FarmWeek May 31 2010

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Monday, May 31, 2010 Two sections Volume 38, No. 22

FarmWeek on the web: FarmWeekNow.com Illinois Farm Bureau®on the web: www.ilfb.org

WHEAT HARVEST in Illinoisthis summer is not expected to be along, drawn out affair. Wheat acresin the state are at a record low. ......8

CENTRAL ILLINOIS farm-ers John and Sue Adams will begetting a lot of face time in theD.C. area starting Tuesday. ........10

JUNE IS DAIRY MONTH,or ig ina l l y des igna ted a s suchbecause it was the time of year thatsurplus milk needed to be sold. ....9

WINDING DOWN

Bryan Crump, son of Crump Family Gardens owners Bob and JoannCrump of rural Carlock in McLean County, picks the last of what wasdescribed as an above average crop of strawberries. The farm, inoperation for 45 years, grows a variety of vegetables, flowers, andherbs, and sells firewood. The produce is sold at their farm and at fivelocal farmers’ markets. The Southern Illinois strawberry crop wasreported to be well above average this year. Additional photos appearat {www.ilfb.org}. (Photo By Ken Kashian)

RFS2 expectations push biodiesel credit urgencyBY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

The Senate left D.C. lastweek without reinstating a cru-cial biodiesel market incentive,and industry interests notedthe clock is rapidly runningdown toward a key July dead-line.

Senate Majority Leader Har-ry Reid (D-Nevada) last weeksuspended consideration of acomprehensive tax extenderspackage until after the Memor-ial Day recess.

Meanwhile, the Housepassed the “American Jobs andClosing Tax Loopholes Act,”the measure that includes thebiodiesel credit extension.

The credit expired Jan. 1,resulting in some 40-50 plantsbeing idled nationwide, accord-ing to National BiodieselBoard (NBB) Washington rep-resentative Michael Frohlich.

Frohlich saw House debateof the controversial extendersmeasure alone as “clearly apositive development” towardretroactive reinstatement ofthe $1-per-gallon credit.

Reid said he intends to pri-oritize extenders debate fol-lowing the holiday recess. Ali-cia Clancy, spokesman with

Renewable Energy Group(REG), stressed the need fortimely action upon the Senate’sJune 6 return, given newrenewable fuels standard(RFS2) requirements set tokick in July 1.

Because of slower-than-expected biofuels industrygrowth related in part to theeconomic downturn, the U.S.Environmental ProtectionAgency (EPA) combined 2009and 2010 fuel industrybiodiesel blending require-ments into 2010 targets.

As a result, major petroleumcompanies and other “obligat-ed parties” are expected tocommit to 1.15 billion gallonsof annual biodiesel use byyear’s end.

“The indications from theSenate are that if the bill is notpaid for (through other taxesor spending cuts), they’re (sen-ators) going to want to dosome work on it,” Clancy toldFarmWeek.

“Renewable Energy Groupis in the biodiesel business, andwe urge our senators to act asquickly as possible on whatev-er vehicle they need to get thebiodiesel tax credit passed.

“The $1-per-gallon biodiesel

tax credit is supported byRepublicans, by Democrats, bysenators, by House members.It’s not the biodiesel tax creditthat is creating any sort ofissue — it is the package inwhich it is sitting that has cre-ated the six-month delay.”

REG recently completed itsformal consolidation withDanville’s Blackhawk Biofuels,which should help spread theplant’s risks across the largercompany’s production net-work. REG announced recent-ly it was acquiring an additional60- million-gallon-per-yearbiodiesel facility in Seneca, onthe LaSalle-Grundy Countyline.

Clancy noted Illinois “hasthe best biodiesel incentiveprogram anywhere in thenation,” a tax exemption for 11percent biodiesel blends. Thus,Blackhawk has avoided layoffssuffered elsewhere. The plant’sability to sustain long-termoperations is largely “a matterof risk management” andblenders’ confidence “theirdollar will be reinstated,” shesaid.

“In terms of industry sur-vival and preventing irrepara

See RFS2, page 4

Lawmakers pass budget, offer no solutionsBY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Illinois’ financial dramanow enters the second act, andGov. Pat Quinn is in the spot-light.

The General Assembly lastweek passed a budget thatdoesn’t address how the statewill make a $4.2-billion pay-ment to the state employeepension fund.

But legislators gave Quinn adouble-edged sword withbroad powers to make budgetcuts and no direction onwhere the cuts should be madeor how deep they should be.

“It is probably more accu-

rate to say that the GeneralAssembly has approved aspending plan vs. a budget,”said Kevin Semlow, IllinoisFarm Bureau director of statelegislation. The state’s new fis-cal year starts July 1.

Legislators approved alump-sum budget with eachagency, board, commission,and program receiving a gen-eral appropriation rather than

specific funding levels for vari-ous expenses, Semlowexplained.

In the budget, the IllinoisDepartment of Agriculture(IDOA) is scheduled to receivea lump sum of $21.922 millionfor the agency’s generalemployee costs and additionalfunds for specific operations.However, the lump-sum pay-ment means the governor’soffice must determine whichprograms to fund or to cut,Semlow noted.

IDOA also is to receiveanother lump-sum payment of$9.337 million for non-agencyprograms — such as Soil and

Water Conservation Districts(SWCDs) and county fairs —whose funding comes throughIDOA’s budget.

However, the budgetedamount was less than the totalfunding requested by each ofthe programs.

Again, the governor’s officewill need to determine whichof the non-agency programswill be funded and which willbe cut, Semlow said.

For the first time, the bud-get did not stipulate anyamount for Cook CountyExtension, and some state

FarmWeekNow.comVisit FarmWeekNow.com tolearn how IFB legislative pri-orities fared at the Capitolthis spring.

See Budget, page 3

EPA ‘VETO’ VOTE PLANNED — Sen. L isaMurkowski (R-Alaska) has reached an agreement with Sen-ate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) for a vote onher resolution that essentially would veto U.S. Environmen-tal Protection Agency (EPA) plans to regulate greenhousegases (GHGs) under the Clean Air Act.

Debate and a vote on Murkowski’s GHG regulation“disapproval resolution” are expected by June 10. TheAmerican Farm Bureau Federation has urged state FarmBureaus to contact senators during the Memorial Dayrecess and ask them to vote for the resolution.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) expects the Senate to passthe Murkowski resolution. “I think it will pass. There are alot of people who will be in the camp of, ‘We should do it,not the EPA,’” said Graham, a resolution co-sponsor.

The resolution requires 51 votes for passage.

INSURERS OFFER ALTERNATIVE — In a letterto U.S. farm organizations, crop insurance agents released apurportedly farmer-friendly alternative to a proposed $8.4billion to $6.9 billion in insurance funding cuts proposed byUSDA.

With crop insurance an apparent target in forth-coming farm bill/ag spending debate, “what has beenmissing from this negotiation is a focus on what benefitsthe farmer,” said Ronnie Holt, chair of the Crop InsuranceProfessionals Association, an independent agents group.USDA and crop insurers currently are negotiating the con-tract, or Standard Reinsurance Agreement, which will dic-tate insurer reimbursements for carrying federal policiesover the next five years.

“If the government wants to shrink crop insurance costsor restrain company profits, then the USDA should con-sider lowering the premiums that farmers pay,” Holtargued. “USDA, not crop insurance companies, set theserates. The effect of such a step would be to lower producerpremiums whi le a lso lowering government costs.”

Holt noted federal costs for crop insurance already are35 percent lower than in 2008.

LOSSES TO PREDATORS — Predators last yearwere responsible for about one-third of the deaths ofsheep, goats, and lambs on U.S. farms and ranches, theNational Agricultural Statistics Service reported.

Predator losses of sheep and lambs in 2009 totaled247,200, which was 39 percent of deaths and resulted inthe loss of $20.5 million for U.S. farmers and ranchers.

In Illinois, 10 percent of sheep (300) and 14 percent oflambs (1,000) that died on farms last year died as the resultof predators.

Predators also were responsible for 32.5 percent(180,000) of all goat and kid deaths on U.S. farms andranches last year.

The second-leading cause of sheep and lamb deaths onfarms last year was weather-related problems from theharsh winter followed by other factors such as disease andold age.

FarmWeek Page 2 Monday, May 31, 2010

(ISSN0197-6680)

Vol. 38 No. 22 May 31, 2010

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Quick TakesSTATE

Illinois farmers, landownersmake conservation strides BY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Illinois farmers andlandowners recently receivedmore proof of their conserva-tion progress.

The latest NationalResources Inventory (NRI)showed annual soil erosion onIllinois cropland droppedfrom more than 6.2 tons peracre in 1982 to 3.9 tons peracre in 2007, the last year datawas collected by the NaturalResources Conservation Ser-vice (NRCS).

“The data confirms thatIllinois’ private landownerswork hard to protect our landand natural resources,” saidIllinois NRCS State Conserva-tionist Bill Gradle.

The NRI is a statistical sur-vey of natural resource condi-tions and trends.

At 66.3 percent, cropland isthe largest land use in Illinois(see accompanying graphic).Interestingly, in 2007, at least,Illinois had a slightly largerpercentage of acres in forest,10.9 percent, than in devel-oped/urban uses at 9.4 per-cent.

A significant trend has beenthe number of acres enrolledin the Conservation ReserveProgram (CRP) over the years.Since 1982, than 835,000 Illi-nois acres were convertedfrom cropland to some otheruse. More than 400,000 ofthose acres (about 48 percent)were enrolled in CRP, saidJames Johnson, Illinois NRCS

resource inventory specialist. Johnson pointed out CRP

started in 1986 and some landhas gone into and out of the

CRP program. “It’s a movingtarget,” he said about CRP

enrollment. To date, CRP cov-ers 1.8 percent of Illinoisacres.

Illinois also gained 303,000acres of forest between 1982and 2001. “We had a lot ofland enrolled in the WetlandReserve Program (WRP) andplanted in bottomland hard-wood trees,” Johnsonexplained. “A lot of trees havebeen planted.”

Given the state’s urbangrowth, it is not surprising thatIllinois lost more than 760,000acres to development from1982 to 2007. That would becomparable to the total con-version of McLean County’sland base to development,according to Johnson.

A failed McLean County elevator reopenedlast week after the Illinois Department of Agri-culture (IDOA) and Bloomington-based Ever-green FS Inc. completed a sale.

On May 10, IDOA suspended the grain deal-er and grain warehouse licenses of TowandaGrain Co. after learning of financial irregulato-ries from the failed cooperative’s board ofdirectors.

Evergreen FS, which already operates eightother elevators in the county, agreed to buy theTowanda elevator’s assets and will assume theoutstanding grain obligations.

Creditors, including farmers who are owedmoney for grain sold, will be paid in full,according to IDOA officials. No funds will bedrawn from the Illinois Grain Insurance Fund.

“We’re pleased an agreement has beenreached that not only preserves a local marketfor grain produced in McLean County but alsoprotects the financial interests of farmers whohad done business with the cooperative,” Illi-nois Agriculture Director Tom Jennings said ina prepared statement.

“The customers should see something trans-parent,” Kendall Miller, Evergreen’s generalmanager, told FarmWeek. “We’re very pleasedto acquire the assets ... It’s great farmers willnot lose funds or that we will not tap into theGrain Insurance Fund.”

Stuart Selinger, IDOA bureau chief of ware-houses, said the department is continuing itsinvestigation into the elevator’s failure.

“If we should find evidence of criminalactivity, we will notify the appropriate lawenforcement authorities and recommend prose-cution to the fullest extent under the law,”Selinger said in a statement.

Evergreen has a combined storage capacityof 10.6 million bushels and will add storage fornearly 3 million more.

Grain contracts for future delivery at Towan-da will be honored by Evergreen FS, accordingto Evergreen FS officials.

Towanda Grain was a good fit for EvergreenFS because a number of customers patronizedboth businesses, Miller said.

The grain stored at Towanda Grain is typicalof grain harvested in 2009 in that it has a slight-ly lighter test weight, Miller noted. “It’s notuntypical of what we have experienced,” headded.

Evergreen FS serves cooperative members infive counties: DeWitt, Livingston, Macon,McLean, and Woodford.

The co-op’s diversified products and servicesinclude gasoline, diesel fuel, propane, agronomyproducts and services, precision agriculture,seed, custom turf, structures, welding, and tankmanufacturing. — Kay Shipman

Failed McLean County elevator sold, reopens

‘The data confirmsthat Illinois’ privatelandowners workhard to protect ourland and naturalresources.’

— Bill GradleIllinois NRCS

state conservationist

STATE


Gov. Pat Quinn signs legislation to expand the Illinois Finance Authorityagriculture lending program at the Champaign County Farm Bureau of-fice, Champaign. Looking on left to right are Rep. Naomi Jakobsson (D-Urbana), Champaign County Farm Bureau President Jerry Watson ofVilla Grove, Champaign County FB Legislative Chairman Mark Pflug-macher of Thomasboro, and Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville). (Photo byHarold Guither, courtesy Champaign County Farm Bureau)

Governor signs bill to expandIFA ag loan guarantee program

Gov. Pat Quinn last week signed legislation that expands theIllinois Finance Authority’s (IFA) agricultural loan guaranteeprogram.

SB 3719, sponsored by Sen. Michael Frerichs (D-Champaign)and Rep. Bill Black (R-Danville), adds working capital and cover-age of innovative farming practices to the list of eligible ag loanexpenses. Quinn signed the legislation at the Champaign CountyFarm Bureau office.

IFA’s ag loan program will continue to make funds availablefor land purchases, agriculture-related businesses, and debtrestructuring.

Financing through IFA, guaranteed by the state, is available atbanks and other lending institutions across the state.

“The IFA is an important partner for farm families andagribusinesses in my community. SB 3719 helps strengthen thatpartnership when a sagging economy makes our assistance moreimportant than ever,” Frerichs said in a statement.

Black noted the expansion of the ag loan program occurredat a good time. “I’m especially pleased this program will supportthe industry at all levels, from family farms to larger agribusi-nesses,” Black said.

IFA is a self-funded, state authority that helps finance capitalinvestment throughout the state to stimulate economic develop-ment and create jobs.

Group works to develop newstate industry for biomass cropsBY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Building a new Illinois biomass industryfrom the ground up isn’t easy. Just ask theindividuals who debated issues and dis-cussed opportunities last week at HeartlandCommunity College, Normal.

The Illinois Biomass Working Groupincludes farmers, agribusinessmen, stateagency representatives, universityresearchers, University of Illinois Extensionspecialists, biomass proces-sors, and others.

During the daylongmeeting, participants raisedmore questions than therewere answers.

“We need to get morespecifics. What do con-sumers want in quality andvolume?” asked Bill Ridg-ley, GROWMARK’s direc-tor of research and newmarket development basedin Panora, Iowa.

Edwardsville farmerGary Knecht said farmerswant biomass standards for grades and qual-ity that aren’t based on wood chip standards.

“We’re here trying to get an education,”Knecht said of the farmers who attendedthe meeting. “It’s not easy getting a newindustry started.”

Last week’s meeting was a continuation ofdiscussions from a March workshop on con-verting biomass to heat and electricity.

The group’s focus remains heat and elec-tricity uses for biomass and not conversioninto cellulosic ethanol.

Although many unresolved issues sur-faced, some progress was made on possibledevelopment of an electronic informationnetwork for biomass industry sectors.

Dar Knipe, Extension marketing andbusiness development specialist, discussedthe potential for an energy biomass programbased on Extension’s Market Maker pro-

gram. Market Maker is an inter-

active mapping system thatlocates businesses and mar-kets of agricultural prod-ucts in Illinois and 17 otherstates.

Knipe took suggestionson information to be sup-plied by farmers who wantto sell biomass crops andby businesses and otherswho want to buy them.

The final list includedsuch factors as quantity,availability, moisture con-

tent, composition, and Btu (British thermalunit).

The work group plans to discuss develop-ments and potential demonstration projectsat a July 9 meeting in Decatur.

Additional information about the group isavailable by e-mailing Fred Iutzi, WesternIllinois University Illinois Institute for RuralAffairs, at [email protected].

The Illinois House ofRepresentatives last weekpassed a key Illinois FarmBureau state legislative pri-ority involving off-roadvehicles.

On a 112-0 vote, repre-sentatives concurred with aSenate amendment to HB6094.

The measure will be for-warded to Gov. Pat Quinn

for his review and action.The General Assembly hasup to 30 days to send thebill to the governor.

After receiving the bill,Quinn will have 60 days totake action.

The legislation restoresfarmers’ ability to drive all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) andutility-terrain vehicles onroads for farming purposes

and also to cross roads withthe vehicles.

Farm Bureau leaders wereurged to ask their represen-tatives and “adopted legisla-tors” to support the bill.

The IFB state legislativeteam thanked members whocontacted their state repre-sentatives asking for actionbefore the Houseadjourned.

ATV bill passes, to be forwarded to Quinn

‘We’re here trying toget an education. It’snot easy get t ing anew industry star t-ed.’

— Gary KnechtEdwardsville farmer

Continued from page 1 Extension funding for youtheducators.

The state’s overall budget“still has a huge hole,” Sem-low said. A large part of thatis the unresolved $4.2-billioninstallment due to the stateemployee pension fund.

“The state will have tomake the pension paymentbecause it’s required by law,”

Semlow added. He speculatedthe money either will be takenfrom the general revenue fundor the state may be forced tosell some of its investmentassets to make the payment.The latter option would costthe state about $20 billion inlost income, he explained.

Quinn had recommendedand the House had passed leg-islation allowing the state to

issue bonds for the pensionpayment; however, the Senatehas yet to consider that pro-posal in its current form. Thestate would have paid about$1 billion in interest if it hadissued bonds.

“We anticipate the Senatecould return in the next sever-al weeks to address the pen-sion-borrowing plan,” Semlowsaid.

Budget

Illinois 4-H’ers will competein their first virtual science,engineering, and technologyfair from Aug. 1-18.

The University of IllinoisExtension and Illinois 4-HFoundation are working with12 corporate partners to hostthe fair on an interactive web-site.

Four-H members enrolled in4-H science, engineering, andtechnology program activitiesmay choose one or more fourexhibit classes to showcasetheir projects.

The 4-H virtual fair willoffer a unique opportunity for4-H’ers currently enrolled in arange of science, engineering,and technology projects relatedto citizenship, service learning,

consumer education, corn,dairy, personal finance, health,leadership, plants and soils, soy-beans, swine, and veterinaryscience.

“Participants will be able toview exhibits of other 4-H’ersfrom around the state, corre-spond with event judges, andadd their own comments,” saidLisa Bouillion Diaz, a U of IExtension specialist.

To prepare, participating 4-H’ers will conduct an experi-ment, develop a new invention,produce a video, or create amap related to their project.Beginning Aug. 1, they will beable to post results of theirwork on an interactive websiteand receive feedback fromindustry professionals.

Extension, Illinois 4-H to host virtual science fair in AugustCorporate partners include:

Illinois Farm Bureau, CountryFinancial, GROWMARK,Busey Wealth Management,Farm Credit Services of Illi-nois, Illinois Corn MarketingBoard, LG Seeds, Paul A. FunkFoundation, Ropp Jersey

Cheese, Rural King, U.S. Bank,and Wal-Mart.

On Aug. 18, a 4-H SETInnovation Award will be pre-sented for each exhibit class.Winners will receive a “4-H dol-lars” that may be used to partici-pate in any local, state, or

national 4-H event.For more information about

the 4-H virtual fair, call Bouil-lion Diaz at 217-333-0910 or e-mail her at [email protected].

Visit the virtual fair websiteat {http://virtualfair.4-H.illi-nois.edu}.

GOVERNMENT


Controversy, conflict complicating energy debate BY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

Days after President Oba-ma gave the long-awaitedgreen light to new offshore oildrilling, disaster struck in theGulf. Now, “deepwater” oilresources are again off thetable, for at least six months.

In the wake of the BP oilspill, Obama reiterated a call toexpand renewable fuels use.

However, an ethanol tax creditseen as crucial to biofuelsgrowth has drawn fire fromliberals and conservatives alike.

Such are the complicationsthat have slowed progresstoward a comprehensive con-gressional energy policy.

During a Chicago global cli-mate forum, former Virginiagovernor and U.S. SenatorGeorge Allen, director of theAmerican Energy FreedomCenter, argued “there is no sin-gle silver bullet” to meetingenergy needs — “We need sil-ver buckshot.”

Allen urges expanded coaland nuclear power develop-ment, arguing that “to use nat-ural gas for base electricity islike using bottled water to takea bath.”

He cited South Africa’s useof coal-to-gas technology toproduce fuel and France’s suc-cessful recycling of nuclearwastes while blasting congres-

sional climate proposals thatwould curb coal use and theU.S.’ “outdated regulatory bar-riers to building the next gen-eration of nuclear plants.”

Allen dismissed the idea ofhalting U.S. offshore drillingbecause of the BP spill, notingcontinued interest in deepwa-ter deposits among “(Cuba’s)Castro brothers as well as Chi-na and Russia.”

“Illinois coal is great; weought to be cleanly and cre-atively using our coal,” he toldFarmWeek. “Nuclear needsto be part of the mix. Francereprocesses its spent fuel in amuch safer, more efficient waythan we do it in our country.

“You put more natural gasinto baseload electricity andyou’ll have higher electricityprices.

“If you’re using natural gasfor baseload, it means chemi-cal, fertilizer, glass, plastics,forestry product manufactur-ers are going to have highernatural gas prices.”

The former policymaker’ssilver buckshot has a limitedrange: Allen maintains windpower, “by its nature, is inter-mittent,” sustainable onlythrough “huge subsidies.”

He and others at the con-servative Heartland Instituteclimate forum questionedethanol mandates and subsi-

dies, arguing greater corn fueluse will hike meat and poultryprices.

Meanwhile, the liberalFriends of the Earth is suingthe U.S. Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) over itsrenewable fuel standard, whichdirects 36 billion gallons ofbiofuels use by 2022.

In what Renewable FuelsAssociation President Bob

Dinneen called “tortured log-ic,” the suit claims that by forc-ing the U.S. to rely more heavi-ly on biofuels, EPA is ensuringincreased global oil use.

New data nonetheless sup-port ethanol’s net energy ben-efits: A University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC) study indicatesthe energy needed to make agallon of corn-based fueldecreased an average 30 per-cent over the past decade.

To gather information for thestudy, UIC research economistSteffen Mueller surveyed 150 “drymill” plants responsible for 85percent of ethanol production.

The BP oil spill mayreawaken bipartisan biofuelssupport.

Obama called the Gulf dis-aster a “wake-up call” foraction on renewable energy,and urged the Senate to moveon energy legislation.

“It is time to accelerateefforts,” the president said.

Clean coal infrastructurethreatened by climate regs

Development of clean coal use technologies is crucial toefficient 21st Century coal-powered generation, Illinois CoalAssociation President Philip Gonet told FarmWeek.

Gonet is frustrated by a lack of federal movement onFutureGen, a Mattoon coal power-carbon sequestration projectdelayed for more than a year after the Bush administrationshelved it and the Obama administration subsequently revivedit, pending revised estimates on costs and benefits.

Christian County’s $3.5-billion Taylorville Energy Center anda proposed Jefferson County coal gasification-synthetic naturalgas venture also are crucial to clean coal development, he said.

Gonet believes South African coal gasification-liquefactiontechnology could be adapted to provide new U.S. fuels, andargues Illinois could be a production center.

However, development of coal-based fuels likely wouldnecessitate costly, extensive pipelines to safely transport thecaptured carbon dioxide.

The Taylorville Energy Center plan, currently under IllinoisCommerce Commission review and subject to state legislativeapproval, includes such a pipeline, designed to move CO2 toTexas for use in advanced oil recovery.

But Gonet is concerned new U.S. Senate climate/green-housegas proposals could thwart coal CO2 sequestration and develop-ment efforts before they can coalesce. He questions whether theSenate plan is “much better than Waxman-Markey” — the failed2009 House emissions cap-and-trade measure that would haveplaced stringent new emissions limits on coal-fired utilities.

Fears regarding cap-and-trade proposals in part spurred fer-tilizer manufacturer Rentech’s decision to suspend plans for aDubuque “coal-to-liquids” plant that, according to Gonet,could set the stage for use of CO2 captured across Illinois. TheTaylorville project includes a pipeline that could be used tosafely and efficiently transport CO2 to coal fuel plants.

“Anything that restricts carbon prior to the technology beingsuccessfully developed and deployed is going to hurt the coalindustry, which will cause increases in the cost of electricity,which will harm the economy,” he said.

“We have an abundance of coal in this country. Here in Illi-nois, we have 100 billion tons of recoverable coal — enough tomeet this country’s energy needs for 100 years.

“We have five projects in some phase of planning or devel-opment, starting with FutureGen. Those will develop this tech-nology, which we need in order to continue to provide low-costenergy for this country.” — Martin Ross

‘Illinois coal is great; we ought to be cleanly and cre-atively using our coal.’

— George AllenFormer Virginia governor/U.S. senator

Financial package mixed bag for rural banks?Financial regulators them-

selves more than prospectivefinancial regulation pose a keychallenge for small and ruralbanks, according to DavidSchroeder, governmentalaffairs specialist with theCommunity Bankers Associa-tion of Illinois (CBAI).

Schroeder told FarmWeekfederal financial reforms nowset for House-Senate confer-ence approval offer a mixedbag for community banks.

His association fought,with partial success, to mod-erate regulatory proposalsthat could affect communitybank reserves and lendingcapabilities.

“Like any piece of legisla-tion — especially sweepinglegislation — you’ll havesome areas where you feelyou’ve had some victories,where you’ve had some

Noting financial woesresulting from risky “exoticmortgages,” CBAI and otherspersuaded lawmakers toexempt “traditional,” securemortgages from the require-ment.

At the same time,Schroeder said Congress didnot address “one of thebiggest issues out there”:“Harsh” bank regulatoryexams.

In the wake of the finan-cial shakeup, “the pendulumhas swung way too far,” withbank examiners over-scruti-nizing even secure, perform-ing loans and forcing banksto place more earnings inloan-loss reserves, oftenregardless of their currentstrength, Schroeder related.

“Banks are being very,very protective of their capi-tal base, and as a result are

not lending to the extentthey’d like,” he related.

“That’s hurting the eco-nomic recovery.”

CBAI advocates allowingcommunity banks to amor-tize, or essentially writeoff, loan losses over a 10-year period, strictly for reg-ulatory purposes.

That would provide thema temporary “lifeline,” sim-ilar to allowances FDICoffered banks during the1980s farm crisis, Schroed-er said.

defeats, and where there issome unfinished business,” hesaid.

“This legislation is certain-ly no different.”

Among clear CBAI “victo-ries” is expansion of the Fed-eral Deposit Insurance Corp.’s(FDIC) assessment base.

FDIC insurance crucial todepositor/borrower protec-tion has been based on assess-ment of a bank’s totaldeposits. Under reform legis-lation, assessments would bebased on total bank assets.

That’s important to small-er banks, which fund opera-tions primarily with depositsto a far greater extent thanlarger institutions.

Under deposit-only assess-ments, small banks pay dis-proportionately high FDIC“premiums,” Schroeder said.

Under the new formula,

more than 98 percent of com-munity banks with less than$10 billion in assets reportedlywould see average annual pre-mium savings of 32.6 percent,enabling them to retain $4.5billion over the next threeyears, he said.

CBAI helped defeat a pro-posal to limit Federal ReserveBank oversight strictly tomajor financial institutions.

Schroeder argued Fed reg-ulation of state-charteredbanks and small bank holdingcompanies as well as largerbanks provides a “balancedview” of industry health andrisks.

CBAI challenged a require-ment that would force banksto retain 5 percent of residen-tial mortgage loans they sell toother institutions, to ensurethey share responsibility forloan quality.

RFS2Continued from page 1

ble damage, (credit extension)has been an urgency since itslapse,” NBB’s Frohlich toldFarmWeek. “The RFS2 playsinto this, but there’s just abaseline urgency to gettingthis passed.”

RESEARCH


Researchers learning sows know their needs best

University of Illinois researchers arestudying whether stall designs impactsow behavior and well-being.

“Sows have changed,” said JaneenSalak-Johnson, U of I associate profes-sor of animal sciences. “Our researchshows that modifications of stall designmay have a positive effect on sowbehavior and well-being.”

The study is being conducted on theIllinois State University (ISU) researchfarm near Lexington. The research wasfunded by the National Pork Board.Researchers included Ashley DeDeckerof the U of I and Paul Walker andAndrea Hanson of ISU.

Sows were evaluated in a standardgestation stall and a turn-around stall

that pairs two sows with a shareddivider, allowing one animal to turnaround at a time.

Researchers compared the behav-ioral differences of sows housed instandard or turn-around stalls for 30days. Some sows then were placed ingroup pens, while others stayed in stallsfor the remainder of their gestationperiod.

Preliminary results show that slightstall design modifications influence theanimals’ well-being, particularly sowbehavior and immune status.

“Sometimes behavior is the bestadjustment an animal can make in astressful situation,” Salak-Johnson said.“Making modifications to the gestation

stall may allow sows to adapt more eas-ily to stressful situations without expe-riencing negative consequences.”

Researchers observed that stalldesign modifications resulted in behav-ioral differences between sowgroups. Sows in standard stalls satmore, while those in turn-around stallslay down more.

Previous studies showed immunestatus was affected more by day of ges-tation rather than treatment. Howeverfor the first time, the U of I’s researchindicated the stall design may impactsow immune status.

Sows in turn-around stalls hadgreater lymphocyte activity, which indi-cated a more stimulated immune

response compared to sows in standardstalls. An activated immune systemcould imply either a sow’s biologicaldefense to stress or a sow’s readiness tofight infection if challenged with apathogen.

“The next step is to figure out whatthese differences mean and whichresponse is better for the sow,” Salak-Johnson said. She and her team want tolearn the positive physical componentsof each stall type and combine thoseinto housing recommendations.

“If you really want to find the bestoption, you need to see research resultsthat prove one housing option is betterthan the other,” she said. “Right now,that information doesn’t exist.”

Stall design may impact gestating sow behavior, well-being

A sow turns around in a turn-about stall on the Illinois State University (ISU) research farm near Lexington.ISU and University of Illinois researchers are studying the stalls’ impact on animal production and behavior.(FarmWeek file photo)

BY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Humans may think theyknow what a sow wants, butresearchers with Illinois StateUniversity (ISU) and the Uni-versity of Illinois are learningman’s perception may notmatch a sow’s wants.

Animal rights activists per-ceive that man’s idea of com-fortable sow housing is thesame as a sow’s idea, said PaulWalker, animal sciences pro-fessor at ISU.

“We really don’t know whata sow thinks is comfortable,”Walker said.

Sow comfort and wellbeing are among the factors

being studied in several jointresearch projects by ISU andU of I researchers on ISU’sresearch farm in Lexington.Results still are being tabulat-ed for research that was fund-ed by the National Pork Boardand the Illinois Council onFood and AgriculturalResearch (C-FAR).

“These studies by ISU andthe U of I tell producers notto give up the battle with ani-mal rights groups. Going toloose housing may not be inthe best interest of sows,”Walker said.

“I don’t think people real-ize how aggressive sows are,”especially when given the

opportunity in group housing,added Andrea Hanson, anISU animal science graduatestudent who conducted ISU’sfirst animal behavior studies.

Preliminary results from apilot study show gestatingsows (protected in farrowingstalls) are more interested insocializing with other gestat-ing sows than in movingaround in their stalls, accord-ing to Hanson.

She studied groups of sowsthat had other sows housed infront and behind them, sowsin front of them and a wallbehind them, or sows sur-rounding them.

The study also includedplacing feed and water nipplestogether at the front of thestall or on opposite ends ofthe stall, which is the normalarrangement.

“When the wall was at therear (of the pen), they didn’tspend that much time facingthe rear and they didn’t turnaround as much,” Hansonsaid. “They turned aroundmore when there were sows(housed) on both ends orwhen sows were (housed) onboth sides.”

Hanson has studied groupsow housing with 18 squarefeet per sow compared to 25square feet per sow. Botharrangements had pens of 10gestating sows.

Hanson fed the groupshigh-fiber or low-fiber diets.She theorized a high-fiber dietwould fill up the animals morethan a low-fiber diet andinfluence their behavior.

Although Hanson is stillanalyzing her results, theamount of floor space anddifferent diets did not affectgestation, she said.

However, sows with lessfloor space had more woundsafter two days of beinghoused together compared totheir counterparts.

“I’m fairly certain in grouphousing there is more aggres-

sion and more wounds,” Han-son said.

Hanson also did analyses ofexisting studies to comparepotential impacts of typicalfarrowing stalls with freedomstalls in which sows can turnaround.

Older, larger sows hadmore difficulty turning in thefreedom stalls and probablydidn’t perform as well, Han-son said.

ISU researchers are plan-ning additional housing stud-ies, including self-feedingmethods for sows in grouphousing.

The joint ISU and U of Iresearch is important for theswine industry and for theeducation of Illinois universi-ty students, according toWalker.

“This is an example of howthe universities work together,have many students involved,and do non-duplicative work,”he said.

A sow has space to move in a “freedom” farrowing stall on the IllinoisState University research farm at Lexington. The stall sides are broughtcloser together when a sow farrows and then opened to the above place-ment about two days after farrowing. (FarmWeek file photo)

‘These s tud iesby ISU and theU of I tell produc-ers not to give upt h e b a t t l e w i t ha n i m a l r i g h t sgroups. ’

— Paul WalkerIllinois State University

animal sciences professor

Bernie Walsh, Durand, Winnebago County: It’s warm-ing up here in Northern Illinois,and we are getting some warmgrowing conditions that wemissed out on last year. Therain last week was very spotty,with the east side of the coun-ty getting more than 1 inch andsome areas missing out on the

rain altogether. The corn is growing fastright now, with the warmer weather andgood soil moisture. Most of the beans lookgood also, except some that were plantedright before the heavy rain of a few weeksago. That ground had some crusting, andthere has been some replanting becauseof it. Lots of haymaking, sidedressingnitrogen, and post application of herbi-cides.

Pete Tekampe, Grayslake, Lake County: A beautifulweek in Lake County. Corn isall planted and growing fast,but so are the weeds. Beansare about 90 percent plantedwith early beans looking great.Some hay has been cut. Thewinter wheat is mostly headedout, and it’s still only May.

That’s early for us. I didn’t get any rain lastweek. It all went to the northern or south-ern part of the county. I’m not asking forrain after the 4 inches we got the last timeI asked for it.

Leroy Getz, Savanna, Carroll County: The 90-degreetemperatures and 1.2 inchesof rain really made thingsgrow. Rain on Tuesday, May 25ranged from a half inch to 2inches-plus. Fierce lightningfried phone lines, computers,TVs, and equipment at theSavanna City Hall. Corn has

good color and the herbicides are workingwell. Wheat is now heading. Oats aregrowing well and soon will be heading.Beans look good, and I think basically areall planted. Potato fields are blossoming.Green snap beans are growing. Peas havebloomed. It’s amazing what you see whenyou are traveling for computer repairs.

Ron Frieders, Waterman, DeKalb County: Average cornis 6 to 8 inches tall and after aweek of very warm weather hasbetter color. Sidedressing nitro-gen and some post sprayingare keeping farmers active inthe cornfields. About 10 percentof the soybeans remain to beplanted. Low spots are slow to

dry out and scattered showers continue tore-wet them. The showers have helped thesoybeans that were planted before theheavy rains a couple weeks ago, but theyare still struggling to emerge throughcrusted soil. Hay is being cut and ditchesmowed. There is no lack of jobs this busytime of year.

Larry Hummel, Dixon, Lee County: Isolated showers rolledthrough Lee County off and onall week. If one passed directlyover your farm, you probablywere good for at least an inch ofrain. You got closer to zero if youwere more than a mile or twofrom the center. We’ve beenbusy working on equipment

after the spring rush and shipping grain outof storage. The moisture on corn has beenrunning right at 15 percent, but the testweight has only been in the 49- to 50-poundrange. The discount for that will knock theheck out of what was a pretty good saleprice. I took some time this week to get my1946 Chevy pickup ready to drive this sum-mer. I love the slow and relaxing Sundaydrives to nowhere. Plus, it reminds me of mychildhood riding in the back of GrandmaHummel’s ’46 singing songs with my brotherand sister and cousins.

Ken Reinhardt, Seaton, Mercer County: The week start-ed with a flurry of fieldwork thatended Tuesday afternoon (May25). Spotty heavy showers leftfrom a trace to 3.5 inches withsome hail. Most planting ondrier ground was expected tobe finished by Memorial Day. Ihave a day each of corn and

beans left. There may be the same amountof prevented planting as last year in thebottoms.

Joe Zumwalt, Warsaw, Hancock County: It was anextremely busy week in WesternIllinois. From the middle of lastweek, equipment of every sortwas moving here and there.Planting and replanting of bothcorn and soybeans, spraying,sidedressing, hay mowing, andeverything in between have been

taking place. This in spite of the numerousscattered heavy showers that moved throughthe area from Tuesday to Thursday leavingsmall areas even more wet than they werebefore. Early corn continues to lookextremely good and is approaching V6 whilesome is not even in the ground yet. Somesoybeans have been planted but very few.The weather is finally looking like we mayactually be able to get some fieldwork donein a timely manner.

Ron Moore, Roseville, Warren County: We received2.5 inches of rain on May 21and 22. That puts our total forMay at nearly 8 inches. That isless than some areas that hadmore than 15 inches in May.We have had sun and 95-degree temperatures since therain. The hot weather crusted

some bean fields to the point that we willhave to replant 70 acres. That does notinclude the 30 acres of corn and beansthat were drowned out by heavy rain. Thecorn roots are now starting to reach thenitrogen and turning the crop dark green.We did get hay mowed and baled lastweek without any rain on it. Hopefully,planting will come to a close in this areathis week.

Jacob Streitmatter, Princeville, Peoria County: What aweek. The hot weather was niceto finally get the corn growing.Along with the heat came storms.I received anywhere from 0.3 ofan inch to 5 inches and somehail. I still have some soybeans toplant, and now I have corn toreplant. The weeds also have

enjoyed the weather, so others and I havebeen spraying between rains. A week ofgood weather should wrap up planting in thisarea.

Tim Green, Wyoming, Stark County: We had a somewhatdry week. Some bean plantingwas completed and a lot of cornspraying was done. We are start-ing to see some of our goodfields and our bad fields. Whatworked in one field didn’t work inanother. Our corn-on-corn tendsto look the worst. I think the roots

just haven’t grown enough to reach the nitro-gen. It’s very spotty, very erratic, very yellow.There is green corn beside yellow cornbeside short corn. Time will tell what comesof it. Beans seem to be coming up nicely.People were worried the first part of the beanplanting season after all the hard rain, butthe warm weather seems to have broughtthem up. There is a little bit of replanting, butin general things seem to be coming alongOK.

Ron Haase, Gilman, Iroquois County: After I made mylast report, we received 0.5 to0.6 of an inch of rain on Friday(May 21). Some farmersreturned to the fields to beginsidedressing nitrogen or sprayherbicides on Tuesday. Othersentered the field the next day tosidedress nitrogen, row cultivate

corn, or plant soybeans. Roadsides arebeing mowed. It rained again on the eveningof May 26 or early morning of May 27. Wereceived anywhere from nothing to 0.6 of aninch. That slowed up fieldwork for those whoreceived the showers. We were able to con-tinue sidedressing where we received littleor no rain. Corn development is anywherefrom the V3 to the V6 growth stage. Mostcorn is in the V4 to V5 growth stage. At V6,the growing point moves above ground andthe stalk is beginning a period of increasedelongation. Most soybean fields that haveemerged are in the VC growth stage withtheir unifoliolate leaves open. Other fieldsare being planted or remain to be planted.The local closing prices for May 27 werenearby corn, $3.50; new-crop corn, $3.57;fall 2011 corn, $3.79; nearby soybeans,$9.38; new-crop soybeans, $8.77; fall 2011soybeans, $8.93.

Mark Kerber, Chatsworth, Livingston County: Somewidely scattered thunderstormshit a few areas of the countyslowing fieldwork for some. Ourarea was rain free and theplanters and sidedress applica-tors kept rolling. Soybeans aregetting planted and replanted.The beans that got in trouble

coming up are the ones in poorly drainedsoils, planted just ahead of the two weeksof rain. A shot of nitrogen is what this cornneeds, along with the summerlike tempera-tures. I see a lot of hay being cut and baled,waterways and roadsides will be next. AsJune approaches, let’s hope for timely rainsand no insect problems. They tell me thatthe four corners in the northwest part of ourcounty get the most rain. Markets will bekeying off summer weather and Chinesebuying.

Brian Schaumburg, Chenoa, McLean County: Thespecter of the 2009 harvestcontinues to loom over us assome of the crop has struggledto get roots established, espe-cially in continuous corn. Yellowstreaks, stunting, and unevenplants are evidence of com-paction, NH3 burn, and other

factors. Soybean planting is wrapping upand post spraying of corn is under way. Cornis at V6 and soybeans are V2-3. Copiousamounts of rain fell last week in widely scat-tered thunderstorms. Corn, $3.51; fall,$3.49; soybeans, $9.27; fall, $8.76; wheat,$3.93.

Steve Ayers, Champaign, Champaign County: Thegreen carpet emergeth fromthe dark soil! Corn and soy-beans are growing well as the77 percent good to excellentcrop condition indicates. Cornis V3 to V6 growth stage.Soybeans are 67 percent plant-ed with 42 percent emerged.

Pop-up storms were in the area mostrecently on Wednesday evening when 2inches fell in northeast Champaign County.Farmers are drilling beans, cultivating,side dress ing, spraying, and crop scout-ing. We have a 40 percent chance of rainon Wednesday with moderating tempera-tures of 60 to 80 degrees. Let’s be carefulout there!

Wilfred Dittmer, Quincy, Adams County: It’s been a dryand rather warm week in ourarea, which is just what thecrops needed to get up andgrowing. So far in May, ourgauge shows 2.7 inches andnone since the 20th, althoughseveral in the area got somerain last week in pop-up show-

ers. Corn is looking better since more hasemerged, but there still are spotty stands.Some have dragged out the rotary hoes andsome have spotted in some blank spots. Stillnot many soybeans in the ground. Wheat isheaded out but short, and some hay also isbeing put down.

Todd Easton, Charleston, Coles County: I think I canspeak for all the farmers inColes County in saying thatthings are almost gettingchaotic. After last weekend’s(May 22-23) rains turned out tobe minimal, planters, sprayers,and toolbars started back outone by one when conditions

became fit. They were out in full force untilthe most spotty rains I can ever recallstopped some, moved others, and had noeffect on the rest of us throughout the mid-to later part of last week. The good news isthat bean planting is close to wrapping upand spraying and anhydrous applicationare about half done or better. That heat wewere wanting finally came last week andyou can about watch the crops grow. Cornplants are in the V5 to V6 range and look-ing pretty good for the most part with theexception of a few spots showing nitrogendeficiency and or compaction problems.Early soybean plantings are enjoying thewarmth also. They are easy to see from theroad while the rest of the beans are justemerging or just getting planted. It isapparent this year’s soybean crop will bemulti-generational, which will mean chang-ing combines back and forth several timesnext fall.


CROPWATCHERS

Rick Corners, Centralia, Jefferson County: We broke upthe card game Thursday andwere able to plant our first batchof beans. Thirty minutes later thefields were under water. 2009 allover again. Deal me in again.

Bob Biehl, Belleville, St. Clair County: Our area was very for-tunate this past week. We had anopportunity to dry out with only afew showers a couple of days.Some areas were hit hard with 1 to3 inches of rain. We have almostcompleted sidedressing corn,except for the last planted fields,and have got a jump on spraying

corn. Corn sprayed right after planting is fairlyclean except for some morning glories.Chemical that was worked in has quite a fewescapes. Warm, dry weather has reallyimproved the corn appearance and growth.Early in the week it was so uneven and the lowareas looked like they were about to die from allthe moisture. I have not seen anyone plantingbeans in our immediate area yet, but severalwere expected to start Friday with the groundfinally drying out. Other parts of the county start-ed beans late last week. We have to spot insome replant corn on fields planted May 7 thathave been saturated with water. We hoped tokick off bean planting over the weekend.

Dean Shields, Murphysboro, Jackson County: Last weekwe had a rough time with MotherNature. Every day we had pop-up thunderstorms and showers.It amounted to very little rain tosome areas having 4 to 5 inch-es. Trying to get some fieldworkdone last week was kind of hec-tic. We did get a little bit more

done, and I am close to what we call thewater’s edge down here in this river bottomground. Maybe it will straighten up and thisweek I can finish up with the high ground. Butthe corn is growing. It’s grown out of the yel-low stage and starting to show green. Somebeans are big enough now that we are goingback to give them their first spray. They areabout soda can high and not looking too bad.Milo is up and growing and wheat is headedout pretty nicely. Still don’t know diseases inthe wheat. If we could control the weather,we could do a lot better job of farming.Everyone take care with the planting season.

Ken Taake, Ullin, Pulaski County: Spring continues to be achallenge here in deep SouthernIllinois. We certainly haven’t hadany shortage of rainfall. We werefortunate we missed the showerson Monday (May 24), butWednesday we had an inch anda half here at the house. Someareas didn’t receive any. We

started planting soybeans, and probably areabout one third planted. We also are trying tospray and sidedress corn. Please rememberto be careful during this busy season.

David Schaal, St. Peter, Fayette County: It was a hot, humidweek here, but we lucked out onthe rain right here in the immedi-ate area. Places in the countyhad rain on Monday night andTuesday (May 24-25) with someof it being on the heavy side. Thecorn did some growing last weekwith the high temperatures and

the high humidity. The only thing is low spotsin the fields have yellow corn. Postemergespraying and sidedressing of corn took placelast week. On Wednesday and Thursday a fewstarted to plant beans on select fields. I hopedto start with beans on Friday. No pest prob-lems to report. I am seeing some white headsshowing up on the little bit of wheat around.Grain prices gained a little bit of ground lastweek. Stay safe, and for everyone who is stillwet, I hope it dries out soon.

Ted Kuebrich, Jerseyville, Jersey County: The weather inJersey County last week was hotand humid with the tempera-tures in the 90s. The fields driedout and farmers were back in thefields planting beans and spray-ing cornfields for grass. With thehot weather, the crops are grow-ing fast. Jersey County received

anywhere from 0.3 to half inch of rain. Pricesat Jersey County Grain, Hardin: May 2010corn, $3.62; fall delivery 2010 corn, $3.55;May 2010 beans, $9.60; fall delivery 2010beans, $8.90; July wheat, $4.26.

Dan Meinhart, Montrose, Jasper County: After being out ofthe fields for five weeks, mostfarmers in this area finally wereable to get into the fields whereground conditions permitted onWednesday and Thursday. A lotof corn is being replanted andplanted for the first time.Spraying and applying fertilizer is

being done. Spotty thundershowers movedthrough the area Tuesday (May 25) throughThursday leaving heavy amounts where theyhit. It has been extremely hot and humid.Although showers are in the forecast earlythis week, we’re hoping they miss us so wecan make more progress on planting corn.

Kevin Raber, Browns, Wabash County: The weather thispast week was what I imaginedthe tropics would be. On Tuesday(May 25), Wednesday, andThursday, the morning and earlyafternoon were hot and muggy.Then it would cloud up and rain.It just depended on where youwere how much rain you got.

Some places had more than one inch andsome places have hardly any rain. Warmweather has helped the corn, but is stilluneven and pale looking, especially in thelow areas. We are trying to complete beanplanting. The scattered rains seem to fall onthe fields I don’t have planted yet.

Carrie Winkelmann, Menard County: Our farm was hithard by a 15-minute hailstorm onMay 25. About one-third of thecorn crop was damaged, ourentire pumpkin crop, and a goodportion of the plants in the gar-den. The corn will grow out of it,but will show a yield loss, I amsure. The pumpkins are going to

have to be replanted, but I think the gardenwill pull through with minimal replanting. Thearea saw spotty storms, and hail was aproblem areawide. We received 2.84 inchesof rain last week with 2.13 of it coming withthe hail on May 25. So far this month, wehave seen 9.45 inches of rainfall. We havebeen held out of the field and still have nobeans planted.

Tom Ritter, Blue Mound, Macon County: A week of warmtemperatures brewed up a lot ofspotty showers. Some farmersreceived no rain and othersreceived more than 2 inches. Alot of difference from mile tomile depending upon whetheryou were in the heat of thestorm or not. But with the warm

temperatures and humidity, corn has pro-gressed. Almost all corn is knee-high orbetter here and has good color. Most fieldslook very good, except for a few isolatedfields with compaction, showing some ane-mic symptoms. Soybean planting has beenstalled for the last two weeks. A few farm-ers, depending upon the area they were inwith spotted showers, have been able tocomplete planting. I estimate that 70 per-cent of beans in this area have been plant-ed. Overall, crop prospects look good.There has been a lot of spraying going on,and farmers are definitely ahead of lastyear.

Doug Uphoff, Shelbyville, Shelby County: We finallywere back in the field last weekonly to find out it was dry ontop and pure mud underneath.We quit until Thursday, whenthe soil started working a littlebetter. All farmers are com-plaining of poor planting condi-tions. We were rained out

Thursday with 0.02 of an inch in 5 minutes.That was much better than Neoga areathat received close to 1 inch Wednesday,and Sangamon County received 2 to 5inches in a few hours. Corn is still beingplanted south of here, some for first time.Some is being spotted in for the secondand third time. We mowed hay Tuesday,waited on it to dry and, hopefully had itbaled by Saturday. Sidedressing and postapplications of Roundup on corn also isprevalent. Farm diesel, (no soy oil),$2.353; farm diesel (11 percent soy oil),$2.32; truck diesel (no soy oil), $2.828;truck diesel (11 percent soy oil), $2.783;gasohol, $2.599. Cash corn, $3.49; Julycorn, $3.51; fall corn, $3.60; January corn,$3.75; cash wheat, $4.23; cash beans,$9.44; July beans, $9.42; fall beans, $8.85;January beans, $9.01.

Page 7 Monday, May 31, 2010 FarmWeek

CROPWATCHERS

Reports received Friday morning.Expanded crop information available at FarmWeekNow.com

Pythium infects corn, soybeans in cool, wet weatherBY KEVIN BLACK

Pythium is a disease associ-ated with cool, wet weather.Infection typically occurs ins o i l s w i t h t e m p e r a t u r e sbelow 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

T he Py t h i um spore i s aswimmer. Free moisture inthe soil is required for infec-tion to take place. We haverecently received a number ofreports of Pythium infectionsin corn.

nodal roots have emergedand are functional. Pythiumcrown infections usually arefatal.

If Pyth ium i s associatedwith cool, wet weather, whyare we seeing it now? Muchof the corn has just comethrough a cool, wet periodthat was favorable for infec-tion but not great for cornroot development.

As cur rent hot weather

creates moisture stress forthe cor n , p l an t s tha t a realready infected can’t keepup and are dying. Howev-er, this hot weather is pos-i t i v e b e c a u s e i t w i l l , i nfact, l imit any new Pythiuminfections.

Kevin Black is GROWMARK’sinsect and plant disease technical manag-e r . H i s e -ma i l a d d r e s s i [email protected].

Reports ofP y t h i u minfected soy-b e a n s a r eexpected tofollow soon.T h e s a m ec o n d i t i o n sare requiredfor infectionto take place

in soybeans as with corn.In corn, individuals have

reported finding pinched ors h r i v e l e d m e s o c o t y l s o rcrown infections. First signso f t h i s d i s e a s e t y p i c a l l yinclude watery discolorationof affected tissue, which latershrivels and turns light brownto brown in color.

As the infection progress-es, all affected plant tissuebecomes mushy. Corn cansometimes grow away frominfection in the mesocotyl if

Kevin Black

PRODUCTION


Wheat Tour finds low tiller counts, some diseaseBY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Heavy rains during flower-ing and some disease pressurecould take its toll on thealready much smaller Illinoiswheat crop.

Participants of the South-ern Illinois Wheat Tour lastweek scouted more than 30fields and predicted an aver-age yield of 48.2 bushels peracre.

If realized, that yield wouldnot meet previous expecta-tions.

USDA earlier this monthprojected an average stateyield of 60 bushels per acre.The wheat crop last year aver-aged 56 bushels per acre inIllinois.

“There was some winterkill,some of it drowned out (thisspring), and there is some dis-ease pressure,” said JenniferMonke, quality assurance man-ager with Mennel Milling Co.in Mt. Olive. “Tiller counts(taken on the tour) were lowerthan normal.”

Yield estimates in South-western Illinois generally

Monke estimated as much as20 percent of wheat plantswere infected with scab at onelocation in Macoupin County.

Kyle Brase, a wheat grow-er near Edwardsville, believesfungicide applications may

pay off this year.“I think the crop is going to

be better than we originallythought, with average toslightly below average yields,”Brase said. “It’s too early totell about quality.”

ranged from the upper 30s to50-plus bushels per acre,Monke reported.

The wheat crop in South-eastern Illinois, however,looked more promising basedon tour findings, according toDave Devore of SiemerMilling Co. in Teutopolis.

“What I saw (for yieldpotential) typically was in theupper 50s to upper 60s,” saidDevore, who noted diseasepressure seemed lighter in thesoutheast compared to reportsfrom the southwest. “Themain issue (this year) is wedon’t have the acreage, andtiller counts are down.”

Many farmers were unableto plant wheat last fall whileothers destroyed fields thisspring due to poor stands.

USDA this month project-ed Illinois farmers will harvestjust 325,000 acres of wheatcompared to 820,000 last year.

“It was a challenge” to findwheat fields during the tour,Monke said. “In some areasthat you typically think of as‘wheat country’ there justweren’t any fields.”

Diseases found in somewheat fields during the tourincluded head scab, septoria,and barley yellow dwarf.

Madison County wheat growers Tim Gueldner, left, and Kyle Brase record tiller counts and crop observationsin Macoupin County during last week’s Southern Illinois Wheat Tour, sponsored by the Illinois Wheat Associ-ation. Participants found a wide range of yield potential, from just 30 to 50-plus bushels per acre in South-western Illinois to 50 to 60-plus bushels per acre in Southeastern Illinois. Wheat harvest is expected to beginaround June 20. (Photo by Daniel Grant)

Wheat growersprepare to harvestrecord-small crop

Wheat harvest is expected to be “on time” or close to it inIllinois this year despite a late planting season last fall.

Participants of the Illinois Wheat Tour last week predictedfarmers in the southern portion of the state could begin wheatharvest by the third or fourth week of June.

“I think we’ll see a fairly normal time frame for harvest,”Dave Devore of Siemer Milling Co. in Teutopolis said last weekafter scouting fields as part of the tour.

As of the first of last week 81 percent of the wheat cropwas headed and 28 percent was filled compared to the five-year averages of 77 and 17 percent, respectively, according tothe National Agricultural Statistics Service Illinois fieldoffice.

The wheat harvest this year, regardless of when itbegins, likely will be a brief exercise. Illinois farmers plant-ed a record-low 350,000 acres last fall and are expected toharvest just 325,000 acres compared to 820,000 acres lastyear.

“Obviously (planting) conditions were not ideal and a lotwent in late into soil conditions that were not favorable,” saidTim Gueldner, a wheat grower from Moro in Madison Coun-ty.

Gueldner estimated about 55 percent of wheat acres on hisfamily’s farm were destroyed this spring and planted to corn.

Kyle Brase, who grows wheat near Edwardsville, alsodestroyed a significant portion of his crop.

“I bet 30 percent was destroyed,” he said. “It did not getthrough the winter well.”

The condition of Illinois’ wheat crop last week was rated 36percent good to excellent, 35 percent fair, and 29 percent poorto very poor.

USDA this month projected soft red winter wheat produc-tion nationwide will total 283 million bushels, a 30 percent dropfrom a year ago. — Daniel Grant

EDUCATION


BY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Southern Illinois University (SIU) has notregained its agricultural facilities that weredestroyed by an inland hurricane about a yearago; however, the situation should changesoon, according to the interim dean of the Col-lege of Agricultural Sciences.

“It’s slower than what wewould have liked, but FEMA(Federal Emergency Manage-ment Agency) has been goodto work with,” Interim AgDean Todd Winters toldFarmWeek. “We’ve madeprogress. We’ve done a lot ofclean up.”

On May 8, 2009, an inlandhurricane tore through thearea and caused significant

damage to the SIU research farm. Twenty-threebuildings were damaged and seven, includingthe feed mill, beef barn, and stallion barn, weredestroyed.

With assistance from FEMA and approvalby the SIU board of trustees, the collegeshould soon start rebuilding some of the farmbuildings.

FEMA is contributing 75 percent, leaving

the university to contribute the remaining 25percent, according to Winters.

Construction should start soon to replacethe farm’s feed mill. Winters was optimisticconstruction would start this summer on thefarm machine shop.

Also this summer, work will start on thehorse barn, according to Winters. Sheryl King,SIU’s horse program director, was able to raisefunds to add “some small improvements” to areplacement barn, he said. He also was hopefulthe beef research center will be replaced soon.

However, clean up has progressed moreslowly on the large number of downed treesthat destroyed the farm fences.

“The fence line is a bigger project than wethought because there are a lot of downedtrees. We hope to have the trees cleaned up in amonth or so,” Winters said.

Outside contractors were hired to help cutand remove the downed trees. Temporaryfences will remain in place until the cleanup isfinished.

While the college continues to rebuild itsfarm facilities, the outlook remains strong forenrollment, although final enrollment numberswon’t be available until next fall, Winters said.“I think we’re going to be looking good,” headded.

Todd Winters

A year later, SIU progressingon its research farm repairs

ISU to mark 100 yearsof agriculture study

Illinois State University(ISU) is planning a series ofactivities, starting this summer,leading up to the agriculturedepartment’s centennial cele-bration in 2011.

A collection of centennialevents with dates and details

will be post-ed on thedepartment’swebsite,according toRob Rhyk-erd, depart-ment chair-

man. The information willcontinue to be updated as datesand specifics are finalized,Rhykerd added.

The first summer event willbe at 7 p.m. July 22 with ISUAg Night at Normal’s CornBel-ters, a new professional base-ball team. The game will bepreceded by an agriculturealumni cookout at the Horti-culture Center on Raab Road.A portion of the ticket pricewill go to support the Horti-

culture Center.Rhykerd said alumni and

department supporters will beinformed about upcomingactivities in newsletters andnotices. Dates have not beenfinalized for several activities,including some linked withmen’s basketball games.

In addition to activities,ISU’s ag department also islaunching a fundraising initia-tive, dubbed “100 x 100.” Thegoal is to raise $400,000 to sup-port four priorities: scholar-ships, the ISU farm, the Horti-culture Center, and special pro-jects, according to Rhykerd.

Upcoming 2010 activitiesand dates include:

• Harvey Woods Golf Clas-sic, 8 a.m. July 23, D.A. Weib-ring Golf Course, Normal.

• Autumnal Festival, 8 a.m.to 4 p.m., Oct. 2, ISU Horticul-ture Center, Normal.

• Homecoming reception,8:30 a.m., Oct. 16, Ropp AgBuilding, Normal. — KayShipman

June is Dairy MonthSpecialist: Milk continues to be a good buy for consumers

Consumers have reason tocelebrate June Dairy Month,according to Mike Hutjens,University of Illinois Exten-sion dairy specialist.

Dairy products continue tobe a good buy for consumers,and the nutritional impor-tance of dairy products in thediet plays a key role in humanhealth and development.

Dairy Month originallymarked the time of year thatsurplus milk needed to besold because cows producedmore milk after grazing onpasture in the spring, accord-

ing to the specialist.Consumers in June will

notice a focus on dairy prod-ucts and dairy product recipesin displays at dairy casesaround the country.

“Milk prices have remainedconstant in most areas withspecials on milk as low as $2 to$2.50 a gallon,” Hutjens said.

Organic milk also is avail-able at about $6 to $7 per gal-lon, “or consumers can pur-chase ‘green’ milk from dairyfarmers using approved FDA(Food and Drug Administra-tion) technologies to produce

milk resulting in a lower car-bon footprint,” Hutjens said.

Hutjens advised consumers

to avoid raw, unpasteurizedmilk.

Unpasteurized milk madenational headlines last monthwhen Wisconsin nearly

passed a bill that would haveallowed dairy producers tosell such milk directly to con-sumers.

Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doylevetoed the legislation, citingpublic health concerns as themain reason.

“Consumers should neverpurchase raw milk due topotential bacteria risks,” Hut-jens said.

Dairy products in general,though, contain high-qualityprotein with essential aminoacids in addition to wheyproteins important for

weight control.“Milk contains high levels

of calcium, potassium, mag-nesium, phosphorous, andadded vitamin D, which arecritical for human health andbone formation,” Hutjenssaid. “Dairy products can beparticularly important for old-er consumers.”

Daily U.S. dietary guide-lines recommend two servingsof dairy products for children1 to 8 years of age and threedairy servings for adults andchildren 9 years of age andolder.

LENDING A HAND AT KIDS’ FAIRJanet McCabe, Cook CountyFarm Bureau Public Policy Teammember, and Mike Marron, chair-man of the Vermil ion CountyFarm Bureau Legislative and LocalAffairs Committee, distribute ag-related information to some of the500 visitors attending a recentKids’ Fair sponsored by Sen. DanKotowski (D-Park Ridge) in Ar-lington Heights. The two countyFarm Bureaus hos t ed an agbooth. Kotowski and VermilionC o u n t y F a r m B u r e a u w e r ematched through the Adopt-a-Legislator program. The countyFarm Bureau volunteers also chat-ted with the senator, his staff, andsuburban constituents about agri-cultural issues. (Photo by ChristinaNourie, I l l inois Farm Bureaunortheast legislative coordinator)

Weed Science Field Dayat U of I set for June 30

University researchers will present information along withtours at the 2010 University of Illinois Weed Science Field DayJune 30 at the U of I Crop Sciences Research and EducationCenter, Urbana.

“You can compare your favorite corn and soybean herbicideprograms to other commercial programs and get an early look atsome new herbicide active ingredients,” said Aaron Hager, U ofI Extension weed specialist.

Coffee and refreshments will be available near the SeedHouse at 8 a.m.

The tour will conclude around noon with lunch. Pre-registra-tion is not required.

The cost for the tour is $10 and includes a tour book, refresh-ments, and lunch.

Field research work is continuing at the DeKalb, Perry, andBrownstown research centers, along with a few on-farm loca-tions.

No formal weed science tours will be held, but most plotsmay be viewed during agronomy day field tours at those loca-tions.

For more information, contact your local Extension office.

EDUCATION


Corn campaign to plaster D.C. with farm facesBY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

The disconnect betweenthe Corn Belt and the Wash-ington Beltway appears to begrowing even as Congressconsiders ag policy, climate,and other issues critical toproducers.

That’s why Central Illinoisproducers John and SueAdams will be getting in law-makers’ faces over the nexttwo months — in D.C.-areaairport terminals, on thesubway, even in the morningpaper.

The Adamses are amonggrowers featured in a newCorn Farmers Coalition(CFC) education campaignfocused on putting a face tomodern agriculture and pro-viding “a foundation of factsseen as essential to (CapitolHill) decision-making.”

The Illinois Corn Market-ing Board (ICMB) and farm-ers from 13 other states arejoining the National CornGrowers Association(NCGA) to support the pro-gram, which will promote

his corn yields have increasedby 65-70 bushels per acreover the past 38 years, with

reduced pesticide use and “alot less fuel.”

“Ten or 15 years ago, we’dcome to Washington and visitour congressmen and sena-tors, and we always had goodrapport,” he said.

“Two years ago, I cameagain and was quite shocked.We often heard, ‘We didn’tknow there were any familyfarms left back in Illinois. Wethought it was all big corpo-rate farms.’

“There are a lot of familyfarms, and we are workingquite hard to produce a lot offood, fuel, and fiber for ourcountries and for our foreigncustomers around theworld.”

The coalition will adver-tise in Washington Nationalsbaseball programs and high-

light ag technolo-gy, yield expan-sion, and farmingas a “bright spot”in the economyin meetings withlawmakers, themedia, and oth-ers.

The CFC alsoaims to providean accurate viewof today’s pro-ducer — animportant goal aspolicymakersgrapple with con-fusing and con-flicting percep-tions of “corpo-rate,” “indepen-dent,” “small,”and “large”farms. Adamsstressed, “We area true family

farm.” According to NCGA Pres-

ident Darrin Ihnen, that is anincreasingly diverse category.

“Size doesn’t define a fam-ily farm — I’m larger thanwhen my grandfather farmed,but I’m still a family farm,”Ihnen told FarmWeek.

“Our farm is incorporated,but we still are a family farm— it’s my folks, my wife, ourkids. Farms come in all sizes,and more than 90 percent ofthe corn produced in thiscountry is from familyfarms.”

Also, according to thecoalition, 95 percent of allcorn farms in America arefamily owned.

producers in a variety ofpublications, radio outlets,websites, and public venuessuch as Wash-ington Metrostations andReagan NationalAirport.

The $1 mil-lion campaignlaunches Tues-day, with ef-forts continuinguntil Congress’August recess.

ICMB Chair-man Jim Rappreported theCFC will share“a significant a-mount of infor-mation on howinnovative andhigh-tech cornfarmers havebecome.” Farm-ers are “usingsome of themost advancedtechnologies on the planet todo more with less,” CFCDirector Mark Lambert said.

Farm efficiency and con-

servation are integral factorsamid evolving climate policyproposals and ethanol debate

clouded by the “food vs.fuel” controversy.

John Adams, a fifth-gener-ation Atlanta producer, noted

Illinois Herb AssociationSummerFest set June 12

The Illinois Herb Association’s (IHA) 2010 Summer-Fest will be Saturday, June 12, at the Washington ParkBotanical Garden in Springfield. This year’s theme is“Catch the Passion.”

Four speakers will share information about herbal uses andthere will be a tour of the botanical garden.

A vendor fair, featuring the latest in herbal products, freshand dried herbs, and garden-related items also will be available.The public is invited.

The programs:• “Favorite Culinary Herbs” with Deborah Lee, 9 a.m.• “Cooking with Herbs, Plant to Plate” with chef Tony Leone,

10:30 a.m.• “Herbs from the Garden to the Home” Kay Carnes, 1:15

p.m.• “Hosta Heaven 1-2-3” with Pat Beckman, 2:30 p.m. Cost of the day-long event is $30 for non-IHA mem-

bers and $20 for members. This includes lunch and all theday’s events.

To register, contact Diane Handley at the Illinois FarmBureau.

Her e-mail address is [email protected], her phone number is309-557-2107, and her address is Illinois Specialty GrowersAssociation, 1701 Towanda Ave., Bloomington, IL 61701. Forinformation, go to {www.specialtygrowers.org/herbs.htm}.

BIOTECHNOLOGY


Animal biotechnology ‘ethical’ global approach?BY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

Rejecting animal biotech-nology out-of-hand representsa lost “opportunity cost” for agrowing, hungry, increasinglydisease-prone world.

And that, in Alison VanEenennaam’s opinion, is a keyconsideration in debate overthe “ethics” of tweaking live-stock genetics.

While some geneticallyengineered animals are beingused to produce human drugs,livestock applications havelargely “ground to a halt,” theUniversity of CaliforniaExtension scientist toldFarmWeek.

She laments that “we’re notable to use this very powerfultechnology,” which has pro-duced an “Enviropig” thatgenerates safer swine wastes

Van Eenennaam thusstresses the need for height-ened efforts to control that“crossover,” citing the “birdflu” linked to a 1918 epidemicthat claimed some 20 millionhuman lives. Some 100 millionChinese alone have been vac-cinated against H1N1, a dis-ease that has hurt pork salesdespite the lack of a linkbetween meat consumptionand infection.

Following U.S. approval forthe first biomedical productproduced in a genetically engi-neered animal in February2009, Van Eenennaam citesadded research into chickensthat lay eggs containing humanantibodies and plans for a sim-ilar commercial developmentin cattle.

But while strides are beingmade in the pharmaceutical-

medical area, she noted aUSDA-developed anti-mastitistrait as well as Enviropig andBSE knockout technologiescurrently are “not going for-ward to market.”

AquaBounty’s GMOsalmon, engineered to grow atan accelerated rate, is the onlyfood animal now undergoingfederal review, Van Eenen-naam said.

She attributes the discon-nect between agricultural andbiomedical advances to “ageneral uncomfortable feel-ing” about genetic modifica-tions in meat or dairy animals.

“These (animal health)applications are existing, theywork, they do what they saythey’re going to do, but at themoment, there’s no momen-tum to take these products tomarket.”

and promising efforts togenetically “knock out” bovineprotein responsible for BSEand build poultry resistance toavian influenza.

Van Eenennaam, a partici-pant in a Chicago panel onanimal biotech ethics, warnedthe developing world has “atremendous need for protein”as populations grow andincomes rise. She thus finds it“morally reprehensible” not touse biotechnology to addressglobal hunger and disease con-trol.

“I think this technology isparticularly powerful in devel-oping disease-resistant ani-mals,” Van Eenennaam said.“That has implications for the(more affluent) ‘First World,’where we’re looking to moresustainable-type agriculture. Ifyou have an animal that’s

genetically resistant to a dis-ease, you don’t need to use(antibiotics).

“There’s a great opportuni-ty here to make animals resis-tant to ‘swine flu’ (H1N1) oravian influenza. In the ThirdWorld, there are a lot of live-stock diseases to which wecould make animals resistant.Is there a risk involved in notpursuing these disease-resis-tance applications?”

Advanced genetics are cru-cial to more than merely theproducer’s bottom line ordeveloping world economies,she argued.

The United Nations esti-mates 75 percent of emerg-ing infectious human dis-eases are derived from ani-mals, at a rate of about twosuch “zoonotic” diseases peryear.

Welfare, biotech issuesconverge amid viewsof ‘natural’ behavior

The ethical debate over livestock production has becomevastly more complicated as consumers have attempted to getinside the skin (or hide or feathers) of food animals.

During a Chicago roundtable on the ethics of animalbiotechnology, Michigan StateUniversity ag ethics specialistPaul Thompson characterizedpublic attitudes toward animalwelfare and biotechnology as“quite clumpish.”

Consumers largely reactemotionally to accounts ofmistreated chimpanzees orgorillas but indifferently torats used in research, Thomp-son maintained. Food animals appear to occupy “a strangezone in the middle,” he argued.

Thompson cited a recent Oklahoma State University (OSU)survey focusing on livestock care issues and yielding three basiccategories of consumers.

“Price seekers,” who support “minimum levels” of humanelivestock care but essentially “just want cheaper food,” consti-tuted 14 percent of survey participants, he reported.

“Basic welfarists,” who view animal comfort, freedom frompain, and pre-slaughter “satisfaction” as important productionconsiderations, comprised 40 percent of the OSU sampling.

But a “pretty significant” 46 percent of those polled werewhat Thompson called “naturists” — consumers who believefarm animals should live “the kind of life they lead in nature.”

Naturists favor free-range production, and are unimpressed bygenerally reduced poultry mortality under confinement production.“They expect chickens to die in nature,” Thompson told scientists.

Those consumers see livestock as “having feelings,” andargue behaviors such as chickens being able to flap their wings,bathe in dust, or perch are crucial to their well-being.

That’s where biotechnology comes into the welfare debate.While geneticists conceivably could eliminate poultry behaviorsthat are “frustrated in the most intensive types of operations,”contributing to greater physically comfort in confinement,naturists might view such adaptations as cruel.

“I think genetic changes will be viewed as less problematic if theydon’t involve a substantial change in the type of life that is thought tobe appropriate for a particular animal,” Thompson suggested.

“If you take a more welfarist point of view, there’s a strongethical argument in favor of these kinds of technologies,because animals aren’t suffering. This is a philosophical conun-drum, a hard issue.” — Martin Ross

‘This is a philo-sophical conun-drum.’

— Paul ThompsonMichigan State University

Mammalian oddball herofor the livestock sector?

It seems like an accident ofnature, blessed (cursed?) with aleathery bill, webbed feet, andthe dubious distinction of beingone of the world’s few egg-lay-ing mammals.

But to Ben Cocks, the platy-pus is a beautiful thing: a genet-ic marvel that shares featureswith mammals, birds, and rep-tiles and, in the Australianresearcher’s view, “can teach usa lot about mammalian biology,from humans to ruminants”such as cattle and sheep.

The platypus also possessessome impressive traits thatcould help reduce livestock’sgreenhouse footprint and com-bat ruminant diseases such asbovine mastitis — a potentiallykey challenge with policymakersand consumers taking aim atcurrent veterinary antibiotics(see accompanying story).

Scientists at Cocks’ Victoria,Australia, Department of Pri-mary Industries (DPI) have dis-covered peptides (protein com-pounds) in the platypus genome

that could be used to fight mul-ti-drug-resistant bacteria.

During a recent biotech con-ference in Chicago, Cocks, DPIbiosciences research director,told FarmWeek platypus-based“antimicrobials” appear effec-tive against streptococci (organ-isms responsible for meningitisand pneumonia) and staphylo-cocci (bacteria associated withfood poisoning).

Further, DPI already is col-laborating with a biotechnologyfirm in exploring possible mas-titis applications for the dairysector.

“One of the things we’reinterested in is regulating micro-bial communities — things likethe rumen (digestive) environ-ment,” Cocks added.

“Antimocrobials can regulatethe microbial population, so wethink these could add to thetools we can use in the future tobe able to optimize feed effi-ciency and reduce methaneemissions.

“Obviously, beef and dairy

are very big in Australia, andthey’re the second biggest con-tributor to greenhouse gasemissions in Australia.”

In 2008, Cocks announced anew antimicrobial peptide fromthe wallaby (a kangaroo relative)which now is being tested formastitis treatment.

Cocks and company arelooking at possible methods forusing platypus data in animalhealth, including transfer ofplatypus genetics into cattle ordevelopment of topical treat-ments for mastitis or devicesthat can deliver antimocrobialsto the herd.

Because platypus antimicro-bials are not related to existingantibiotics, they could providesolutions for producers facingpossible withdrawal of veteri-nary products that containantibiotics also used in humantreatments. Livestock interestshave challenged speculation thatsuch products can cause antibi-otic resistance in consumers. —Martin Ross

FROM THE COUNTIES


BUREAU — TheWomen’s Committee

will sponsor a health fairfrom 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.Wednesday at the FarmBureau office. LifeLineScreening will provide thetests, which include carotidartery/stroke, abdominal aor-tic aneurysm, peripheral arte-rial disease, and osteoporosis.Call LifeLine at 800-324-1851for an appointment or moreinformation.

• Bureau and Lee CountyFarm Bureaus will sponsortheir first annual golf outingFriday, July 9, at Shady OaksCountry Club, Amboy. It willbe a 9 a.m. shotgun start.Proceeds will benefit theBureau and Lee County Agri-culture in the Classroom pro-grams. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 815-875-6468 for aregistration form or moreinformation.

COOK — The MemberRelations Team will

sponsor a night to see theThunderbolt’s baseball gameat 7:05 p.m. Saturday, June 19.Cost is $14, which includesbox seat ticket, coupon for ahot dog, chips, soda, and icecream. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 708-354-3276 forreservations or more infor-mation.

• The Commodities andMarketing Team will sponsora family field trip Thursday,June 24, to the Fair OaksDairy Farm in Indiana. Costis $35 for member adults and$25 for children. Non-mem-ber cost is $40. Call the FarmBureau office at 708-354-3276 for reservations or moreinformation.

• The Member RelationsTeam and University of Illi-nois Extension will sponsor aworkshop on “PreparingWills and Trusts and Trans-ferring Non-Titled Property”from 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday,June 29, at the Farm Bureauoffice. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 708-354-3276 forreservations or more infor-mation.

CUMBERLAND —The second annual

National Trail “old CapitalRide” poker run will begin at10 a.m. June 19 inEdwardsville and Marshalland meet at noon in Vandalia.This is a fundraiser for ag lit-eracy to support Bond, Clark,Cumberland, Effingham,Fayette, Jasper, Madison, andSt. Clair counties. Registeronline at {www.aglit.org} orat any of the Farm Bureauoffices in the counties listedabove. Cost is $15.

HANCOCK — TheWomen’s Committee

will tour the HeartlandCreamery Tuesday, June 8.The group will leave theFarm Bureau office at 8:15

two scrambled eggs, orangejuice, milk and coffee. Call theFarm Bureau office for moreinformation.

MACON — FarmBureau has Macon

County Fair tickets available.Discounted tractor pull tick-ets are $10 and demolitionderby tickets are $5. Eventsare highlighted on the website{www.maconcountyfair.net}.

MCDONOUGH —Steve Johnson, Iowa

State University, will be thespeaker at a marketing seminarat 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 15, atthe Vineyard Church,Macomb. The seminar iscomplimentary for membersand there is a $10 charge fornon-members. Haley RiskProtection and Agronomy Ser-vices will co-sponsor theevent. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 309-837-3350 forreservations or more informa-tion.

PIATT — TheWomen’s Committee

will sponsor a Milk Mustachecontest from 3 to 5 p.m.Thursday, June 17, at theMonticello Farmers’ Market.The contest is open to chil-dren 12 and under. Pictureswill be taken and voting willtake place through the end ofJune at the Farm Bureauoffice.

• Farm Bureau will sponsora “Farming Around the U.S.and the World” seminar at 8a.m. Tuesday, June 22, at theFarm Bureau office. Farmingin Florida, Oklahoma, Cuba,and Costa Rica will be dis-cussed. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 762-2128 for reser-vations or more information.

• The Piatt County FarmBureau Foundation’s annualgolf outing will be at noonMonday, June 28, at the Mon-ticello Golf Club. Cost is $65,which includes lunch, golf,and cart. Proceeds will benefitPiatt County agriculture schol-arships. Registration formsare available at the FarmBureau office.

SANGAMON — TheYoung Leader Commit-

tee will sponsor its annualFarm Safety Day Camp Friday,June 25, at the New Berlinfairgrounds. Fire, chemical,outdoor, grain bin, and powertake off safety and healthhabits will be the stations.The camp is for children 5 to10 years of age. Children whoregister by June 7 will receive afree T-shirt and be entered towin a door prize. Call Katie at752-5239 or e-mail her [email protected] reservations or more infor-mation.

• The Women’s Committeewill sponsor a bus trip Thurs-day, June 10, to Carlinville.Participants will tour a Searshome, which is open only for

this specialty tour. Cost is$25 for members and $35 fornon-members. Call the FarmBureau office at 753-5200 forreservations or more informa-tion.

STARK — Stark andHenry County Farm

Bureaus will sponsor theirannual golf outing Friday,June 11, at Baker Park, Kewa-nee. Cost is $35 for membersand $55 for non-members,which includes golf, cart, andlunch ticket. Proceeds willbenefit each county’s Agricul-ture in the Classroom pro-gram. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 286-7481 by Monday,June 7, for tee times or moreinformation.

STEPHENSON — TheYoung Leaders will

sponsor a pedal tractor pull at12:30 p.m. Saturday, June 12,at the Orangeville Firemen’sFestival. Call the Farm Bureauoffice for more information.

• A Prime Timers picnicfor Farm Bureau members 55and older will be at 5 p.m.Tuesday, June 22, at theKoenig shelter, Freeport’sKrape Park. Plans for futureactivities will be discussed.Food and table service will beprovided. Call the FarmBureau office at 815-232-3186for reservations or moreinformation.

• Stroke Detection Plus willperform screenings from 9a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday andWednesday, June 29-30, at theFarm Bureau office. Mem-bers will receive a discount onthe screenings. Call 877-732-8258 for an appointment ormore information.

WARREN-HEN-DERSON — Steven

Johnson, Iowa State Universi-ty Extension, will be thespeaker at a marketing semi-nar at 7 p.m. Monday, June14, at Knox AgriCenter,Galesburg. Warren-Hender-son and Knox County FarmBureaus will sponsor the sem-inar. Call 309-734-9401 or309-342-2036 for reservationsor more information.

“From the counties” items aresubmitted by county Farm Bureaumanagers. If you have an event oractivity open to all members, contactyour county Farm Bureau manager.

a.m. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 217-357-3141 or e-mail [email protected] byFriday for reservations ormore information.

HENRY — The Hen-ry/Stark Safety Camp

for children in grades 3 to 6will be from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15p.m. Monday, June 14, atBlack Hawk East. Cost is $5.Call the Farm Bureau office at309-937-2411, the StarkCounty Farm Bureau office at309-286-7481, or the Henry-Stark Extension office at 309-853-1533 for registrationforms or more information.

• Henry and Stark CountyFarm Bureaus will sponsortheir annual golf outing Fri-day, June 11, at Baker ParkGolf Course, Kewanee. Costis $35 for members and $55for non-members. Includedare golf, cart, $5 lunch ticket,and a donation to Agriculturein the Classroom in Henryand Stark counties. Call theFarm Bureau office at 309-937-2411 for tee times ormore information.

• Henry County FarmBureau members may pur-chase discounted admissiontickets to the Henry CountyFair (June 22-27). Membersmay purchase day, week, orsenior passes. Call the FarmBureau office at 309-937-2411for more information.

KANKAKEE — KeithDetwiler will speak

about his recent trip toArgentina and Brazil at ameeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday,June 9, at the Farm Bureauoffice. The Young Leaderswill sponsor the meeting. Callthe Farm Bureau office at815-932-7471 for reservationsor more information.

• The Local Foods Break-fast and Celebration of Agri-culture will be from 7 a.m. tonoon Saturday, June 26, at theKankakee Farmers’ Market.There will be antique tractors,a petting zoo, and farmers’market plants and produce.Breakfast tickets are $10 andare available at the farmers’market or by calling the Uni-versity of Illinois Extensionoffice at 815-933-8337.

• Farm Bureau membersmay participate in a strokedetection screening from 9a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday,June 28, at St. Mark’sMethodist Church, Kankakee.The discounted price is $90.Call 877-732-8258 for anappointment or more infor-mation.

• Farm Bureau and thecounty corn growers willsponsor a “Cultivating Com-munication” meeting at 7 p.m.Tuesday, July 13, at the Uni-versity of Illinois Extensionoffice, Bourbonnais. Themeeting will focus on helpingthose in agriculture tell their

story more effectively usingsocial media. Kelly Rivard,North Central College Inter-net communications anddesign student, and Ray ProckJr., AgChat Foundation, willbe the speakers. Call theFarm Bureau office at 815-932-7471 for reservations ormore information.

KNOX — Steve John-son, Iowa State Uni-

versity Extension, will be thespeaker at a marketing semi-nar “Controlling the CropControllables” at 7 p.m. Mon-day, June 14, at the Knox AgriCenter. Call the Farm Bureauoffice for reservations ormore information.

• The Kids Farm SafetyCamp for children ages 8 to13 will be at 8:30 a.m. Satur-day, June 26, at the KnoxCounty Fairgrounds. Partici-pants will rotate betweensafety sessions focusing onfire, pesticides, first aid, grain,electricity, and emergencypreparedness. The camp willend with a mock accident.Registration forms are on thewebsite {www.knoxcfb.org}.

LAWRENCE — FarmBureau will sponsor a

grain entrapment seminarthrough GSI from 5 to 9 p.m.Tuesday, June 8, at the 4-HCenter, Sumner. Dinner willbe served. Call the FarmBureau office at 618-943-2610by Thursday for reservationsor more information.

LEE — Steve Johnson,Iowa State University

Extension farm managementspecialist, will be the speakerat a marketing workshop at 7p.m. Wednesday, June 16, atthe Quality Inn, Dixon. Lee,Ogle, and Whiteside CountyFarm Bureaus, and Sauk Val-ley Bank are sponsoring themeeting. Call the FarmBureau office at 857-3531 byFriday, June 11, for reserva-tions or more information.

• The Marketing Commit-tee will sponsor a bus tripTuesday, June 29, to the QuadCities to tour John DeereHarvester, John Deere Pavil-ion, and the John DeereHomes. Cost is $35, whichincludes bus, admission totours, and lunch. Registrationand money are due to theFarm Bureau office by Mon-day, June 7. Reservations areon a first-come, first-servedbasis. Call the Farm Bureauoffice at 815-857-8531 formore information.

LIVINGSTON — TheYoung Leaders will

sponsor a “Farmer’s Share”breakfast from 7 to 10 a.m.Saturday, June 12, at the Kil-gus Farm, 21471 E 670 NRoad, Fairbury. Cost is 60cents, which is the price afarmer would receive for theproducts in the breakfast —sausage gravy and biscuits,

AmplificationWith a grant from the U.S.

Environmental ProtectionAgency, the Illinois Depart-ment of Agriculture is workingwith Indiana’s Driftwatch pro-gram to adapt the existing pro-gram for Illinois.

This is part of a regionaleffort in Illinois, Indiana,Michigan, Wisconsin, Minneso-ta, and Ohio. Each state willcustomize the program for itsagriculture and pesticide issues.

COMMODITIES


Farmers make big push to plant soybeansFarmers who have not been

able to plant soybeans due to wetconditions are expected to makea big push this week to completethat task.

Soil conditions late last weekfinally started to dry out aftertwo to three-plus weeks of con-sistently rainy weather and soggysoils.

In the second half of Maythere were numerous reports offield ponds and flash floodingalong with isolated reports ofhail damage, particularly in West-ern and South-Central Illinois.

“We haven’t done anything(in the fields) for two weeks,”Ron Moore, a Cropwatcher fromWarren County, told FarmWeekFriday. “We’ve had anywherefrom seven to 15 inches of rainin Warren and Henderson coun-ties in May.”

Illinois farmers during thefirst week of May planted 22percent of the soybean crop andoverall had 33 percent of thecrop in the ground as of May 10,according to the National Agri-cultural Statistics Service Illinoisfield office.

But since then, soybeangrowers managed to plant just 9

“Overall in Kane, DeKalb,and Kendall counties thingslook pretty good,” Ruh said.“We missed out on some ofthe showers and have been alittle bit on the drier side.”

Ruh reported much corn inhis area last week was knee-highcompared to last year when halfthe crop was not even plantedprior to Memorial Day week-end. — Daniel Grant

percent of the crop from May 10to May 17 followed by 5 percentbetween May 17 and May 24.Statewide, soybean planting as ofthe first of last week was 47 per-cent complete compared to thefive-year average of 54 percent.

Corn planting as of the firstof last week was near an end at

97 percent complete comparedto the average of 87 percent.

“There will be a lot of beansplanted this week,” said Moore,chairman of the Illinois SoybeanAssociation, who also has toreplant some corn and beansthat didn’t survive in floodedfields.

“It’s dry for the most part,and guys are going around thewet holes so they can get thecrop in.”

Elsewhere, some farmers asof last week had been out of thefields as long as five weeks dueto the wet conditions, accordingto Dan Meinhart, a Cropwatcher

from Jasper County.“A lot of corn is being

replanted and planted for thefirst time,” he said.

Farmers to the north, how-ever, didn’t receive as muchrain and last week were puttingthe finishing touches on soy-bean planting and harvestingthe first cutting of hay,according to Steve Ruh, afarmer from Sugar Grove.

FarmWeekNow.comMany farmers are finishing beanplanting. Check out the latestcrop conditions by going toFarmWeekNow.com.

Budget projections favor corn over beans in 2010BY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Net returns for corn thepast decade typically werehigher than average soybeanreturns in Illinois.

And that trend likely willcontinue this year based onrecent farm budget projec-tions calculated at the Univer-sity of Illinois using farmrecords from the IllinoisFarm Business Farm Manage-ment Association.

“Right now, we’re projectingcorn returns will be $54 (peracre) higher than soy returns,”Gary Schnitkey, U of I Exten-sion farm management special-ist, told FarmWeek last week.

(lower-priced) nitrogen fer-tilizer.”

Non-land costs for cornthis year are projected to total$441 per acre compared to$533 last year, a $92 drop.Non-land costs for soybeansthis year were projected to dipby just $13 an acre to $278 peracre.

Meanwhile, the averageprice of soybeans from 2009to 2010 was projected to dropfrom $9.80 to $8.75 perbushel while the average priceof corn was projected toremain steady at $3.50 perbushel compared to $3.52 lastyear.

Overall, crop returns thisyear were projected to bedown significantly comparedto levels experienced from2004 through 2008.

“We have to go back to theearly 2000s to find a compara-ble period for grain returns,”Schnitkey added. “Thoseobviously weren’t the bestyears for farm income.”

The complete analysis ofcorn and soybean budgets for2009 and 2010 is availableonline at{www.farmdoc.illinois.edu}.

Net returns in 2010 wereprojected at $45 per acre forcorn and minus-$9 per acrefor soybeans.

Corn returns exceeded soyreturns from 2001 to 2009 bya cumulative average of $36per acre. However, cornreturns were below soyreturns in 2009 for the firsttime since 2002.

“Soy prices have takenmore of a decline from lastyear than corn prices, thatis the primary reason (forthe disparity in projectedreturns this year),”Schnitkey said. “Corn costsalso have dropped morethan soybeans because of

PROFITABILITY


Feeder pig prices reported to USDA*

Weight Range Per Head Weighted Ave. Price10 lbs. $34.33-$48.85 $42.2040 lbs. $56.73-$65.00 $60.7050 lbs. n/a n/aReceipts This Week Last Week

27,638 22,419*Eastern Corn Belt prices picked up at seller’s farm

MARKET FACTS

Confirmed lamb and sheep salesThis week 614 Last week 603 Last year 609Wooled Slaughter Lambs: Choice and prime 2-3: 90-110 lb., $119. Good andchoice 1-2: 60-90 lbs., $130. Slaughter Ewes: Utility and good 1-3: $43-$45. Cull and utility 1-2: $38-$43.

Lamb prices

Eastern Corn Belt direct hogs (plant delivered)(Prices $ per hundredweight)

This week Prev. week ChangeCarcass $75.74 $81.22 -5.48Live $56.05 $60.10 -4.06

Export inspections

(Million bushels)Week ending Soybeans Wheat Corn05-20-10 3.9 20.3 40.005-13-10 9.0 13.1 38.9Last year 18.7 19.8 31.0Season total 1324.0 832.0 1278.1Previous season total 1051.5 967.1 1219.5USDA projected total 1420 825 1900Crop marketing year began June 1 for wheat and Sept. 1 for corn and soybeans.

(Thursday’s price)This week Prv. week Change

Steers $93.88 $95.75 -1.87Heifers $93.90 $95.52 -1.62

USDA five-state area slaughter cattle price

This is a composite price of feeder cattle transactions in 27 states.(Prices $ per hundredweight)

This week Prev. week Change108.41 111.03 -2.62

CME feeder cattle index — 600-800 Lbs.

Things to consider in protecting crop yieldBY LANCE RUPPERT

Hopefully by now all ofyour crops are planted and wecan turn our attention to get-ting the most out of the crop.

As you arewell aware,your crop’shighest yieldpotential iswhen the seedis still in thebag. Afterplanting,everything

that happens can negativelyaffect yield potential.

Here are some key itemsto consider as you protectand preserve your seed’syield:

• Weed control — compe-tition from weeds is an easyway to rob precious nutrients,sunlight, and water from yourcrop. A residual herbicideapplication helps minimizeearly-season weed competitionand provides a great windowof opportunity to spray postherbicides.

With this year’s corn cropgoing in so fast, many will berelying on post-applied herbi-cides for the bulk of theirweed control. Be sure toaggressively manage weedswith this application.

Many acres will haveglyphosate applied, but don’tforget about adding a tank mixpartner that can help control

glyphosate-tolerant weeds andgive you added residual weedcontrol.

Also be aware that whenyou mix products in the tankwith glyphosate, utilizing theproper adjuvant is essential toweed control.

• Volunteer corn in soy-beans — The last two harvestseasons have been late, fol-lowed by minimal tillage andcold temperatures.

Like last year, we wouldpredict the potential for a highamount of volunteer corn insoybean fields. Due to thehigh market presence of bothglyphosate-tolerant corn andsoybeans planted today, mostof the volunteer corn in soy-

bean fields must be controlledwith something other thanglyphosate.

Allowing volunteer corn toremain in soybean fields caus-es competition for nutrients,sunlight, and moisture, andalso can be a risk in pest-resis-tance management.

It is a sound managementpractice to add a product tocontrol volunteer glyphosate-tolerant corn with your firstpost glyphosate application.Again, proper adjuvant selec-tion is imperative to allow thecrop protection products usedto control weeds at maximumlevels.

• Fungicides — Year afteryear, fungicide applications

have proven a good invest-ment in both corn and soy-beans. Besides the obviousdisease control and “greener”appearance, standability is atremendous benefit fromfungicide use in corn.

These are three key thingsto consider as you look at waysto protect yield this growingseason. Product recommenda-tions and economic analysiscan be obtained from yourlocal crop specialists. Allowtheir expertise to help youprotect and maximize yield.

Lance Ruppert is GROW-MARK’s crop protection marketingmanager. His e-mail address [email protected].

Lance Ruppert

Applying mixtures of different pesticides orpesticides in combination with various adju-vants and fertilizers can be an efficientapproach, but there also can be a downside,said Dennis Epplin, University of IllinoisExtension crop systems educator.

“When choosing to tank-mix various agri-cultural chemicals, the applicator should beaware of the potential for adverse effects,”Epplin cautioned. “Some pesticide labels statethat the applicator assumes all liability if tankmixing. However, unless expressly prohibitedby a pesticide’s label, tank mixing is legal.”

Epplin said that potential problems includeboth physical and chemical incompatibility.Some labels indicate the necessary precautionsfor potential compatibility issues. Always readthe label and follow all safety and personal pro-tective requirements, he warned.

Physical incompatibility refers to mixturesthat form layers, gels, flakes, or crystals. Chem-ical incompatibility suggests the potential forthe product not to work or injure plants or forthe mixture to have a greater response thanseparate production applications.

Most labels have instructions concerning tankmixing and the order in which products areadded. Follow label directions. If tank mixinginstructions are not shown, Epplin advised farm-ers to tank mix products in the following order:

• Fill the tank one quarter to half full withwater, fluid fertilizer, or the appropriate carrier;

• Begin agitation;• If needed, add utility agents, such as com-

patibility or anti-foam;• Add suspension products, dry products

may be pre-slurried, then liquid suspension(ME, M: microencapsulated;

F, FL, L: flowables or liquids);• Next, add emulsifiable products (EC, E:

emulsifiable concentrates);• Add products that form true solutions;• Then, add any adjuvants or other spray

modifiers if needed; and • Finally, top off with the appropriate

amount of water or liquid fertilizer.Epplin said it would be unusual to use all of

the pesticide formulations in a single tank mix.Remember, tank mixing and loading use pesti-cides in their concentrated forms, he said.

Farmers advised to use cautionwhen tank mixing pesticides

Economist: Pork producers on pace for profitable year

about the European debt crisisand its effect on the worldeconomy.

The Dow Jones industrialaverage last week dippedbelow 10,000 and was 12 per-cent below its recent highestablished on April 26.

“The markets are prettyskittish right now,” Hurt said.“That leads to worries the

economy might not do as well,which would affect (con-sumer) buying power.”

Consumers this summeralso could face record-highmeat prices, which coulddampen demand.

Hurt projected pork pro-duction this year will be down5 percent and beef productiondown 3 percent compared tolast year.

Retail pork prices as a resultcould average nearly $3 perpound in May, up as much as 5cents from last year, and reach$3.10 per pound between Juneand August. The previous highfor retail pork prices was $3.03per pound in September 2008,according to Hurt.

The economist looks forhog prices this year to remainprofitable at an average of $54per hundredweight, though,

due to tight meat supplies.“I think we’ll see strong

hog prices through the sum-mer,” followed by a seasonaldecline around September,Hurt said. Live hog prices bythe fourth quarter could slipto an average of $50 per hun-dredweight.

Chicken production thisyear could increase by as muchas 5 percent and compete withpork and beef for marketshare.

But Hurt believes it could beMarch 2011 before expansionreturns to the hog industry.

“I think producers won’texpand in the short-run simplybecause they dug an awfullydeep hole (the past twoyears),” he said. “Most needsix to nine months of profitsto get their financial house inorder.”

BY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Pork producers this year areon pace to turn a profitdespite a recent slip in hogprices, according to ChrisHurt, ag economist at PurdueUniversity.

Hurt last week projectedU.S. pork producers this yearwill average a profit of $21 perhead compared to averagelosses of $17 per head in 2008and $24 per head in 2009.

“We can’t maintain thesuper-level (of $60-plus perlive hundredweight hog prices)we saw two weeks ago, but $55to $58 hogs still would be very

profitable,” Hurt toldFarmWeek.

Livestock prices softened inrecent weeks due to outsideforces, particularly concerns

PROFITABILITY


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CASH STRATEGISTCorn Strategy

�2009 crop: Prices aretrending slightly higher, butthe larger trend still has adownward bias. Cycle countsstill point to a 40-week bot-tom in June. July futures havepotential to drop to $3.40,maybe lower. Use rallies towrap up old-crop sales.

�2010 crop: Use ralliesabove $3.90 on Decemberfutures for catch-up sales.Even though we expect a low-er trend into early summer,there should be one or twoopportunities to add to salesduring the summer.

�Fundamentals: Outsidemarkets remain the biggestday-to-day influence, givingthe market a lift at the end oflast week with emotions sur-rounding Europe’s problemscalming down. Warmer tem-peratures have improvedgrowing conditions and cropdevelopment. China rumorspersist, but with their wheatprices below that of corn,we’re not sure big purchaseswill come soon. The govern-ment first needs to issue moreimport quotas.Soybean Strategy

�2009 crop: Outside fac-tors remain the biggest day-to-day influence on soybeanprices. We are seeing signsdemand is slowing, potentiallycapping upside potentialunless there’s a crop problemthis summer. Use rallies to getold-crop sales wrapped up.

�2010 crop: Outside influ-ences may not be having asmuch influence on new-cropprices because weather is bol-stering ideas of a large crop.Even though there’s still near-term downside price risk, thereshould be another sales oppor-tunity after the June price cyclelows. Hold off sales, unlessNovember futures rebound to$9.40.

�Fundamentals: Themonthly soybean crush hasbeen smaller than expected thelast two months. Big plantscan still make money, but thecrush margin is below break-even for small plants. Exportinspections have been belowthe needed pace four of the

last five weeks. Chineseimports are expected to slowthe next one to two monthsbecause of stockpiles.Wheat Strategy

�2009 crop: Wheat shift-ed back into its sideways pat-tern after briefly slippingbelow $4.60 support onChicago July futures. Theseasonal trend and the 40-week cycle count still pointdown into a June or July low.Use rallies for catch- up sales.

�2010 crop: Chicago Julyfutures reached our $5.15 tar-get recently, boosting new-

crop sales to 40 percent. Ifyou price wheat at harvest, userallies to get sales up to 60 per-cent.

�Fundamentals: Theoverall fundamental picture inwheat remains unchanged,leaving upside momentum tocome from outside influences.Large world supplies and onlyroutine export demand con-tinue to work against rallies.We are keeping an eye onEurope, Russia, and theUkraine, as weather could trimoutput in those countries,reducing export competitionsomewhat.

Although there is a slightcorrelation between timelyplanting and good yields, thecorrelation for soybeans is notas strong as it is for corn.Much of that may be tied tocorn development being tiedto accumulating heat units.

On the other hand, soy-beans produced in the CornBelt have initiation of maturitytied to changing length of day-light at season’s end. Soybeanyields are more tied to weatherconditions and moisture sup-plies at the end of the growingseason than are corn yields.And with the higher seasonaltemperatures, soil moisturetends to trend lower.

Still, like corn, timely plant -ing tends to go hand in handwith good yields. The differ-ence being that soybeans areslightly more forgiving withslower planting than is corn.

The two years in which plant-ing occurred at a good pace buthad disappointing yields were1988 and 1993. As you remem-

Basis charts

ber, a dry spring in 1988 allowedfast planting, but it remained hotand dry into summer.

In 1993, early planting wentreasonably well, but early-sum-mer flooding and moisturepressure had negative repercus-sions on yields in the westernCorn Belt and the South.

The two years that hadextremely slow plantings and verypoor yields were 1974 and 1983,both having summer droughts.

You’ll also note there weretwo years with extremely slowplanting, 1978 and 1990. Butyields those years were a littleabove trend. And planting wasslow in 1979 as well, but yieldsended well above trend.Weather that year was muchlike last year, cool and damp.

On average, those years with50 percent of the crop plantedby May 25 had yields very closeto trend. Even if you adjust foran end of May planting date onyears before 1990 to account forearlier planting in recent years,the average still comes in only0.6 of a percent below trend.

The trend used in makingthese projections is an area-weighted trend. It comes injust below 44 bushels per acrethis year. The good plantingpace, the return to more nor-mal weather (warmer), andgood soil moisture are reasonsto be optimistic about thepotential for this year’s crops.

Even though we think theweighted trend used to developthis graphic may be a little opti-mistic, there’s every reason tothink the 42.9 bushel yieldUSDA projected is attainable.

Even if acreage were to shrinka little from the March USDAprojection, production stillshould exceed demand, makinglower prices probable if weatherremains good this summer.

Cents per bu.

Bean yield, planting timecorrelation not that strong

PERSPECTIVES


CSP offers farmersmany opportunitiesEditor:

On May 10, U.S. Agricul-ture Secretary Tom Vilsackannounced that farmersnationwide may apply forUSDA’s Conservation Stew-ardship Program (CSP).

Authorized in the 2008farm bill, CSP offers pay-ments to farmers who main-tain a high level of conserva-tion on their land and whoagree to adopt higher levelsof stewardship.

CSP is available on tribaland private agricultural lands

and non-industrial privateforest land statewide.

June 11 is the deadline tobe considered for the nextranking and funding period.

CSP has been a popularand competitive program inIllinois. During the last rank-ing period, 265 contractswere approved for fundingon 175,000 acres.

One requirement is thatthe applicant must be theoperator of the land andshow control of the land fora five-year period.

In addition, the land musthave a Farm Service Agency

number to qualify. Applicantsmust provide:

• Maps of entire opera-tions showing wildlife habitatareas, water courses, and eli-gible and ineligible land;

• Letters of assurancesfrom the landowners showingcontrol of the land for fiveyears;

• The operation’s manage-ment systems and acres ofeach, and

• Member information forlegal entity or joint opera-tion.

We need the above infor-mation by June 11 or shortly

thereafter, because the Nat-ural Resources ConservationService (NRCS) will have ashort time after June 11 tocomplete its ranking process.

Each operator who applieswill schedule an appointmentwith NRCS to review hisfarming or ranching opera-tion and receive a ranking.

NRCS staff will then con-duct on-site field verifica-tions of the top-rankingapplications.

Once the participant hasbeen field-verified andapproved for funding, a con-tract will be developed.

Contracts are set for fiveyears and will include all theland controlled by an opera-tor.

A CSP self-screeningchecklist can help you deter-mine if this program is suit-able for your operation.

This information and moreis available online at{www.il.nrcs.usda.gov/pro-grams/CSP.html} or www.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/new_csp/csp.html}.WILLIAM GRADLE.Illinois NRCS state conservationist,Champaign

Humans have gone fishingfor eons. Archeological findsfrom Eastern Asia indicatehumans were eating freshwaterfish 40,000 years ago. NativeAmericans in California were

using lines andhooks to catchfish 3,000 yearsago.

No doubthumans’ earliestfishing activitieswere for food.No one knowsfor sure whenfishing becamea recreational

activity, but it certainly was longago. Ancient Greeks andRomans both advocated fishingfor sport.

Fishing for fun has been partand parcel of the recreationalscene of the United Statesthroughout most of our histo-ry.

Historically, “going fishin’”would involve an old cane pole,a line, a hook, and a bobber.Tom Sawyer and Huck Finnmight have possessed just suchequipment to fish in the Missis-sippi River.

The old southern play-partytune, “Crawdad Song” refers tosimilar fishing equipment —“You get a line and I’ll get apole.” Of course, that songtalks about fishin’ in a crawdadhole, but fishin’ has come tomean trying to catch any water-dwelling creature, and crawdadsand crayfish qualify.

Of course, fishing requiresequipment and oftentimes bait.The idea of fishing using a lineand a pole is to somehow get ahook into the mouth of thefish. One of the ways to do thatis to offer the fish some foodon the hook.

Soil-inhabiting, segmentedannelids — better known as

earthworms — are perfect forbaiting a fishing hook and oftenare called fishing worms. Whengiven the chance, many types offish also eat insects. Grasshop-pers, crickets, mealworms, andbee moth caterpillars are some-times used as bait.

Fish come by their habit offeeding on insects naturallybecause insects share theirfreshwater environment. Theseare known as aquatic insectsand include immature forms ofmosquitoes, midges, mayflies,dragonflies, damselflies, stone-flies, caddisflies, and dobson-flies.

Some adult insects, such aswater beetles and water bugs,also live in the water. All canend up as fish food.

Water-dwelling insects aredifficult to catch and use as livebait, so humans have resortedto developing insect replicas,called fishing lures, to attract

fish to the hook.Fishing using lures made to

look like insects is appropriatelyknown as fly-fishing. This typeof fishing has been aroundsince at least the 2nd Centurywhen the Romans were tryingto catch fish with artificial flies.

Modern fly-fishing probablyoriginated in Scotland andnorthern England. At least itwas written about in the 1400s.Americans were fly-fishingusing horsehair fishing line atthe time of the RevolutionaryWar.

Fly-fishing lures are createdto resemble an insect and thenpresented in such a way as tomimic the insect’s behavior inor on the water. For instance,lures called floaters and sinkersact like terrestrial insects thataccidentally fall on the surfaceof the water and either float orsink.

In fly-fishing, there are

names for all kinds of artificialflies.

Dry flies are lures designedto float. Wet flies sink. Nymphflies look like an immatureform of an insect, such as astonefly.

Emerger flies resemble anadult emerging from the lastimmature form. So-called ter-restrial flies look like insectsthat don’t live in the water butjust fell in.

My favorite lure is one forbass fishing called the firefly. Itis a hollow, clear plastic devicethat unscrews in the middle. Itworks this way: Unscrew thelure, fill it with fireflies and castit into the water. I suppose intheory the flashing insectsattract fish to the lure!

Tom Turpin is an entomology profes-sor at Purdue University, WestLafayette, Ind. His e-mail address [email protected].

TOMTURPIN

Gone fishin’ with insects or their replicas is the modern way

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

The number of farmers’ markets in the UnitedStates has grown by more than 300 percent in thepast 15 years. If you study that trend from an eco-nomics standpoint, you have to wonder why.

The dollars and cents valueof convenience, low prices,and access to a variety ofproducts just don’t add up.

Online grocers are conve-nient with 24/7 availability. Farmers’ markets arenot.

At the local grocery store, comparison shoppingto find the lowest price is done quickly as similaritems are grouped together. That’s not the case at thefarmers’ market.

Mega-supermarkets offer food purchases, alongwith buying your automotive care products and evenappliances. Farmers’ markets do not.

So what brings consumers at increasing rates tomore than 5,200 farmers’ markets around the coun-try?

It’s the relationship that consumers can have withfarmers. The U.S. Agriculture Department calls it‘food with a face.’ The popularity of farmers’ mar-kets is the anchor of its current “Know YourFarmer” campaign.

That “face” reminds us that food is not made inthe grocery store basement. It is grown and pro-

duced with care by men and women who not onlyhave a passion for working with nature to producefood but also have knowledge on how to produce itin a way that sustains their business at the market.

Much is expected from these farmers. Consumersexpect fresh, top-quality fruits and vegetables, aswell as honey, dairy, meat, and grain products. Theywant these items delivered with a smile and willing-ness to explain the production methods. If you’vewalked by the vendors’ tables at a market, you knowthese farmers are delivering on both points.

Other farmers are counting on them, too.Only about 4 percent of farmers use direct sales

to consumers as part of their marketing plan. Thatmeans their “faces” represent the other 96 percentof farmers who use other marketing methods to selltheir products.

While some may think that’s putting too much onthe shoulders of those farmers who are using directmarketing, most of them would just smile, shrug,and move on, shaking hands and telling customersabout ways to prepare their products and what willbe available at the market in the coming weeks.

Clearly, the value of a farmers’ market is aboutrelationships and trust — both of which are intangi-ble items that have real value in today’s economy.

Economists and marketers have developed anynumber of models so that relationship value can be

measured. They can run their numbers and manipu-late their models.

Most consumers already know the value of thatrelationship. Priceless.

Dal Grooms is a new columnist for the American FarmBureau Federation. Grooms is a native of the Midwest, whereshe writes about rural and agricultural issues.

Farmers’ markets put a ‘face’ on farming

DAL GROOMS

guest columnist

Documents

FarmWeek May 31 2010