Wednesday October 19 Ag News

NEBRASKA STATE OF BEEF CONFERENCE IS NOV. 2-3 IN NORTH PLATTE

    The 2016 Nebraska State of Beef Conference is Nov. 2 and 3 at the North Platte Sandhills Convention Center, 2102 S. Jeffers St.

    Experts from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the cattle industry will speak on making good use of the resources that have moved the state to the forefront of the national industry, as well as technology that shows promise. The theme is "Innovation in the Cowherd and Beyond."

    "This year's theme is important because as cattle prices have dropped, utilizing the technology available to optimize efficiency and profitability is even more crucial," said Karla Jenkins, cow-calf/range management specialist at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center in Scottsbluff and one of the conference planners. "Producers are always looking for ways to improve utilization of their resources, knowing they have to sustain those resources for future generations as well.”

    The conference is held every other year, on alternating years with a regional beef conference, the Range Beef Cow Symposium, which rotates between Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado.

    The registration fee of $65 includes a paper or electronic copy of the proceedings. There is an additional fee for the Nov. 2 dinner. Walk-in registrations are welcome, but the dinner can't be guaranteed for walk-ins or registrations received after Oct. 19.

    Online registration is preferred. To view a full conference agenda and to register, visit http://www.regonline.com/stateofbeefconference.

    For mail-in registration, contact Deidra McCarthy at the Panhandle Research and Extension Center at 308-632-1260 or dmccarthy2@unl.edu. A registration form is also available at http://panhandle.unl.edu.

    The conference is organized by Nebraska's Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources. For more information, contact Jenkins at 308-632-1245, kjenkins2@unl.edu; or Rick Funston, reproductive physiologist at the West Central Research and Extension Center, at 308-696-6703, rfunston2@unl.edu.



 Late Season County Agricultural Production Survey

Many Nebraska producers recently received a survey to collect data that will be used to determine row crop and hay county level acreage, yield, and production estimates for 2016. The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) mailed these surveys in mid-October to producers.

“County-level yields have a direct impact on farmers around the State. USDA’s Farm Service Agency uses the data in administering producer programs such as the Agricultural Risk Coverage (ARC) included in the 2014 Farm Bill, and in determining disaster assistance program calculations,” said Dean Groskurth, Director of NASS’s Northern Plains Region. “County-level data for corn, sorghum, soybeans, and sunflowers will be published in February 2017 and hay and dry edible beans in April 2017. However, NASS cannot publish a county yield unless it receives enough reports from producers in that county to make a statistically defensible estimate. So, it is very important that producers respond to this survey. In 2015, we were unable to publish several large producing counties because we lacked a sufficient number of responses.”

“As required by Federal law, all responses are completely confidential,” Groskurth continued. “We safeguard the privacy of all respondents, ensuring that no individual operation or producer can be identified. Individual responses are also exempt from the Freedom of Information Act.”

For more information call the NASS Nebraska Field Office at 800-582-6443.



CONNECTING YOUNG NEBRASKANS SUMMIT IN YORK OCT. 28 TO INCLUDE MORE THAN 225 LEADERS STATEWIDE

Futuring, coaching, sharing, managing—the list goes on for the 2016 Connecting Young Nebraskans (CYN) Summit, a time for young professionals throughout the state to come together to network and explore solutions for themselves, their organizations and their communities.

Hosted by the Rural Futures Institute (RFI) at the University of Nebraska, the summit entitled “Creating Life Balance” will be held at the Holthus Convention Center in York, Neb., Oct. 28, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. More than 225 participants are anticipated, and 51 communities are already represented. Details and registration are available at http://ruralfutures.nebraska.edu/events.

CYN is an ongoing statewide network of more than 750 professionals between the ages of 21 and 40 that works to connect people in rural communities to each other, professional development training and community leadership resources.

“What we have accomplished with Connecting Young Nebraskans is at the core of the work of the Rural Futures Institute in that it creates a space for community leaders to come together to share ideas and opportunities in an environment that is dedicated to facilitating action-oriented discussions,” said Chuck Schroeder, Executive Director of RFI. “This summit in particular will be an incredibly valuable use of time not only for the participants, but for their employers and rural communities as well.”

The summit agenda was led by RFI coordinator Kayla Schnuelle and created in conjunction with a steering committee of CYN representatives throughout the state. The keynote will be delivered by Lisa Gunderson, certified reality-based leadership coach from Dakota Dunes, South Dakota.

Coffee shop discussions will provide space for networking, idea generation and thoughtful reflection, and Nebraska leaders from Albion, Benkelman, Broken Bow, Grand Island, Hastings, McCook, O’Neill, Ord, York and more will provide professional development breakout and power-up sessions.

RFI Chief Futurist Dr. Connie Reimers-Hild will help attendees explore trends, emerging technologies and inclusive leadership that will innovate community engagement. Schroeder’s remarks will highlight the importance for rural communities nationwide to focus on developing young leaders.

“I have greatly enjoyed collaborating with the Connecting Young Nebraskans steering team to help coordinate the 2016 Summit,” said Rhonda Veleba, Towne Centre Coordinator for the York Chamber of Commerce. “The steering team brings a wide variety of backgrounds and ideas that will make the summit a well-rounded experience with broad topics, innovative ideas and powerful energy. I’m very excited for this statewide event to take place in York this year.”



Follow Farmers: The Path to Nearly 2 Megawatts of Solar

 Follow Farmers is the story of how Farmers Electric Cooperative in the small Iowa town of Kalona installed nearly 2 MW of solar. The entire construction of this historic solar array is currently streaming live at followfarmers.solar.

Farmers Electric Cooperative partnered with Iowa Wind and Solar to engineer, finance, and construct their newest solar project, a 950.4 kW array consisting of 2,880 solar panels. This brings FEC's total solar array size to nearly 2 MW. To understand the size of this array, you could think of it as enough to power more than 200 homes. This installation makes Farmers Electric Cooperative the leading solar utility in the State of Iowa.

According to project lead and Iowa Wind and Solar President Tyler Anderson, "This is the first instance we are aware of in which the entire construction and installation of a solar array of this magnitude has been available for the public to watch live. We're encouraging folks to check out the live stream online at followfarmers.solar." Iowa Wind And Solar is partnering with Mevo and Livestream to make this live stream possible.

Iowa Wind and Solar is Iowa's leading solar company, with offices based in Fairfield, Iowa and Bloomfield, Iowa. Iowa Wind and Solar's mission is to work with electric cooperatives to help implement solar solutions, such as community solar, with a focus on aligning values between the electric cooperative utility and its members.



Ethanol Stocks Down to 1-Year Low

Total U.S. ethanol stocks plunged last week to a near-one-year low while plant production rebounded higher from a four-month low and blending demand was little changed, the Energy Information Administration said Wednesday.

The EIA's Weekly Petroleum Status Report showed domestic fuel ethanol inventories were drawn down by 400,000 barresl (bbl), or 1.8%, to 19.0 million bbl during the week-ended Oct. 14, which reduced a year-over-year surplus to 200,000 bbl, or 0.9%.

Plant production climbed 37,000 barrels per day (bpd), or 3.8%, to 998,000 bpd last week, up 47,000 bpd, or 4.9%, versus a year earlier. For the four weeks ended Oct. 14, domestic ethanol production averaged 982,000 bpd, up 3.6%.

Net refiner and blender inputs of ethanol, a measure for demand, eased 1,000 bpd to 915,000 bpd during the week-ended Oct. 14. Year over year, refiner and blender inputs are still up 18,000 bpd, or 2.0%. The four-week average blender input rate through Oct. 14 is up 27,000 bpd, or 3.0%, year over year at 914,000 bpd.



   
RFA: Data Show the So-Called “Blend Wall” is Crumbling

Gasoline supplied to the U.S. market last week contained an average of 10.4 percent ethanol, according to data released this morning by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). It was the second time in the last four weeks that the ethanol blend rate topped 10.0 percent, a level the oil industry has suggested could not be breached. Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) President and CEO Bob Dinneen said the data confirms that the so-called “blend wall” is nothing more than a fiction created by oil companies in an effort to undermine support for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“These EIA figures show once again that the oil industry’s false blend wall narrative is not rooted in reality. This clearly shows that there’s no reason for the administration to roll back the 2017 RFS conventional biofuel blending levels required by the statute,” said Dinneen. “It also shows that supporters of legislative proposals to cap ethanol content at 9.7 percent are completely out of touch with what is really happening in the marketplace.”

EIA data show that an average of 8.798 million barrels per day (mbpd) of gasoline were supplied to the market last week. Ethanol blending averaged 0.915 mbpd, meaning gasoline contained an average of 10.4 percent ethanol. This is the highest weekly blend rate on record, topping the 10.21 percent rate seen just three weeks earlier.

The weekly data come on the heels of EIA’s October Short-term Energy Outlook, which similarly projected that gasoline consumed in 2016 will contain an average of 10.1 percent ethanol. That is up from 9.9 percent last year. In September, RFA ran ads showing that nearly half of the states in the U.S. had already blown by the 10.0 percent threshold as early as 2014.



Fertilizer Price Decline Slows

Average retail fertilizer prices continued to move lower the second week of October, though the rate of decline slowed from what was seen in previous weeks, according to fertilizer retailers surveyed by DTN. While all eight of the major fertilizer are lower compared to a month earlier, the string of nine consecutive weeks with significantly lower prices was broken as no products were down by any considerable amount.

DAP averaged $438 per ton, MAP $452/ton, potash $313/ton and urea $316/ton. 10-34-0 averaged $454/ton, anhydrous $475/ton, UAN28 $224/ton and UAN32 $264/ton.

On a price per pound of nitrogen basis, the average urea price was at $0.34/lb.N, anhydrous $0.29/lb.N, UAN28 $0.40/lb.N and UAN32 $0.41/lb.N.

Retail fertilizers remain lower compared to a year earlier. All fertilizers are now double digits lower.

Both DAP and MAP are now down 20%, and both 10-34-0 and UAN32 are 22% lower. Both urea and UAN28 are 24% less expensive, anhydrous is 26% lower and potash is 29% less expensive compared to a year prior.



GIPSA Settles Case with Tyson Fresh Meats
The USDA's Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration recently entered into a Consent Decision with Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc. Tyson changed its carcass trim procedures at two of its plants without prior notification to hog producers. GIPSA inspectors noticed the change and brought the notification issued to Tyson’s attention. Tyson discontinued the new trim procedures at these plants and returned to its traditional trim method.

In Oct. 2015, prior to settlement negotiations, Tyson voluntarily compensated pork producers as a result of the temporary change in trimming procedure. GIPSA filed a complaint on Sept. 29, 2016. To resolve the complaint, Tyson agreed to cease and desist from failing to disclose, or otherwise make known to hog producers, prior to purchase, a description of the carcass trim procedure to be used in determining the weight of producer's hogs. Tyson also paid a civil penalty of $22,500.

Tyson waived further procedure for the purpose of settling this proceeding and agreed to the entry of the Consent Decision. The Consent Decision became final and effective on Sept. 30, 2016. The Packers and Stockyards Act is a fair trade practice and payment protection law that promotes fair and competitive marketing environments for the livestock, meat, and poultry industries.



Rabobank Global Pork Quarterly Q4 2016: U.S. Supply Glut Dampens Global Outlook

Abundant supply and looming slaughter capacity constraints in the U.S. are pressuring global pork prices, a situation exacerbated by slowing Chinese imports, according to the Rabobank Global Pork Quarterly Q4 2016 report.

This will result in a further decline of the Rabobank Five-Nation Hog Price Index in Q4, which turned unexpectedly in Q3,” says Albert Vernooij, Animal Protein analyst at Rabobank. “Prospects for 2017 are weak, with global trade expected to stabilise and all main producers in expansion mode, making supply discipline key to the outlook."

China: prices to rebound until Chinese New Year
Low production and seasonal demand towards the Chinese New Year will support prices after the Q3 dip. This will support ongoing strong import volumes, but growth will be slower than previous months. Competitition will intensify as more countries and companies obtain export permits.

EU: supply discipline key for positive prospects
Continuing pressured supply and good export demand will result in, at least, prices stabilising at elevated levels during Q4. However, 2017 prospects are soft, with rising competition in Asia and the declining British pound pressuring returns from this important local market. Herd expansion needs to stop or decline to support prices.

U.S.: supply glut to result in strong price pressure
Higher-than-expected supply, combined with stalling exports and rising domestic competition from beef and poultry, is pushing hog prices and industry profitability down. For hog producers, this situation will worsen in Q4, with slaughter capacity constraints putting processors in the driving seat until new capacity arrives in 2017.

Brazil: market recovery around the corner
Balanced supply, coupled with rising exports, will result in pork prices rebounding during Q4. Combined with the expected decline in feed costs, this will support production and exports in 2017.



USDA Quarterly Hogs and Pigs Survey Coming Soon

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is reminding hog producers nationwide to keep an eye out for the quarterly Hogs and Pigs Survey. Conducted in early December, the quarterly survey will gather detailed data on market hog and breeding stock inventories as well as farrowing intentions.

NASS will mail the questionnaires to all producers selected for the survey in late November. Producers who receive the survey questionnaire in the mail can respond online, by mail or fax. Producers who don't respond in one of those ways will have the opportunity for a telephone or in-person interview.

The data gathered in these quarterly surveys allow NASS to accurately measure and report conditions and trends in the U.S. pork industry over the course of the year. The information is used by all sectors of the industry to make strategic decisions and guide investments. As is the case with all NASS surveys, information provided by respondents is confidential by law.

NASS will publish the survey results in the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report on Dec. 23. For more information, call the NASS Northeastern Regional Field Office at 1-800-498-1518.



'Thank an American Farmer or Rancher' Activity Helps Students Make the Farm-to-Food Connection

"Thank an American Farmer or Rancher," a Thanksgiving-themed activity for pre-K to first-grade students, helps teachers explain where food comes from, courtesy of the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture (www.agfoundation.org/) . Through this activity, teachers also ask students to write, draw or create thank you letters or cards for America's farmers.

A free lesson plan and a letter from a farmer, suggestions for books to read, class discussion ideas and more are available online (www.agfoundation.org/projects/thank-a-farmer-or-rancher) .

"Most Americans have never been to a farm and didn't even grow up near one, but they are ready to learn more about where their food comes from," said American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall. "'Thank an American Farmer or Rancher' is a fun classroom activity that helps young learners make the connection between farms and ranches and the food they eat."

Classroom ideas include:
-    Complete a free sample lesson (http://www.agfoundation.org/files/Pumpkin_Lesson.pdf) from Farm a Month and read a free sample letter (www.agfoundation.org/files/Pumpkin_Letter.pdf) from a pumpkin farmer, followed by a discussion about farming in America.
-    Pull up a picture of a Thanksgiving Day plate or ask students to name common holiday foods such as turkey, cranberries, green beans, potatoes and stuffing, then discuss the agricultural origins of each item.
-    Have students in groups research online to discover where ingredients such as pumpkins, butter, sugar and wheat come from. Give each group one ingredient; don't tell them what the final product is going to be. Have students present where their ingredient is from and then have the class as a whole guess what the recipe is for!
-    Invite a local farmer into your classroom to discuss how he or she produces food, fiber or energy.

Letters written by students as part of the activity will be given to real farmers and ranchers in January at AFBF's Annual Convention. Learn more here (www.agfoundation.org/projects/thank-a-farmer-or-rancher)



India Surpasses China as Biggest Importer of Soybean Oil

India has sprinted past China as the world's top importer of soybean oil, reports the USDA.

The nation's imports of soybean oil have quadrupled in the last five years. This is due in part because a world glut has lowered its price, and rising palm oil prices have made soy oil more competitive, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

India surpassed China in 2013-14 as the world's largest importer of soybean oil as China expanded its crushing industry and began to focus on raw soybean imports for processing into meal and oil.

The USDA report forecasts India's soybean imports will reach 3.9 million tons over the next decade, compared with China's 1.4 million tons.



NFU Representatives Ensure Family Farmers and Ranchers Have a Seat at the Table for International Policy Development

 Representatives of National Farmers Union (NFU) appealed to international policymakers this week, requesting that the perspective of family farmers and ranchers be better represented in the global food security and nutrition arena. NFU Vice President of International Relations Dave Velde and North Dakota Farmers Union President Mark Watne attended the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security (CFS) 40th Anniversary Plenary Session on behalf of the World Farmers’ Organization (WFO). 

“Family farmers and ranchers are engaged on many of the same issues that CFS tackles as a committee, which ultimately impacts the work carried out by international bodies like the World Trade Organization. It is important that producers are involved in international discussions at the formative stages to help advise the policies that eventually shape the business and livelihoods of farmers around the world,” said Watne, who presented before members of the committee in Rome, Italy.

Established as an inclusive international and intergovernmental platform to coordinate on matters of food security, CFS promotes a multi-stakeholder approach to international policymaking on issues related to food, nutrition, sustainability and more. Yet, farmers and ranchers have not historically been invited to the table.

“We were appreciative to present to the Committee today. This was another important step to ensure farmers and ranchers have a voice at the table,” Velde said. “We’re optimistic about the progress we’ve made thus far with international leaders and officials, and we’ll continue to work to secure the role of the family farming industry in the relevant discussions moving forward.”

Through the WFO, NFU has helped elevate the position of the world’s farmers in high-level international policy discussions. Last month, Velde was the sole farm organization representative on a panel before the General Assembly of the United Nations to discuss antimicrobial resistance.

“NFU has a proud history of advocating for the issues important to family farmers and ranchers, their rural communities, and the consumers they feed. I thank Dave and Mark for representing the Farmers Union organization and working to elevate the position of family agriculture on the international stage in a meaningful way,” NFU President Roger Johnson added.

More information about CFS is available at www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-home/en/.

More information on the World Farmers’ Organization is available at www.wfo-oma.com.