Thursday September 13 Ag News

ARDC near Mead will celebrate 50 years of research and education with a Sept. 23 open house

In the past 50 years, the ARDC has been involved in many advances in agriculture. The open house will celebrate those accomplishments and its future. The event will be from noon to 5 p.m. and include tours, exhibits, presentations, food, and activities for guests of all ages.

Bus tours will take visitors throughout the center and feature stops where faculty and staff will share information about their research. Tour stops will focus primarily on crop and livestock production, research and technology. Other tour stops include: buffalograss research, honeybee research, remote sensing aerial robotics demonstrations and fire equipment reconditioned for rural fire districts by the Nebraska Forestry Service Fire Shop. Tour participants can learn about the history of the research site by touring a load line used when the Nebraska Ordnance Plant was located there.

UNL Extension and local 4-Hers will provide hands-on activities for children, 4-H will provide LEGO-based robotics demonstrations and the Midwest Dairy Association will have Annabelle the cow for kids to milk.

There will be a session with the Backyard Farmer panel, as well as presentations that feature a historical look at the ARDC. UNL Extension will provide a live Beef Value Cuts demonstration. The public will be able to sample the chuck roll cuts after the demonstration and learn about recipes and resources.

Ag commodity organizations also will be present.

Free lunch will be served from noon to 2 p.m. RSVPs are requested and appreciated for planning purposes. Other refreshments include cupcakes and UNL Dairy Store ice cream and samples provided by commodity groups.

To RSVP for lunch, go to ardc.unl.edu, call 402-624-8000, or email dpittman1@unl.edu. Schedule and directions are also available online.

This celebration will kickoff UNL's celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act this year. UNL will be "Celebrating 150 years — Growing a Healthy Future" with a week of activities Sept. 23-29. For more information visit http://landgrant.unl.edu/.



September proclaimed Renewable Fuels Month in Nebraska

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman declared September as Renewable Fuels Awareness month in Nebraska during a visit today to Husker Harvest Days in Grand Island.

The proclamation was coordinated through the Nebraska Corn Board and Nebraska Soybean Board, who hosted the event at Husker Harvest Days to recognize the contributions of Nebraska farmers and agribusinesses to the nation’s renewable fuel supply.

“Renewable fuels are a contributor to the Nebraska economy.  The production of these fuels provides marketing options for our crop farmers, creates key feedstuffs for our livestock producers and helps create a more sustainable rural economy by providing jobs and contributing to local and state revenue,” Gov. Heineman said. “Renewable fuels like ethanol and biodiesel help diversify our nation’s energy portfolio. We are fortunate to have such a strong biofuels industry right here in Nebraska, with thousands of Nebraskans helping fuel America.”

Last year, renewable fuels reduced the nation’s need for imported oil by over 480 million barrels of crude oil - and 1.1 billion gallons of imported petroleum diesel.  Ethanol production was at an all-time high with over 13.2 billion gallons produced.

Tim Scheer, chairman of the Nebraska Corn Board, and Greg Greving, chairman of the Nebraska Soybean Board, also addressed the crowd.

One of the co-products from ethanol production is distillers grains, which play a key role in the Nebraska agriculture economy.  “We are fortunate in Nebraska that beef, swine, poultry and dairy producers can use these co-products from ethanol production to feed their livestock,” said Scheer, a farmer from St. Paul. “Only the starch portion of the kernel is used to make ethanol. The protein, fiber, and fat portions still remain for the livestock.”

Greving, a farmer from Chapman, said as Nebraska farmers head out to harvest this year’s crops, over half will be fueling their equipment with a soy biodiesel blend because of the many benefits it has for engines and because soy biodiesel is a renewable fuel produced in America.

“In addition to on-farm use and a growing presence in diesel automobiles, programs like BioTrucker, which involves making biodiesel available along major truck routes, and BioHeat, a heating oil used in millions of home and businesses, are getting renewable biodiesel into more locations every year,” he said. “This is good for farmers and good for the United States by helping provide alternatives to a growing number of petroleum-based products.”



Vilsack to Visit Iowa and Highlight How Bio-based Products and Biodiesel Will Continue to Reduce Need for Foreign Oil, Create Jobs in Rural Communities

On Friday, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will tour AGP Biodiesel in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa to highlight how the increased use of biofuels will help replace foreign oil. Vilsack will discuss how this is a key component of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy plan that is aimed at reducing oil imports half by 2020. As part of this plan, the Obama Administration is working to speed the development of biofuels and other alternatives and has doubled the use of renewable energy over the past three years, while also increasing domestic oil and gas production. The Administration is also working to create new markets for the nation's agricultural products through biobased manufacturing to reduce the need for foreign oil, create jobs and strengthen the rural economy.



ASA Supports Discharge Petition to Move House Farm Bill

In response to Thursday’s introduction of a discharge petition by Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) that would force the idling Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (the 2012 Farm Bill) to the House floor for a vote, American Soybean Association (ASA) President Steve Wellman, a soybean farmer from Syracuse, Neb., issued the following statement:

“With the House of Representatives in session for only four days until farm programs established in the 2008 Farm Bill begin to expire, we are at a point where the need for congressional action on the new farm bill is at a critical stage.  This is important legislation should not be subject to partisan politics. It affects the livelihood of the 21,000 farmer members of the American Soybean Association, more than 600,000 soybean farmers nationwide, more than 2 million Americans working in agriculture, and the 23 million American jobs that depend on our industry.

“The bill provides risk management coverage for farmers for the next five years that simply will not be accomplished by a short-term extension. The bill also enables farmers to make planting decisions in the coming year and beyond with the knowledge of which farm programs will be in place.

“While the discharge petition advanced today by Congressman Braley is certainly an unorthodox tactic, we are now forced to support this drastic measure. Farmers have been told we haven’t expressed enough concern about the lack of new farm legislation. For weeks, we’ve been told there isn’t enough time to pass the bill. We’ve been told that a one-year extension or a piecemeal disaster bill will cover our needs in the interim. Our clear reply to Congress is that the only acceptable outcome is a full, five-year farm bill passed through the House before Sept. 30. If it takes Congressman Braley’s petition to make that happen, we’re behind it, and we encourage every member of the House that has a stake in ensuring certainty for America’s farmers to sign it.”



Training Champions: NCGA Advanced Leadership Trains for Tomorrow

While harvest progresses throughout much of the Corn Belt, a select group of growers are ramping up their efforts to become the most effective leaders possible through a National Corn Growers Association training program.   NCGA's Advanced Leadership Training Program, sponsored by Syngenta, launched its third class this week in Minneapolis, Minn.  The session helps qualified and motivated candidates finely fine tune their leadership skills and prepare them to lead the industry forward.

"Advanced Leadership training is providing an excellent opportunity to hone skills with media and interpersonal communications," said NCGA First Vice President Elect Martin Barbre, a grower from Carmi, Ill.  "Many in attendance have already had a significant amount of leadership experience and, particularly with so many members of NCGA's top leadership involved, we have been working with a laser focus to ensure we are at the top of our game and ready to lead our organization into 2013 and beyond."

During the course, a small group of active grower leaders looked at the concepts of transformational leadership, negotiation tactics and crisis communications theory.  Additionally, the group practiced advocacy communications through presentations and through writing.

"Advanced Leadership continues Syngenta's commitment to fostering effective leaders for corn and across agriculture," said Rex Martin, the firm's industry relations manager.  "This program takes graduates of Leadership Academy that are presently in leadership roles to the next level helping them become transformational leaders.   They can take these enhanced skills back to improve their state and national associations and fellow leaders around them."

This program aims to help develop top notch state and national leadership that is empowered to share its skill set within the industry and community. It builds upon the "Leadership at Its Best" Program which has helped develop corn industry leadership since 1986.

Attending Advanced Leadership Training this year are Keith Alverson (Chester, S.D.); Martin Barbre (Carmi, Ill.); Ron Gray (Claremont, Ill.); Joel Grams (Minden, Neb.); Paul Herringshaw (Bowling Green, Ohio); Wesley Spurlock (Stratford, Texas); Dean Taylor (Prairie City, Iowa); and H. Grant Troop (Oxford, Pa.).

Since 1986, NCGA, the state corn associations and, more importantly, the U.S. corn industry, have benefited tremendously from the original Leadership at Its Best program, which provides invaluable media, communications, association management and public policy knowledge and skills to its participants. In February, attendees will meet again for Advanced Leadership II which covers lobbying and coalition building, legal and fiduciary training, public policy briefings and agency visits.



CHS Announce Major Fertilizer Plant

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple and leaders of CHS Inc., the nation's largest farmer-owned cooperative, Wednesday announced that the company is taking steps toward constructing a nitrogen fertilizer plant in North Dakota at a cost of more than $1 billion. The plant would convert natural gas into fertilizers, providing the region's farmers with enhanced supplies of nutrients essential to raising corn and other crops.

CHS has selected a 200-acre site for the fertilizer plant near Spiritwood, N.D. Following further due diligence, necessary approvals and a successful engineering study, CHS would move forward on construction. CHS is conducting a preliminary engineering and design study to determine the feasibility of construction plans for the project, which is expected to cost between $1.1 billion and $1.4 billion. CHS is investing $10 million in the first phase of the feasibility study.

"This project is great news for our farmers and for the entire state of North Dakota," Dalrymple said. "The CHS fertilizer plant will provide our farmers with a reliable, long-term supply of locally produced fertilizers in place of imports from foreign countries. At the same time, the plant will create more North Dakota jobs and utilize locally produced natural gas. We will continue working to add value to our energy resources and to develop more agricultural inputs for North Dakota farmers."

Gov. Dalrymple and CHS President and CEO Carl Casale announced plans to build the fertilizer plant during a news conference held at the state capital in Bismarck. They were joined by Woody Barth, president of the North Dakota Farmers Union which has helped facilitate the project.

"By pursuing this project, CHS would be making a significant, strategic investment that ensures consistent, domestic nitrogen fertilizer supply for our farmer-owners," Casale said. "Today CHS imports fertilizer products from 19 countries. Developing additional domestic crop nutrients sources closer to our customers is critical to meeting demand, improving our logistical and distribution expertise, and adding value for the farmers who count on us."

"The ability to deliver a reliable supply of fertilizer products in North Dakota and the region is a win-win for family farmers and our farmer-owned cooperative system," Barth said. "We are pleased that our organization's initial market analysis and feasibility study for building a plant of this scope has allowed us to work closely with CHS, leading to today's announcement."

Preliminary plans call for building a plant that will produce 2,200 tons of ammonia fertilizer daily. It will be distributed as anhydrous ammonia, urea and UAN liquid fertilizer to farm supply retailers and farmers in the Dakotas and parts of Minnesota, Montana and Canada. The proposed plant will take advantage of abundant regional natural gas feedstock. It will employ between 100 and 150 people, with a tentative start-up in the second half of 2016.



Strategie Grains Cuts EU 2012-13 Corn and Wheat Forecasts

Strategie Grains Thursday cut its estimate of the European Union's 2012-13 corn harvest by 4.3 million metric tons to 53.7 million tons, as hot and dry conditions caused further production losses in southeast and central regions.

The influential analyst group reduced its output forecast by a total of 3 million tons across Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Greece, while Austria, Italy and the Czech Republic accounted for a combined loss of 840,000 tons.

However, despite Ukrainian and Brazilian corn both being very competitively positioned, low availabilities on the world market will restrict the volume the EU can import to below its requirements, meaning that the EU's stocks will decline sharply through 2012-13, it said.

Strategie Grains also reduced its estimate for the EU's 2012-13 soft wheat production due to worse-than-expected yields as the harvest progresses. It now expects production to be 123.6 million tons, a fall of 1.7 million tons on previous forecasts.

The analyst group cut its view on Germany and France's output by 1.7 million tons as the end of the harvest has revealed some disappointingly low yields, while rains caused further declines in the U.K. and Ireland, reducing output there by a combined 330,000 tons.

Total grain production in the EU was revised down by 4.4 million tons to 270.5 million tons, with the drops for corn and wheat partly compensated by a slight rise in barley output.



Australia Likely to Lose No. 2 Wheat Exporter Rank 2012-13

Australia may lose its ranking as the world's No. 2 wheat exporter in the next marketing year, as dry weather threatens to reduce yields of the grain, the head of trading at Cargill Inc. Australia said on Thursday.

Poor rainfall in the country's top wheat-growing state, Western Australia, is expected to cut Australia's production in the year starting Oct. 1 by around a quarter from last year's bumper crop, to 22.5 million metric tons, according to government forecasts released this week.

Cargill's trading manager Will Reid forecast Australia's wheat exports will fall to 18 million-19 million tons in 2012-13--down from a record 24.5 million tons in 2011-12 and substantially below the 21.5 million tons official forecast by the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Science.

"Who will be the No. 2 exporter is between Australia and Canada, but it's probably more likely to be Canada,"  Reid said. 



Fed Steps In, and Stocks Soar

(AP) -- The stock market staged a huge rally Thursday after investors got the aggressive economic help they wanted from the Federal Reserve.

The Dow Jones industrial average spiked more than 200 points and cleared 13,500 for the first time since the beginning of the Great Recession. The average is within 625 points of its all-time high.

The Fed said it would spend $40 billion a month, for as long as it takes, to stimulate the economy by buying mortgage securities -- and perhaps buy more if the job market doesn't improve.

The central bank also extended its pledge of super-low short-term interest rates into 2015, extended a program to drive down long-term rates and promised to maintain "highly accommodative" policy even after the economy strengthens.

It was the package known as QE3 -- a third round of quantitative easing, in market-speak.



Gasoline Prices Still Going Up
The U.S. average retail price of regular gasoline increased less than a penny to $3.85 per gallon, 19 cents per gallon higher than last year at this time.

The largest increase came in the Rocky Mountain region, where the average price is up six cents to $3.70 per gallon. The West Coast price increased a penny to $4.08 per gallon. East of the Rockies, the Gulf Coast and Midwest prices fell to $3.64 per gallon and $3.86 per gallon, respectively, while the East Coast price is $3.83 per gallon, up two cents from last week.

The national average diesel fuel price increased half a cent to remain at $4.13 per gallon, 27 cents per gallon higher than last year at this time.

The largest increase came in the Rocky Mountain region, where the price increased two and a half cents to $4.24 per gallon. The Midwest and East Coast prices were both up a penny, to $4.08 per gallon and $4.11 per gallon, respectively. On the Gulf Coast, the average price fell half a cent to $4.02 per gallon, while the price on the West Coast is down a tenth of a cent to remain at $4.42 per gallon.