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Monday, October 3, 2011 Two sections Volume 39, No. 40

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

U.s. poRK pRoDUceRs’ recentrun of profitability could come to anend soon, according to the USDA’Squarterly hogs and pigs report. ...............9

eURopeAn AnD Americanscientists share the same goal ofhaving far mers g row biomasscrops. ...............................................8

c h i n A i s p o i s e D t oincrease its imports of ag productsfrom the U.S., IFB’s vice presidentlearned during a recent trip. ...........5

U.S. Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), ranking Democrat on the House Ag Rural Development Subcommittee, triesout a tractor cab at Stone Seed near Springfield following a 2012 farm bill hearing on the University of Illi-nois-Springfield campus. Costa and colleagues checked out global positioning systems at the seed opera-tion. For more on the farm bill and broadband, see page 4. (Photo by Martin Ross)

Corn stocks larger than expected: crop prices slideBY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Crop prices, which have been trendinglower in recent weeks, took it on the chinagain Friday as USDA released a bearishgrain stocks report.

Corn stocks in all positions werepegged at 1.13 billion bushels. Soybeanstocks were projected at 215 millionbushels.

“The soybean number was slightlyfriendly, but the overriding factor is thecorn report,” Jack Scoville, market analystwith Prices Futures Group, said during ateleconference hosted by the CME Group.“It (the corn stock estimate) is significantlyabove the average trade guess.”

Scoville and Jerry Gidel, market analystwith NARMS Futures Trading, believe themain factor for larger-than-expected cornstocks is a reduction in feed use.

Corn exports also have been soft,according to Scoville.

“Feed is the primary category that influ-enced the stocks number,” Scoville said.“$7-plus corn was starting to price itselfout of feeders’ capacity.”

Corn futures prices subsequently tum-bled inthe pastmonthfrom$7.75 perbushel todown near

$6. Soybean futures during the past monthtook a similar tumble from near $14 to themid-$12 range.

Prices were limit-down Friday morningafter the release of the bearish report.

“That’s a pretty significant down-move,” Scoville said. “I’ve always felt wecould hold $6 (for December corn) and Istill think it’s possible.”

The markets also could be pressured incoming months if expectations of larger

corn plantings in South America come tofruition.

Soybean planting in Brazil so far is offto a slow start due to dry soils, Scovillereported.

The crop markets, however, could benearing levels that could reignite demand.

“(Corn) values at this point are not asexpensive in the world market,” Gidel said.

China previously made a large purchaseof U.S. corn on the heels of a bearishstocks report.

USDA on Friday also released its smallgrains annual summary report that showedall wheat production this year totaled 2.01billion bushels, down 9 percent from lastyear. The average U.S. wheat yield was 43.9bushels per acre while the Illinois wheatyield was unchanged at 61 bushels per acre,up 5 bushels from the previous two years.

U.S. oat production this year was arecord-low 54 million bushels, down 33percent from 2010.

AFBF, Durbin plans part of growing farm bill mixBY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

As bipartisan farm statesenators last week touted anew budget-conscious planaimed at bolstering 2012farm bill revenue protections,Farm Bureau leaders submit-ted what they deem the bestpolicy options for producersnationwide.

A 12-member congres-sional “super committee” isexpected to submit its blue-print for at least $1.2 trillionin long-term federal savingsby Thanksgiving. That’s has-tened review of farm billoptions that can meet deficitreduction targets while pre-serving a viable producersafety net.

Last week, American FarmBureau Federation (AFBF)submitted its “five mostimportant priorities” for the2012 farm bill: commodityprograms, conservation pro-grams, crop insurance,research, and rural develop-ment.

At the same time, AFBFrecognized anticipated cuts“will primarily have to comefrom the commodity, conser-

scratching their heads, tryingto get prepared for whatevermay happen quickly. This is areally fluid situation, and a lotof proposals are being putforth.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Dick

Durbin, a Springfield Democ-rat, proposes a new AggregateRisk and Revenue Manage-ment (ARMM) program whichwould “build on” the Average

See Farm bill, page 2

vation and nutrition titles, aswell as from crop insurance,”which comprise 99 percentof funding underHouse/Senate Ag Committeejurisdiction.

AFBF leaders recommend-ed taking 30 percent of anyrequired ag reductions eachfrom commodity, conserva-tion, and nutrition programs(largely in administrativespending) and 10 percentfrom the crop insurance pro-gram.

“We are not suggesting a30 percent cut in the $65 bil-lion commodity programbaseline, but rather that 30percent of the share of totalcuts finally agreed to by theHouse and Senate Ag Com-mittees,” they stressed.

AFBF President Bob Stall-man noted any policy propos-al must be “wrapped around”the ag budget number setdown by the super committeeor, should Congress reject thecommittee plan, possibly fargreater cuts. That targetremains a “huge unknown,”he said.

“Frankly, there’s a hugeamount of uncertainty as to

how this super committeeprocess is going to play outrelative to the farm bill andthe budget,” Stallman said inan RFD Radio-FarmWeekinterview. “Everyone’s justgoing around just kind of

FarmWeekNow.com

Commentary and details of thegrain stocks report are atFarmWeekNow.com.

INJUNCTION DENIED — Syngenta last weeklost a bid to temporarily force Bunge North America toaccept its GMO AgriSure Viptera corn until a lawsuitover the issue is resolved.

Syngenta sued Bunge recently, claiming the graincompany’s decision not to accept the new insect-resis-tant corn was unlawful. The product has not yetreceived Chinese import approval, and Bunge officialsfear inclusion of any of the minor amount of Vipterabeing harvested this year could lead to rejection ofexport shipments.

In August, Bunge posted a notice on its website andat several grain delivery locations that it was “unable toaccept” grain produced using the Syngenta product.Iowa U.S. District Judge Mark Bennett called Bunge’smove “a legitimate and reasonable business decision.”

Bennett ruled Syngenta has “no likelihood of successon the merits of its claims,” and denied the company’srequest for a preliminary injunction against Bunge. “Theinjunction would impose prodigious costs on Bunge fora situation that Bunge did not create,” his ruling stated.

MAN SURVIVES GRAIN BIN ENTRAPMENT— A 43-year-old man from Colombia who was trappedin a corn bin for nearly two hours last week, survived asrescuers used a special tube and shoveled corn to freehim.

The incident occurred at Center Ethanol Co. plant inSauget, Lee News Service reported.

The man reportedly entered the 300,000-bushel grainbin for routine maintenance. It held 80,000 bushels ofcorn when the grain suddenly shifted and buried theman up to his waist.

Rescue crews lowered a tube around the man to pro-tect him from the grain and then shoveled corn awayfrom his body to free him.

WOOLLY BEAR WEATHER PREDICTIONS— The woolly bear caterpillars are out. Have youchecked their stripes?

The amount of black on the woolly bear’s bristlecoating forecasts the severity of the coming winter,according to superstition.

The theory is that the longer the black segments onthe ends of the caterpillar, the harsher the coming win-ter will be, said Rhonda Ferree, University of IllinoisExtension horticulture educator.

From year to year, the amount of black hair on wool-ly bear caterpillars varies, but those differences arecaused by age and wetness, according to Donald Lewis,an Iowa State University entomologist. Older caterpillarshave more black than young ones, and caterpillars thatfed and grew in an area where the wetter fall weatherhave more black hair than those from dry areas.

FarmWeek Page 2 Monday, October 3, 2011

(ISSN0197-6680)

Vol. 39 No. 40 October 3, 2011

Dedicated to improving the profitability of farm-ing, and a higher quality of life for Illinois farmers.FarmWeek is produced by the Illinois FarmBureau.

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Quick takesgovernment

Continued from page 1Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program.

ARRM could save $19.8 billion over the next10 years, versus reauthorization of the cur-rent farm bill, according to it’s bipartisansponsors.

The plan would consolidate direct pay-ments, price support programs, and otherexisting supports with what the senatorstermed “a defensible revenue protection pro-gram based on actual planted acres.” ARRMwould replace the Supplement Revenuestanding disaster assistance program, con-tributing to even greater theoretical savings,they held.

Like the National Corn Growers Associa-tion’s Agriculture Disaster Assistance Pro-gram (ADAP) proposal, ARRM would triggerACRE-style payments based on yield lossesat the crop reporting district level, ratherthan on state-level losses. Marketing loanprograms would remain in place under theplan.

Stallman stressed “the jury’s still out” onARRM. The plan offers specifics for futurerevenue security but “combines and doesaway with a lot of other things in terms offarm policy that we think are important,” hesaid.

Because research and rural developmentprograms are such a minor part of the budg-

et, AFBF urged lawmakers to maintain thoseprograms at current funding levels. But, withadministrative spending related to the Sup-plemental Nutrition Assistance Program(food stamps) and child nutrition programsexpected to exceed $50 billion in the next tenyears, AFBF suggested cuts there could gen-erate significant savings with little or noimpact on program benefits.

Following a House Ag Rural DevelopmentSubcommittee hearing last week in Spring-field (see page 4), subcommittee ChairmanTim Johnson, an Urbana Republican, reiter-ated determination by House-Senate ag com-mittee leaders to “maintain our jurisdiction”over specific program spending.

Subcommittee ranking Democrat JimCosta (D-Calif.) noted “many of us haveconcerns” about mounting ag fundingpressure. He noted the 2008 farm bill wasauthorized at a significantly lower costthan 2004 legislation, thanks in large partto improved farm prices and subsequently“less utilization” of countercyclical safetynet programs.

“Clearly, the 2012 farm bill is going to beless in authorization than the 2008 bill,” Cos-ta told FarmWeek. “There’s a challenge withdeficits we have to cut back to get our finan-cial house in order. Hopefully, we’ll do thatin a bipartisan fashion.”

Farm bill

Lawmakers mulling furthercorn ethanol constraints?BY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

The ethanol industry, already girding upfor life after the ethanol tax credit, may faceone more key challenge to future biofuelsdemand and development.

Legislation reportedly being drafted byReps. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) and Jim Costa(D-Calif.) would alter the existing RenewableFuels Standard (RFS2), which mandates 15billion gallonsof cornethanol and 36billion gallonsof total biofu-els use by2022.

A congres-sional aidereported themeasure would“reduce thefederal man-date to usefuel ethanolwhen cornsupplies are tight,” in an effort to keep live-stock feed prices lower. That move “woulddo nothing to address the concerns raised bythe livestock constituents of Reps. Goodlatteand Costa,” Renewable Fuels AssociationPresident Bob Dinneen argued.

Illinois Corn Growers Association Tech-nology and Business Development DirectorDave Loos told FarmWeek his group wouldmonitor Capitol Hill discussions to deter-mine if the measure will “grow any legs” andthus require action.

An RFS “waiver trigger” based on thecorn stocks-to-use ratio would not affectprices for livestock producers, nor wouldwhat he called a “knee-jerk policy” make

more corn immediately available for feed use.Congress instead should “maintain theintegrity of the RFS to help drive job cre-ation and wean America from its addiction toforeign oil,” he said.

The proposal arises amid indications Con-gress will allow the 45-cent-per-gallon volu-metric ethanol excise tax credit (VEETC) toexpire on Dec. 31. With loss of the key gaso-line blenders incentive, Loos maintained

RFS2 fuelrequirements“are critical tocontinuing thegrowth in bio-fuels.”

Dinneenalso cautionedthat if thiseffort were tobe successful,the loss ofethanol in thefuel supplywould lead toincreased

pump prices. Given the “disproportionateimpact on food pricing exerted by energy andfuel prices,” that would exacerbate concernsabout rising food prices – purportedly a keyconcern for corn ethanol critics.

“It seems like people would kind of stepback and see what impact losing VEETC Jan.1 is going to have on the ethanol industryand the markets, and take a deep breath andwait and see how all that sorts out,” Loossaid.

“What we’re seeing right now are the mar-ket’s working. If gasoline prices soften, youmight see ethanol throttling back. You’re alsoseeing corn prices dropping a bit. To us, themarket’s sorting a lot of this out.”

‘It seems like people would kind ofstep back and see what impact losingVEETC Jan. 1 is going to have on theethanol industry and the markets.’

— Dave LoosIllinois Corn Growers Association

GoverNmeNt

Page 3 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

Lock fee proposal dampens shippers’ hopesBY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

With President Obama publicly onboard and policymakers pushing todouble U.S. exports, Waterways CouncilInc. (WCI) Vice President Paul Rohdesees producers and shippers “posi-

tioned well” to lock in key navigationalimprovements.

However, the president’s plan forfunding long-delayed Midwest lockconstruction could rock the boat.

Obama has highlighted riverimprovements as part of his “AmericanJobs Act.” Construction of sevenUpper Mississippi-Illinois River locks

was approved in 2007, but federalfunding is dependent on matchingfunds from the industry’s Inland Water-ways Trust Fund, which has seen wan-ing revenues.

The White House proposes to sup-plement the 20-cent-per-gallon bargefuel tax that feeds the fund with a newfee for all tow operators and a secondfee for barge tows moving througheach lock. Shippers instead support ahike in fuel taxes to replenish the fund,but the U.S. House’s no new taxesdirective seemingly has blocked thatoption.

Obama’s plan would more than dou-ble the amount of taxes and fees onshippers — merely “one beneficiary ofour nation’s waterways,” WCI PresidentMichael Toohey warned. He argueshigher shipping costs and possiblefreight movement to costlier modes oftransportation could “disrupt the frag-

ile economic recovery” by raising con-sumer prices.

He said Obama’s plan “fails toinclude the necessary project deliveryand other reforms that must be a partof a comprehensive investment strate-gy for our waterways.”

“The folks who pay into the trustfund understand that they have to havea self-imposed tax increase,” WCI’sRohde told FarmWeek. “They’re call-ing for that, with the provision that riv-er users and the producers and manu-facturers who move things by bargehave more say in prioritization andplanning.

“They want more of a partnershipbetween private and public sectors,which is what Obama has talked aboutcontinually as what we need in shapingpolicy.”

The fee proposal comes as theadministration recognizes navigation

needs ignored “when we were dealingwith economic stimulus a couple ofyears ago,” Rohde noted.

In a FarmWeek-RFD Radio inter-view, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack calledObama’s infrastructure push “goodnews to folks in rural America who aredealing with roads that need repaired,bridges that need repaired, dams andwater systems and ports that needrepaired,” as well as a boost for “eco-nomic opportunity.”

Carpenters District Council ofGreater St. Louis business representa-tive Dale Roth lobbies Congressalongside Farm Bureau for “anythingthat creates jobs” — especially lockand bridge funding.

“There are plenty of jobs, plenty ofprojects out there if we can just getthe funding for them -– if Congresswill get its priorities straight,” Rothsaid.

FarmWeekNow.com

Listen to Matt Kaye’s report on the lockfee proposal at FarmWeekNow.com.

State estate tax expected to put millions in state coffersBY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

The Illinois estate tax again isgenerating revenue for the state andis expected to add millions to thestate’s revenue stream.

The Illinois Department of Rev-enue (DOR) estimated the stateestate tax will generate about $22million each month based on his-

toric data and information from theIllinois attorney general’s staff, saidSue Hofer, DOR spokesman.

Under state law, Illinois AttorneyGeneral Lisa Madigan administersthe state estate tax.

Last month, the tax generatedabout $3 million in revenue, accord-ing to Hofer.

Because of legal procedures,

there had been a delay in reportingrevenue since the estate tax wasreinstated on Jan. 1.

State estate tax revenue is includ-ed in a monthly revenue report thatis available online at {http://tax.illi-nois.gov}.

Currently, Illinois allows a $2million individual exemption forestates compared with the federal

estate tax exemption of $5 millionper individual.

Illinois Farm Bureau supportshaving the state and federalexemption being the same so fewerfamily farms and other small busi-nesses are faced with a large taxbill when enterprises are passeddown from one generation to thenext.

The American SoybeanAssociation (ASA) has offi-cially joined the ag policydebate, proposing to replacecurrent farm programs with“Risk Management for Amer-ica’s Farmers” (RMAF).

The proposed programwould partially protect rev-enue losses that result fromlow prices or reduced yields.RMAF would establish com-modity-specific revenuebenchmarks for individualfarmers, based on historicalyields and prices, and com-pensate growers for a shareof the difference when on-farm revenue falls below a

percentage of the bench-mark.

All planted and preventplant acres would be coveredunder the plan, and the pro-gram would complementcrop insurance –- anotherimportant component of theASA program.

“ASA supports a risk man-agement program that par-tially offsets shallow revenuelosses at the farm level notcovered by crop insurance,”ASA Farm Bill Task ForceChairman Rob Joslin said.

“Farmers told ASA theywant a program that operatesoff a farm-level revenue loss

trigger rather than a state,crop reporting district, oreven a county loss trigger.

Farmers told us that theuse of a state-level revenueloss trigger in the currentAverage Crop Revenue Elec-tion (ACRE) program wasone of the problems they sawin that program that resultedin low participation rates.”

Because the proposalreplaces current programs,this plan would result in sav-ings “that help agriculturecontribute its fair share todeficit reduction,” ASA stat-ed.

RMAF would provide rev-

enue guarantee to producersof non-irrigated commoditiesagainst losses below 90 per-cent of their benchmarkdown to 75 percent ofbenchmark. A 10 percent rev-enue loss is required beforethe program kicks in.

A producer’s revenuebenchmark is calculatedbased on the higher of theproducer’s actual productionhistory (APH) yield, the pro-ducer’s five-year Olympicaverage APH yield, or 80 per-cent of county yield, times afive-year Olympic average ofNational Ag Statistics Serviceseason average prices.

A producer’s actual rev-enue for a commodity is cal-culated based on actual yieldtimes a national average pricereceived by farmers duringthe first four months of themarketing year, plus net cropinsurance indemnitiesreceived.

Payments to a qualifyinggrower equal 85 percent ofthe difference between therevenue guarantee and actualrevenue.

Further details on theASA plan can be foundonline at{www.soygrowers.com/poli-cy/ASA-RMAF.pdf}.

Farm-level trigger part of American Soybean Association farm bill plan

USDA is working to change federalregulations that will help rural com-

munities obtainadvanced emergencycommunications serv-ices, including 911access, U.S. Agricul-ture Secretary TomVilsack announcedrecently.

The changes willhelp rural communi-ties obtain next-gener-

ation 911 services.“A change in the rules would make

it possible for Rural Development tohelp rural first-responders to secure

the tools they need to maintain mis-sion-critical voice and broadbandservice during times of emergency orduring natural disasters,” said ColleenCallahan, state director for RuralDevelopment.

Rural Development has supportedlocal efforts to upgrade local emer-gency call centers through the agency’scommunity facility grant program.

In Illinois, grants were awarded toGibson City and to Pulaski and Salinecounties for 911 equipment to be usedat local call centers that forward emer-gency information to fire, police, andambulance providers.

Recently in the Federal Register,

USDA published interim requirementsfor telecommunications loan programeligibility on financing the construc-tion of interoperable, integrated pub-lic safety communications networks inrural areas. Funding for the programwill be provided by Rural Develop-ment through the Rural Utilities Serv-ice (RUS).

The new eligibility criteria wouldallow USDA to leverage public andprivate resources to speed deploymentof dual-use public safety/commercialwireless networks and financeenhanced 911 capabilities.

This would improve providers’ abil-ity to precisely locate rural wireless

911 calls, contact 911 via text mes-sage, or send emergency respondersphotos or videos of crime scenes oraccidents.

The new regulation also would giveRUS the ability to finance wirelessupgrades for public safety and security.

In the last two years, Rural Devel-opment has awarded broadband fund-ing in Illinois to Shawnee TelephoneCo., Alhambra-Grantfork TelephoneCo., Woodhull Telelphone Co., OneidaTelephone Co., Wabash TelephoneCooperative, Convergence Technolo-gies, and Norlight Telecom, which isnow part of Windstream Communica-tions.

USDA announces plans for rural 911, emergency communications

Colleen Callahan

the farm bill

FarmWeek Page 4 Monday, October 3, 2011

Panel seeks answers to ‘arrest’ rural declineBY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

Fostering public-private part-nerships and effectively leverag-ing available federal dollars toexpand broadband capabilitiesis crucial in “arresting thedecline of rural America,”according to U.S. House AgRural Development Subcom-mittee Chairman Tim Johnson.

The Urbana Republicanpresided over a 2012 farm billfield hearing in Springfield thatfocused on the impact of andneed for broadband access inrural communities, education,health care, and farm and MainStreet businesses.

The rural development titleof the farm bill, a key vehiclefor loan and other broadbandprograms, is a “critical compo-nent” of the measure, especiallyin ensuring “efficient use ofexisting dollars” amid mountingdeficit pressure, Johnson said.

“We’ve seen a really ineffi-

Communications Commission(FCC) is expected soon to ruleon proposals to reform theUniversal Service Fund, whichhelps provide public telecom-munications service, and“intercarrier compensation”for network providers. Theoutcome of FCC’s review willdetermine “our ability tomaintain the networks we havetoday and continue to deploybroadband to the rural areas,”Fowler said.

Rep. Jim Costa (D-Calif.), theag subcommittee’s rankingDemocrat and a third-genera-

tion California farmer, hopedthe Springfield hearing wouldhelp define “how we can do abetter job to help rural Americacompete” in a global economy.

“Farmers have to competewith commodities grown every-where around the world,” Costatold FarmWeek during a post-hearing tour of Stone Seed nearSpringfield.

“The ability to have access tothe Internet, to have broadbandthat allows you to determinemarket prices, the ability to usemanagement tools on your farmare all critical to your success.”

cient implementation of theInternet dollars,” despite alloca-tion of $2.5 billion for ruralbroadband in 2009 stimulus leg-islation, he charged.

USDA’s current broadbandloan application process is“completely out of control,”and as a result, “a lot of ruralareas won’t even apply becauseof the hassle,” Johnson toldreporters. Perhaps 5 percentof that funding thus “hasemerged from the applicationprocess,” he said.

Amid uncertainty aboutprospective farm bill spending,Johnson stressed available dol-lars for rural development“remain in flux.” He and hiscolleagues chided USDA forfailing to address conflictingfederal criteria for “rural” pro-gram eligibility that threaten todivert limited broadband fund-ing to urban or suburban areas.

McDonough TelephoneCooperative government affairs

manager Les Fowler told John-son’s panel USDA Rural UtilitiesService (RUS) financing is animportant tool in buildingbroadband capabilities “criticalto providing access to economicgrowth, job creation, distancelearning, health care, and nation-al security in rural America.”

A $14 million RUS loanhelped the Western Illinois co-op deliver broadband technolo-gy to all its rural customers.Fowler urged lawmakers to sup-port a “vibrant” RUS in thefarm bill.

Meanwhile, the Federal

From left, U.S. House Ag Rural Development Subcommittee Chairman Tim Johnson, an Urbana Republican,and Ag Committee members Randy Hultgren, a Winfield Republican, and Bobby Schilling, a Colona Repub-lican, hear testimony from Les Fowler, government affairs manager with McDonough Telephone Cooperative.(Photo by Martin Ross)

Producers wired inon technology issuesU.S. House Ag Committee members climbed into the tractor

cab and put themselves in farmers’ shoes as they consideredthe next farm bill’s impact on rural technology development.For specialty meat purveyor John Wood, that means grow-

ing online demand and assuring a satisfying consumer experi-ence in the virtual market. For Central Illinois grower Doug Wilson, it means a healthier

community and the bandwidth needed to maximize input effi-ciency and crop yields.And amid increased commodity price volatility, Randy Hult-

gren, Republican Ag Committee member from Winfield, seesrapid information delivery as an increasingly key component inproducer risk management.“I’ve talked to producers who say they are so reliant on

technology in being part of the hedging process — knowingwhat prices are going to be, knowing their product’s going tomeet a need at a price that will fit their requirements,” Hultgrentold FarmWeek following a House Ag subcommittee hearingon rural infrastructure (see accompanying story).Wilson, former USDA Rural Development state director for

Illinois, argues that today, PCs, smartphones, and farm globalpositioning (GPS) systems are “every bit as important in ourlives” as tractors or combines. It’s thus crucial lawmakers “don’tforget about rural America as we move forward with budgetdebates in the farm bill and beyond,” he said.Regulatory care also is vital: He noted concern that propos-

als by wireless provider LightSquared to boost broadbandcapabilities via high-powered cellular base stations could inter-fere with satellite GPS signals.“There’s more and more pressure on bandwidth,” he said.

He stressed the need for improved rural cellular service butwarned federal officials against rushing approvals that couldforce farmers to “retool their equipment and technologies.”Broadband improvement also is crucial to cutting-edge ag

marketers such as John Wood, CEO of U.S. Wellness Meats, aproducer-based online retailer. Over the past 11 years, thecompany has grown from an initial 45 orders in late 2000 tobeing the nation’s largest shipper of grass-fed beef and otherproducts via the Internet {www.uswellnessmeats.com}.Wellness Meats, launched with a meager dial-up Internet

connection, now has a far more efficient “3 megabytes down/2megabytes up” connection. Woods nonetheless argues furtherimprovements are key to expanding the rural customer base.“I’d literally die for 10 megabytes down and up,” Woods told

FarmWeek. “In the Washington Beltway, they have 25megabytes down and up. That would be heaven.“The beauty of online technology is you can create a huge

organization in 10 to 15 years of hard work and good customerservice that can be in any number of venues. Whole Foods andthese large mainline health food stores don’t cover rural Ameri-ca. We can cover any area in the entire country.” — MartinRoss

Technology that saves lives also saves crucialhealth care dollars, a Southern Illinois hospitalchief maintains.

As one of the state’s 15 small, federally des-ignated critical access hospitals, Staunton’sCommunity Memorial Hospital is heavilydependent on Medicare reimbursements thatdon’t meet costs, operates on often-inadequate“economies of scale,” and faces “tremendousgovernment mandates,” according to SueCampbell, the hospital’s administrator.

The Macoupin County facility nonethelessremains on the move: Campbell said she hopesthe hospital can be renovated in the next 18-24months. Ongoing technology developmentshould help “free up capital” for the project, shetestified before a recent U.S. House Ag Commit-tee panel in Springfield, arguing life-saving tech-nology “is also cost-saving technology.”

Community Memorial transmits patient X-raysand scans via the Internet for analysis in Springfieldor St. Louis. Campbell notes “our ER gets over-whelmed with many behavioral health issues,” andhigh-tech capabilities quickly link emergency roompersonnel with outside mental health experts.

She sees future promise in adapting smart-phones or tablets for improved verbal/visualcommunication between emergency respondersand her doctors or even for consultation withoutpatient residents. There’s also a need forimproved broadband capacity as the hospitalworks to meet federal requirements for nation-wide adoption of electronic medical recordsmandated under 2010 health care law.

Community Memorial’s five-megabyte fiberoptic broadband link thus could use anotherfive-megabyte boost, Campbell said.

“Many of our sister hospitals are staffingtheir ERs with mid-level providers (nurse prac-titioners, physician assistants, etc.) who have toaccess remote physicians for direction on med-ication or treatment,” she told FarmWeek.

“Our needs are just going to continue togrow. We need fast, dependable, secure Internet

access throughout the entire country. We’vebeen fortunate to have a local provider that’sbeen able to bring fiber optics to our door. Ithink there are a number of smaller providersthroughout Illinois who’d be happy to partnerin these kinds of relationships.”

Community Memorial fully recognized itstechnical limitations in 2007, amid plans toreplace its existing CAT scanner with a state-of-the-art scanner that would allow more tests at afaster speed and with reduced radiation exposure.

The low-capacity “T1” broadband connec-tion the hospital shared with the local highschool and library would not have accommodat-ed transmission of scanned images to regionalhospitals, and Community Memorial partneredwith Staunton cable provider Madison Commu-nications to upgrade its connection.

Alan Kraus is project coordinator with Illi-nois Rural HealthNet, a non-profit group fund-ed by the Federal Communications Commissionthat’s helping move small hospitals from T1lines to high-capacity, low-cost 100-megabyte to1-gigabyte networked connections.

A scan that takes 14 minutes at full band-width to transmit on a T1 line can be sent in asecond over a 1-gig connection. That allows“real-time” analysis of tests by the localprovider and the remote radiologist, Kraus said.

HealthNet’s aims to provide a “high-speedpipe” between rural hospitals and pediatric,neurological, or other specialists at large hospi-tals. “Cloud computing,” on-line sharing ofresources and communications, could enablerural providers to interact directly with doctorsat facilities such as Children’s Memorial Hospi-tal in Chicago, Kraus said.

“What you see is the cost of doing this kindof thing actually starting to drop,” he toldFarmWeek. “Now that we have the capabilityof moving things at high speeds, we can moveforward and try out some of these applicationsthat, in the end, will offer hospitals cost sav-ings.” — Martin Ross

‘Telehealth’ offers hospital savings

trade

Page 5 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

Guebert: China poised to increase imports of ag productsBY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Rich Guebert Jr., vicepresident of the IllinoisFarm Bureau and a farmerfrom Ellis Grove, last monthsaw no signs of an economicslowdown in China duringan eight-day trade missionthere.

In fact, China is poised toincrease its imports of agproducts from the U.S.,according to Guebert, whowas part of a 30-memberdelegation of business, edu-cation, and political leadersfrom Illinois who traveled toChina recently with Gov. PatQuinn.

China last year surpassed

one-quarter of U.S. soy pro-duction, the Illinois SoybeanAssociation reported. USDAestimated 13 percent of all

U.S. soy exports originate inIllinois.

China’s economy, which isthe second-largest in the worldbehind the U.S., has beengrowing about 10 percentannually the past threedecades.

Guebert saw no signs of aneconomic slowdown in Chinadespite recent inflation there.

China’s economy, he said,appeared to be robust andmoving forward.

Meanwhile, China, whichfor years had an economic

policy of self sufficiency andwas a net exporter of many agproducts, including corn,appears to be unable to pro-

duce all its own food in thefuture due to an expandingpopulation with a growingappetite for protein.

“I don’t believe China canraise enough food to supportwhat its people want,” Gue-bert said.

Many other countries willattempt to fill that void toboost sales of farm prod-ucts. The key to increasingthe U.S. market share in Chi-na is to continue to buildrelationships, Guebertadded.

Canada to become the largestimporter of U.S. ag productsworldwide for the first time inhistory. China in 2010 pur-chased $17.5 billion worth ofU.S. farm products, whichaccounted for about 15 per-cent of total U.S. ag exports,according to USDA.

“They (the Chinese) havehigher incomes, and they wantto spend it on food and pro-tein,” Guebert toldFarmWeek.

The Illinois trade delega-tion met with Chinese officialsand business leaders in Bei-jing, Hong Kong, and Shang-hai.

Archer Daniels Midland Co.during the mission secured a

sales agreement with Chinafor the purchase of 6.6 millionbushels of soybeans. Missionparticipants also heard of

plans in China to open a newpoultry processing facility thatwill process 70 million birdsper year.

“They (the Chinese) aretrying to increase livestockproduction,” which will boostChina’s need to import feedgrains and oilseeds, Guebertsaid. “They also have a desireto import value-added prod-ucts.”

China last year was the topimporter of U.S. soybeans,with purchases totaling about825 million bushels or about

Taiwan inks Illinoisgrain purchase deal

A 22-member delegation from Taiwan agreed to importadditional Illinois corn and soybeans in 2012 and 2013 andsigned letters of intent with the Illinois Corn Growers Associa-tion (ICGA) and the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) lastweek in Springfield.

“The Illinois agriculture industry is dependent upon exportagreements like this,” said Illinois Agriculture Director TomJennings.

The Taiwan Feed Industry Group signed commitments tobuy 303 million to 413 million bushels of U.S. corn and 0.5 mil-lion to 0.75 million metric tons of corn byproducts. Illinois willsupply 43 million to 59 million bushels of the corn. At currentprices, the deal is worth $288 million to $393 million.

“Illinois farmers are pleased and encouraged by the sale ofIllinois corn and corn products to the Taiwanese,” said BillChrist, Illinois Corn Marketing Board chairman.

Representatives of Taiwan’s Vegetable Oil Manufacturersand Oilseed Processing Association signed similar letters to buyup to 118 million bushels of U.S. soybeans of which 14 millionbushels, valued at $182 million, would come from Illinois.

“We look forward to building a stronger relationship withthem (the Taiwanese), especially since more than half of oursoybeans are exported to countries like Taiwan each year,” saidMatt Hughes, ISA chairman.

This year, Taiwan is the sixth-largest export market for U.S.agricultural products and the fifth-largest market for U.S. cornand soybeans.

Central Illinois farmer, former elevator managerindicted in 2010 failure

A Central Illinois farmer and a former elevator manager wereindicted last week for their alleged part in the 2010 failure of aMcLean County elevator, according to The Associated Press.

In May 2010, the Illinois Department of Agriculture suspend-ed the grain dealer and grain warehouse licenses of TowandaGrain Co., after learning of financial irregulatories from thefailed cooperative’s board of directors.

Robert Printz, a Fairbury farmer, and Timothy Boerma ofLincoln, the former elevator manager, were named in a 27-countfederal indictment in Peoria.

Printz faces charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, andmoney laundering. Boerma faces charges of wire fraud, accessdevice fraud, and making a false statement.

According to the indictment, the two men worked together todefraud the elevator, Printz’s creditors, and others.

The elevator, which had a combined storage capacity of 10.6million bushels, was purchased and reopened by Bloomington-based Evergreen FS Inc.

Chinese influence growing?

African potential rising,but U.S. faces challenges

BY MARTIN ROSSFarmWeek

Amid continued socioeconomic challenges,widespread government corruption, and con-troversy over biotechnology, “Africa is still amess, though it’s getting better,” said U.S.Grains Council (USGS) Chairman WendellShauman.

Indications are, those whoinvest in helping clean up thatmess may enjoy future marketgains on the emerging conti-nent, according to the WarrenCounty producer. Shaumanwas fresh from a USGS tour ofKenya and South Africa aimedat gauging African develop-ment and prospects for U.S.corn, sorghum, and distillersdried grain sales.

China’s gaining a key foothold in Africa. Anagreement with South Africa grants Chinaaccess to mineral resources, and China’s rampedup support for African food security and sus-tainable ag development, offering emergencygrain aid and $16 million for Somalian faminerelief.

China’s investing in infrastructure andAfrican food production, ostensibly to helpmeet its own growing demands.

“They’re tying up (Africa’s) raw materialdemands,” Shauman said. “In many ways,they’re the colonialists of this era. I’ve decidedthey may be the best capitalists around.”

Russia, Korea, and Japan also are working

effectively to “tie up land” in Africa, he related.Meanwhile, work is under way at Kenya’s

Port of Mombasa –- East Africa’s largest port— to accommodate larger and more ships, intandem with road improvements and expansionof airports within the region. That buildup inimport/export capabilities is occurring asAfrica faces a shortage of corn, according toShauman, “a huge staple in their diet.”

Kenya’s crop is expected to come in morethan a half-million metric tons short of lastyear’s harvest, and South Africans, current cornexporters, “know they’re going to run out,” hesaid. However, Africa’s almost exclusivelyreliant on white corn, and Shauman’s uncertainwhether food security concerns will open a win-dow for American yellow corn.

Continued resistance to biotech crops, fed byanti-GMO groups, poses a further challenge forU.S. exporters.

Kenya has passed a new “biosafety” law thatallows importation of GMO grain, joiningSouth Africa, Egypt, and Burkino Faso in“legalizing” GMOs.

But Kenya faces a major election and legisla-tive downsizing next year. Reportedly, Shaumansaid, “one of the quickest ways to get rich overthere is to get elected to Parliament,” and apolitically charged environment combined withactivist pressure could muddy the GMO issue.

“One of the things these organizations willtell the populations over there is, ‘If you eatthese GMO crops, you’ll be sterile – you won’thave any more kids,’” Shauman said. “It’s hardto combat that.”

WendellShauman

‘They (the Chinese) have higher incomes, and theywant to spend it on food and protein . . . They also havea desire to import value-added products.’

— Rich Guebert Jr.Vice president, Illinois Farm Bureau

Bernie Walsh, Durand, Winnebago County: Still no harvestto report in Winnebago County.We had plenty of rain last week— 2.75 inches at our farm and5 inches in the southeastern cor-ner of the county. The forecastlooks better, so hopefully, I canreport on some combining in nextweek’s report. Have a safe week.

Leroy Getz, Savanna, Carroll County: Rain soaked thearea for most of last week — 1.5inches total. A little field activitywas seen on Friday and Saturday(Sept. 23-24) but rain since hasstopped harvest. High winds at50 to 60 mph on Thursday blewthings around pretty good. Treesare down and some cornfields

where stalk quality was poor looked reallybad Thursday night.

Ryan Frieders, Waterman, DeKalb County: It rained everyday the past week. We havereceived more than 4 inches. Noharvesting has been done andbecause of the cold, wet weather,the crops don’t seem to havematured much. We had verystrong winds Friday that are pre-dicted to bring a change in the

weather pattern. Hopefully, we can catch abreak and start harvesting soon.

Larry Hummel, Dixon, Lee County: The best laid plansof mice and men. The plan wasfor us to start harvest Monday(Sept. 26) and have about one-third of our beans out by Friday.Reality changed that when itstarted raining on Sunday, witha little hail thrown into the mix,followed by rain on Monday and

Tuesday. Then, a break in the rain onWednesday and rain again on Thursdayfor a total accumulation of more than 3inches. The hail on Sunday didn’t do toomuch damage to the beans that wereready to harvest. The pods were wet fromsome showers that came earlier, so lossfrom shattering was minimal — approxi-mately a quarter to a third of a bushel tothe acre.

Joe Zumwalt, Warsaw, Hancock County: Where did thecorn go? Corn harvest is wrap-ping up for many producers inWestern Illinois. Yields were allover the board, from 75 to 200bushels per acre. While notmany beans have been cut,those that have are better thanexpected. I have heard yields

ranging from 30 to 70 bpa. A few triedtillage, but many are waiting for more rain-fall before the rippers and chisels head tothe field. Ripper points wear out prettyquickly when you’ve had less than an inchof rain in three-plus months. 2011 contin-ues to be an interesting year.

Ken Reinhardt, Seaton, Mercer County:We had rain every-day from Saturday (Sept. 24)through Thursday. Amounts wereless than an inch. It’s a runningjoke when my friend who takes aweek’s vacation in the spring andfall to help farm, it rains. The windblew Thursday afternoon withgusts in the 40 mph range. The

corn we harvested was going down as weworked. Soybean harvest started during theweekend.

Tim Green, Wyoming, Stark County: It was a rainyweek last week. Sunday andMonday (Sept. 25 and 26) weended up with anywhere from2.1 to more than 3 inches ofrain in different parts of thecounty. It made it soggy as itdrizzled all day Monday andTuesday and part of

Wednesday. So, very little harvest at thebeginning of the week. Harvest started alittle bit on Thursday. People moved cornduring the rainy period trying to makespace to start picking again. We had a lit-tle wind on Thursday that made thingsinteresting all day, but we picked in theafternoon. The wind blew pretty hard. It isalways something. I wanted to thank thepeople who picked around the corners ofsome of the fields so people can see driv-ing up to stop signs a little better. Weappreciate that. Have a safe harvest.

Ron Moore, Roseville, Warren County: We received 1.2inches of rain last week in two dif-ferent rains. It stopped soybeanharvest and gave us a much-needed break in corn harvest. Weare about 50 percent finished withcorn harvest and soybean har-vest is just getting underway. Theweather forecast is for a week of

sunny days ahead so we will switch to soy-beans today (Friday). The recent rains havenot been enough to start the streams runningwater again. We will need more rain this falland winter to recharge the soil for nextyear.

Mark Kerber, Chatsworth, Livingston County: Fieldworkwas slow last week, as it rainedevery day. More than 2 inchesfell in our area. This week will bebusy, starting on corn andswitching to soybeans when theyare ready. Drier weather will bewelcomed. We tested two corn-fields for Aflatoxin and the tests

came back negative. This was good news.Markets have gone down some with harveststarting.

Ron Haase, Gilman, Iroquois County: It was a wet week. Itrained varying amounts fromSept. 26 through Sept. 29. Most ofthe rain came on Monday andTuesday. Our farms received arange of 1.85 to 2.25 inches. Thisprevented any harvest activityduring the past week. At thispoint, very few acres have been

harvested in the area. After the situation in2009, local farmers may be less patient inwaiting for the corn to dry down in the field.Local corn development is anywhere fromthe dent stage, with the milkline 66 percent ofthe way down the kernel, up to the few acresthat have been harvested. Most soybeanfields range from the R-7 or beginning matu-rity growth stage up to the R-8 or full maturity.Only a few fields of soybeans in the areahave been harvested. The local closing bidsfor Sept. 29: nearby corn, $6.17; fall 2012corn, $5.38; nearby soybeans, $12; fall 2012soybeans, $11.94.

Brian Schaumburg, Chenoa, McLean County: Howlingwinds did no favors to corn stalkquality, as harvest pace pickedup after 2 to 3 inches of rainmade for a wet start to the workweek. Corn is still in the mid-20s and yields are holding up.Few beans have been harvest-ed, but those yields are quite

good. Plots are coming in and so are therequests for early seed orders. Supplies willbe tight. Corn, $6.20; January corn, $6.35;fall 2012, $5.50; soybeans, $11.95;January, $12.12; fall 2012, $11.94; wheat,$6.05.

Steve Ayers, Champaign, Champaign County: OnSunday and Monday we had0.75 of an inch to 1.25 inchesof rain. The general refrain was“Where was this in July andAugust?” We finished a 70-acrefield that yielded an astonishing157 bushels of dry corn. Myfeelings were anything above

125 bpa would be a miracle. We may startbeans this week. Dave Prahl of PremierCoop said mid-week that southwestChampaign was 44 percent harvested witha 180 bpa average, while northernChampaign County had a wider range ofyields from 50- to 185-bpa and slower har-vest progress. Moisture was still in the22 percent range. Soybeans were onlyabout 8 percent harvested, but southeastChampaign County was more than 50 per-cent done. Meteorologists seem to agreethat the first half of October will be warmand dry, while the second half will be wet-ter and cooler. Let’s be careful out there!

Carrie Winkelmann, Tallula, Menard County: Soybean har-vest has been held up by somewet weather. 0.5 of an inch of rainfell on the Wednesday, followedby another 0.1 of an inch onThursday. Nice winds and warmweather got everyone going againon Thursday. Early-soybeanyields have been surprisingly

good. Hopefully, that trend continues. Cornharvest in the area is over half complete andseveral chisel plows are running.

Wilfred Dittmer, Quincy, Adams County: Mark another weekon the calendar with very little pre-cipitation, but good harvestingweather and many fields areshowing the results. No morestanding corn. Perhaps a guessti-mate would be maybe 70 percentdone, while some areas are com-pletely finished. Still only a few

fields of soybeans are cut, while others haveturned fast in the last week. With some surpris-es in the cornfields, one wonders what thebean fields have to offer. Total rainfall forSeptember comes in at a whopping 1 inch,with 0.6 of an inch of that coming on Monday(Sept. 26). Year-to-date here since Marchstands at 25 inches, but about half of thatcame in June. Have another safe week.

Tom Ritter, Blue Mound, Macon County: Since my lastreport we had anywhere from 0.5to 0.75 of an inch of rain in sepa-rate showers, but the rain did notlead to any major delays in har-vest. If anything, soybeans thatwere just getting mature enoughto harvest were delayed a day ortwo, but with the high pressure

system that came in on Thursday with highwinds, soybean harvest is well underway. Atthis point, nearly 70 percent of the corn insouthern Macon County has been harvested.A little less harvested in northern MaconCounty. Soybean yields at this point, eventhough there have been few reports, seem tobe very good — average to just below aver-age. A lot of reports of 55- to 65-bushelbeans, but there will be isolated fields that willnot make that, especially those with poordrainage.

Todd Easton, Charleston, Coles County: This is becominga hectic soybean harvest, as rainshowers have had combinesstarting and stopping for most ofthe week. With a much friendlierforecast this week, hopefully pro-ducers can take out a big chunkof the bean crop, as practicallythe entire crop has ripened and

is ready. Because of the wet pattern, severalfarmers have gone back to corn harvest mak-ing standing fields harder to find by the day.As we get further into the corn crop, individualfields can, for the most part, be classified asgood, bad, or ugly. The good would be betterthan expected, yields well above the 150-mark. The bad are the not as good as hopedfor fields that can be found below that markand the ugly are the flat (lodged) fields requir-ing the use of corn reels.

Jimmy Ayers, Rochester, Sangamon County: Last weekwe really had no measurablerainfall. Forecasters kept prom-ising rain and nothing camethrough our place. It was justdreary, wet, and heavy fog thefirst part of the week. ByWednesday a few farmers gotinto the bean fields. Corn is

probably 60 to 70 percent complete. Yieldsare still varying greatly, depending ondrainage and many other factors, variety andnitrogen — I don’t think anyone has pinpoint-ed specifics. Beans look to be really goodthis time. We started on Thursday andhaven’t really finished any fields yet. Quite abit of fertilizer has been going on. Looks likea good week of nice, dry weather and quite afew beans are really close to being ready togo. Think safety when you are out there.

Dave Hankammer, Millstadt, St. Clair County: The pastweek started off with overcastskies and cooler temperaturesslowing down the field drying ofcorn. Some light precipitation andfog kept the mornings hoursdamp, which slowed harvest.However, the weather changedand brought warmer tempera-

tures and drier air for most of the week.Corn harvest continues to progress, withmost of the early-planted fields complete.We had corn samples with 18 percent mois-ture. Soybean harvest in the immediatearea hasn’t started yet. Some of the fieldsare maturing quickly and will probably beready in about a week. There are reports ofbean harvest in the river bottoms. With thebeginning of the fall season, produce grow-ers are offering pumpkins, mums and corn-stalks at their farms and stands. Localgrain bids: corn, $6.12; soybeans, $12;wheat, $5.97. Have a safe week.

FarmWeek Page 6 Monday, October 3, 2011

CROPWATCHERS

Kevin Raber, Browns, Wabash County: Harvest resumed laterin the week after big rains Sept. 24and 25. The corn I shelled hadwidely variable yields. Low spotswere drowned out and sandyridges hurt by high temperatures.There have been some beans cut.I heard yields have been good onthe early-beans.

Dean Shields, Murphysboro, Jackson County: We are drying outthis week from that 4.5 inches of rainwe received last week. There has notbeen any tillage work done yet onany harvested ground. Corn harvestis still coming along. Some of theguys are complaining that the corn isnot drying down for them very well.Bean harvest got started last week.

We have been disappointed with the yields. It wasjust too hot and too dry for too long down here. Thebeans are very small and just not very good qualityit seems like. Maybe the later-maturing beans willbe of better quality. The beans we harvested forearly numbers were dry, too. Sounds like we haveanother beautiful week and a lot of harvesting canbe done. We do have one guy in the area who soldsome sunflowers that look really pretty now withtheir heads shining. Everyone have a safe harvestand take care.

Dan Meinhart, Montrose, Jasper County: Most of the weekwas cool, cloudy, foggy, andrainy. Light rain fell several days.Totals amounted to 0.75 of aninch to 1 inch. The corn did notdry down in the field last week. Infact, it may have picked up a cou-ple of points. Moisture in corn isrunning in the 20s. Very little corn

harvest has been done. Yields are running allover the board. Bean harvest picked upslightly on Thursday. A cool weekend wasexpected with a warming trend this week.

Ken Taake, Ullin, Pulaski County: The week started out slowwith more than 2.5 inches of rainSept. 24 and 25. We managed toget back in the field on Wednesdayafternoon. Corn yields, at least onour farm, are improving somewhat.The last field we cut was up toabout average, but yields stillseem to be extremely variable. I

have heard of a few farmers who have quitharvesting corn because of high moisture con-tent. They will try to let Mother Nature do a littledrying. We cut a few soybeans, but the twosmall patches we cut so far, yields have beendisappointing. Please take time and be carefulduring this busy season.

Doug Uphoff, Shelbyville, Shelby County: Wow. Corn iscoming out at a record pace. WishI could say as much for the yields.We have had corn yields from 86 to167. I’d say a 138 to 143 average inour area for corn would be thenorm. Prices have been comingdown along with yields. Looks like itmay be a thin year again. We just

started soybeans and are looking at yields inmid-30s to low-40s. North and south of herewhere they received rain, yields are in the50s. We received rain now, so ground isworking good. We should be done with cornand beans by the second or third week ofOctober.

David Schaal, St. Peter, Fayette County: A lot of corn har-vesting is occurring in the area,with moisture readings rangingfrom 18 percent to mid-20s.Yields are just a little bit betterthan producers anticipated.Soybean harvest is just in thebeginning stages. There werespot rains that held farmers up

from harvesting for a couple of days. Be safeout there.

Page 7 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

CROPWATCHERS

Reports received Friday morning. Expanded crop and weather infor-mation available at {www.farmweeknow.com}.

Fred Rodhouse Jr. scans a 95-acre soybean field near Pleasant Hill in Pike County. Rodhouse, who farms withhis father, Fred Rodhouse Sr., has soybean yields ranging between 45 to 50 bushels per acre. Statewide, only4 percent of soybean harvest was complete last week compared to 12 percent a year ago. (Photo by KenKashian)

Harvest creeps along as corn moisture remains highBY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Harvest activity was spo-radic again last week as recentrains and high moisture read-ings kept farmers out of manycornfields.

Corn harvest in Illinois thefirst of last week was 22 per-cent complete compared to 54percent last year and the five-year average of 25 percent.

Soybean harvest also wasbehind last week as just 4 per-cent of beans were cutstatewide compared to 20 per-cent last year and the averageof 12 percent.

“We harvested some corn(in mid-September) we plant-ed in early-April, but sincethen we received about five tosix inches of rain,” Rich Gue-bert Jr., vice president of theIllinois Farm Bureau and afarmer from Ellis Grove, saidlast week. portions of Central Illinois still

were classified in a drought,according to Bryce Anderson,DTN ag meteorologist.

“It was a good time to put inmoisture (ahead of winter wheatplanting) but it’s not like the raincompletely ended things” with

the drought, he said.Anderson forecast the

weather for the remainder ofharvest will be “pretty favor-able” with temperatures normalto above normal and precipita-tion near to below normalacross the Midwest.

“Things have started to dryout and a couple combines arestarting to move,” he said.“But we’re probably anotherweek to 10 days off from real-ly running hard.”

A number of farmers inrecent weeks reported cornmoisture readings have been inthe mid-to-high-20s to as highas 30-plus percent.

Corn moisture readings atmany locations have been slowto decline this year due in partto poor stalk quality caused byabnormally dry soil conditionsand drought, according toKevin Black, GROWMARKinsect/plant disease technicalmanager.

“Part of the moisture istaken out of the ear physiolog-ically,” Black said. “So whenyou kill the stalk, it interruptsthat process and we’re leftwith air drying, which can be aslow process.”

The situation has left manyfarmers in a Catch-22. Iffarmers leave corn with poorstalk quality in fields to air dry,they run the risk of lodging.But, if they harvest early,some farmers may be stuckwith higher drying bills.

“Growers are limited bywhat they can and can’t do,”Black said. “Most are goingafter it hard and will continueto do so.”

Corn harvest was 51 per-cent complete in Southwest-ern Illinois the first of lastweek compared to just 4 per-cent complete in the north-east.

Rainfall last month,despite delaying harvest, wasmuch needed in many areas,particularly south of Inter-state 80.

Many areas of SouthernIllinois last week remainedabnormally dry while some

National FFA Convention live onlineThe National FFA will stream its 2011 National Con-

vention in Indianapolis Oct. 19-22 live online via newlylaunched Alltech Ag Network on iHigh.com.

The televised convention will be accessible in real timeover computers, iPads and all iPhones, Android, andBlackBerry mobile devices.

View the broadcasts live on the Internet at{ffa.ihigh.com}.

For mobile phones, including iPhones, Androids andsome BlackBerrys, the broadcasts may be accessed atm.ihigh.com/ffa by clicking on the Media button andselecting your smartphone type to view the broadcast.

Broadcasts will be viewable live and on-demand at nocost to the users.

If there are any issues viewing a broadcast, contact859-514-3886 for technical support.

The broadcasts will start Oct. 19 at 6:15 p.m.; othersessions will be Oct. 20, 1 and 6:30 p.m.; Oct. 21, 7 and11 a.m., and 2 and 6 p.m.; and Oct. 22, 6:45 a.m. and12:30 p.m.

BIOMASS

FarmWeek Page 8 Monday, October 3, 2011

Five major agriculturalresearch teams were awardedUSDA grants to develop region-al, renewable energy marketsand create rural jobs, U.S. Agri-culture Secretary Tom Vilsackannounced last week.

The five-year program willaward more than $136 million inresearch and developmentgrants to public and private sec-tor partners in 22 states.

The five teams will be lead byuniversities in Washington,Louisiana, Tennessee, and Iowa.The grants were funded throughUSDA’s National Institute ofFood and Agriculture (NIFA).

• An Iowa State Universityteam will receive $25 million to

develop a regional biomass pro-duction system for advancedtransportation fuels made fromnative perennial grasses, such asswitchgrass, big bluestem, andIndian grass. Scientists will studythe potential benefits of plant-ing grasses with legumes. Theteam also will evaluate a biocharas a soil amendment to increasecarbon sequestration.

• A University of Tennesseeteam will receive $15 million todevelop sustainable switchgrassand woody biomass crops thatwill produce low-cost, easilyconverted sugars for conversionto butanol, lignin byproducts,forest and mill residues, anddedicated energy crop feed-

stocks to produce diesel, heat,and power.

• A University of Washingtonteam will receive $40 million tofocus on sustainably grownwoody energy crops to producebiogasoline and renewable avia-tion fuel.

• A Washington State Univer-sity team will receive $40 millionto convert closed timber millsinto bioenergy developmentcenters.

• A Louisiana State Universityteam will receive $17.2 million tostudy the economically viableconversion of existing refineryinfrastructure for regular pro-duction of energy cane andsorghum.

USDA pumping $136 million into bioenergy research

Europeans, Americans putdifferent spin on biomass BY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

European and Americanscientists share the same goalof having farmers grow bio-mass crops to help meet ener-gy needs, but they are usingdifferent avenues — and plants— to reach that goal.

Recently, researchers fromseveral countries gathered atthe University of Illinois todiscuss their research on allthings biomass.

It was the first time theAssociation of Applied Biolo-gists had organized a confer-ence outside of Europe. Thegroup targeted the U.S., andIllinois specifically, because ofongoing research here, accord-ing to Trevor Hocking, aBritish scientist and the associ-ation’s president.

Willows and miscanthuswere the focus of many inter-national alternative energyresearch projects. Switchgrassand miscanthus featuredprominently in U.S. researchreports. A few native prairiegrasses also cropped up amongU.S. and Canadian studies.

After three days of reportsand discussions, the U.S. dele-gation probably learned moreabout growing and processingof willows and miscanthus,while scientists from Europelearned more about switch-

grass, Hocking said.Willows are a new experi-

mental woody biomass crop onthe U of I’s Energy Farm. Butit was the farm’s plots of blacklocust, poplar, maples, andother tree species that cap-tured the attention of theinternational scientists whotoured the research farm.

The mix of internationalviews provides opportunitiesto collaborate and “to see thatwe are not all reinventing thewheel,” said Tom Voigt, U of Icrop sciences professor.

“It’s good to have a numberof students attend,” Voigt con-tinued. “Good for them to seethis is a global issue and peopleare interested in it around theworld.”

The Illinois landscapebetween Chicago’s airports andUrbana also helped advanceunderstanding among someEuropean researchers, accord-ing to Hocking.

“On the drive down fromChicago, you see ... all the cornand soybeans,” Hocking said.That drove home the scale ofIllinois agriculture and thechallenge of introducing newbiomass crops, he explained.

European farmers, especial-ly those in the United King-dom, are increasingly interest-ed in using renewable energyon their own farms. Lunch dis-

Biomass crops present simi-lar challenges around theglobe, scientists shared at arecent international biomassand energy conference at theUniversity of Illinois.

The Association of AppliedBiologists meeting providedresearchers an opportunity toshare discoveries and chal-lenges.

Below are a few of the high-

lights from three days of dis-cussion.

Miscanthus: England’sTrevor Hocking of the Univer-sity of Wolverhamptonassessed 20 years of miscant-hus production. Two key fac-tors are proper site preparationand establishing the crop, hesaid.

One major need is a stan-dardized vigor rating for rhi-

zomes because growers lackany certified product and musttrust their sources to supplyviable rhizomes, Hocking said.

Research also is needed todevelop improved genotypesfor different climates and loca-tions and to improve rhizomeprocessing to reduce damagingthe product, he added.

Biomass production/pro-cessing: Samuel Jackson of

Genera Energy and the Uni-versity of Tennessee, empha-sized farmers must be involvedin biomass production andprocessing research.

“Farmers put the pencil topaper and know what it (pro-duction) costs. If it doesn’twork on the farm level, itwon’t work on the national lev-el,” Jackson said.

Farmers need reliablesources of production infor-mation, especially during thefirst year they start growingbiomass crops, he noted. Theyalso need risk managementtools, such as crop insurance,and consistent state and feder-al policy, because perennialenergy crops are long-termcrops that require years toestablish, Jackson said.

Climate impacts: Biomasscrops do not grow uniformlyin all locations. Some varietiesare more tolerant of cold andfrost while others can do bet-ter in drought or flood condi-tions, according to severalresearchers.

Nitrogen fertilizer can helpestablish miscanthus in coldernorthern climates, said Cana-da’s Bill Deen with the Univer-

sity of Guelph.“The optimal nitrogen rate

will be determined by locationand harvest time,” Deen said.“The idea that we will haveone simple nitrogen location ismuch too simple. We don’t dothat with corn.”

A computer model beingdeveloped at the U of I mayhelp farmers manage their bio-mass crops based on weatherdata, said Yogendra Shastri, anagricultural engineer.

“Our goal is to find the bestsequence of operations bypenciling all the systemstogether,” Shastri said. “Theimpact of weather must beconsidered with field opera-tions.”

To date, the model has beenapplied to miscanthus andswitchgrass production. Forexample, the computer modelrecommends switchgrass beharvested between Septemberand December while miscant-hus harvest is between Januaryand April.

Miscanthus crop losses dueto poor weather is greater thanswitchgrass weather-relatedlosses, Shastri noted. — KayShipman

Researchers scratching surface of biomass crop systems

cussions included comparisonsof on-farm use of small windturbines and solar panels inBritain with what is happeningin the United States on a muchlarger commercial scale.

One of the few farmerswho attended the conference,

Piatt County farmer DougGucker, is considering growingbiomass crops on a few of hisacres and using the renewableenergy source on the farm, hesaid.

“We live in the country,energy costs are high, our elec-

tric service is temperamental,and the costs are increasing,”Gucker said.

“There really isn’t a marketfor it (biomass crops) yet. Ifwe could reduce our (energy)costs, that’s money in ourpockets.”

Above: Researchers examine informationabout experimental woody biomass plantsbeing grown on the University of Illinois Ener-gy Farm, Urbana. Scientists from several na-tions toured the Energy Farm during a recentbiomass meeting of the Association of Ap-plied Biologists at the U of I. Right: British scientist Trevor Hocking, presi-dent of the Association of Applied Biologists,photographs one of many biomass plant va-rieties grown on the University of Illinois En-ergy Farm. Hocking reported on several mis-canthus research studies during the associa-tion’s recent biomass meeting at the U of I.(Photos by Kay Shipman)

Pork

Page 9 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

Hogs/pigs inventory grows; prices could slip from highs

U.S. pork producers’ recent run of profitability could cometo an end soon.

USDA last week in its quarterly hogs and pigs report estimat-ed the inventory of all hogs and pigs in the U.S. as of Sept. 1totaled 66.59 million head, up 1 percent from last year and 3percent higher than the previous quarter.

The hogs/pigs inventory in Illinois (4.65 million head) wasup 4 percent from last year.

The national breeding inventory (5.81 million head) and mar-ket hog inventory (60.8 million head) also were up 1 percentcompared to last year.

“Even though (traders) expected the breeding herd andinventory to be higher, there was some outside hope (hog pro-ducers) responded to higher feed costs by cutting back the num-ber of pigs coming to market,” Altin Kalo, market analyst withSteiner Consulting, said during a teleconference hosted by theNational Pork Board.

Kalo projected the pig crop produced next year could increaseby 1.2 percent in the first quarter and 2 percent in the second andthird quarters, based on the most recent inventory projections.

USDA last week also reported the average pigs-saved-per-lit-ter was a record-high 10.03, up 2 percent from a year ago.

“Those numbers will be viewed somewhat negatively,” Kalosaid. “We’re not as bullish as we were.”

Kalo and fellow market analysts Dale Durchholz of AgriVi-sor, and Jim Robb, director of the Livestock Marketing Infor-mation Center, projected hogs prices in the fourth quarter willslip from an average of $87 per hundredweight last week to arange of $80 to $85.

Breakeven prices, as of last week, were between $85 and $89per hundredweight, according to Steve Meyer, livestock econo-mist at Paragon Economics.

“We look for prices to erode and slip into negative (returns)in the fourth quarter this year, which is kind of a normal pat-tern,” Robb said.

Prices still are expected to remain above the average of a yearago, $79 per hundredweight, and possibly increase next year.

The analysts projected hog prices will bounce back to $83 to$88 per hundredweight the first quarter of 2012 and by the sec-ond and third quarters next year the price could peak in a rangeof $92 to $98.

Hog producers, though, are not expected to expand produc-tion much beyond current levels.

“We’ve taken a lot of starch out of grain prices and broughtfeed prices back to what producers may believe is reasonable,”Durchholz said. “But now (pork producers) may shift gears andbe defensive with what lies ahead in the economic and demandstructure outlook.”

The analysts projected economic struggles could continue,which could soften meat demand.

“Any hiccup in that (export) market could have a significantimpact on prices,” Kalo said.

Other livestock sectors already responded by reducing num-bers. U.S. broiler egg sets last week were down 9 percent com-pared to a year ago while the cattle on feed inventory last monthwas down 1 percent compared to last year.

“There is concern” about demand prospects for meat,Durchholz added. “We could see a more cautious attitude (frompork producers) out there.”— Daniel Grant

Family hopes to expand hog operation in Whiteside CountyBY DANIEL GRANTFarmWeek

Record-high feed and inputcosts may make many livestockproducers thinktwice aboutexpanding theiroperations anytime soon.

But a uniqueproductionopportunity not only helpedSteve and Shari Heun survive thecollapse of the hog market in1998, it also has them positionedto possibly grow their 100-sowfarrow-to-finish operation nearFulton in Whiteside County.

The Heuns, members of the

Whiteside County FarmBureau, have been selling theirhogs to Iowa-based NimanRanch for more than a decade.

Niman Ranchmarkets pork,beef, lamb, andpoultry prod-ucts, mostly inthe U.S., and

has a program toassure consumers the animalsare raised with care.

“When the hog market crisishit in 1998 (and hog pricesdropped to as low as 8 cents perpound), we took a big hit likeeverybody else,” said Steve Heun,who worked as a carpenter for 17

years before returning to his fam-ily’s fourth-generation operation18 years ago to farm full time.

“We were pretty down andout,” Shari Heun said. “Wecouldn’t figure out what to do,so I called (Niman Ranch) andthought we should give it onelast go.”

Niman Ranch has strict pro-tocol for its livestock produc-tion but in return offers pro-ducers the protection of anestablished floor price plus thepossibility of premiums,according to Megan Rotting-haus, field agent for the com-pany’s pork division.

The floor price for hogspurchased by Niman Ranch thenext six months is $96 per hun-dredweight/carcass. The floorprice is influenced by feed andfuel costs. Niman Ranch sinceSeptember 2010 has raised itsfloor price eight times.

“Our market price is basedin part on commodity prices,”Steven Heun said. “So we canmake money.”

The Heuns grow corn andsoybeans and produce enoughcrops to provide their own live-stock feed, which helps take thevolatility out of their inputcosts. They also have enoughcrops left over to market somein the open market and takeadvantage of recent high prices.

Their hog herd consists ofBerkshire, Chester, and Durocbreeds that are raised in adeeply bedded system — aprotocol for Niman — which

includes two hoop structures.The Heuns use waterway grass

and cornstalks grown on theirfarm as bedding for their herd.

Other protocol required forlivestock in the Niman Ranchsystem includes feed withoutantibiotics or animal by-products.

The Heuns instead use avariety of probiotics along witha strong vaccination and para-site program to help maintainthe health of their herd. NimanRanch also has a veterinarianwho assists member farmers.

The Heuns believe theiroperation is positioned to growin the future, particularly as theirson, Andy, has gotten moreinvolved with the hogs. Theirdaughter, Emma, maintains ahorse and calves on the farm.

In fact, Niman Ranch is

seeking more farmers to pro-duce livestock in Illinois.

“We are looking for moreproducers, either farrow-to- fin-ish or just wean-to-finish,” saidMark Lane, director of live hogoperations for Niman Ranch.

Farrow-to-finish producersshould have at least 20 sows andfinishers should produce at least200 pigs in a group. NimanRanch arranges much of thetransportation and currently hasthree collection points in Illinois.

“We want to work withsmaller, independent produc-ers,” Lane said. “We have con-tracts available that recognizeproduction costs.”

Lane can be reached at NimanRanch at 563-324-0154. Moreinformation also is available onlineat {www.NimanRanch.com}.

FarmWeekNow.com

L e a r n m o r e a b o u t N i m a nRanch pork production oppor-tunities at FarmWeekNow.com.

Steve Heun, a Whiteside County Farm Bureau member, spreads hay bed-ding inside a hoop structure for a portion of his hog herd. A unique pro-duction opportunity with Iowa-based Niman Ranch has helped Heun re-main in the hog production business, with plans to grow, despite extrememarket variability and record-high feed prices. (Photo by Daniel Grant)

FarmWeek Page 10 Monday, October 3, 2011

Education

Page 11 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

Ag ed teachers serving broader roles in Illinois schoolsAbout five years ago, ag

mechanic curriculum waschanged “to fill the void whenindustrial technology teachersretired in some programs,”Runner said.

Runner pointed out agprograms also touch onfood science and may beable to help districts meetneeds for family and con-sumer science classes.

“Could we grow (curricu-lum) in food science and helpmeet other students’demands?” he asked.

As ag programs expand intonew curriculum areas, state ageducation committee questionsif the supply of future agteachers will continue to meetthe demand.

This school year, only oneout of 53 ag teacher vacancieswas not filled while three newhigh school ag programsopened and a total of fourteachers were added to existingag programs. This offset theclosing of two ag programs.

Meanwhile, the four univer-sities with agriculture programsproduced only 27 graduates

with degrees in ag education. A significant number of ag

teachers are nearing retirementat the same time new ag pro-grams are opened and othersare adding an extra teacher,according to Runner.

“Do we have the one (incollege) to fill the void comingup soon?” Runner asked.“We’re still trying to open newprograms.”

“There is an opportunityfor students who choose ageducation as a major,” Runnersaid.

BY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Across Illinois, high schoolagriculture programs are meet-ing expanded needs of stu-dents and districts, leavingstate ag educators questioningif the supply of future agteachers will keep up withdemand.

Last school year, 77 percentof all Illinois ag programsoffered science credits

required for graduation. Mean-while 20 percent of ag pro-grams provided consumer edu-cation credits, according todata from the FacilitatingCoordination in AgriculturalEducation (FCAE).

Ag programs increasinglyfill a significant academic roleby helping students fulfill grad-uation requirements, said JayRunner, FCAE state coordina-tor.

“Some rural schools don’thave enough science teachers”to meet all the students’ gradu-ation requirements, Runnernoted.

In addition to helping stu-dents meet academic require-ments, some ag programs alsoare helping students by offer-ing classes related to industrialtechnology when teachers inthat subject retire causing theprograms to close.

‘Could we grow(cur r i cu lum) infood science andhelp meet others t u d e n t s ’demands?’

— Jay RunnerFacilitating Coordination in

Agricultural Education

Hogan: U of I better financially,but difficult decisions remain

changes, Hogan said the U ofI has never had a good enroll-ment management policy or a“smart financial aid policy.”

“All in all, the university isin better shape now than Ithought it would be one yearago,” Hogan said. “But we’re along way from financial stabili-ty ... and we have to be pre-pared to make difficult deci-sions as we did this year.” —Kay Shipman

The past year saw animprovement in the Universityof Illinois’ financial health,President Michael Hogan

recently toldIllinois FarmBureau boardmembers.

About ayear ago, thethen-new Uof I presidenthad shared adire assess-ment of theuniversity’s

financial situation with theIFB board, the first stategroup he addressed afterassuming his post.

Given the current budgetclimate, Hogan said he viewedthis year’s 1 percent cut instate funding for the U of I as“a victory.”

Plus, “the state still owesus $311 million from lastyear’s budget,” Hogan added.

However in the first of a

multi-year plan, the U of I hastrimmed its budget by $26million — $6 million morethan Hogan said he had antic-ipated. He estimated the uni-versity will cut another $25million to $26 million nextyear. His goal is to reduce thetotal budget by $60 million.

Hogan explained the sav-ings were achieved by inte-grating and consolidatingservices, such as humanresources and informationtechnology, for the three cam-puses.

The U of I also was able tocut expenses by consolidatingpurchases for all the campus-es.

Other campus-level savingsmay surface in the near futurenow that the three chancellorshave been asked to reducecosts, maybe as much as 5percent, on their respectivecampuses, according toHogan.

As for other possible

Michael Hogan

State ag groups give $28,000for U of I ag communication

Five Illinois agriculture groups recently announced a$28,000 award for a joint initiative between the University ofIllinois College of Agricultural, Consumer and EnvironmentalSciences (ACES) and the College of Media.

Awards from the Illinois Farm Bureau (IFB), Illinois BeefAssociation (IBA), Illinois Corn Marketing Board (ICMB), Illi-nois Pork Producers Association (IPPA), and Illinois SoybeanAssociation (ISA) and will be applied towards the university’s$2 million goal for the James F. Evans Endowed Chair in Agri-cultural Communications.

“We need to attract the best and the brightest into agricul-tural communications. IFB is excited about how the establish-ment of the Evans Chair will elevate the presence of agricul-tural communications at the University of Illinois,” said IFBpresident Philip Nelson.

The university plans to enhance its ag communications pro-gram with an endowed chair to support teaching and researchin the communications field.

The plans include having at least three teaching positionsand initiatives in consumer and environmental communication.

“We are grateful for the Illinois agriculture associations’willingness to support this important initiative that will benefitthe university’s students in agricultural communications foryears to come,” said ACES Dean Robert Hauser.

economy

FarmWeek Page 12 Monday, October 3, 2011

Steve German, left, GROWMARK member employment manager, chat-ted last week with Andrew Craig, an Illinois State University senior, dur-ing the annual Agriculture Career Day on the Normal campus. Craig, aBloomington agriculture business major, completed an internship withGROWMARK over the summer. (Photo by Kay Shipman)

Job prospects ‘bright’ at ISU Ag Career FairBY KAY SHIPMANFarmWeek

Employers and universitystudents shared an optimisticoutlook about the agricul-ture job market at IllinoisState University’s (ISU)annual Ag Career Fair on theNormal campus last week.

“Agriculture is a brightspot,” said Stephen Cantine,director of ISU’s CareerCenter, in between discus-sions with company repre-sentatives.

This year more than 40businesses were represented,an increase of 10 companiescompared to last year.

Some firms, such as Pepsi-Co/Frito-Lay Inc., madetheir first appearance at theAg Career Fair.

The combination of grad-uates who have an agricul-ture background with astrong work ethic interestedLisa Mancuso, a talent acqui-sition manager with PepsiCo.

Mancuso was seeking can-didates for a sales position;she reasoned individuals whounderstood the production

of crops used in Frito-Layproducts “makes them betterable to sell the products.”

Steve German, GROW-MARK member employmentmanager, said agriculturegraduates will find job open-ings, but they also will face

competition for those posi-tions.

“We don’t have as manyjobs (available) as the totalnumber of grads and interncandidates. There are jobs,but it will be competitive,”German said.

Andrew Craig, a senioragriculture business majorfrom Bloomington, recom-

mended internships as oneway students can distinguishthemselves from their com-

petition. Craig completedan internship with GROW-MARK this past summer.

“The job market for ag isreally open. There is a lotof opportunity,” Craig said.

Fellow senior AshleyBishop of Litchfield agreedwith Craig. Bishop is earn-ing two degrees, one inagronomy and the other ingeography with a minor inenvironmental science.

“Right now, it seems theag job market is bursting,”she said.

The job market for agri-culture grads may be differ-ent than it was in the past,but the basics of landing afirst job after college havenot changed, according toCantine.

“Students need to bewilling to move — ADMand John Deere are hiring.It’s convincing students tostart their careers inDecatur and those areasand instilling in studentsthat their first job is notgoing to be their last,” hesaid.

‘The job marketfo r ag i s rea l l yopen. There is alot of opportunity.’

— Andrew CraigIllinois State University

senior in agriculture business

Ag ScholArShip DigeSt

American Soybean Associ-ation (ASA) Secure OptimalYield Scholarship — A highschool senior pursuing anagriculture degree at any ac-credited college or universitywil l be awarded a $5,000one-time award. Online applications are be-ing accepted through Nov. 15at {www.soygrowers.com/soy/scholarship.htm}. Eligible applicants musthave at least a 3.0 average on

a 4.0 grade point scale, be thechild or grandchild of a currentASA member, and plan to ma-jor in agriculture or a relatedfield at an agriculture school. Applications must includean essay and two letters of rec-ommendation. The recipientwill be selected in early De-cember. The scholarship is managedby ASA and made possibleth rough a g ran t by BASFCorp.

from the counties

Page 13 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

Auction CalendarMon., Oct. 3. 10 a.m. McDonoughCo. Land Auc. Ronald A Molitor,BLANDINSVILLE, IL. Sullivan

Auctioneers, LLC. www.sullivanauc-tioneers.com

Tues., Oct. 4. 10 a.m. Livingston Co.Farmland. Nadine and Craig Slemp,GRAYMONT, IL. Immke and Bradleys’

Auction Service.biddersandbuyers.com/immke

Thurs., Oct. 6. 10 a.m. LaSalle Co.Farmland Auc. The McCormick Farm.Dick McConville, Marty McConvilleand Joe McConville, Auctioneers.www.mcconvillerealty.com

Sat., Oct. 8. 9 a.m. Large AntiqueAuc. Mardelle Martin Estate, JACK-SONVILLE, IL. Curless Auction.www.curlessauction.com

Mon., Oct. 10. 1 p.m. 222.1 Ac.Farmland Auction. Thelma LutzEstate, LENA, IL. Jim Calhoun,

Auctioneer.Tues., Oct. 11. 7 p.m. Land AuctionMenard Co. Stephen Tice Jacobs,MILWAUKEE, WI. Sanert AuctionService. www.sanertauctions.comor auctionzip.com auction id#2473

Wed. Eve., Oct. 12. 7 p.m.Champaign Co. Land Auction.Wandell’s Nursery, Gladys B.Lindstrom, ST. JOSEPH, IL. JimClingan Auction & Realty Inc.

www.jimclingan.comSat., Oct. 15. 11 a.m. Lee Co. LandAuction. Sammoura Gehant, WESTBROOKLYN, IL. Espe Auctioneering.

www.espeauctions.comMon., Oct. 17. 10 a.m. ChampaignCo. Farmland. Hamm Farms, B&BFarms, RANTOUL, IL . Gordon

Hannagan Auction Co.www.gordyvilleusa.com

Wed., Oct. 19. 5 p.m. AbsoluteFarmland Auction. Narmont FamilyEstate. www.aumannauctions.comWed., Oct. 19. 7 p.m. Logan Co.

Farmland Auc. LINCOLN, IL. Illini Bio-Energy, LLC.

Sat., Oct. 22. 10 a.m. Real Estateand Personal Property. Donna E.Steineman Estate, STEWARDSON,IL. Gordon Price Auction Service.

www.priceauction.comWed., Oct. 26. 6 p.m. Lawrence Co.

Land Auction. John Land andMichelle Land. Gregg Parrott,

Auctioneer. www.sellafarm.comThurs., Oct. 27. 10 a.m. LaSalle Co.Farmland Auction. Estate of Doris E.Chalus, UTICA, IL. Dick McConville

and Jim Elliott, Auctioneers.www.mcconvillerealty.com,

www.elliottauctions.net, www.auc-tionzip.com id 2927

Thurs. Eve., Oct. 27. 7 p.m.Sangamon Co. Land Auction. FebusEstate and Trust. Sanert Auction

Service. www.sanertauctions.comor auctionzip.com auction ID#2473Sat., Oct. 29. 9 a.m. ConsignmentAuction. N.I.T.E. Eq., PECATONICA,

IL. www.niteequip.comWed., Nov. 2. 10 a.m. Farmland.

John V. Bermes Estate, KERNAN, IL.Bradleys’ and Immke Auction Service.Thurs., Nov. 3. 10 a.m. McLean Co.Land Auction. BLOOMINGTON, IL.Hertz Farm Mgmt. www.hfmgt.comThurs., Nov. 3. 10 a.m. Land AuctionLivingston Co. Mary Becker Estate,PONTIAC, IL. Immke and Bradley

Auction Service.biddersandbuyers.com/immke

Thurs., Nov. 3. Farmland KankakeeCo. Soy Capital Ag Services.www.soycapitalag.com

Fri., Nov. 4. Edgar Co. Real Estate.Sims Farms, HUME, IL. Stanfield

Auction Co.www.stanfieldauction.com

Fri., Nov. 4. 10:30 a.m. Real Estateand Prime Farmland DeKalb Co. DaleNowicki Trust, LELAND, IL. Jim Elliott,Dick McConville and Craig Elliott,

Auctioneers. www.elliotauctions.net,www.mcconvillerealty.com,

www.auctionzip.com (id#2927)Fri., Nov. 4. Farmland Vermilion Co.Soy Capital Ag Services. www.soy-

capitalag.comFri., Nov. 4. 6 p.m. Land Auction.Walter L. Puckett Heirs, FAIRFIELD,IL. Barnard Auctions. www.auc-tionzip.com, auctioneer ID #2008Sat., Nov. 5. 10 a.m. Grundy Co.Land Auc. Harold and Kathryn KeckTrust, MAZON, IL. Richard A. Olson &

Assoc., Inc. richardaolson.comMon., Nov. 7. 6 p.m. Farmland.Reginald N. Blankenship Estate,DONNELLSON, IL. Langham

Auctioneers.Tues., Nov. 8. Farmland Sangamon

Co. Soy Capital Ag Services.www.soycapitalag.com

Wed., Nov. 9. 6 p.m. Land Auction.The Helen E. & Carl J. Huels Sr.Trust, BARTELSO, IL. Mark KrauszAuction Service. www.krauszauc-

tions.comWed., Nov. 9 . Farmland Piatt Co.Soy Capital Ag Services. www.soy-

capitalag.comWed. Nov. 9. 160 Ac. Piatt Co. SoyCapital Ag Services. www.soycapita-

lag.comSat., Nov. 12. 10 a.m. Real Estate

Auction. Cyrus Johnson Estate, GOD-FREY, IL. Henke Auction and Realty.

www.henkeauction.com

KENDALL — Theannual meeting will

be at 5:30 a.m. Monday,Nov. 14, at the YorkvilleLegion. A social hour andFoundation silent auctionwill be held. Upper Crustwill cater the meal. Cost is$15. Denny Hastert, for-mer U.S. speaker of theHouse, will be the speaker.Call the Farm Bureau officeat 630-553-7403 for reser-vations or more informa-tion.

• The Young Leaders andNewark FFA Farm ToyShow will be at 9 a.m. Sun-day, Nov. 20, at the NewarkHigh School. Admission is$2. Call the Farm Bureauoffice for more informa-tion.

• The Young Leaderscontributed $14,500 to theAg in the Classroom pro-gram through the efforts ofits golf outing and RivieraMaya raffle. Platinumsponsors of the golf outingwere Grainco FS, ElburnCo-op, First Farm Credit

Services of Ottawa, StewartFarm Partnership ofYorkville, and BrummelFarms of Plano.

LASALLE — LaSalleCounty plat books

are available at the FarmBureau office. Cost is $20for members and $30 fornon-members. Call theFarm Bureau office formore information.

STARK – The annualAntique Road Show

will be at 9 a.m. Friday,Oct. 21, at the Farm Bureauoffice. Bring one or two ofyour possessions and JimFolger, Folger AuctionService, will discuss eachitem and offer appraisals.Breakfast will be served.Call the Farm Bureau officeat 286-7481 for reserva-tions or more information.

“From the counties” itemsare submitted by county FarmBureau managers. If your havean item or activity open to allmembers, contact your countyFarm Bureau manager.

Billboards commemorateproducer, highlight safety

In an effort to highlightfall harvest road safety, fourbillboards throughoutMcHenry County have beendedicated in memory of Man-cel “Butch” Beard, 66, whodied July 12.

Mancel, 66, was driving histractor north on McHenryCounty Route 23 andattempting to turn left when amotorist struck his tractorwhile trying to pass him.

According to McHenry

County Farm Bureau, thememorial billboards (whichadvise motorists, “Farmersahead – please share theroad”) should reach nearly30,000 exposures per day infour different cities: McHen-ry, Woodstock, Harvard, andMarengo. They will be dis-played throughout the harvestseason.

The billboards were madepossible through a portion ofMancel’s memorial and the

support of 14 additionalsponsors from the communi-ty. The billboard was designedby LAMAR Outdoor Adver-tising of Rockford.

McHenry County FarmBureau was among contribu-tors to the efforts, along withConserv FS, 1st Farm CreditServices, McHenry CountyCommunity Foundation, anda number of area agribusi-nesses, businesses, and fami-lies.

profitability

FarmWeek Page 14 Monday, October 3, 2011

Feeder pig prices reported to USDA*Weight Range Per Head Weighted Ave. Price10 lbs. $13.00-$48.90 $29.7240 lbs. $35.00 $35.0050 lbs. n/a n/aReceipts This Week Last Week 13,497 22,752*Eastern Corn Belt prices picked up at seller’s farm

MARKET FACTS

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

This week Prev. week ChangeCarcass $84.10 $84.22 -0.12Live $62.23 $62.32 -0.09

Export inspections(Million bushels)

Week ending Soybeans Wheat Corn9-22-11 7.4 21.6 34.39-15-11 11.1 34.1 24.4Last year 19.3 25.0 37.0Season total 32.4 371.9 82.0Previous season total 42.7 354.9 133.0USDA projected total 1540 1295 1900Crop marketing year began June 1 for wheat and Sept. 1 for corn and soybeans.

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

Steers 117.00 115.97 1.03 Heifers n/a 116.03 n/a

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 Change 133.42 131.56 1.86

CME feeder cattle index — 600-800 Lbs.

Lamb prices

Slaughter Prices - Negotiated, Live, wooled and shorn 100-150 lbs. for 165-200$/cwt. (wtd. ave. 180.20); dressed, no sales reported.

Scams abound: Vigilance more important than everBY PETE TROTTER

We all love a good scam.Who can forget Paul Newmanand Robert Redford in “TheSting,” or George Clooney

and friends in“Ocean’sEleven?” Inthe movies, agood scam isa good time.

Real life isdifferent.Many peopleexperience

the harm caused by real scams.Increased use of the Internethas exponentially expandedexposure to scams. Cyber-crime currently impacts morethan 400 million adults, withnearly $400 billion in estimat-ed costs.

Internet-based scamsinclude fraudulent Internetauctions and sales. Facebookand e-mail “phishing” scamsinvolve the solicitation of per-sonal and account informa-tion. E-card virus e-mails andother harmful “spam” e-mailgain unauthorized access toinformation and damageaccounts and systems. Abuseof online photo-sharing canlead to identity theft, propertyand violent crime, and embar-rassment from unintendeduse.

Internet scam techniquesare sometimes combined with“low tech” means to defraudindividuals. For example, mail

theft, unauthorized credit cardcharges, fraudulent creditrepair and debt collection prac-tices, certified check fraud, andmortgage rescue schemes mayinvolve electronic, telephone,and in-person activity.

The most pervasive form ofscam in recent years is identitytheft. More than 250,000 com-plaints of identity theft werereported to the Federal TradeCommission in 2010, represent-ing 19 percent of all complaintsreceived. Identity theft is par-ticularly concerning because itconstitutes an initial step thatoften is followed by other crim-inal and fraudulent activity.

While consumer-orientedfraud obtains the most press,businesses are targets for morethan mere access to consumerinformation. Businesses can

be subjected to identity theft,counterfeit checks, and otherfinancial crime, software virusattacks, and more complicatedfraudulent schemes.

The financial burden of ascam can include direct dam-age to the business and indi-rect damage such as reputa-

tional harm and costs incurredby customers and employees.When small businesses areinvolved, there is little distinc-tion between harm caused tothe individual and damage tothe business.

So what can you do? Pre-ventative measures include

monitoring accounts; avoidingunfamiliar vendors and sourcesfor downloads; implementingfirewalls; utilizing mobile alerts;and other ways to learn aboutproblems; minimizing informa-tion in regular mail; e-mail, andsocial media; and remainingskeptical about “too good to betrue” opportunities. To somedegree, preventative measuresreflect common sense.

Ultimately, we want to keepscams at the movies, but theymay not be avoidable. Whenthey occur, immediateresponse is crucial, includingcontact with financial institu-tions, law enforcement, andcredit reporting agencies.

Pete Trotter is GROWMARK’sassociate general counsel. His e-mailaddress is ptrotter@growmark.com.

Pete Trotter

U.S. meat production projected to shrink in 2012U.S. meat and poultry pro-

duction is headed for whatresearchers at the RabobankInternational Food &Agribusiness Research andAdvisory (FAR) group antici-pate to be a “precipitous fall”by mid-2012. Beef and broiler suppliesare expected to tighten as pro-duction increasingly lagsbehind gross domestic prod-uct (GDP) growth. FAR’s “Where’s the Beef ?”report notes that drought inthe U.S. is a major contributor

to the production decline. Butthe report finds that globalmeat and poultry production isin the midst of a multi-yearprocess of adjusting to higherand more volatile feed costs. Since the U.S. is a large andsignificant exporter of meatprotein, the decline also willaffect world markets as well asdemand for feed, notably corn. “The drastic decline in pro-tein production we anticipatewill be felt in a number of indus-tries,” said David Nelson, FARglobal strategist. “We expect thedecline will create concerns foreveryone from food serviceoperators to corn producers.” Per capita meat consumptionin the U.S. appears to havepeaked, according to the report.The poultry industry, in particu-lar, should no longer count onrising domestic demand as ameans of growing its way outof over-production situations. However, a rising GDP inthe developing world is con-tributing to an increasing glob-al appetite for meat protein. “The greater global demandfor meat protein is the key driv-er to rising feed costs, which inturn drive up the cost of raisinganimal protein,” Nelson said.“Global meat and poultry pro-duction continues to signifi-cantly lag GDP growth, whichis, of course, the key factorbehind rising prices.” Given the long cattle-pro-duction cycle, as well as a rela-tively high feed conversionratio, beef is the protein sectorleast able to cope with struc-turally higher and more volatilecorn prices. Extreme drought conditionsin the South and Southwestand many areas, specificallyTexas, are resulting in signifi-cant herd liquidation. As aresult, the report predicts U.S.beef supplies will be plentiful

when the cattle currently infeedlots come to market, butthe long-term impact willinclude a dramatic decline inbeef production by mid-2012. “U.S. beef productioncould be running as much asseven percent below compara-ble 2011 levels by the thirdquarter of 2012,” Nelson said. The report indicated therecould be a double-digit per-centage decline in beef avail-able for export in the secondhalf of 2012. The report noted the U.S.

broiler industry is sufferingsome of its worst-ever financiallosses. The industry expandedbreast meat output at a timewhen demand has been soften-ing due to the weak economy. Despite some cutbacks inbird production, the reportpredicts profits will remainunder pressure into early 2012. Swine is the bright spot inthe report. The report sug-gests that in 2012 hog pricescould end up on average 10percent higher than the recordlevels seen in 2011.

Class III milk price plummetsThe Class III price for milk adjusted to 3.5 percent butterfat

for the month of September was $19.07, a $2.60 decrease fromthe previous month’s announcement.

This lower price posting has virtually wiped out any gainsseen in the market since June.

Production is starting to increase due, in part, to coolertemperatures and more cows coming into the milking herds. Pro-ducers also are starting to feed off of new silage piles, furtherboosting production.

PROFITABILITY

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CASH STRATEGISTCorn Strategy

ü2011 crop: The post-report collapse last week finallymay allow the month longdecline to exhaust itself. Con-tracts are expected to undergoa recovery bounce. Wait forDecember to rebound to $6.60to make catch-up sales. Wemay use a rally there to add tosales. Low prices may sparkdemand, but the odds of see-ing corn prices getting backabove $7 have become moreremote. Hedge-to-arrive(HTA) sales for latewinter/spring delivery stillwork for farm-stored grain dueto the modest futures carry.

ü2012 crop: Use rallies to$6 on December 2012 futuresfor catch-up sales, and maybeadd to them.

vFundamentals: The lat-est USDA report took thetrade by surprise, pegging cornstocks, 1.128 billion bushels,17 percent larger than expect-ed. The difference is theequivalent of increasing thenew-crop yield 2 bushels/acre.Smaller exports and feedingalong with June’s larger stocks,suggest last year’s crop mayhave been larger than forecast.

Soybean Strategyü2011 crop: Soybean prices

fell in sympathy with wheat andcorn after the reports, butprices have returned to levelsthat should stimulate demand.However, it now may be diffi-cult to get prices back above$12.80 unless South Americahas significant production prob-lems. Use a rally at that levelfor catch-up sales. We mayeven add to them at that level.An HTA for winter/springdelivery may pay if you canstore soybeans on the farm.

ü2012 crop: Use a rally to$12.70 on November 2012futures for catch-up sales. Wemay add another sale in the$13-$13.25 range.

vFundamentals: Funda-mentals still may be taking aback seat to financial/econom-ic influences in the soybeancomplex. New-crop exportsales have started to accelerate,but still are lagging the salespace we experienced the firstpart of last year. Domestically,the crush margin remainsunusually low for early harvest,

but that’s attributable to the sig-nificantly slower pace of prod-uct export shipments and sales.

Wheat Strategyü2011 crop: The break fol-

lowing the latest USDA reportshould put the market in posi-tion to finally establish a short-term low. Once confirmed,there should be a good rebound.Wait for a rally to $6.80 onChicago December to makecatch up sales. We may recom-mend another 20 percent sale ifDecember gets back to there.Check the Hotline daily. The car-ry in futures still pays for com-mercial storage, making an HTA

contract for winter or springdelivery the best sales tool.

vFundamentals: Thebreak in wheat prices off thelatest USDA numbers may cul-minate the decline of the lastmonth. The stocks numberwas especially bearish, 2.150 bil-lion bushels, well above tradeexpectations. Total wheat pro-duction was reduced to 2.008billion bushels, the majority ofthe decline coming from asmaller spring wheat estimate.The passing of the report mayallow the focus to shift to new-crop features, especially the drySouthern Plains.

Cents per bu.

Grain supplies not so tight

Page 15 Monday, October 3, 2011 FarmWeek

The quarterly USDA grainstocks reports seem to containmore routine surprises than inthe past. But, it’s the relativelytight supply of grain that ismagnifying their importance.

Certainly, the numbersUSDA released for Sept. 1stocks are generating morequestions than supplyinganswers to the trade. Both thecorn and wheat Sept. 1 stockswere higher than the tradeexpected to see. And theshock of the wheat numberwas compounded by the small-er-than-anticipated wheat pro-duction estimate on the smallgrains report.

The universal questionseemed to be: what are wefeeding livestock in the U.S. ifwe aren’t feeding wheat andcorn at the rates everyoneanticipated? And supplies ofother feed grains are not plen-tiful enough to make up forthe lack of feeding of wheatand corn.

One factor some in the tradeare having difficulty taking intoaccount is the increased use ofDDGs in the feed ration. On acorn equivalent basis, U.S. live-stock feeders appear to befeeding something near 770million bushels, annually. Thathas tripled in the last 5 years,having big implications on theamount of whole corn beingfed in this country.

But because the summerquarter is the slowest periodfor feeding, the amount ofDDGs would only amount tosomething near 115 millionbushels of corn. Still, usingUSDA data, that’s about one-quarter of the corn thatappeared to be fed, making it a

significant quantity.The implied feed/residual

number for wheat for the sum-mer quarter may have been thebiggest surprise. The data sug-gest summer feeding was thesmallest going back to 2002.With the price relationship thathas existed between wheat andcorn, we doubt that is the case,a smaller hard red winterwheat crop notwithstanding.

Over the last few months,there have been numerousrumors of different feedingentities importing feed wheatbecause of the attractive pricerelative to corn.

Although trade data doesn’tindicate imports have beensubstantially bigger, we cannothelp but wonder if there’ssome truth to the rumors andthat for various reasons theimports have not been docu-mented for various reasons.It’s difficult to justify wheatfeeding falling 20 percent fromlast year, when the price ratiohas been a huge encourage-ment to feeding wheat the lastfew months.

One thing the large cornstocks, combined with the largeJune 1 stocks, imply is that lastyear’s crop was probably largerthan the current USDA fore-cast. It’s easy to argue the yieldcould have been 1 to 2 bushelslarger than the 152.8 bushelsUSDA forecast. Maybe moreimportant, the extra 160 mil-lion bushels than expected onSept. 1 is the equivalent of see-ing the new crop yield 2bushels more than currentlyforecast.

If yields for this corn cropwould rise even slightly, it’sgoing to make it even moredifficult for the market to rallyover the next number ofmonths. But, these lowerprices might finally trigger thelarge Chinese buying the tradecontinually wants to talk aboutbut fails to realize.

pERspEcTIvEs

FarmWeek Page 16 Monday, October 3, 2011

LETTER TO THE EDITORQuestions child labor law proposalEditor:

In your Sept. 19 issue of FarmWeekyour interesting article about a new pro-posed child labor law, it was stated thatany worker younger than 16 was prohib-ited from climbing a ladder higher thansix feet. That sounds totally insane.

That means anyone younger than 16could not climb a ladder into the hay-mow since practically no haymow is

lower than eight feet. Also, some of thechildren have a ladder taller than sixfeet. Does that mean those taller funslides that children love would now belimited to only those older than 16?

Maybe the genius who came up withthis wonderful new idea was only con-cerned about young people who work,not those who play.DON ELLINGSON, Poplar Grove

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The high and volatile agri-cultural commodity prices ofthe past 15 months haverenewed concerns about foodsecurity for low-income netfood importing countries.

Recently, a session wasorganized at the World Trade

Orga-niza-tion’s(WTO)public

forum to consider rebalancingimporters’ and exporters’ rightsunder the WTO.

The WTO has had long-standing debates about exportrestrictions on agriculture andnon-agricultural items. Underthe General Agreement on Tar-iffs and Trade 1994 rules, quan-titative restrictions are banned,but there are rules that allow“restrictions temporarilyapplied to prevent or relievecritical shortages of foodstuffsor other products essential tothe exporting contracting par-ty.” Forum speakers suggestedsuch terms as ‘temporarily’ and‘critical shortages’ should beclearly defined by the WTOAgricultural Committee.

Several speakers suggestedbetter implementation of exist-ing rules on transparency in theUruguay Round Agreement onAgriculture. That requiresmembers to “give due consid-eration to the effects of suchprohibition or restriction on

importing members’ food secu-rity,” “give notice in writing, asfar in advance as practicable, tothe Committee on Agricul-ture,” and “consult, uponrequest, with any other mem-ber having a substantial interestas an importer.”

Participants noted otherconferences have called forprotection for low-income netfood importing countries, butnothing has happened except a‘carve out’ for World FoodProgram purchases, which arerelatively small. Hope wasexpressed that actions wouldbe taken at the eighth WTOMinisterial Conference inDecember.

A 2009 International PolicyCouncil background paper bySiddhartha Mitra and TimJosling delved deeper into theissues.

The authors recognized thatcountries impose exportrestrictions because of theirown food security issues or toretain profit opportunities infurther processing.

Low income people in theexporting country could beprotected by a two-price sys-tem in which the governmentsubsidized purchases at stableprices. The other opportunitiesare on the supply side by hold-ing emergency reserves orincreasing agricultural produc-tivity to meet domestic andexport needs.

Mitra and Josling explainedthat in the midst of high foodprices in April 2008, Japan andSwitzerland proposed that theDoha Round agreement require“any new export prohibition orrestriction [to] be limited to theextent strictly necessary” forthe country imposing it forproduction, stocks, and domes-tic consumption.

Countries seeking to restrictexports would give “considera-tion” to importers’ food securi-ty and how trade would flowwithout restrictions. Countrieswould notify the WTO Com-mittee on Agriculture beforeinstituting export restrictions,explaining the nature, duration,and reasons for the measures,and would be required to con-sult with importers about “anymatter related to” proposedexport restrictions, with themeasure stayed pending con-sultations.

If differences were notresolved within a certain periodof time, the proposed restric-tions would be referred tobinding arbitration by a “stand-ing committee of experts.”Nothing that binding wouldlikely survive the WTOprocess, Doha or otherwise,but highlights importers’ con-cerns.

The authors made a keypoint: “It may be desirable tothink of export restrictions asmore like safeguards.”

Importers use safeguardswhen the domestic market isoversupplied to protect theeconomic survival of domesticsuppliers. Governments useexport restrictions whendomestic consumers cannotcompete with overseas buyers.

Mitra and Josling stated, “Soif importing countries havesafeguards in the form of tem-porary import restrictions, whyshould exporting countries nothave similar safeguards?”

Exporters are less likely touse restrictions for fear of los-ing market reputation.Importers using safeguards donot have similar worries.

Importers cannot have itboth ways in protecting domes-tic producers from import com-petition, but have unlimitedaccess to exporters’ supplieswhen prices go up.

No discussion about foodsecurity and importers’ rightswould be complete withoutsome thought to intergovern-mental commodity agreementsand stocks policies. Stabilizingprices with multilateral grainstocks would reduce the needto have import or exportrestrictions, but the authorsnote “the history of multilateralaction in the area of price stabi-lization has not been encourag-ing.”

Mitra and Josling suggestedestablishment of an “exporters’code,” which would include the

ending of direct export subsi-dies and through food aid,export credit guarantees, state-trading entities and exportembargoes, and placing limitson export taxes.

This may be attractive tocountries that are significantexporters and importers. If it iseffective in removing distor-tions from global agriculturalmarkets, it could be referred toas a “food security code.”

The authors suggest it benegotiated among a smallergroup of countries, such asWTO members who accountfor 80 percent of exports, butthe benefits would apply to allWTO members who areimporters.

Rebalancing importer andexporter rights under the WTOwill require importers to give upsome of their current rights ifexporters are to give up someof theirs. Achieving greatermarket access when exportershave large crops may makethem more willing to guaranteesupplies in short crop years.This problem will not go awayif nothing is done. The Ministe-rial Conference may be anopportunity to accomplishsomething because last year isstill a vivid memory.

Ross Korves is the economic policyanalyst for Truth About Trade &Technology. He may be e-mailed atinfo@truthabouttrade.org.

When we’re looking for ananswer to something these days,it’s common to “Google it” or

ask “is there anApp for that?”

It turns outthere is an “app”for job creation!

It’s the intend-ed application ofUSDA RuralDevelopment.As a lender,Rural Develop-ment’s commit-

ment is to finance the future ofrural communities. To that end,USDA Rural Development hasbeen working to pursue some ofthe same strategies suggestedrecently in the proposed Ameri-can Jobs Act.

In Illinois, Rural Develop-ment has assisted rural commu-

nities in providing the infra-structure and support for inno-vative businesses that are the keyto job creation and retention.

Rural Development assistswith building basic infrastruc-ture that supports economicdevelopment in rural communi-ties, including electricity, watersystems, broadband, and hous-ing.

We create and sustain ruraljob opportunities and supportentrepreneurs from themicroenterprise level to large-scale manufacturing, so thosewho live in rural communitiesdon’t have to commute to met-ropolitan areas in order to sup-port their families and pay theirmortgages.

In partnership with otherpublic and private sector busi-nesses, more than 5,600 jobs

have been created or saved inIllinois as the result of loans wecurrently are providing to ruralbusinesses.

And we continueto improve theeconomic climateof rural areas byhelping develop

additional job opportunities forthe underserved rural areas andpopulations.

Those of us in rural Americaknow that in difficult times,

we need to cometogether to work out asolution that benefitseveryone, not just a

few or just those in cer-tain geographic areas.

It’s about balance.What happens when

our atmosphere gets out ofbalance? We have

storms. What happenswhen our systems getout of balance? We get

sick. And what happenswhen we don’t use a bal-

anced approach to ourgovernmental decision-mak-

ing? We create our owndemise.

Elected leaders in Washing-ton need to acknowledge theconsequence of one-sided ini-tiatives as they work to supportjob growth and build a strongerfuture for all Americans.

A wise man once said thatnothing can ever be sliced sothinly as to not have two sides.His wisdom can be applied tohow we find solutions to ourcurrent needs.

Consequently, there is an appfor job creation! It’s called com-mon sense. And partnering withRural Development, when ruralcommunities and businesseswant to create and sustain jobs,makes good sense!

Colleen Callahan is the director ofUSDA Rural Development in Illi-nois. Her e-mail address isColleen.Callahan@il.usda.gov.

Is there an App for that job? Check with Rural Development

COLLEENCALLAHAN

ROSS KORVES

guest columnist

Trading partners express export restriction concerns again