Webinar on economic recovery in ag planned with KC Fed VP
A Nebraska Extension webinar on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. will feature a presentation on economic recovery in U.S. agriculture by Nathan Kauffman, Omaha branch executive and vice president with the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
On the verge of disaster one year ago, many segments of the U.S. agricultural economy have rebounded to new heights. Supported by robust global demand, reopening economies and tight supplies, the prices of major U.S. crops have reached their highest levels in nearly a decade.
“Although significant risks remain, the outlook for U.S. agriculture in the months ahead is strong,” Kauffman said.
Since 2012, Kauffman has served as the lead economist and Nebraska representative for the Kansas City Fed. As the bank’s principal expert in agricultural economics, he is a leading voice throughout the seven states of the Tenth Federal Reserve District and the broader Federal Reserve system.
The webinar is part of a weekly series produced by the Farm and Ranch Management team in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Department of Agricultural Economics. Registration is free at https://farm.unl.edu/webinars.
Drone operations course coming to Northeast Community College in Norfolk
As more and more unmanned aircraft, particularly multi-rotor UAS (drones), take to the skies, operators must have a deeper understanding of applicable regulations, flight maneuvers, missions planning and safe operations in controlled airspace. Northeast Community College will hold a two-day course in June that will instruct participants on the rules of flying a UAS as established by the Federal Aviation Administration.
“If you fly a drone in the United States, it’s your responsibility as a pilot to understand and abide by the rules, especially if you’re going to be flying it for commercial ventures,” said Brian Anderson media arts - broadcasting instructor at Northeast Community College. “If you make money off how you use your drone, such as selling photos you take with it, you have to be certified and know the rules of the air.”
The Drone Operations Course will help participants understand the proper protocol and procedures for flying various drone missions through hands-on flight training. Ultimately, the course will help to prepare the student for the successful completion of the FAA Part 107 UAS Remote Pilot certification process. That particular course is designed for those who want to fly drones for commercial purposes, but also includes useful rules and information for the drone hobbyist.
Anderson, an FAA-certified drone pilot, will lead the two-day drone operations course for area businesspersons on the Northeast campus in Norfolk. He said it is designed for those who want to fly drones for commercial purposes, but also includes useful rules and information for the drone hobbyist.
“It will help participants understand the proper protocol and procedures for flying various drone missions through hands-on flight training. Ultimately, the course will prepare these students for the successful completion of the FAA Part 107 UAS Remote Pilot certification process.”
The course will consist of class time that primarily focuses on rules and regulations with additional time set aside for students to actually operate drones.
Anderson has also created a drone operations manual which includes protocols on what an individual needs to take care of before a UAS is launched. The manual includes logs and procedures as well as information on flight information and what do if something goes wrong.
The occupation of certified drone pilot is becoming lucrative. The Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems reports that 100,000 licensed drone pilot jobs will be available by 2025, with strong income potential depending on the project.
Drone Operations Course (BRDC 5100 & CRN #70047) will be held Thursday and Friday, June 10-11, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m., in and outside the Cox Activities Center, 801 E. Benjamin Ave., in Norfolk. Cost of the class is $245. Hands-on flight training using the DJI fleet of drones owned and insured by Northeast Community College is included in the course. The test preparation textbook is also included.
Pre-registration is required by call (402) 844-7000.
Nebraska’s Pesticide Container Recycling Program Enters its 30th Year
Nebraska’s private and custom pesticide applicators care deeply about the land and its resources, and they take seriously their responsibility to be stewards of the environment. Pesticides are a critical tool in agricultural pest management, but they must be handled with care — from purchase to disposal — in order to reap their benefits while minimizing their risks.
According to the U.S. Geological Survey, tens of millions of pounds of pesticides are applied in Nebraska each year. That translates to a lot of empty plastic containers. The Nebraska Pesticide Container Recycling Program, now in its 30th year, provides a way for private and commercial applicators to safely and responsibly dispose of their pesticide containers, free of charge.
COVID-19 remains a concern in 2021, and individual collection sites will have the final say on how they wish to operate. For the safety of their employees and those dropping off containers (recyclers), collection sites may take steps such as requiring that masks be worn.
A list of collection sites can be found on UNL’s Pesticide Safety Education Program site https://pested.unl.edu/recycling. Please note each site’s collection schedule.
The program accepts only containers that held pesticides for crop, ornamental/turf, forestry, aquatic and public health pest control. Containers that held crop oils, surfactants and adjuvants are also accepted. Containers that held consumer pesticides (e.g., home and garden products) are not accepted. (Some cities or counties offer household hazardous waste disposal events for these types of products.)
All collection sites in Nebraska accept 1- and 2.5-gallon plastic containers. In addition, some sites accept 15-, 30-, and 55-gallon plastic drums. Check the list of sites for details https://edmedia.wufoo.com/reports/2021-pesticide-container-recycling-/.
Collection site managers thoroughly inspect containers before accepting them for collection, so if you plan to recycle containers, be sure to prepare them beforehand.
Preparing Containers
Before dropping them off at a collection site, you must triple- or pressure-rinse each container according to label directions. It is best to do this at the time of the application, as rinsate can be safely added to a tank load and used as spray. Delayed rinsing can result in dried residue in containers that is difficult to remove. The NebGuide, Rinsing Pesticide Containers (G1736), details the purpose, benefits and process of rinsing containers.
With the exception of materials that are glued to containers, remove and discard any labels, booklets and slipcover plastic. Caps cannot be recycled; rinse all caps and discard them as regular trash.
About the Program
The Agricultural Container and Recycling Council (ACRC), which oversees container recycling nationwide, is a not-for-profit organization funded by manufacturers and distributors of crop protection products. ACRC reports that nearly 9 million pounds of plastic were collected nationally in 2020, putting the historical total at some 217.3 million pounds collected since 1992.
ACRC’s Midwest contractor, G. Phillips & Sons, collected 74,560 pounds of containers in Nebraska in 2020, despite the pandemic. This is approximately 10% more than the 67,688 pounds collected in 2019. Since the program’s inception, more that 2.5 million pounds have been collected in Nebraska for recycling. That is equivalent to the weight of more than eight Statues of Liberty (National Park Service).
Recycling is the most sustainable, environmentally friendly method of container disposal. The plastic from recycled containers is used to make industry-approved products such as pallets, drain tile, underground utility conduit, landscape edging and nursery pots. Instead of adding them to a landfill, consider recycling your empty pesticide containers this year.
ISU Feedlot Forum 2021 Registration Is Open
The Feedlot Forum 2021 will be held June 29 at the Terrace View Event Center in Sioux Center. Built grassroots up, the event focuses on issues critical to beef feedlot producers and cutting-edge technology available from agribusiness professionals.
This year's theme is "Producing and Marketing in Today's Era," and the forum features the following nationally recognized speakers and their topics, including speakers from Iowa State University Extension and Outreach:
Designing and Implementing Feedlot Implant Strategies – Wes Gentry, nutritionist for Midwest PMS.beef cattle.
Digital Dermatitis – Old Disease, New Research – Terry Engelken, DVM with Iowa State University Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine.
Managing Newly Received Calves – Dan Thomson, chair of the Iowa State University Department of Animal Science.
Regulatory Solutions to Cattle Marketing – Panel discussion (Brad Kooima, CEO of Kooima Kooima Varilek Trading, Inc.; Matt Deppe, CEO of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association; and Cora Fox, director of government relations with the Iowa Cattlemen's Association).
Cattle Market Outlook: National and Iowa Perspectives – Lee Schulz, associate professor in economics and extension livestock economist at Iowa State University.
With cash corn prices hovering between $6.75-7 per bushel, profitability is strongly affected by protocols that increase feed efficiency and optimize animal health.
Profitability also depends on cattle market prices, and prices were impacted by events such as the Tyson Foods fire in Holcomb, Kansas, and COVID-19. Consequently, the beef industry is fervent about market volatility and market transparency.
The Feedlot Forum flyer https://www.iowabeefcenter.org/events/FeedlotForum2021.pdf has the day's agenda, topics and speakers, and registration info.
Registration for Feedlot Forum 2021 opened May 1 and closes June 21. Participants can register online at https://tinyurl.com/42zx9y94 or through the traditional mail-in registration process. Registration, which is $25 per person, must be prepaid as registrations are limited.
COVID-19 related note
Due to COVID-19, walk-ins are not allowed, and face masks will be provided and encouraged. Organizers are trying to separate tables by 6 feet, but will only be able to provide 3 feet between five people at a table.
Other measures will be to provide hand sanitizer for each person and have the caterer serve a grilled ribeye steak sandwich along with a boxed lunch for all other food items. Breakfast will be a packaged muffin and bottle of milk. No coffee for the Forum.
USDA's Implementation of COVID-19 Assistance for Cattle Producers Falls Short
Today, May 5, the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association sent a letter to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Sec. Tom Vilsack regarding the use of a payment limitation on COVID-19 relief for cattle producers. Since USDA’s March 25 announcement for pandemic assistance and recent implementation, we’ve learned that some cattle producers, particularly feeders, are ineligible to receive the assistance that Congress provided for them due to the payment limitation established for CFAP 1.
Congress noted the failure to adequately compensate cattle producers last year, which resulted in additional appropriations in December 2020. Despite the fact that USDA had no discretion in interpreting the directives, it took nearly four months to roll out payments.
Instead of defining these payments as a third and entirely separate round of CFAP, USDA classified them as part of CFAP 1. This means that the $250,000 payment limitation from the first round of CFAP was carried over from one calendar year to the next.
Congress was explicit in funding and legislating formulas for additional payments to cattle producers. As a result of USDA’s decision to retain a payment limitation from the previous year, many cattle feeders have not received financial assistance that was earmarked for them by Congress. Instead, many American farmers and ranchers, who may have experienced less realized losses, have received payments that may or may not have been necessary.
The Iowa Cattlemen’s Association requests that Sec. Vilsack consider applying any additional funds to mitigate this shortfall in assistance.
NPPC URGES MASSACHUSETTS TO ALTER, DELAY RESTRICTIVE PORK PRODUCTION INITIATIVE
On Monday, NPPC filed comments on two Massachusetts bills related to Question 3, a 2016 ballot initiative which prohibits the sale of pork produced using certain production methods. In many ways, Question 3 is substantially similar to Proposition 12, a California ballot initiative which passed in 2018. The Massachusetts initiative is set to begin on Jan. 1, 2022, but first requires the commonwealth’s attorney general to draft implementation rules—which have not been completed.
In its comments on S. 36 and H. 864, the National Pork Producers Council said it supports language that would place the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources in charge of promulgating Question 3 regulations. Currently, the attorney general’s office has exclusive jurisdiction. Additionally, while not included in the bills, NPPC is urging for Question 3’s implementation date to be delayed by two years, to Jan. 1, 2024.
“Meeting the requirements of Question 3 is difficult enough to do in normal conditions, requiring significant investments of labor and capital, as farmers must convert to a compliant system in order to meet Question 3’s requirements. The time and cost of this challenge has been exacerbated over the last two years as the industry struggles to overcome the challenges – both to our workers and to the marketplaces for pigs and pork – caused by COVID-19,” NPPC wrote.
Third Quarter 2020 Beef Imports Highest in Two Decades, Cattle Prices Lowest in 10 Years
At over one billion pounds, the volume of beef imports in the third quarter of 2020 was higher than any third-quarter volume in at least the past two decades. This third-quarter 2020 spike in beef imports coincides with the lowest reported monthly price of fed cattle in over a decade, with the national monthly fed steer price at only $95.33 in July 2020.
R-CALF USA filed a lawsuit against the four largest beef packers in early 2019 alleging they violated antitrust statutes and other laws by conspiring to artificially depress fed cattle prices since at least January 1, 2015. Among the more specific allegations contained in the lawsuit is that the beef packers used live cattle imports to drive down domestic fed cattle prices.
But R-CALF USA CEO Bill Bullard says it is important to evaluate the potential effects of other conventional price-influencing factors that may well be exacerbating the impact of the alleged conspiracy.
R-CALF USA’s ongoing analysis of various price-influencing factors reveal fed cattle prices experienced four distinct troughs since their initial collapse six years ago, which began in early 2015 and continued through October 2016. According to Bullard, the lowest fed cattle price during each of those four successive troughs occurred during the third quarters in each of the years 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. And, as revealed in the chart below, each of those four successive troughs was associated with distinct increases in monthly beef import volumes.
“These data suggest that at least since 2017, there has been an inverse relationship between monthly import volumes and cattle prices, meaning low monthly cattle prices were associated with high monthly import levels and the record-high monthly import level in 2020 was associated with the lowest monthly fed cattle price in over a decade,” Bullard said.
He said R-CALF USA’s research reveals a similar inverse relationship between beef packers’ captive supply levels and cattle prices, wherein larger numbers of cattle purchased outside the negotiated cash market are also associated with lower cattle prices.
Bullard expressed concern that yet another consecutive import spike at or near the third quarter of 2021 could again blow the bottom out of the fed cattle market, which today remains inexplicably unresponsive to incredibly strong beef demand signals, in particular skyrocketing wholesale beef prices.
“This historical data show that cattle producers have not benefited from rising import levels,” he said.
“The U.S. cattle industry is at a critical crossroad and if decisive action is not taken immediately, we’ll soon reach the point of no return – the point when our industry becomes unrecognizable to those who are in it now,” Bullard concluded.
R-CALF USA is calling on Congress to take two immediate actions: Pass the Grassley/Tester bill (S.949) to restore competition in the fed cattle market by requiring packers to purchase at least 50% of their cattle in the open cash market and the reinstatement of mandatory country of origin labeling for beef to restore competition for beef produced from U.S. cattle.
New Study Finds Corn Ethanol Champions Lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions
A new analysis from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory concludes greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from corn ethanol are now 44% to 52% lower than gasoline, thanks to improvements in the efficiency of both corn and ethanol production. The retrospective study analyzed data from U.S. corn and ethanol production between 2005 and 2019, finding a 23% decrease in corn ethanol’s carbon intensity. (This reduction is due to improvements in corn yield, decreases in fertilizer intensity inputs, increases in ethanol yields, and reductions in ethanol plant energy use.) From the 15 years studied, an additional 140 million metric tons (MMT) GHG emission reductions were made possible by the reduction in corn ethanol’s carbon intensity.
“Relying on updated data and the best science show ethanol is truly a low carbon fuel, with the potential to become even more low carbon, thanks to how farmers continue to improve corn production practices and increased yields that produce more corn from less land and fewer inputs,” said NCGA President and Ohio corn farmer, John Linder.
The study finds that “The ethanol produced in our 15 years has been introduced to the transportation sector to displace petroleum gasoline. With the displacement, on the LCA basis, corn ethanol has helped the U.S. transportation sector reduce GHG emissions by 544 MMT over the period.” The research also notes that corn ethanol GHG emissions can be reduced further with additional sustainable farming practices such as no‐till and cover crops that can help reduce fertilizer inputs and increase soil organic carbon content. Finally, the analysis concludes, “Biofuels, including corn ethanol, can play a critical role in the U.S. desire for deep decarbonization of its economy.”
This new data comes at an advantageous time, as members of the biofuels industry convene this week for the annual Growth Energy Executive Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona. NCGA staff Jon Doggett, Jim Bauman, and Mark Palmer attend the conference this week with NCGA Board Members John Linder, Kevin Ross and Dennis McNinch. While at the conference, the group is scheduled to meet with Harvard Professor in Environmental Sciences and Low-Carbon Fuels, Dr. Daniel Schrag.
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