Wednesday August 8 Ag News

2011 NE FARM PRODUCTION EXPENDITURES

Farm and Ranch Production Expenditures for Nebraska totaled $17.32 billion in 2011, up 10 percent from a year earlier, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, Nebraska Field Office.  Livestock expenses, the largest expenditure category, at $3.58 billion, remained unchanged from 2010.  Rent, the next largest total expense category, at $2.08 billion, increased 8 percent from 2010.  The categories showing the largest percentage increase over the previous year are Tractors & Self Propelled Machinery at 44 percent and Fertilizer at 33 percent.

Livestock expenses accounted for 21 percent of Nebraska’s total production expenditures.  Rent accounted for 12, Feed 10, and Farm Services 9 percent.

The total expenditures per farm or ranch in Nebraska averaged $370,085 in 2011, up from $333,475, an increase of 11 percent.  The Livestock expense category was the leading expenditure, at $76,496 per operation, more than 5 times the national average.  Rent expenditures, at $44,444 per operation, were over 3 times the national average.  The average Feed expenditure, at $36,966, was one and one half times the national average.  Farm Services expenditures per operation, at $33,120, were above the national average.

These results are based on data from Nebraska farmers and ranchers who participated in the Agricultural Resource Management Study conducted by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.  Producers were contacted in February through April to collect 2011 farm and ranch expenses.  This is the eighth year of state level information published for Nebraska from the Agricultural Resource Management Study.



NE Corn Board to Meet

The Nebraska Corn Board will hold its next meeting on Wednesday, August 15, 2012 at Fairfield Inn in Kearney, Nebraska.   The Board will address regular board business, and hold election of officers.  The meeting is open to the public.  A copy of the agenda is available by writing the Nebraska Corn Board, PO Box 95107, Lincoln, NE  68509, or calling either 402/471-2676 or 800-NECORN1.   The Nebraska Corn Board is a self-help program, funded and managed by Nebraska corn farmers.  Producers invest in the program at a rate of ¼ of a cent per bushel of corn sold.  Nebraska corn checkoff funds are invested in programs of market development, research and education.



Vilsack, Obama Administration Deliver New Drought Assistance to America's Producers

As part of continuing steps by the Obama Administration to assist livestock producers in response to the historic drought, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today highlighted that USDA will utilize nearly $16 million in financial and technical assistance to immediately help crop and livestock producers in 19 states cope with the adverse impacts of the historic drought. In addition, USDA will initiate a transfer of $14 million in unobligated program funds into the Emergency Conservation Program. These funds can be used to assist in moving water to livestock in need, providing emergency forage for livestock, and rehabilitating lands severely impacted by the drought. Together these efforts should provide nearly $30 million to producers struggling with drought conditions.

"President Obama and I continue to work across the federal government to provide relief for those farmers and ranchers who are affected by the severe drought conditions impacting many states across our nation," said Vilsack. "This additional assistance builds on a number of steps USDA has taken over the past few weeks to provide resources and flexibility in our existing programs to help producers endure these serious hardships. As this drought persists, the Obama Administration is committed to using existing authorities wherever possible to help the farmers, ranchers, small businesses, and communities being impacted."

Yesterday in Washington, President Obama convened his White House Rural Council to review Executive Branch response actions and to develop additional policy initiatives to assist drought-stricken Americans. Following the meeting, the White House announced a number of new measures the Administration is taking, including USDA's assistance for livestock and crop producers, the National Credit Union Administration's increased capacity for lending to customers including farmers, and the U.S. Department of Transportation's emergency waivers for federal truck weight regulations and hours of service requirements to drought-stricken communities. President Obama also stressed the need for the entire Administration to continue to look at further steps it can take to ease the pain of this historic drought.

Within the last month, USDA has opened the Conservation Reserve Program to emergency haying and grazing, has lowered the borrower interest rate for emergency loans, and has worked with crop insurance companies to provide more flexibility to farmers. USDA has also announced the following:
-    Allowing producers to modify current EQIP contracts to allow for grazing, livestock watering, and other conservation activities to address drought conditions.
-    Authorizing haying and grazing of Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) easement areas in drought-affected areas where haying and grazing is consistent with conservation of wildlife habitat and wetlands.
-    Lowering the reduction in the annual rental payment to producers on CRP acres used for emergency haying or grazing from 25 percent to 10 percent in 2012.
-    Simplifying the Secretarial disaster designation process and reduced the time it takes to designate counties affected by disasters by 40 percent.

With the USDA announcement highlighted today, USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will use $16 million in existing funds from its Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP) and Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) to target states experiencing exceptional and extreme drought. The states with exceptional, or the most severe, drought are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska. States experiencing extreme drought are Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Nevada, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. NRCS state conservationists will announce special signups for WHIP and EQIP funds which will allow eligible producers to apply for selected conservation practices. These practices include prescribed grazing, livestock watering facilities and water conservation practices. Eligible producers also can re-apply for financial assistance to re-install or re-apply failed conservation practices due to drought and modify existing contracts to re-schedule planned conservation practices.

In addition, USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) will transfer $14 million in unobligated program funds into the Emergency Conservation Program (ECP). ECP provides emergency funding and technical assistance for farmers and ranchers to rehabilitate farmland damaged by natural disasters and for carrying out emergency water conservation measures in periods of severe drought. ECP also provides resources to help producers restore livestock fences.

Also today, Vilsack signed disaster designations for an additional 44 counties in 12 states as primary natural disaster areas due to damage and losses caused by drought and excessive heat. Counties designated today are in the states of Arkansas, Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Dakota. During the 2012 crop year, USDA has designated 1,628 unduplicated counties across 33 states as disaster areas—1,496 due to drought—making all qualified farm operators in the areas eligible for low-interest emergency loans. The U.S. Drought Monitor indicates that 66 percent of the nation's hay acreage is in an area experiencing drought, while approximately 73 percent of the nation's cattle acreage is in an area experiencing drought. During the week ending Aug. 5, USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) reported that U.S. soybeans rated 39 percent very poor to poor, surpassing the lowest conditions observed during the drought of 1988. NASS also reported that 50 percent of the U.S. corn crop was rated very poor to poor. In addition, 59 percent of the nation's pastures and rangeland are rated very poor or poor.

Visit www.usda.gov/drought for the latest information regarding USDA's drought response and assistance.

The Obama Administration, with Agriculture Secretary Vilsack's leadership, has worked tirelessly to strengthen rural America, maintain a strong farm safety net, and create opportunities for America's farmers and ranchers. U.S. agriculture is currently experiencing one of its most productive periods in American history thanks to the productivity, resiliency, and resourcefulness of our producers. A strong farm safety net is important to sustain the success of American agriculture. USDA's crop insurance program currently insures 264 million acres, 1.14 million policies, and $110 billion worth of liability on about 500,000 farms. In response to tighter financial markets, USDA has expanded the availability of farm credit, helping struggling farmers refinance loans. In the past 3 years, USDA provided 103,000 loans to family farmers totaling $14.6 billion. Over 50 percent of the loans went to beginning and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

Primary counties and corresponding states designated as disaster areas today include:

IA
Lyon
Plymouth
Sioux
Woodbury

NE
Adams
Boyd
Burt
Butler
Clay
Colfax
Cuming
Dakota
Dodge
Hamilton
Polk
Saunders
Thurston
Webster
York

SD
Minnehaha



Producer Support of Beef Checkoff Remains High

Support for the beef checkoff remains high, despite weather and economic pressures facing the industry, according to a recent survey of U.S. beef and dairy producers. Checkoff support, at 74 percent – about even with January 2012 findings – remains at historic highs.

The nationwide survey of 900 beef and dairy producers conducted by the independent firm Aspen Media & Market Research in late June and early July 2012 found that an overwhelming majority of beef and dairy producers continue to believe that their beef checkoff has value for them in many ways.

A copy of the research report is available online... http://www.beefboard.org/click.asp?id=14330&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ebeefboard%2Eorg%2Flibrary%2Ffiles%2FPAS%2FBeefmemo12%5F2%2Epdf.  



Cattle Vaccine Works to Reduce E. coli O157:H7

Commercial vaccine for cattle can effectively reduce levels of E. coli by more than 50 percent, a Kansas State University study has found. The vaccine is also effective using two doses instead of the recommended three doses, which can help cut costs for the beef industry.

David Renter, associate professor of epidemiology, is the principal investigator on a project that researched the effectiveness of products used to prevent the shedding of E. coli O157:H7 in cattle. The research appears in a recent online version of the journal Vaccine and helps improve current preventative methods for addressing food safety concerns.

While E. coli O157:H7 does not affect cattle, it causes foodborne disease in humans. Vaccines and other products may be given to cattle to help prevent the spread of the bacteria.

"We wanted to test how well these products work to control E. coli O157:H7 in a commercial feedlot with a large population of cattle that were fed in the summer and may be expected to have a high level of E. coli O157:H7," Renter said.

Other Kansas State University researchers involved include T.G. Nagaraja, university distinguished professor of microbiology; Nora Bello, assistant professor of statistics; Charley Cull, doctoral student in pathobiology, Oakland, Neb.; and Zachary Paddock, doctoral student in pathobiology, Manhattan, Kan. Abram Babcock, an August 2010 Kansas State University doctoral graduate, also was involved in the research.

Using a commercial feedlot setting, the researchers studied more than 17,000 cattle during an 85-day period. They studied two products: a vaccine and a low-dose direct-fed microbial.

"What's unique about this study is the number of animals we used, the research setting and that we used commercial products in the way that any cattle producer could use them," Renter said. "We didn't want it to be any different than the way somebody would use the products in a commercial feedlot."

The researchers found that the vaccine reduced the number of cattle that were shedding E. coli O157:H7 in feces by more than 50 percent. E. coli shedding was reduced by more than 75 percent among cattle that were high shedders of E. coli. While the vaccine label suggests that it is given in three doses, the researchers found that two doses of the vaccine significantly reduced E. coli.

"Showing that level of efficacy with two doses is really important because a shift to two doses from three could significantly cut costs for the beef industry," Renter said. "In terms of logistics, it can be difficult for commercial feedlot production systems to vaccinate animals three times. Both of these benefits help when considering how the vaccine can be adopted and implemented in the industry."

The researchers also discovered that the low-dose direct-fed microbial product did not work as well as the vaccine. Renter said while the study used a lower dose of the direct-fed microbial and could find no evidence that it reduced E. coli shredding, it is possible that the direct-fed microbial product is more effective at a higher dose.

"This vaccine is an option for reducing E. coli," Renter said. "We have shown that this vaccine works and that it is a tool that could be adopted in the industry."

The research was supported as part of a three-year $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nagaraja and Renter are involved in several other studies on E. coli O157 and other types of E. coli closely related to O157, including research associated with the $25 million coordinated agricultural program, or CAP, grant with the University of Nebraska Lincoln and several other universities. That five-year grant is supported by the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture.



Nebraska Sheep and Goat Producer Mentor Program Available

The Nebraska Sheep and Goat Producers Association has opened its new Mentor Program to all producers interested in sheep and goat management. Producers do not need to be members to participate in this free program.

The Mentor Program, made possible by a grant through the American Sheep Industry Association, connects beginning sheep and goat producers, including youth, to experienced producers who are available to answer questions, offer tips, and provide additional resources on sheep and goat production for market, wool, dairy, and show. Support is offered through phone calls and e-mail.

Program mentors are longtime producers Mike Wallace of Nelson, Neb., and Ivan G. Rush of Scottsbluff, Neb.

Wallace is a lifelong sheep and goat producer with experience in a variety of sheep production models from slotted-floor confinement systems to dry lot to pasture-based, from winter lambing in jugs to "hands-free" lambing in summer pastures, from creep-feeding and feedlot to grass-finishing, from farmer-direct marketing to selling through the auction house to trucking loads of lambs to the eastern U.S. Wallace and his wife, Fran, have owned and operated the Double M Ranch for the past 32 years. They utilize year-round grazing and pasture lambing/calving in May/June. Multispecies grazing with sheep, cattle, and goats allows them to sustainably capture increased stocking rates, improved animal performance, diversity of income, and improve the native range and introduced pastures. Wallace recently retired after 33 years as the Sheep Operations Manager at the Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center near Clay Center, Neb. Previously, he worked five years as an Associate Animal Scientist for the University of Illinois at the Dixon Springs Agricultural Center near Simpson, Ill. He received a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science from Wilmington College in Ohio and a Master of Science in Agriculture from the University of Kentucky. He was born and raised on a dairy farm near Oregonia, Ohio, where he started the family's sheep business. Wallace is a previous president and director emeritus of the Nebraska Sheep and Goat Producers Association, and a previous Goat Committee member of the American Sheep Industry Association. Currently, he serves on the board of directors for the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition.

Rush is also a lifelong sheep producer. He currently runs 90 Suffolk ewes bred to Suffolk and Hampshire rams, and markets the self-fed, grain-finished 150-pound lambs direct to JBS in Greeley, Co. He also sells 4-H and FFA project lambs, but because his program stresses performance traits, the lambs usually place high in rate of gain and ultrasound but lower in the show ring. He grows his own alfalfa and corn for the feed base, and formulates any ration coming from a commercial feed mill.

Rush retired two years ago from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff, where he served as Beef Specialist. He also had the opportunity to work with several commercial sheep producers, as well as 4-H youth. Previously, he worked as an Extension Educator in Dawson County, Neb., and as Sheep Program Director in Colombia, South America. His training is in animal nutrition at the University of Missouri and Oklahoma State University where he received his PhD.

Rush is a member of the Nebraska Sheep and Goat Producers Association's Board of Directors. He is also the president of the Western Nebraska Sheep and Goat Association.

If interested in the program, or for more information, contact the Nebraska Sheep and Goat Producers Association at ne.sheep.goat@gmail.com or 402-841-8734.



Former NFL Wide Receiver Eddie Kennison to Help Kick Off Iowa State Fair by Leading Touchdown Dance Competition

Former National Football League wide receiver and Fuel Up to Play 60 representative Eddie Kennison will help The Healthiest State Initiative kick off this year’s Iowa State Fair by participating in the Grand Opening Ceremony on Thursday, August 9. Along with KC Wolf and Fuel Up to Play 60 student leaders; Kennison will help the crowd get up and get moving by leading a Touchdown Dance competition and ramp up the crowd for the largest ZUMBA Class. He’ll be tossing out autographed prizes to the fair-goers with the most enthusiastic dance moves.

Kennison, who’s played for the Kansas City Chiefs, St. Louis Rams, New Orleans Saints, Chicago Bears and Denver Broncos, will join Iowa Dairy Princess Alternate Heidi Hain, Fuel Up to Play 60 students, KC Wolf, a dairy council dietitian, and the Healthiest State Initiative for the Opening Ceremony on stage starting at 7:15 a.m. Eddie will be available for brief media interviews from 7:30 to 7:55 a.m. Pediatrician Dr. Janet Graeve, Iowa’s Fuel Up to Play 60 State Student Ambassador Courtney Downing, and Midwest Dairy representatives will also be available for interviews until 9 a.m.

More than 70,000 schools across the United States are participating in Fuel Up to Play 60. Launched by National Dairy Council (NDC), local dairy councils, and the National Football League (NFL), in collaboration with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the free program encourages youth to consume nutrient-rich foods, including low-fat and fat-free dairy foods, fruits, vegetables and whole grains, and achieve at least 60 minutes of physical activity every day. Multiple health organizations and several major corporations are also supporting Fuel Up to Play 60. In Iowa, Fuel Up to Play 60 is provided by Midwest Dairy Council and the NFL. More than 430,000 students in 1,100 Iowa schools participate in the program.

Fuel Up to Play 60 responds to real-world needs in today’s schools with wellness tools that complement – not compete with – the academics-focused environment. The program’s design allows youth and schools to determine which tools and resources best help to meet each school’s wellness goals and features easy enrollment, and step-by-step guidance. For more information about Fuel Up to Play 60, visit www.FuelUpToPlay60.com.



Northey among featured speakers at ISA’s “Gridiron Tent” at Farm Progress Show

Ask any successful coach what the formula is for a winning season and you’d likely get the same answer every time: hard work, determination and teamwork. That combination applies to any winning effort, whether it’s on a sports field or in a farm field.

The Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) is proud to play a key position in Iowa’s agricultural industry with a proven playbook of leadership, knowledge and resources backed by an enduring commitment to help make Iowa’s world-class farm teams the most productive and profitable anywhere.

Guests are invited to join the ISA at its “Gridiron Tent” at the Farm Progress Show, Aug. 28-30, in Boone, Iowa, to learn more about the association’s winning approach to helping farmers prosper. Gain insight on key issues from ISA staff and other notable experts, including Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey, state climatologist Harry Hillaker and Sterling Liddell, vice president food and agribusiness research for Rabo Agri-Finance.

The tailgate-like atmosphere will also feature soy, pork and beef samples and everyone who fills out a membership card will be entered to win season basketball tickets to Iowa State University, University of Iowa or University of Northern Iowa games, plus other giveaways.

For complete details about the ISA’s Farm Progress Show presence or to learn more about how the ISA can serve you, go to www.iasoybeans.com. 



Tractor Supply Co. to Build New Headquarters

Tractor Supply Company, the largest retail farm and ranch supply store chain in the country, has announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase an undeveloped parcel of land in the Maryland Farms area of Brentwood, Tenn.

The company will build a new corporate headquarters, referred to as its Store Support Center, and expects to move to the new location in mid-2014.

Tractor Supply Company has been headquartered in leased facilities in the same Maryland Farms area since 2004. Due to unprecedented growth, however, the company leases space in three separate buildings.

"Our rapid growth has created a need for more space for our Store Support Center team members. The new facility will consolidate our current team members into one location and also accommodate future expected growth," said Jim Wright, Tractor Supply Company Chairman and CEO. "This transition would not have been possible without the assistance of our government partners at the city, county and state levels. We have been a proud member of the Brentwood and Williamson County business communities for more than eight years, and we are pleased that we will continue to call this area our home."

Tractor Supply currently employs approximately 650 of its total 17,000 team members in its three leased buildings and expects over time to grow to over 1,000 team members in the new facility.

The proposed Store Support Center will be a 260,000 square-foot, LEED-certified building located in a new development on Virginia Way, just one block from the location of the Company's current offices. The new site is part of a recently approved development that will include a new City of Brentwood passive park that will be named Margaret Hayes Powell Park.