buyers From Schnucks and Walmart will attend a Meet the Buyers event at Heartland Community College in Normal in late February. .................................2
ILLINoIs FArm bureAu Young Leaders often are looking to improve the farmland they have rather than expand at today’s high land prices. ...................................6,7
oNe oF ILLINoIs FArm Bureau’s national legislative priorities is to build demand for renewable fuels and defend their place in the domestic energy portfolio. ...11
Monday, February 4, 2013
Two sections Volume 41, No. 5
January rains soak Illinois; forecast encouraging BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek
The soil moisture situation in Illinois improved significantly last month as aboveaverage rainfall soaked much of the state. Illinois in January received an average of 3.8 inches of precipitation, which is about twice as much as the state typically receives for the month, according to Jim Angel, state climatologist with the Illinois State Water Survey. In fact, precipitation last month totaled more than
FarmWeekNow.com Listen to Jim Angel’s comments about recent weather across Illinois at FarmWeekNow.com.
what Illinois received last June (1.6 inches) and July (1.5 inches) combined. “We had below-average snowfall but, actually, aboveaverage precipitation. Most fell as rain,” Angel told FarmWeek. “The end result is this is good news as far as soil moisture, stream flows, and lake levels. We’re chipping away at the drought conditions.” Precipitation last month ranged from 4 to 6-plus inch-
‘This is good news as far as soil moisture, stream flows, and lake levels. We’re chipping away. at the drought conditions .’ — Jim Angel State climatologist
es in Southern Illinois, 3 to 5 inches in Central Illinois, and 2 to 3 inches in Northern Illinois. Minor flooding even was reported along the Kaskaskia and Little Wabash Rivers. “We welcome this rain,” Eric Apel, ag meteorologist with Mobile Weather Team, said last week during a rainy day at the MID-CO Commodities winter outlook meeting in Bloomington. “Central and Southern Illinois, in particular, made up quite a bit of moisture since last fall.” Snowfall totals last month ranged from 10 inches in Northwestern Illinois and 3 to 6 inches across Central Illinois to nothing measurable in parts of Southern Illinois.
The temperature averaged about 4 degrees above normal for January, despite a blast of artic air last week that dropped temperatures by 60 degrees or more in just two days. Apel predicted temperatures will average below normal in much of the Midwest for the rest of winter. “It can still snow in February and March,” he reminded. Apel also predicted more precipitation this winter and spring with an increased chance of more severe weather this spring. “These pressure patterns that develop in winter tend to stick around into spring,” Apel said. “I look for periods
of wet weather the rest of this winter and into spring.” Apel’s forecast was based in part on neutral El Nino/La Nina readings in the Pacific Ocean he said he believes will extend into summer. “As long as El Nino/La Nina is neutral, I look for a more normal weather pattern
(this year),” he said. “We’ll still have hot and dry periods, but not 16 straight days above 95 degrees like we saw last year.” La Nina often is associated with below-average precipitation in the Midwest. A La Nina was in effect last year and in 1988.
Congress approves increase in federal debt ceiling Periodicals: Time Valued
BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek
The president was expected to sign off on short-term suspension of the federal debt ceiling, according to Illinois Farm Bureau Vice President Rich Guebert Jr., addressing a potentially crucial economic concern. The Senate Thursday voted to raise the $16.4-trillion debt limit to continue paying the nation’s bills through May. The measure passed after Republican senators failed to sell amendments that would tie major federal spending cuts to any increase in the debt limit. The next budget step is debate over efforts to head off budget “sequestration” — deep, automatic spending cuts that kick in beginning March 1 unless Congress intervenes.
Guebert argued debt ceiling action is “very important,” impacting not only the U.S.’ global credit rating but also domestic markets and possibly even monetary policy. “This could be pretty serious — we have never Rich Guebert Jr. been there,” he said. “If you want to compare this to the states, there have been serious ramifications when their credit ratings have been lowered. “If the federal credit rating is lowered, what impact would that have with other countries, relative to the U.S. dollar? The U.S. dollar is pretty important to trade and to our exports.” Last week, U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, a
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Peoria Republican, lamented Illinois’ downgrade from an A to an A-minus credit rating by Standard and Poor’s Ratings Service. S & P cited the state’s inability to tackle looming fiscal challenges. Schock maintained the latest downgrade will result in “more of Illinoisans’ tax dollars being spent on higher interest rates instead of in our classrooms, for health care, or building infrastructure.” AgriVisor analyst Bridget Chinowth noted a “strong correlation anymore between the commodity markets and all these external factors” such as debt limit debate. “On a daily basis, we look at the value of the dollar, as the direction of the dollar has a strong significance for our exports,” Chinowth said in a FarmWeek/RFD Radio interview.
Illinois Farm Bureau®on the web: www.ilfb.org