicted as China and India increase use at a time when oil production is leveling off and dropping. Prices could reach $200 a barrel, doubling the price of gasoline.

Ethanol from corn already is making inroads into that dependence on foreign oil, but that's only part of the answer, Keasling said. Indeed, corn is far from the ideal biofuels crop, since it requires lots of water and fertilizer and also is important as a food and feed crop.

So, other forms of biomass are in development, including switchgrass, which can produce four times the amount of energy it takes to grow it, Keasling noted.

Keasling's research team at a firm he founded, the Joint BioEnergy Institute, is heavily involved in those efforts. Scientists there engineered a strain of Escherichia coli bacteria to produce biodiesel fuel from biomass such as switchgrass, without the need of enzyme additives. His team now is working to increase the efficiency and speed by which its engineered E. coli strain can be cost-effective and economically competitive in quantities needed to meet the world need.

"We need to rely on dedicated energy crops" such as switchgrass, said Keasling, who received his bachelor's degree from UNL.

"This would be a huge change in our balance of trade, a huge change in world politics," he added, noting that the money now going overseas to purchase oil could be going into economies of farm states such as Nebraska.

Miscanthus giganteus is a particularly promising biomass crop. It's a perennial that grows 12 feet tall; it also fixes nitrogen in the soil. "It looks to be a great crop for the future," Keasling said.

Scientists like Keasling are focusing on making more efficient the process for getting energy out of biomass crops. Sugars – which comprise about 70 percent of plants' content – are the key, but extracting them and processing them is tricky. Goals are to develop plants that contain more of the so-called "good sugars," less of the bad, and fewer lignins, which are organic polymers in plant cell walls that make them rigid and woody.

Research efforts are focused on improving pretreatment processes to remove lignins and engineering plants to have less lignin. "This is a very exciting area of research," he added.

While bioenergy has successfully produced gasoline substitutes, future research also must produce diesel and jet fuel substitutes.

Keasling said he also expects biomass production to result in chemicals from those plant sugars to replace other substances that now come from petroleum.

Responding to a question from the audience, Keasling said government's role in this process will be a "steady hand ... steady policies over many decades" and not playing favorites among the different crops and technologies. "Government shouldn't be picking winners and losers. Let the marketplace do that."

The Heuermann Lectures will resume in the fall, with four former secretaries of agriculture invited to speak about the land-grant university tradition on Sept. 28.

Heuermann Lectures in UNL's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources focus on providing and sustaining enough food, natural resources and renewable energy for the people of the world, and on securing the sustainability of rural communities where the vital work of producing food and renewable energy occurs. The lectures feature diverse speakers who are working to meet the world's food and food-related challenges in a variety of fields.

Heuermann Lectures are made possible through a gift from B. Keith and Norma Heuermann of Phillips, longtime university supporters with a strong commitment to Nebraska's production agriculture, natural resources, rural areas and people.



Bad Information is Bad for Business
Steve Nelson, President, Nebraska Farm Bureau Federation

We are saddened to learn that 650 hard-working Americans will be without jobs due to a misinformation media frenzy that inaccurately and unfairly targeted a beef product that has been deemed safe by USDA since 1974.

BPI's decision to close three of its plants that produce lean, finely textured beef is the direct result of a growing trend where hype and hysteria have replaced common sense decision-making based on facts and science. This trend is particularly concerning to farmers and ranchers whose livelihoods are dependent upon consumer confidence in the food they eat.

The closure of these plants and the inability of lean, finely textured beef to recover from the baseless negative exposure it received is exactly why Nebraska Farm Bureau expressed disappointment directly to USDA in a letter to the agency questioning its decision to offer alternatives to lean, finely textured beef through its school lunch programs. That decision only furthered unfounded fears about the safety of the product. It is our opinion that USDA failed in its mission to use science to base its decisions.

This unfortunate situation is a worst case example of how rhetoric and half-truths have successfully dismantled a food safety program built around science to protect American consumers. Hopefully common sense will prevail and these plants will have the chance to reopen in the future.



Survey Reveals Confusion Surrounds Popular Food Topics and Trends

CommonGround, a volunteer group of farm women dedicated to creating conversations around farming and food, wants to help moms looking for information on some of the most common questions about food. To do so, the group, which was developed through a partnership between the National Corn Growers Association and the United Soybean Board, commissioned the Gate-to-Plate Survey to gain insights into how U.S. moms feel and think about their food and the food choices they make for their families.

Overall, the study showed that more than 70 percent of moms have questions or concerns about how their food is grown or raised.  Through honest conversations in which volunteer farmers share their own experiences and by providing independent scientific data from reputably third-parties, they hope to offer the information that they need to feel confident in their food choices.

"As our population continues to shift from rural to urban communities, people become more disconnected from their food," said CommonGround volunteer Carrie Divine, a beef cattle and row-crop farmer from Morganfield, Ky. "This type of divide can often lead to confusion about food and today's farming practices. We're here to answer questions, supply facts on current food topics and - most importantly - provide moms with useful information so they can worry less and feel more confident about their food choices."

Guilt and Confusion around Organic Foods
The results of the CommonGround Gate-to-Plate Survey underscore Divine's observations. According to the survey, confusion (and guilt) surrounds organic food, with some moms willing to pay more for organic foods even though they are unsure of what they are buying.  More than 60 percent of moms overall - and nearly 80 percent of moms ages 18 to 24 - said they would buy organic meat, produce and dairy products if they could afford it, but fewer than one out of 10 moms could accurately identify what qualifies food to be labeled organic.

Additionally, nearly half of all moms surveyed mistakenly believe that organic foods have a greater nutritional value than similar nonorganic items.  And not being able to afford organic meat, dairy and produce was the No. 1 source of food guilt among moms - edging out overall food affordability.

"We want moms to know that nonorganic foods have the same taste and nutritional value as their organic counterparts," said Divine. "All foods - whether organic or nonorganic - must meet certain health and safety regulations before being sold to consumers.  Organic food is only different in how it is grown, handled and processed."

Buying into "Buying Local"
Buying local proved to be another hot food trend, with more than 90 percent of moms responding that buying local is "somewhat" or "very" important when making food choices. Additionally, nearly three out of four moms surveyed (74 percent) believe that buying local is better for the environment.

"Buying from local farms is a great way to support area farmers, but it's important for moms to also recognize that only 20 percent of U.S. farmland is located near metropolitan areas," said CommonGround volunteer farmer Kristin Reese. "Sometimes it takes more energy to grow and harvest local food than it does to grow it far away and have it shipped, and it takes a variety of different food sources to supply food to our cities."

Myths About Food Costs and the Modern Family Farmer
Additional survey findings found that moms vastly underestimate the number of family-owned farms (98 percent of U.S. farms are family-owned) and overestimate what a typical family spends on food annually (American consumers spend only 10 percent of their income on food). These, along with the other findings and information, are the types of food topics and information CommonGround volunteers want to engage American moms in to provide factual information.   

"U.S. farmers work incredibly hard to ensure that we can produce food that is safe, affordable, accessible and nutritious," said Reese. "We apply that same work ethic to this initiative. With so many food options available, we want moms to feel good about their food choices and to know that we share many of the same values and priorities when it comes to feeding our own families."



AFBF Intervenes in Mississippi River Basin Case

The American Farm Bureau Federation Tuesday, along with 14 state Farm Bureau organizations and 16 other national and regional agricultural organizations, filed a motion seeking to intervene in Gulf Restoration Network, et al. v. Jackson, et al., a lawsuit seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to establish federal numeric nutrient water quality standards for all states in the Mississippi River Basin. The resolution of the lawsuit could be significant for farmers, municipalities and others throughout the 31-state basin because numeric nutrient standards could lead to more costly and stringent limits on nutrient runoff to waters that ultimately contribute to the Mississippi River.

Under the Clean Water Act, states may use either “narrative” or “numeric” standards as a method for determining water quality. Most states in the Mississippi River Basin use narrative standards, such as “no nutrients at levels that cause a harmful imbalance of aquatic populations.” However, if this lawsuit is successful, EPA would be forced to override existing state standards with federal water quality standards and to express those standards as specific numeric limits on nutrients.

“Setting appropriate numeric nutrient standards is a complex and difficult scientific undertaking and EPA has proven it is not up to the task,” said AFBF President Bob Stallman. “Farmers have no reason to believe that EPA could establish scientifically defensible standards for any one state, much less for 40 percent of the U.S. land mass.”

According to AFBF, there are limited circumstances under which the Clean Water Act allows EPA to step in the place of a state government to establish federal water quality standards. The organization is seeking to intervene in the lawsuit to clarify those limitations to the federal District Court in Louisiana, where the case is being heard.

“Farmers and their state governments in the Mississippi River Basin have worked successfully for years to minimize nutrient runoff and will continue to do so,” said Stallman. “But we oppose a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach.”

The following state Farm Bureaus intervened in the lawsuit: Arkansas; Illinois; Iowa; Kansas; Kentucky; Louisiana; Minnesota; Mississippi; Missouri; Nebraska; Oklahoma; South Dakota; Tennessee; and Wyoming.



EIA: Weekly US Ethanol Stocks Down

Domestic ethanol inventories were drawn down last week, falling 848,000 bbl or 3.8% to 21.374 million bbl for the week-ended May 4 after rising in the prior week, according to fresh data released Wednesday from the Energy Information Administration.

Compared to year-ago levels, total ethanol stocks are 4.9% higher while up 4.32 million bbl or 25.3% from the levels seen on Dec. 9, 2011, when a string of weekly supply builds began.

Ethanol production from domestic plants rose 3,000 bpd to 897,000 bpd last week while up 4.1% from the 862,000 bpd output rate a year ago.  On the co-products side, ethanol producers were using 13.601 million bushels of corn to produce ethanol and 100,956 metric tons of livestock feed, 91,083 metric tons of which were distillers grains.  The rest is comprised of corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal.  Additionally, ethanol producers were providing 4.12 million pounds of corn oil daily.

Implied demand, as measured by refiner and blender net inputs, rose 14,000 or 1.8% to 824,000 bpd from the prior week, while up 4.7% from a year-ago level.

Elsewhere, the EIA reported that implied demand for motor gasoline rose 172,000 bpd to 8.864 million bpd for the week-ended May 4, while four-week average gasoline demand at 8.7 million bpd was down 3.2% from the level seen a year ago.



Oil Prices Fall for 6th Straight Day

The price of oil fell Wednesday for a sixth day as the U.S. government reported that crude supplies are the highest in 22 years.

Benchmark U.S. oil gave up 20 cents to finish at $96.81 per barrel in New York. The six-day drop is the longest for U.S. oil since July 2011.

Prices have been declining in reaction to new doubts about Europe's ability to fix its economy and disappointing jobs growth in the U.S. And as slowing economies temper the demand for oil, the amount of crude in storage rises.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Administration said that increased oil imports and weaker domestic demand for petroleum helped boost the nation's oil supply last week to 379.5 million barrels, the highest since 1990.

The Commerce Department also said U.S. wholesalers increased their stockpiles more slowly in March, hinting at a slowdown at the nation's factories.

Saudi Arabia also is boosting supplies in an effort targeted toward pushing world oil prices lower. And Iran is scheduled to meet in two weeks with several other countries including the U.S. to talk about its nuclear program. That has eased fears of a protracted standoff that could slow oil shipments out of the Middle East.

At the pump, retail gasoline prices fell by more than a penny to a national average of $3.75 per gallon, according to auto club AAA, Wright Express and the Oil Price Information Service. A gallon of regular unleaded has dropped an average of 19 cents in about a month. Gasoline is 21 cents cheaper than it was at the same time last year.

In other futures trading, heating oil added nearly a penny to finish at $2.9991 per gallon and wholesale gasoline rose by 2.97 cents to end at $3.0241 per gallon. Natural gas added 7.2 cents to finish at $2.465 per 1,000 cubic feet.



Possible Boycott Over New Trading Hours

An online petition circulating among grains futures traders threatens a boycott of the IntercontinentalExchange Inc.'s (ICE) new grains contracts amid discontent over expanded trading hours that are set to start this month.

The petition derides plans by ICE and CME Group Inc. (CME) to open electronic grain futures trading for 22 hours per day as "trading for the sake of trading" that will have no tangible public benefit. ICE announced plans last month to launch new futures contracts for corn, soybeans, wheat and other grain-related projects, to trade 22 hours daily, starting on Monday.

CME followed with its own plan to expand to 22 hours per day, up from 17 hours, in a move widely seen as an attempt to prevent volume from migrating to ICE. CME's expanding trading hours are set to start May 21.

The petition had more than 300 signatures at midday Wednesday, and included the names of traders in Chicago and brokers around the country. Petitioners say they will boycott ICE as long as it has the expanded trading hours. Should ICE reduce its hours and CME stay with its expanded schedule, the petitioners say they will boycott CME.

The petition details concerns many traders have voiced since the CME announced its expanded hours, including the potential for reduced liquidity and more volatile markets. It also questions having the markets trade when the U.S. Department of Agriculture releases crop reports, which often cause wild market swings.

Some commodity traders and advisers say the expanded hours will also increase their costs.

CME said in a May 3 letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that there were "no substantive opposing views" to the expanded hours. The letter was part of a "self certification" process required by the CFTC, which mandates a waiting period of 10 business days before the changes can take effect and takes public comments during that period.

A CFTC spokesman said Wednesday that the commission's 10-day timeline has not changed.

CME has said the expanded hours will give its increasingly global customer base more opportunities to trade, and will allow customers to better manage their risk during market-moving events such as USDA reports.

The National Grain and Feed Association, a trade group representing a wide swath of the grain industry, including large processors, grain elevators and farm lenders, has said it is "concerned" with the CME's planned changes.



Crop Protection Industry Supports Integrated Weed Management Approach

In advance of the National Research Council’s (NRC) May 10 National Summit on Strategies to Manage Herbicide-Resistant Weeds in Washington, D.C., CropLife America (CLA) and the Herbicide Resistance Action Committee (HRAC) reinforce their commitment to finding and communicating solutions to weed management and herbicide-resistant weeds. Tomorrow’s one-day summit will bring weed scientists, agronomists, ecologists, representatives from the crop protection industry, and regulators to address the obstacles that herbicide resistance presents to U.S. agricultural production, and the development of cost-effective resistance management programs and practices that maintain effective weed control. Dr. John Soteres, Global HRAC chair and scientific affairs global weed resistance management lead at Monsanto, will speak on a panel to address the approaches that encourage the adoption of best management practices. Other speakers include Dr. David Shaw (Mississippi State University); Dr. Harold Coble (U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service); Dr. Micheal Owen (Iowa State University); and Dr. Jodie Holt (University of California-Riverside), who are slated to discuss topics ranging from the epidemiology of herbicide tolerance to the nature of the resistance problem.

“Events such as NRC’s summit help to bring those in the agricultural and scientific communities together to develop new approaches for implementing advanced solutions to mitigate herbicide resistance on the farm,” said Jay Vroom, president and CEO of CLA. “Weed adaptation is not new to agriculture and will continue to occur, but providing the country’s farmers and ranchers with a reliable and effective suite of products and techniques to create an integrated weed management program will help them control and better manage this phenomenon.”

One of the most important steps in fighting and preventing weed resistance is applicator education and training. HRAC, an industry-based group that facilitates the effective management of herbicide resistance by promoting understanding, cooperation and communication between industry, academia, government and farmers, aims to educate the agricultural community and incorporate best practice strategies for resistance management. In addition to the committee’s outreach programs and materials, HRAC also collaborated with the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) in developing training modules addressing herbicide resistance education. These training modules are used to help consultants, field advisors and agronomists adopt proactive management practices in addition to the implementation of a diversified program which minimizes or addresses the progression of weed resistance.

The implementation of diversified weed management programs is the basis for recommendations by both public and private sector weed scientists. This may include recommendations to:
-    Use multiple herbicides with different mechanisms of action that are active on the same weed species, particularly those that are most troublesome or prone to evolution of herbicide resistance;
-    Combine herbicides with agronomic or cultural practices such as crop rotation, optimum variety selection/planting rates, nutrient placement, and appropriate tillage to provide a comprehensive approach to weed management;
-    Apply full labeled herbicide rates at recommended weed sizes.

Some other common-sense management practices that farmers can use to help manage this issue include: understanding the biology of the weeds present, planting into weed‐free fields and then keeping fields as free from weeds as possible, routinely scouting fields, and managing weed seed at harvest and post-harvest to prevent a buildup of the weed seedbank.

“HRAC understands that herbicide-resistant weeds are a serious issue for U.S. agriculture, and we are committed to working with a number of stakeholders to develop the best solutions and effective farmer communications and education programs,” said Dr. Soteres. “To spread awareness, HRAC supports retailer, dealer and farmer educational efforts and our WSSA training is only one example of our dedication to developing a multi-pronged approach to alleviating herbicide resistance.”

It is crucial for farmers to adopt best management practices on a local level, and implement the techniques that work best for their specific environment and situation. Given the varying farming practices and different weeds around the country and the need for practices to be localized, federal regulation of the issue would not be appropriate and may actually limit the efforts to encourage farmers to adopt best management practices. Dr. David Shaw, vice president for research and economic development at Mississippi State University and a speaker at the NRC summit, supports the notion of regional best management practice implementation. “Given the multitude of factors that contribute to resistance management, federal regulation would not be an ideal fit,” said Shaw. “Regulatory agencies would face an uphill battle in imposing regulations that may not consistently help on a region-by-region basis.”

To read more about NRC’s National Summit on Strategies to Manage Herbicide-Resistant Weeds, visit www.nas-sites.org/hr-weeds-summit. To learn more about HRAC, visit www.hracglobal.com/Home/tabid/121/Default.aspx.



Four-State Dairy Conference Provides Timely Management Info

The latest research information on issues concerning the dairy industry will be presented at the 2012 Four-State Dairy Nutrition and Management Conference on June 13 and 14 at the Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa.

This conference is a collaborative effort of the Extension Services of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa. The goal of the conference is to provide timely research information for dairy industry professionals.

Conference topics and speakers include:
-- Adjusting ration starch concentration -- Mike Allen, Michigan State University
-- Applying carbohydrate balancing on the farm panel featuring Mike Hutjens and nutrition consultants Marty Faldet and Barry Visser
-- Corn snaplage & shredlage -- Randy Shaver, University of Wisconsin
-- Pricing homegrown and purchased forages -- Norm St. Pierre, Ohio State University
-- Managing energy metabolism in transition cows -- Tom Overton, Cornell University
-- An update on hypocalcemia on dairy farms -- Gary Oetzel, University of Wisconsin
-- Recycled manure solids for bedding: does it work? -- Marcia Endres, University of Minnesota
-- Economics of robotic milking: a deal or no deal for your dairy -- Larry Tranel, Iowa State
-- Other topics include nutrition models, physiological markers for diagnostics and evaluating on farm feeding programs

The seminar starts at 8 a.m. on June 13 with a morning pre-conference symposium sponsored by Novus International. The symposium topics include Mary Ledman covering market analysis -- trends and volatility and Norm St. Pierre discussing how to deal with high feed costs. Other topics include optimizing feed efficiency and a panel discussing how to deal with high feed costs.

For a downloadable brochure go to www.wiagribusiness.org or contact Wisconsin Agri-Service Association, (608) 223-1111, or Jim Salfer at salfe001@umn.edu or (320) 203-6093.



Soybean, Corn Prices Are Up in Brazil

Severe weather and crop failures in south Brazil and increased consumption demand are driving up corn and soybean meal costs in that country, putting pig and poultry farmers on alert.

Ariovaldo Zani, executive VP of Brazil's National Animal Feed Industry Association, Sindirações, said feed production this year will increase by 3.0 to 3.5 percent. Feed costs account for about 60 percent of Brazilian pig and poultry producers' total production cost.

"The Brazilian animal feed industry depends on the food industry which, in turn, is modulated by domestic and international consumer demand," Brazil's National Animal Feed Industry Association said.

Soybean meal and corn account for about 80 percent of the feed consumed by poultry and pigs in Brazil.

According to the Association, last year, 66 million tons of feed were produced, with 37.8 million tons going to poultry farms and 15.4 million tons going to pig farms. On poultry farms, 61 percent of the feed is made up of corn and 25 percent soybean meal, while pig feed is made up of 68 percent corn and 16 percent is soybean meal.

For corn, the average productivity in the southern region will be much lower than last season and even less than the average of the last 10 years which will increase the dependence on the winter corn crop.

Winter corn areas are expected to increase but it is too early to predict if that will equate into larger production.