Friday July 12 Ag News

USDA Encourages Documenting Livestock and Forage Losses Caused by High Humidity, Heat, and Drought

Recent extreme humidity and temperatures have resulted in livestock deaths in areas of Nebraska.  These losses of livestock or expected forage may be damaging to operations and may be eligible for future USDA assistance.

“Livestock owners experiencing death losses due to recent extreme weather are encouraged to document their losses and inventory numbers” stated Dan Steinkruger, State Director of the Farm Service Agency.  Although past livestock programs are not currently in effect to assist producers with livestock deaths or forage losses, the current farm bill activity appears to support implementation of similar programs when passed.

Under past Livestock Indemnity Program and Livestock Forage Programs, producers were required to provide verifiable documentation of inventory numbers and death losses.  Examples of some types of documentation include: veterinary records, bank loan records, production records, rendering receipts, tax records or dated photos.  Steinkruger suggests, “Especially when dealing with death losses, it is easier to document the death losses prior to disposal. We need farmers and ranchers to maintain critical records so that if these emergency programs are implemented, we can provide USDA assistance.”

For additional information, contact your local Farm Service Agency Office.



"THE BEEF STATE" License Plate Moves Closer To Reality

Beef it's What's For Dinner in Nebraska and soon will be able to show your love for beef.  The revival of "The Beef State" license plate is moving closer to reality.    Nebraska Cattlemen and the Nebraska Cattlemen Research & Education Foundation have realed the favorite design for the new license plate.

Last month, three designs were offered and public voted for their favorite.   The public selected a license plate of a realistic backdrop of a herd of red cattle on the lush green pastures and a windmill. Nebraska Cattlemen say the plate was by far the top vote getter. They received around 5,000 votes in their online poll.

As a specialty plate it will cost an additional $70 per vehicle. Nebraska Cattlemen need 500 orders to begin production.  Applications are available online www.nebraskacattelmen.org.



Chinese Delegation Visits U.S. Swine and Soy Farms, Attends World Pork Expo and SDSU Training Course

The U-S Soybean Export Council - China recently organized a group of executives from major Chinese pig farms, feed millers, and feed additive companies to travel to the U.S.  The delegation visited the Midwest cities of Des Moines, IA; Lincoln, NE; Sioux Falls, SD; and Pipestone, MN to get an overview of the U.S. livestock industry.  The group also attended the World Pork Expo in Des Moines and participated in a weeklong training course at South Dakota State University (SDSU).  Representatives from Wens Group, Huanshan Group, and Xinjiang Tiankang Food Co., Ltd. were among the companies that visited the U.S. from June 5-17.

The World Pork Expo provided opportunities for the group to establish solid business contacts within the U.S. agricultural industry.  Team members also were able to learn about modern equipment and facilities such as stainless steel feeders; drinkers and gestation / farrowing stalls; and other advanced techniques as shown at the Expo.  Most team members believed that the Chinese livestock industry will need to be more adaptive to the changing market if such modern and advanced technologies are to be introduced to China in the near future.

Team members who attended the training course on practical swine feed technology presented by professors and experts at SDSU learned about ventilation systems and disease eradication approaches, among other topics.  Many team members expressed their intention to apply these technologies in their operations to boost their production and felt strongly that the consumption of soy by the Chinese swine industry would be further increased with the adoption of these new technologies.

Following this training, the Chinese swine study team visited several swine and soy farms, feed mills and a packing plant, which all demonstrated modern U.S. agriculture that features high efficiency, less labor, widely adopted automation in crop and livestock production and product processing.  These visits displayed the development of the U.S. swine industry, but also helped to validate the quality and supplies of U.S. soy and the services provided by the U.S. soy industry.

USSEC China Animal Utilization (AU) Director Richard Y. M. Han, AU Technical Consultant Sam Shi and AU Program Manager Sunny Zhang escorted the team on this trip.  The Chinese team members expressed their future interest in participating in USSEC’s technical and marketing activities.



Harkin Lashes Out on House Farm Bill Split

Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) released the following statement Thursday after the House of Representatives passed a proposed new farm bill that deletes the continuation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and a number of other federal nutrition assistance programs from the legislation. With strong bipartisan support, the Senate approved last month a comprehensive farm bill, the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2013, which includes a nutrition title, along with titles covering farm commodity, conservation, crop insurance, energy, rural development, and other policy areas.

"House Republicans have demolished the very coalition that has served our whole nation well for decades -- a coalition of rural and urban, farmers and consumers. Their actions today abandon U.S. families who need our help to put food on the table while destroying the time-tested farm bill alliance that has drawn urban votes for agricultural and rural programs. This House action is a grave disservice to the entire nation -- farmers, ranchers, rural communities, consumers and urban areas."

House Republicans passed a farm bill Thursday by slicing federal support for food programs from the bill, breaking a half-century long legislative connection between farm policy and food programs for the poor.

The House GOP's revamp represents about 20 percent of the cost of the original $1 trillion bill. It passed on a 216-to-208 vote with 12 Republicans joining all 196 Democrats in opposition.

The Republican bill is both narrower in scope and less impactful on the federal deficit than its companion in the Senate -- raising questions about how the two chambers will come to an accord on federal farm and food policy before the current farm bill expires at the end of September.



U.S. Soy Relies on Quality, Better Transportation Infrastructure to Combat Brazil’s Bumper Soy Crop

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that Brazil’s successful growing season puts that country neck and neck with the U.S. in soybean production.  The USDA estimates Brazil will harvest more than 3.012 billion bushels of soybeans this year, compared to nearly 3.015 billion bushels harvested in the United States last fall.

United Soybean Board (USB) Director-Farmer David Iverson notes that this increased quantity could extend Brazil’s export supply and negatively impact the price U.S. soybean farmers receive this year.   “Even though Brazil’s success may impact our market, a lot of our customers really like the quality of U.S. soybeans,” he states.

The U.S. transportation infrastructure is another competitive advantage.  U.S. soybean farmers enjoy the overall reliability and efficiency of the U.S. transportation system while Brazil continues to struggle with clogged ports and roads.   According to the Bloomberg news service, soybean vessels have waited as long as 39 days to load at the country’s main port of Santos.  Mr. Iverson and USB Director Bob Metz visited Brazilian port facilities on the Amazon River earlier this year with the South Dakota Soybean Research & Promotion Council and witnessed those trucking and shipping bottlenecks first-hand.  According to Mr. Iverson, “We need to maintain our transportation infrastructure and keep making improvements to our lock-and-dam system, roads and bridges, and rail system so we don’t lose that competitive edge.”  “Even with a drought affecting our yields last year, we are still able to produce more soybeans than Brazil, which had a bumper crop harvest.”



NOPA June Soybean Crush Seen at 115.4 Million Bushels

Soybean crush rates for June in the National Oilseed Processors Association's monthly soybean crush report are expected to drop from the previous month to about 115.4 million bushels amid limited soybean supplies for processing, according to a survey of industry analysts.

The month-over-month decrease in the crush is a reflection of the available supply of "old crop" soybeans in the U.S., analysts said.

The crush was measured at 122.6 million bushels in May. Last year, the soy crush for June measured 134.2 million bushels.

The uncertainty of processors' ability to secure enough available soybean supplies to take advantage of favorable processing margins produced wide ranges in analysts' estimates. The estimates ranged from 106.6 million bushels to 126.5 million bushels.

NOPA's report, which includes only data from members, is scheduled to be released Monday at 11am CDT. 



Republicans to Tackle Cuts in Food Stamp Program
(AP) -- House approval of a scaled-back farm bill is setting up what could be an even bigger fight over food stamps and the role of domestic food aid in the United States. Food stamps have been a part of farm bills since the 1970s to gain urban Democratic votes for the rural measure. But that union has soured this year as the food aid has exploded in cost and House Republicans have taken aim at the program.

Normally bipartisan, farm bills have become much less so. Republican leaders in the House won passage of the smaller farm bill on a party-line vote Thursday by dropping a section of the bill that dealt with food stamps, saying they would deal with that issue in a separate bill. After rallying most of his caucus to vote for the farm portion of the bill, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said Republicans would "act with dispatch" to get a food stamp bill to the floor.

It remained unclear what a food stamp bill would look like, how it would move through the House or how quickly lawmakers could craft a bill. While Democrats have opposed any cuts to the $80 billion-a-year program, designed to give people temporary food assistance when their income falls beneath a certain level, Republicans have proposed many different approaches to trimming it. The program has more than doubled in cost in the last five years as the economy faltered and now serves around 1 in 7 Americans. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., has pushed the idea of a split bill for more than a year. A farmer, he has maintained that Congress should consider food stamps by themselves. "By splitting the bill, we can give taxpayers an honest look at how Washington spends our money," he said. If a bill to cut food stamps reaches the House floor, it could be the first major debate over the role of the program, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in decades. "I think there are some Republicans who think this is their moment to end this program as we know it, and the question is will they succeed or not," said Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who has long championed food aid for the poor. SNAP is available for people who meet certain income and asset tests.

In April, more than 47 million people were using the program, including those in 23 million households. The average benefit is about $130 a month for an individual and around $270 for a household. Proposals to reduce the program have ranged from what was in the original farm bill, a 3 percent cut and changes in eligibility, to an overhaul of the program that would take a fraction of the federal money now spent and give it to the states to administer. Others have proposed putting an expiration date on the program, which is now permanent, so Congress would have to take a look at it every few years. Republicans have already supported an amendment to the original farm bill that would have put broad new work requirements on food stamps. Adoption of that amendment caused many Democrats to pull their support for the bill. Democrats were angry, too, that passage of the pared-back bill appeared to set the stage for higher food stamp cuts in a separate bill. Several Democrats delayed the final vote by forcing procedural votes, and many came to the floor to denounce the legislation passionately. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said to Republicans, "You are taking food out of the mouths of your own poor constituents."

Since the food stamp program doesn't expire, the program is untouched as long as no food aid cuts become law. Anti-hunger groups are already mobilizing to deflect whatever Republicans propose. "Republican leadership seems to be coming at the program with malign intent and that's deeply concerning," said James Weill of the Food Research and Action Center. He said they are hoping to rely on the Democratic-led Senate and President Barack Obama, who has also opposed food stamp cuts, to hold off against the House.

The White House issued a veto threat against both bills. A Senate farm bill passed last month would cut around a half a percent from the SNAP program. The GOP caucus is divided over how much to cut. Many Republicans praised the 3 percent cut to SNAP in the original House farm bill and the changes in eligibility. But others said it didn't go far enough and voted against the bill, leading to the legislation's defeat.



Join USSEC Sept. 16-18 in Davenport, Iowa for the U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange

The U-S Soybean Export Council and the Midwest Shippers Association (MSA) are teaming up to organize the premier international soy industry event in the U.S. this year. USSEC’s U.S. Soy Global Trade Exchange and MSA’s 10th Annual Midwest Specialty Grains/Grain Export Shipping Conference & Trade show enable attendees to network with over 125 key industry decision makers from around the globe. Trade teams are confirmed from China, Japan, Indonesia, Korea, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Mexico, Europe, Turkey, North Africa and the Middle East.

Shipping and logistics professionals and grain exporters won’t want to miss this key event, as intermodal container, rail, and river barge shipping will be highlighted. And the trade show will feature ag shipping industry suppliers.

International delegates will converge on southeast Iowa's historic Quad Cities river town communities, right in the heart of America’s soybean and corn belt, in order to make real business connections with American companies.

Register now for discounted rates and find out more about the event at www.grainconference.org.