Awards, policymaking and experts sharing the latest agricultural information marked the 95th AFBF annual convention...........................2-7
Opponents and proponents of EPA’s proposed Renewable Fuel Standard intensified efforts to comment by Jan. 28.........................8
IFB state legislative priorities will focus on Illinois’ budget issues, including continued ag program funding..................................12
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Illinois Farm Bureau mission: Improve the economic well-being of agriculture and enrich the quality of farm family life.
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IFB helps create AFBF farm data collection policy Monday, January 20, 2014
Farmer delegates from 50 states and Puerto Rico attending last week’s American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) annual convention added Illinois-sponsored policy language regarding farm data collection. The adopted language serves as official policy that will be advanced by the national organization. “Proprietary data collected from farming and agricultural operations is valuable, should remain the property of the farmer, and warrants protection,” said IFB President Rich Guebert Jr. following final AFBF policy action in San Antonio, Texas. Delegates adopted a new national policy aimed at protecting data gathered on farms. The policy supports: • Utilizing safeguards to ensure proprietary data is stored at an entity not subject to a Freedom of Information Act request. • Requiring companies collecting, storing and analyzing
Two sections Volume 42, No. 3
BY MIKE ORSO
Illinois Farm Bureau President Rich Guebert Jr. addresses fellow state Farm Bureau delegates during American Farm Bureau Federation policy debate last week in San Antonio, Texas. (Photo by Ken Kashian)
proprietary data to provide full disclosure of their intended use of data. • Forming standardized
protocols regarding privacy and ter ms of conditions to ensure a standard definition of all components
within the contract. • Compensating farmers whose proprietary data is shared with third parties that offer products, services or analysis benefitting from that data. “Farmers need to be part of the discussion and protocol where industry and farmers go with big data, whether it’s collection, the use of it, how it’s used,” said Guebert. In other action, AFBF farmer delegates reaffirmed policy on a federal farm bill that includes crop insurance as a risk management tool. Components of the old law have already been extended a year, but Guebert and other Illinois farmers want final action on new, multi-year legislation that has been stalled in Congress. On the farm labor front, delegates reasserted support for agricultural labor reforms that ensure farmers have access to workers when they are needed. Delegates also voted to support flexibility that would allow the employment of workers by more
than one farmer. Delegates adopted new policy supporting the use of unmanned aircraft systems for commercial agricultural, forestry and other natural
resource purposes. They supported the requirement for drone users to gain the consent of the landowners if operating below navigable airspace. However, delegates opposed federal agencies’ use of drones for regulatory enforcement, litigation or natural resource inventory surveys.
Power cost management increasingly important BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek
Periodicals: Time Valued
Power costs on farms in recent years accelerated as new
equipment expenditures and the price of fuel/oil and machinery depreciation posted significant gains. Overall, power costs in Illinois since 2006 nearly doubled from an average of $68 per acre in 2007 to $125 per acre in 2012. Most of the increase in recent years was due to higher machinery expenditures. Capital expenditures in 2011 and 2012 averaged more than $100 per acre compared to $45 per acre in the 2000s, according to Gary Schnitkey, University of Illinois Extension farm management specialist. “We had good (farm) incomes (from 2010 to 2012) so farmers bought a lot of machinery,” Schnitkey said last week at the U of I Corn and
Mike Orso serves as IFB director of News & Communications.
‘There’s going to be a (financial) squeeze. We’ve become more concerned about controlling all costs.’ — Gary Schnitkey Soybean Classic in East Peoria. Farm income, however, is expected to level off and likely decline this year. Managing costs, therefore, could be more important to farm margins than it was during the recent high income years. “We’ve moving into a period where we’re looking at lower (crop) prices and we’re still looking at high nonland costs,” Schnitkey said.
FarmWeek on the web: FarmWeekNow.com
“There’s going to be a (financial) squeeze. We’ve become more concerned about controlling all costs.” From 2006 to 2012, costs increased 34 percent for fertilizer, 19 percent for seed, 9 percent for machinery depreciation and 4 percent for crop insurance. The U of I projected crop prices this year could average around $4 per bushel for corn
and $11 for beans. But corn prices possibly could slip as low as the $3.50 range if farmers produce above-average yields this year, Schnitkey noted. Those types of prices aren’t as supportive of as many new purchases of big ticket items, such as farm equipment. Farmers who are locked into See Power, page 9
Illinois Farm Bureau on the web: www.ilfb.org ®