Wednesday February 13 Ag News

Johanns Introduces Legislation Forcing EPA Transparency, Responsibility

U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns (R-Neb.) is introducing today a package of legislation promoting greater transparency and accountability in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulatory process. The package contains four individual pieces of legislation.

“Everyone from mayors to public utility providers to farmers and ranchers have expressed concern with EPA’s aggressive agenda and lack of understanding about how our economy works,” Johanns said. “It’s not simply what EPA is doing that bothers so many of our nation’s job creators, it’s how EPA is doing it. I’ve heard countless times that EPA is not transparent or responsive, but rather short-sighted and arrogant.”

Below is a brief description of each legislative component in Johanns’ push for common-sense EPA regulatory reform:

·         Johanns’ first bill brings EPA guidance documents under the scope of the Congressional Review Act. Currently, only rules are covered under this clause. This has allowed EPA to use guidance documents to expand the agency’s regulatory reach without being subjected to Congressional oversight. Johanns’ legislation would close this loophole.

·         Johanns’ second piece of legislation requires EPA’s Inspector General to report to Congress twice a year on the agency’s progress in meeting regulatory reporting requirements in current law. Under current law, EPA must publish any updates to its regulatory agenda in April and October. EPA totally ignored this requirement in 2012, publishing just one update last year. This update came in December, hiding EPA’s agenda until after the election.

·         The third bill reduces EPA’s budget by $20,000 every week until EPA meets its legal deadlines for regulatory agenda-setting. This proposal is modeled after a provision in last year’s bipartisan highway bill to encourage federal agencies to complete evaluation of transportation projects in a timely fashion. Johanns’ legislation adapts this model to encourage EPA to meet deadlines already in law requiring they be transparent about regulations they are developing.

·         The final component of Johanns’ legislative package promotes transparency and cooperation with state governments by requiring EPA to provide timely information and technical assistance to states working to comply with EPA mandates. Environmental statutes firmly establish states as equal partners with EPA. Unfortunately, EPA’s actions show that it believes federal agencies should be able to dictate implementation actions, rather than allowing states to develop their own plans.



EU, US to Push for Trade Deal

(AP) -- The European Union and the United States have agreed to pursue talks for a trans-Atlantic free trade deal.  The 27-country EU said Wednesday that such an agreement would be the biggest bilateral trade deal ever negotiated and hoped it could add 0.5 percent to the EU's economic output.  EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said that initial talks could start by summer.  "It will not be easy," EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said, but added the result would be "win-win" situation.



Smith Applauds U.S. – EU Trade Negotiations

Congressman Adrian Smith (R-NE) issued the following statement following the release of the U.S.-EU High Level Working Group (HLWG) final report and the President’s announcement during the State of the Union the Administration will begin negotiations for a comprehensive trade and investment agreement with the European Union (EU):

“A robust trade agreement with the EU could offer new opportunities for Nebraska producers and manufacturers to sell their goods abroad.  I am pleased the Obama Administration has initiated trade negotiations with the EU, and am pleased the HLWG report calls for an ambitious sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter to ensure we are able to hold our trading partners to their obligations.  I will continue to promote strong science-based food safety standards to ensure Nebraska producers are not put at a disadvantage in the European market.”

Congressman Smith serves on the House Committee on Ways and Means, which has jurisdiction over taxes including trade and tariff issues.



Farm Program Integrity Act Introduced

Yesterday, Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Mike Enzi (R-WY), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) introduced legislation that would restore integrity and fiscal responsibility to federal farm policy.

The Farm Program Integrity Act, which reflects language approved by the United States Senate in 2012, places a hard cap on farm program payments and closes current loopholes to ensure payments go to working farmers.  Due to current program eligibility loopholes, mega-farms and absentee investors can currently receive a virtually unlimited government check through farm programs.

“We applaud the Senators for reintroducing reform legislation that could put real limits on farm program payments and close loopholes that allow mega-farms to obtain virtually unlimited payments that they use to drive their smaller neighbors out of business,” said Chuck Hassebrook, Executive Director of the Center for Rural Affairs. “This legislation will help ensure that federal farm program benefits flow to small and mid-sized farms instead of contributing to their demise by subsidizing bigness and farm consolidation.”

According to Hassebrook, the bill would allow investors who provide management to receive farm payments, but it would not allow a large farm to receive unlimited subsidies by claiming each investor qualifies it for another set of payments up to the legal limit.  This is a reasonable compromise to close loopholes that have plagued farm programs for far too long.

“The Center for Rural Affairs supports this legislation and urges the Senate Agriculture Committee to include this in the Farm Bill they move forward this year, as they did last year,” added Hassebrook. “We also encourage the House Agriculture Committees to adopt these common-sense reforms, something they failed to do last year.”

Hassebrook explained that the House Agriculture Committee kept high payment caps and wide-open loopholes intact in the farm bill that they voted out of Committee last year.

“We look forward to working with the House and Senate on writing a fiscally responsible farm bill that invests in rural America’s best future and moving that forward in the five-year farm bill debate this year,” Hassebrook concluded. “The bill introduced yesterday by Senators Grassley, Johnson, Enzi and Brown is an excellent place to start.”



Madison County Farm Bureau to Sponsor Estate Transfer Planning Workshop in Norfolk

The Madison County Farm Bureau will be sponsoring an Estate Transfer Planning Workshop Thursday, February 21 at 2:00p.m. to 5:00p.m.at Northeast Community College campus Lifelong Learning Center in Norfolk.

Eryka Morehead, who specializes in teaching farmers/ranchers how to save their operations for the next generation will discuss estate planning and go through the step-by step process one must take to ensure the family farm remains intact after an owner’s death. An estate planning attorney will also be on hand.

This event will be open to the public and is free of charge. Seating is limited. Refreshments will be available.



February Irrigation Conference Saturated with Information

Get the latest information on how to manage your irrigation operation at the Central Plains Irrigation Conference and Exposition Feb. 26-27 in Kearney.  Industry, government, and university experts will offer sessions on nine main topic areas related to irrigation technology and management. 

General session speakers will include:
-    Brian Dunnigan, director of the Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, speaking on "Nebraska Groundwater and Surface Water Issues," and
-    Terry Howell, USDA-ARS research leader at the Conservation and Production Research Laboratory in Bushland, Texas, on "Experiences of the Past and an Assessment of Future High Plains Irrigation."

Each of the following main sessions will include two to three presentations. Topics will include
-    Innovations in Irrigation Water Management
-    Water Management under Limited Conditions
-    Innovations in Center Pivot Monitor and Control Systems
-    Future and Sustainability of Irrigation
-    Legislative Issues for Water Management Planning
-    Ensuring Effiicient Center Pivot and Subsurface Drip Irrigation
-    Impact of Cropping Systems on Irrigation Management
-    Economics of Center Pivot and Subsurface Drip Irrigation
-    Pumps, Sprinklers, and Water Productivity

The conference will be held at the Kearney Holiday Inn at 110 2nd Ave, just off I-80 exit 272.

The conference is for irrigators, irrigation managers, crop consultants, agri-business, and personnel from state and federal agencies involved with water management. Irrigation equipment manufacturers and dealers from across the Central Plains will display and explain the latest equipment at the expo, which will be open various times on Tuesday and until 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.

This program is sponsored by the Central Plains Irrigation Association, which includes Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado.

To register, complete and mail in the form on the conference brochure (http://cropwatch.unl.edu/web/cropwatch/archive?articleID=5103770). Registrations postmarked by Feb. 14 are $75 or, if applying for CCA CEUs, $85. Registrations postmarked after Feb. 14 are $90 or, if applying for CCA CEUs, $100.  Registration includes the programs, equipment expo, breaks, two lunches, and social hour.



Organic Farming Expert, Geneticist Agree: Both Practices Key Tools in Feeding World

A marriage between an organic farmer and a geneticist might  sound like the setup for a romantic comedy, but in fact exemplifies the integrated approach agriculture must use to successfully meet the world's growing need for food.

That was the message delivered Tuesday by Pamela Arnold, the geneticist, and Raoul Adamchak, the organic farmer, at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Arnold and Adamchak spoke as part of the Heuermann Lectures in the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Their talk was titled "Tomorrow's Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food."

"You may think geneticists and organic farmers don't speak to each other," said Arnold, professor in the Department of Plant Pathology and the Genome Center at the University of California, Davis.  "But we have the same goal, which is an ecologically based system of agriculture."

Arnold said she and her husband are striving to separate fact from fiction in public perceptions of both biotechnology and organic farming.

Her husband, Adamchak, market garden coordinator in UC Davis's Agricultural Sustainability Institute, noted that widely used agricultural practices – chemical use and tillage, for example – have had harmful environmental effects ranging from the so-called "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico caused by chemical runoff to soil erosion that's shrinking global farmland by about 10 million hectares a year.

Organic farming practices such as reducing or eliminating chemical use, composting and no-till are one solution to those problems, Adamchak said, but there are problems with them too:

Some pests, diseases and stresses are difficult to control organically. Yields are on average about 25 percent lower with organic farming. There's not enough manure and green waste to go organic alone, and the practice is too expensive for some farmers.

Reduced yields are especially problematic given that the world's population is expected to grow from about 7 billion today to 9 billion in 2050, Adamchak said.

"The impact of that if we're thinking about producing food for the world is significant," he added.

"Organic farming can help but it can't do it all," said Adamchak, who's farmed organically for 25 years.

Arnold said another piece of the solution is genetic engineering.

Globally, pests, diseases and environmental stresses reduce yields 30-60 percent, she said, and the "power of improved seed" is helping fight that.

Arnold cited several examples of how genetic modifications have made a huge difference, including the battle against papaya ringspot virus in Hawaii, the fight against cotton bollworm globally and the integration into rice of a gene that makes the crop tolerant of flooding, an important improvement because 25 percent of the world's rice is grown in flood-prone areas. 

"The judicious increase of two important strands of agriculture – biotechnology and agroecological practices – is key to helping feed the growing population in an ecologically balanced manner," Arnold said.

Heuermann Lectures in IANR focus on providing and sustaining enough food, natural resources and renewable energy for the world's people, and on securing the sustainability of rural communities where the vital work of producing food and renewable energy occurs.

The lectures are made possible by a gift from B. Keith and Norma Heuermann of Phillips, long-time university supporters with a strong commitment to Nebraska's production agriculture, natural resources, rural areas and people.

Lectures stream live at http://heuermannlectures.unl.edu and are archived at the site shortly after the lecture.  They are broadcast on NET2 World at a date following the lecture.

The final lecture in 2012-13 April 9 will feature Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001 World Food Prize laureate and professor of applied economics at Cornell University. His topic will be "The Global Food System and Related Policy Challenges."



Iowans Named to National Beef Checkoff Committees

Three Iowa beef producers were selected to serve on national committees to oversee the Beef Checkoff Program at the 2013 Cattle Industry Annual Convention held in Tampa, Fla.

Terri Carstensen, Odebolt, and Will Frazee, Emerson, will serve one-year terms on the Beef Promotion Operating Committee, which will make final budget allocations for FY 2014 national checkoff programs.

Dean Black, Somers, was selected to serve on the executive committee of the Cattlemen's Beef Board (CBB). Black, appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, represents Iowa cattle producers on the Beef Board.

Carstensen represents the Iowa Beef Industry Council on the Federation of State Beef Councils, which is an alliance of 45 state beef councils that collect the $1 per-head beef checkoff. State beef councils forward 50 cents to the national CBB and retain the other 50 cents for in-state use or to re-invest with the Federation to extend national beef promotion efforts. Frazee also serves on the CBB.

Each year the beef checkoff undergoes a producer-driven budget and program planning process. The Operating Committee, made up of 10 Federation members and 10 CBB members, approves the final national plan. National programs are funded by investments from the Federation (from state beef council investments) and the national 50 cents, collected through the Cattlemen's Beef Board. The Operating Committee will approve plans for FY 2014, which begins Oct. 1.



Statement by NCBA President Scott George on Possible FSIS Furlough

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s (NCBA) membership is highly concerned by statements from United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding the sequestration process and a possible fifteen day furlough of all Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS) employees, including food safety inspectors. NCBA President and Wyoming cattle producer Scott George made the following comments in response to the situation:

“Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and other related legislation, Congress has charged the USDA with providing federal inspection of meat, poultry and egg products at government expense. This places a legal duty on the USDA and the administration to carry out this service, a duty which the USDA has recognized as ‘essential’ in the past. And while we understand the hardships placed on the agencies through the possibility of sequestration, we are severely disappointed Secretary Vilsack has chosen to take this path of threatening to halt FSIS inspections.”

“Secretary Vilsack is using America’s cattlemen and women as pawns in the agency’s political wrangling with Congress. While we are certain the USDA contains other ‘non-essential’ employees, the Secretary has chosen to announce the consequences of sequestration in terms of a furlough of FSIS inspectors, essentially threating to close down all production, processing and interstate distribution of meat. This action has already cost cattle producers significant amounts of money with the downward slide in the futures markets caused by rampant speculation, with untold effect on producers through further regulatory uncertainty.”

Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act, the Poultry Products Inspection Act and the Egg Products Inspection Act the production, processing or interstate distribution of meat, poultry and egg products is prohibited absent federal inspection. Such a move would impact approximately 6,290 establishments nationwide and the agency estimates the move would cost over $10 billion in production losses. Industry workers they estimate would experience over $400 million in lost wages, consumers would experience limited meat and poultry supplies and potentially higher prices and food safety could be compromised.

“NCBA will not stand by while the administration threatens this kind of action against the industry. We are calling on producers to contact their Senators and Congressional Representatives to send a clear signal to the USDA that this is not an acceptable exercise of executive authority.”



EIA: Ethanol Stocks Down 3%

Weekly data from the Energy Information Administration released late Wednesday morning showed another drawdown in U.S. ethanol inventory from a six-week high, while production at the nation's plants extended higher for the second straight week.

Output at domestic ethanol plants had tumbled to a better than three-year low in recent weeks. For the week-ended Feb. 8, ethanol production climbed 15,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 2%, to 789,000 bpd, while down 14.9% compared to a year-ago level.

Trade sources said plants that were idled at the end of last year are resuming operation.

EIA detailed a 600,000 barrel (bbl) inventory draw down to 19.5 million bbl for the week-ended Feb. 8, reflecting a 3% week-on-week drop, and down 9.3% from the year-ago level.

EIA said 11,000 bpd of ethanol was imported last week after no reported imports the prior week. All of the ethanol imports were received along the East Coast.

On the co-products side, ethanol producers were using 11.963 million bushels of corn to produce ethanol and 88,055 metric tons of livestock feed, 78,502 metric tons of which were distillers grains. The rest is comprised of corn gluten feed and corn gluten meal.  Additionally, ethanol producers were providing 4.11 million pounds of corn oil daily.

Elsewhere, the EIA reported that implied demand for motor gasoline fell 11,000 bpd to 8.4 million bpd for the week-ended Feb. 8, while four-week average gasoline demand at 8.4 million bpd was up 4.4% from the level seen a year ago.



Crude Stocks Rise, Oil Prices Fall Wednesday

(AP) -- The price of oil fell near $97 a barrel Wednesday after a government report showed an increase in U.S. crude supplies.  Crude supplies increased by 600,000 barrels, or 0.2 percent, to 696 million barrels, which is 9.8 percent above year-ago levels, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report.

Traders may have been disappointed that supplies rose at all after a report late Tuesday from the American Petroleum Institute showed a drop of 2.3 million barrels in U.S. crude stockpiles last week. The API relies on voluntary reports from distributors and pipeline operators, while submissions for the government's report are mandatory.

Earlier, the Paris-based International Energy Agency lowered its consumption expectations by 85,000 barrels a day compared with data from a month ago. Despite the downward revision, the IEA still expects the world to use 90.7 million barrels of crude oil a day this year, or 1 million barrels a day more than OPEC's estimate, released Tuesday, of 89.7 million barrels a day.

Drivers in some parts of the U.S. are paying more at the pump, as the national average for a gallon of regular rose to $3.62 on Wednesday, according to AAA. That's up 2 cents from Tuesday and 31 cents more than a month ago. The highest prices are in California, the Northeast and the Midwest.



NASS and Statistics Canada Reschedule February Livestock Publications

Release of two publications produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) in cooperation with Statistics Canada, United States and Canadian Hogs and United States and Canadian Cattle and Sheep, has been rescheduled to March 6, 2013 at 3:00 p.m. ET due to changes in the availability of the Canadian data. The original release date was February 21 at 3:00 p.m. ET.



January Tractor, Combine Sales Up From Year Ago

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers' monthly "Flash Report," says the sales of all tractors in the U.S. for January 2013 were up 20% compared to the same month last year.  For the month, two-wheel-drive smaller tractor (under 40 HP) were up 18% from last year, and 40 & under 100 HP were up 12%. Sales of two-wheel-drive 100+ HP were up 27% from last year, and four-wheel-drive tractors were up 83% for the month.  

For the year, a total of 11,163 tractors were sold, which compares to 9,283 sold through January 2012.  Sales of combines for the year 2013 total 538, up 21% from the same period in 2012.



Deere 1Q Net Income Jumps 22 Percent

(AP) -- Farm and construction equipment maker Deere & Co. said Wednesday that its first-quarter net income leaped 22 percent on growing sales of farm machinery at higher prices.

The Moline, Ill, company's earnings soundly beat Wall Street expectations.

In the quarter ending Jan. 31, Deere said it earned $649.7 million, or $1.65 per share, compared with $532.9 million, or $1.30 per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose almost 10 percent to $7.42 billion. Analysts surveyed by data provider FactSet expected earnings of $1.39 per share on revenue of $6.73 billion.

Deere is executing its marketing plans, expanding its global presence and keeping a tight grip on costs, Chairman and CEO Samuel Allen said in a statement.

The company predicted that sales would rise about 4 percent in the second quarter and 6 percent for the full year. It expects 2013 net income of about $3.3 billion, slightly more than its earlier forecasts and the predictions of analysts.

But Allen cautioned that although Deere sees strong future results on growing need for food, shelter and infrastructure, "the near-term outlook is being tempered by uncertainties over fiscal, economic and trade issues that are undermining business confidence and restraining growth."

After rising initially as high as $98.71, Deere shares turned lower and were down 2 cents at $93.95 in premarket trading just over an hour before Wednesday's opening bell.

Deere is the world's largest maker of agricultural equipment, like the bright green tractors and combines that roll on farm fields during planting and harvest seasons. Its fortunes rise and fall with those of farmers. The company said farm business should be good this year, predicting that agriculture and turf equipment sales would rise by about 6 percent.

"Relatively high commodity prices and strong farm incomes are expected to continue supporting a favorable level of demand for farm machinery during the year," the company's statement said.



Four Steps to Implement Variable Rate Seeding in 2013
(from Pioneer)

Variable rate seeding (VRS) can help maximize overall profits by selecting the best planting rates for each area of the field. VRS plans are most appropriate in fields with greatly varying soil composition or water holding capacity.

There are four basic steps to get started with a variable rate seeding program. The first step is to identify management zones within a field. Designate management zones based on soil type, yield map results over several years, and grower knowledge of yield history, cropping history, and general productivity of field areas.

After determining the management zones, select the seeding rate to be used in each zone. A standard recommendation is to select three to four seeding rates to plant within a field. Seeding rates should differ by an amount that is meaningful for the crop. For example, corn seeding rates need to differ by at least 3,000 to 4,000 seeds per acre. To help determine seeding rates, DuPont Pioneer has a planting rate estimator app available in the tools section of the Pioneer website.

Once seeding rates are selected for each management zone, create each field prescription with Pioneer FIT® Services mapping software. Manually implementing check strips or blocks to evaluate the productivity of each seeding rate is recommended. Pioneer sales professionals can help design field-by-field plans.

The final step is to upload the information to a variable rate controller. Set the parameters correctly in the variable rate controller, including the default planting rate and the offset distance between the GPS receiver and planter units. It is important to make sure the controller is set to record as-planted information.



Novozymes BioAg adds new biofertility product for 2013: JumpStart® LCO

Novozymes BioAg is expanding its portfolio of innovative biological fertility products for the 2013 growing season with the introduction of new JumpStart LCO.

JumpStart LCO is a seed-applied biofertility product for use in corn and other grain crops. JumpStart LCO is a combination of two proven crop-enhancing technologies: Penicillium bilaii and LCO (lipo-chitooligosaccharide) Promoter Technology®.

Penicillium bilaii is a naturally occurring soil fungus that provides crops with better access to soil and fertilizer phosphate. P. bilaii colonizes (grows along) plant roots, and as the fungus grows and multiplies, it produces organic acids that break the bonds that trap phosphate in mineral form in the soil, enhancing the availability of this important plant nutrient to the crop.

LCO Promoter Technology is a naturally occurring plant signal molecule. When present at the time of planting, LCO Promoter Technology enhances the plant’s nutritional capabilities, which drive natural growth processes such as root and shoot development, immediately and independently of variety, soil and environmental conditions. The result of this early season activity is better plant health and performance.

“Optimum plant fertility and the quick establishment of a robust root system are both key to strong plant health and performance, and higher yields,” says Chuck Broughton, director of marketing and sales, North America, for Novozymes BioAg. “JumpStart LCO combines the science of Penicillium bilaii and LCO Promoter Technology to enhance phosphate fertility, and root growth and development, for greater vigor and higher yield potential.”

In addition to the seed-applied JumpStart LCO, Novozymes BioAg also offers Torque, an in-furrow LCO Promoter Technology for corn.

“Torque provides growers with access to LCO Promoter Technology specifically for corn in an easy-to-use product that can be applied in conjunction with pop-up or liquid starter fertilizers,” Broughton says.