FarmWeek May 6 2013

‘ I N N O VA T I V E ’ R I V E R partnerships are being sought as a way to speed along upgrades to locks and dams in Illinois. The approach is bipartisan. ..................5

THE 22ND EDITION of Cropwatcher reports begins this week. Unfortunately, rain has kept most planters parked, and there is little crop on which to report. ......6,7

House passes pension reforms Monday, May 6, 2013

BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek

Periodicals: Time Valued

The Illinois House of Representatives passed significant changes to several state pension systems last week, putting the attention on the Senate this week.

Passed on a 62-51 vote in the House, the measure as amended must be approved by the Senate before it can be sent to Gov. Pat Quinn.

Last week, House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago) oversaw passage of his proposed changes to the State Employees Retirement Systems, State University Retirement System, the General Assembly Retirement System, and the Teachers Retirement System.

“This legislation is a difficult decision that impacts state employee and teacher retirees’ livelihoods,” said Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson.

“Without making any changes, the state’s fiscal crisis would only deepen as a result of the unfunded pension liability,” Nelson said. “This would also continue to negatively impact the business climate in Illinois. This proposal appears to address a number

of the components that are crucial to making Illinois’ pension system financially solvent again.”

IFB supports the legislation as amended in the House, according to Kevin Semlow, IFB director of state legislation. IFB called for dealing with the pension system in order to address the state’s fiscal crisis.

Taking action now will provide an opportunity to begin to address the state’s overall financial situation, Semlow noted. While representatives discussed pension reforms,

THE ILLINOIS WHEAT Association on Tuesday, May 21, will get a handle on the wheat crop in Illinois with its annual Southern Illinois tour. .................8

GETTING STARTED

Two sections Volume 41, No. 18

Earl Rau, left, and his son-in-law, Clark Westen, both of Kenney in DeWitt County, discussed the first corn planting done on their farm (in an 80-acre field) this year. They were planting Thursday before the rains came. They plan to plant an equal number of corn and bean acres this year. Rau, who has been farming since 1954, said he is amazed by the changes in technology used today — such as the auto steer on their tractor. (Photo by Ken Kashian)

Planting delays persist in most areas of state See Pension, page 3

BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek

A few farmers planted corn last week during a multi-day intermission between rain showers.

But the majority of planters remained parked as the soil in many areas was too wet or too cool to work. More heavy rains were predicted for the weekend and into this week.

“There’s been very little planted,” said Steve Stallman, a farmer from Chester (Randolph County). “The calendar says it’s time to plant corn but (field) conditions in my area say otherwise.”

Farmers in the state as of the first of last week had planted just 1 percent of the corn crop, which is 35 percent behind the five-year average pace and 75 percent behind last year’s pace.

Nationwide, just 5 percent of the corn crop was in the ground as of the first of last week compared to the average of 31 percent. It’s one of the slowest starts to planting nationwide since the mid1980s.

“Last year at this time we’d completed corn planting and there already were some soybeans in the ground,” said Dale Hadden, Illinois Farm Bureau District 10 director from Jacksonville (Morgan County).

Hadden last Wednesday and Thursday planted his first corn of the year.

“We’re planting rolling ground first,” Hadden said. “It seems to have dried out the fastest.

“With the calendar ticking into May, we decided to start,” he continued. “But there are other producers, due to the threat of heavy rain (late last week and through the weekend), who chose not to put any corn in the ground.”

This month is critical for corn planting and yield potential.

“Most of our corn plantingdate studies show that yield loss accelerates as planting is delayed in May,” said Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois crop systems specialist.

Many farmers typically target the last two weeks of April

FarmWeek on the web: FarmWeekNow.com

to plant corn but, on average, only 40 percent of the crop is planted by May Day, according to Nafziger. Corn planting usually doesn’t reach 90 percent complete until late May. So all is not lost due to the lack of field activity last month. Planting delays can be reversed in a hurry if the weather shifts to more favorable conditions, he noted.

“Several times in recent years, we planted more than 50 percent of the corn crop in a

10-day period, and can plant even faster than that if all fields are ready at once,” Nafziger said.

Farmers, therefore, may want to wait before switching to shorter-season corn varieties.

Long-term research studies

by DuPont Pioneer and some universities show that adapted, full-season corn hybrids usually offer the best yield and profit potential when planting delays are not extreme.

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

Quick Takes

LABOR

FarmWeek Page 2 Monday, May 6, 2013

TUBES AVERT TRAGEDY — Alert responders and grain handlers and a crucial piece of grain safety gear are responsible for the survival of two Illinois farmers.

Joe McAndrew, 25, Keokuk, Iowa, was rescued April 26 after being trapped in a large bin near Carthage while attempting to dislodge corn. Carthage and Hamilton Fire Departments and Hancock County Ambulance were dispatched to the farm, and McAndrew was safely extracted using a grain rescue tube provided by Consolidated Grain and Barge’s Ferris facility.

Meanwhile, 64-year-old Gary Ginder of rural Jacksonville was pulled from a bin near Woodson last Wednesday. Woodson Fire Department and Bartlett Grain Co. responded, using a new rescue tube the grain company had donated to the South Jacksonville Fire Department.

“Both incidents ended in rescues and not recoveries,” hailed Grain and Feed Association of Illinois Executive Vice President Jeff Adkisson, a partner in Illinois’ Grain Handling Safety Coalition. The coalition is helping train local elevators, farmers, and emergency personnel in farm response and use of tools such as rescue tubes.

Tubes enclose a trapped individual and relieve grain pressure on his body during a rescue attempt.

HORSE PROCESSING PLANT COULD REOPEN — A horse processing facility could soon be operating on U.S. soil for the first time in six years.

Valley Meat Co.’s horse slaughter plant in southern New Mexico will open its doors in the near future unless Congress re-establishes a ban on the practice, Fox News reported last week.

USDA reinspected the plant last week and Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said the department is working to ensure the process to reopen the facility is done properly.

The last horse slaughter facility to operate in the U.S., Cavel International in DeKalb, ceased operations in 2007.

Farm Bureau supports the reopening and development of new horse slaughter facilities along with funding for Food Safety and Inspection Service inspectors at such plants.

FUTUREGEN HEARING — The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its National Energy Technology Laboratory will conduct a May 21 public hearing on the latest environmental assessment of the long-debated FutureGen 2.0 clean coal/carbon sequestration project.

The hearing will start with an information session at 5 p.m. at Jacksonville High School, 1211 N. Diamond Street.

A formal presentation and opportunity for public comments on the Morgan County project will begin at 6 p.m.

DOE identified no significant impacts related to FutureGen 2.0 in a draft environmental impact statement up for public comment. The draft considered several factors in Morgan County and surrounding counties, including air quality, greenhouse gases, soils, geology, and ground and surface water.

(ISSN0197-6680) Vol. 41 No. 18

May 6, 2013

Dedicated to improving the profitability of farming, and a higher quality of life for Illinois farmers.

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Immigrant worker issues impact U.S. job opportunities

Specialty grower growth limited

As “May Day” rallies elevated nationwide awareness of immigration issues, U.S. fruit and vegetable growers continued last week to issue their own mayday alert.

Immigration reform, including a strong ag guest worker program, is “critical” to the specialty crop sector, argued Sarah Frey-Talley, CEO of Wayne County-based Frey Farms. Her company is the U.S.’ largest individual pumpkin producer and a major fruit and vegetable marketer that operates in seven states.

Bipartisan lawmakers have crafted ag worker proposals as part of a comprehensive Senate immigration measure, proposing long-term “Blue Card” status to keep previously undocumented workers legally in agriculture and improved temporary visas for seasonal workers.

Meanwhile, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) is seeking support for a less expansive but ag-specific reform plan. “It’s definitely a different approach,” noted Ray Gilmer, vice president for issues management with the produce association United Fresh.

Gilmer told FarmWeek “momentum toward the Senate version is very strong” because of efforts to “leave no stone unturned” in building a broad support coalition that includes the United Fresh-Farm Bureau-backed Ag Workforce Coalition and the AFL-CIO and the United Farm Workers of America.

Frey-Talley, a member of Illinois Farm Bureau’s immigration “strike team,” sees a direct link between access to migrant labor and her industry’s ability to create jobs domestically.

The company hires an average of 250 workers annually under the federal H-2A ag guest worker program, but Frey-Talley said the program’s regulatory and bureaucratic challenges limit its effectiveness in meeting horticultural needs.

“Our ability to hire and create domestic jobs has been greatly affected by our inability to be able to secure a sufficient number of harvest laborers,” she noted.

“We haven’t been able to grow more fruits and vegetables, build more shipping-receiving facilities, or hire more administration personnel, forklift drivers, farm managers, and such out of the domestic labor pool because of our inability to grow our business.”

U.S. House Small Business Committee member Aaron Schock, a Peoria Republican, said he is impressed with “what the Senate has produced so far,” even if “it’s not a perfect bill, by any means.”

Schock warned against ag labor reform critics attempting to add “poison pill amendments” to a final reform package. But he stressed “we have a broken immigration system, and at the end of the day, there will be no perfect bill.”

“As long as there’s more good in the legislation than bad, I’d probably end up voting for it,” Schock told FarmWeek.

Labor reform needs extend across the specialty crop spectrum, from produce giant Frey Farms (see accompanying story) to Eckert’s, a Belleville-area orchard, farm market, and “pickyour-own” attraction.

Illinois Farm Bureau “strike team” member Chris Eckert, who runs the seventh-generation family operation, said he sees in attempts to modernize ag worker provisions “a unique opportunity with Congress that we need to seize upon.” Eckert’s employs roughly 30 seasonal workers a year, mostly Mexican.

Those workers help prune and thin the Eckert apple and peach orchards and harvest fruits and vegetables. Eckert reported many return to

the farm season after season.

Migrant field laborers work in tandem with locally sourced employees on the packing, retail, and restaurant side of the St. Clair County operation.

“Many of our specialty crops are harvested by hand, and we’re reliant on migrant labor to accommodate that harvesting and growing process,” Eckert stressed. “Our business is unique, and the forces of nature dominate when and where we can do our work.

“It’s seasonal work — it’s not a job people who are looking for full-time employment want to take on. But it’s also skilled labor. These are jobs that people who’ve done them time after time are better at.”

Eckerts’, a St. Clair County orchard and farm market, is heavily reliant on the expertise and work ethic of seasonal laborers such as the worker shown here.

The labor season often extends year-round for many orchardists, as evidenced by this photo taken at Eckert’s in the wintertime. (File photo by Ken Kashian)

Tuesday: • Bryce Anderson, DTN chief ag meteorologist • Michelle Damico, Michelle Damico Communications.

• Dr. Steve Meyer, Paragon Economics Wednesday: • Kristi Jones, Illinois Products Farmers’ Market, Illinois Department of Agriculture • Dean Wetherall, Effingham County Fair board member • Jean Payne, president Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association • Shannon Ramsay, CEO of Trees Forever Thursday: • Dave DeVore, Siemer Milling • Karen Mauldin-Curtis, program manager Peace Corp, Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs • Ruth Hambleton, founder of Annie’s Project • Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman, Food Network Friday: • Sara Wyant, Agri-Pulse publisher • Tanya Steel, editor-in-chief, Epicurious • Dr. Jay Lehr, science director of Heartland Institute • Story time with Alan Jarand To find a radio station near you that carries the RFD Radio Network, go to FarmWeekNow.com, click on “Radio,” then click on “Affiliates.”

BY MARTIN ROSS AND MIKE ORSO FarmWeek

The fruits of skilled labor

STAFF Editor Dave McClelland (dmcclelland@ilfb.org) Legislative Affairs Editor Kay Shipman (kayship@ilfb.org) Agricultural Affairs Editor Martin Ross (mross@ilfb.org) Senior Commodities Editor Daniel Grant (dgrant@ilfb.org) Editorial Assistant Margie Fraley (mfraley@ilfb.org) Business Production Manager Bob Standard (bstandard@ilfb.org) Advertising Sales Manager Richard Verdery (rverdery@ilfb.org) Classified sales coordinator Nan Fannin (nfannin@ilfb.org) Director of News and Communications Michael L. Orso Advertising Sales Representatives Hurst and Associates, Inc. P.O. Box 6011, Vernon Hills, IL 60061 1-800-397-8908 (advertising inquiries only) Gary White - Northern Illinois Doug McDaniel - Southern Illinois Editorial phone number: 309-557-2239 Classified advertising: 309-557-3155 Display advertising: 1-800-676-2353

FLOOD

Page 3 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

Flood damage assessment ongoing in Illinois

BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek

Teams of federal, state, and local officials last week assessed flood damage in Cook, DuPage, and Lake counties, gathering data for a federal disaster declaration.

The assessment was expected to continue in those counties this week, Patti Thompson, Illinois Emergency Management Agency (IEMA) spokesman, told FarmWeek.

Teams with personnel from IEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Small Business Administration (SBA), and local officials will start assessing damage in other flood-damaged counties after the waters recede.

Gov. Pat Quinn plans to include the damage data in a request for federal assistance, which would provide grants and low-interest loans for people affected by flooding and low-interest loans for floodimpacted businesses.

This week FEMA and IEMA personnel will start

meeting with local government officials of flooded communities to document flood-related expenses. Local officials are to present the FEMA/IEMA teams with preliminary assessments to help with data gathering, Thompson said.

Quinn will use flood-related expense data to seek federal reimbursement for as much as 75 percent of those costs to local governments.

To date, 48 counties have been declared state disaster areas due to the flood.

They are: Adams, Brown, Bureau, Calhoun, Carroll, Cass, Champaign, Clark, Cook, Crawford, DeKalb, Douglas, DuPage, Fulton, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Henderson, Henry, Jersey, Jo Daviess, Kane, Kendall, Knox, Lake, LaSalle, Lawrence, Livingston, Marshall, Mason, McDonough, McHenry, Mercer, Morgan, Ogle, Peoria, Pike, Putnam, Rock Island, Schuyler, Scott, Stark, Tazewell, Warren, Whiteside, Will, Winnebago, and Woodford counties.

The Wabash River flows over Crawford County farms recently. The river crested last week and levels were expected to continue dropping last weekend. Rural roads in eastern Clark and Crawford counties continued to be impassible. (Photo by Vicki May, courtesy Crawford County Farm Bureau)

Bustos: Time for re-examination of Midwest flood management

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos, an East Moline Democrat, notes 11 of the 14 counties she represents have experienced significant spring flooding “issues.”

In London Mills, in the southern reach of her 17th District, nearly a quarter of the homes were destroyed by recent flooding, Bustos reported.

However, she told FarmWeek, many residents were not eligible for federal flood insurance “because they

technically were not in a floodplain.”

Residents of the unincorporated town of Barstow near the Quad Cities in Rock Island County watched floodwaters move deeper into their community than ever before.

Bustos, who toured the area in late April, said she saw a “sense of urgency” about securing Federal Emergency Management Agency approval to repair Barstow’s damaged levee.

She said she sees the need to explore options for improving Mississippi Basin flood

response and management, particularly given a seemingly increased frequency of Midwest floods. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay recently lamented that federal officials have initiated “no plan for the whole river.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a range of alternatives for improving flood protections on the Mississippi.

However, ag interests have waited nearly five years for Congress to fund a proposed Upper Mississippi River Comprehensive Plan that would

offer many levee-drainage districts a high “500-year” level of flood protection.

“The so-called ‘100-year flood’ (a flood event that has a 1 percent probability of occurring in any given year) is happening much more than every 100 years,” Bustos maintained.

“In one region, we’ve had flooding surpass the 100-year level three times in the last eight years. We’ve had levee breeches; we’ve had levee breaks.

“Let’s get through with this current crisis, but then, let’s take a step back and ask what

are some long-term solutions so families and businesses and communities aren’t having to go through this as often as they currently are.”

The cost of recurring flood events is not confined to affected communities.

A new report from the Center for American Progress reports Congress has spent at least $136 billion on disaster relief between 2011 and 2013.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers alone spent nearly $7 billion on flood control efforts between 2011 and 2013, the report noted.

Continued from page 1 Senate President John Cullerton (D-Chicago) announced a coalition representing public employee unions affected by pension reforms had offered its own proposal, Semlow said.

Details of the coalition’s proposal may be released early this week, according to Statehouse reports. Senators may then consider that proposal or may consider the speaker’s proposal, or both, Semlow said.

Changes passed in the House include: New pension funding schedule The pension systems would be required to be fully funded in 30 years, starting in fiscal year 2015 and ending in 2044.

Supplemental state contributions Currently, the state is making

payments on pension obligations from 2010 and 2011. In 2019, it will make a final payment of $952 million. Starting in 2020, the state would commit to $1 billion annually on top of its scheduled contributions. The additional contributions would continue until all pensions reach their funding goals.

Provide a funding guarantee If the state fails to make a required payment or doesn’t contribute the additional $1 billion, the pension systems would have the right to compel the state to make the payment.

Establish a pensionable salary cap for some employees The pensionable salary cap would increase annually by half of the consumer price index for urban consumers. Under the proposal, a person whose salary

exceeds the salary cap of approximately $110,000 is eligible only for an annuity based on the salary cap. A grandfather clause is included for employees whose salaries currently exceed the cap or will exceed it based on raises due under a current agreement.

New method to calculate cost of living adjustments (COLA) Retired pensioners will keep the compounded 3 percent annual increases they received up until changes are enacted, but future adjustments will be calculated differently.

Going forward, the COLA will be based on 3 percent of a maximum annuity amount based on years of service. The cap will be $1,000 for each year the employee had worked or $800

for those who are eligible to receive Social Security.

Additionally, current and future retirees would have the first or next year in which they can receive their COLA delayed.

Retirees who are 67 and older would be unaffected.

Raise the retirement age for employees 44 and younger The retirement age is raised on a graduated scale for current employees 44 and younger. No change is suggested for those 45 or older.

For those who are 40 to 44, one additional year will be added to the minimum retirement age; 35 to 39, three years added; and 34 and younger, five years added.

Increase employee contributions Beginning July 1, employees

will be required to contribute an additional 1 percent. This will increase to 2 percent on July 1, 2014.

Eliminate topic of pensions from collective bargaining Bargaining units and employers whose employees are in the state pension system would be prohibited from negotiating pension-related changes.

No non-governmental groups in state pension system New employees of several “non-governmental” organizations would be prohibited from participating in state pension systems.

Prohibit the use of pension funds to pay for health care The state-funded pension systems would not use retirement contributions to subsidize the cost of retirees’ health care.

BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek

Pension

GOVERNMENT

FarmWeek Page 4 Monday, May 6, 2013

Farmers offer congressman ag tax input

BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek

As the saying goes, nothing’s certain but death and taxes.

Gridley farmer David Meiss might beg to differ.

Meiss, Illinois Farm Bureau District 7 board member, participated last week in a Farm Bureau panel that offered Peoria Republican U.S. House Ways and Means Committee member Aaron Schock ag-related tax reform recommendations.

Farmers recommended continuing Section 179 expensing and bonus depreciation as incentives to farm investment and rural economic growth and allowing farmers to use simpler, lower-cost “cash accounting” methods in calculating tax liability.

Schock’s committee is developing a comprehensive tax package, with 11 member “working groups” collecting input from diverse taxpayer interests. He said he hopes the committee can submit a “finished product” by the August recess: “I really see this year as our opportunity to get tax reform done.”

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus’ (D-Idaho) pending retirement leaves him politically free “to spend the next two years working with the Ways

hang in the balance every year or two, creating “unexpected changes at the last minute” and financial uncertainty, he said.

“If we start out with just wanting a simpler, flatter, fairer tax code, it starts with basically melding our six individual (income tax) rates down to two rates — 10 percent on the first $50,000 of earnings, and then 25 percent on everything over the $50,000,” Schock told FarmWeek.

He said he believes the Ways and Means Committee can reach a viable tax compromise “working with our Democrat colleagues in the House and Senate.”

According to Schock, Congressional Budget Office

analysis suggests income tax changes alone offer tax savings sufficient to generate 1 million-plus jobs the first year.

Proposed “repatriation” provisions would allow U.S.based companies to bring offshore earnings back into the country without severe tax penalties. That could bring $1.3 trillion back into the U.S. economy, Schock said.

Currently, cash accounting (where income is not counted until cash or a check actually is received, and expenses are not counted until they actually are paid) is limited to businesses with annual gross receipts under $5 million. Ways and Means Committee members are considering boosting that threshold to $10 million.

The alternative is accrual accounting, where transactions count when orders are made, items delivered, or services occur, regardless of when money is received or paid.

Meiss noted “our income can really swing one way or the other,” depending on crop/market conditions.

Options such as cash accounting and income averaging enable farmers to more evenly distribute taxable income from year to year, he said.

Bustos, an East Moline Democrat, applauded the repeated commitment by Ag Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) and Ranking Democrat Collin Peterson (DMinn.) “to move ahead with a five-year farm bill.”

At the same time, House Speaker John Boehner (ROhio) has indicated he’ll back a timely floor vote on a committee package, she said.

“That’s very encouraging,” Bustos told FarmWeek. “The

details are where we get into the tough part. There’s a lot we have to debate.

“I hope we can work together in a Rep. Cheri Bustos bipartisan fashion and start adding some predictability for our family farmers. They deserve that, we owe that to them, and I think we have the

and Means Committee to do tax reform,” Schock said. He said he sees potential White House support for a bill that emphasizes “job creation vs. compliance,” if “a decent number of Democrats in the Senate get behind it.”

For his part, Meiss advocates “consistency in the tax code, from one year to the next.” A variety of farm tax incentives, deductions, and thresholds

FarmWeekNow.com

U . S . R e p . A a r o n S c h o c k ’s comments following a meeting with Farm Bureau leaders are at FarmWeekNow.com.

U.S. Rep. Aaron Schock, left, a Peoria Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, discusses prospects for tax reform legislation during a meeting with Central Illinois farmers at Evergreen FS’ Bloomington office. Illinois Farm Bureau Board member David Meiss was among those offering input on ag tax provisions as part of an American Farm Bureau Federation request for state organizations to work with Ways and Means Committee members. (Photo by Martin Ross)

Meanwhile, the current $500,000 Section 179 expense deduction limit drops to a mere $25,000 in 2014. Meiss argued Section 179 “has definitely been beneficial for my farm and all of my neighbors’ farms,” and farmers last week argued for fixing the limit long-term at at least $250,000.

Consistent Section 179 provisions would enable producers

to upgrade equipment as needed, “as opposed to certain times when it would be beneficial to us (from a tax standpoint),” McLean County Farm Bureau President Scott Hoeft said.

And that, in turn, is good for rural communities, Meiss maintained. “It’s the trickle effect,” Hoeft told Schock. “It gets to the point where $1 (in investment) turns into $4.”

right mentality in this committee to move forward.”

Meanwhile, Senate Ag Committee markup begins this week. The Rep. Rodney Davis president recommends significant cuts in crop insurance spending, and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) warns that when his

committee’s bill reaches the full Senate, “there will be efforts to reduce the (premium) subsidy.”

Citing the 2012 drought and current districtwide flood concerns, as well as the “foregone conclusion” that Congress will eliminate direct payments, Bustos argued “it’s very important that we do the right thing as it pertains to crop insurance.”

Davis agreed, saying his committee must fight to “make sure our crop insurance programs are strengthened, not weakened.”

The president, Senate, and House each offers “a far different vision for America,” in budget-policy terms, he acknowledged. But Davis urged lawmakers on both sides of the Hill to move briskly toward a farm bill vote and ag groups to “come together” and allow House-Senate conferees to “work out the differences” between the two versions.

“A Senate bill will always have more, cost more, and never pass the House,” Davis said.

“Conversely, a House bill will always have less, cost less, and never pass the Senate. But we have to get a bill passed in each chamber so that we can get to a conference committee and actually have a true farm bill and a good, commonsense solution.” — Martin Ross

House Ag Committee gearing up for farm bill

Amid a budget fray that’s put crop insurance on the firing line, bipartisan U.S. House Ag Committee members Rodney Davis and Cheri Bustos are counting on the committee’s customary camaraderie to come through for farmers.

The committee plans to begin markup of a new farm bill package May 15. Davis, a Taylorville Republican, was “cautiously optimistic” House leaders will stay on track toward a farm bill vote by September.

Davis: SNAP compromise possible with innovation Information Age innovation could point the way toward “food stamp” program savings and farm bill accord, a Central Illinois congressman suggests.

House Ag Committee member Rodney Davis, a Taylorville Republican, recognizes continued division between the Senate and the House, particularly over food and nutrition program spending levels.

Last year, the Senate proposed a roughly $4 billion cut in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funding over a 10-year period, targeting largely program administration and oversight costs. A 2012 House Ag Committee framework called for closer to $12 billion in cuts.

Davis sees “innovative ways” to reduce fraud and waste and thus costs in the program “without taking benefits away from those who need it the most.”

For example, just as retailers can use grocery discount or “loyalty” cards to track consumer buying preferences, he suggests Washington could identify waste or fraud via data collected through use of Illinois Link or similar electronic benefit cards issued to SNAP recipients.

“Most Americans don’t want to be on SNAP — they want to

view it as a temporary solution,” Davis told FarmWeek. “But we have to ensure we don’t create generation after generation of recipients that don’t see SNAP as a temporary safety net. We have to find ways to stamp that fraud and that waste out.”

But while reconciling food stamp funding remains a key challenge in reaching a farm bill compromise, he argued SNAP inclusion is “the political reality of farm bill politics.” Food and nutrition programs are crucial to generating farm bill support among urban lawmakers for whom “the closest farm is a backyard garden at a high-rise,” Davis said.

Further, SNAP offers increased opportunities for specialty growers to take their wares to a new consumer segment. USDA last week announced a $4 million plan to increase use of federal food credits at farmers’ markets.

The initiative will expand wireless access to qualified retailers that do not already accept payments through SNAP. Last year, Congress approved grant funding to help markets buy or lease wireless point-of-sale equipment.

Funding will be available through Sept. 30. Grants should “increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables to SNAP customers,” Ag Undersecretary Kevin Concannon maintained. — Martin Ross

GOVERNMENT

Page 5 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

Farmers’ ‘skin’ at stake in ag spending debate

BY MARTIN ROSS FarmWeek

If crop insurance saved the skin of more than one Illinois farmer last year, Illinois Farm Bureau risk management specialist Doug Yoder is quick to point out those farmers themselves had considerable “skin in the game.”

Relatively heavy 2012 crop payouts have placed a presidential bull’s eye on federal crop insurance premium subsidies. As of last week, largely drought-related Illinois losses accounted for $3.3 billion of a nationwide $16.9 billion in 2012 claims.

However, in Cumberland County — which suffered the state’s greatest loss ratio (claims relative to premiums paid), with claims of about $39.5 million — farmers paid $1.4 million at an average $14.07 per acre for 2012 coverage. That’s even with a 58 percent average premium subsidy.

Even in Mercer County, which sustained $2.95 million in claims vs. $10.34 million in premiums, growers paid $4.57 million, or $21.01 per acre, in 2012 policy costs.

“When farmers are talking to their elected officials, it’s handy for them to know just how much skin in the game they have,” Yoder stressed.

“There’s a lot of misinfor-

vested in the local communities — fertilizer dealerships,

mation out there — a lot of major media saying farmers don’t pay for crop insurance, that somehow it’s free. In Illinois alone last year, farmers paid nearly $333 million outof-pocket. We have a lot of skin in the game — it’s not free.”

As of April 22, U.S. farmers had purchased more than 236,000 policies for 2013 — covering nearly 87 million acres and $20 billion in potential liability — at an estimated cost of $800 million in farmer-paid premiums.

Farmers have spent more than $30 billion out-of-pocket to purchase crop insurance since 2000. In 2012 alone, farmers invested more than $4.1 billion in more than 1.2 million crop insurance policies, protecting 128 different crops.

Purdue University ag economist Chris Hurt argues that without crop insurance indemnities flowing to Midwest producers, some rural communities in drought-ravaged areas would have been economically devastated.

In Indiana, the “incomestabilizing impact” of crop insurance is “the primary reason (Indiana’s) farm sector income has not collapsed under drought losses,” the Hoosier economist said.

“That money gets rein-

Here are, in yellow, the 10 Illinois counties with the highest loss ratios (claims payouts relative to premiums paid) and, in green, the 10 that reported the lowest loss ratios, illustrating farmer investment in crop insurance. Counties have varying premium subsidy levels — for example, subsidies are higher at lower coverage levels common particularly in some deep Southern Illinois counties, Illinois Farm Bureau risk management specialist Doug Yoder reported.

East Moline Democrat, joined Iowa Democrat Reps. Bruce Braley and Dave Loebsack at Mississippi Lock 15 near Rock Island to support the measure.

We have to look at innovative approaches for planning, design, construction, and financing.”

Bustos cited support for

implement dealerships, seed, all the tons of local indus-

tries farmers help support,” Yoder said.

Illinois congressmen seek ‘innovative’ river partnerships Keeping river commerce flowing will require fresh new private “revenue streams,” according to a pair of Illinois U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members.

U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos recently introduced the Water Infrastructure Now PublicPrivate Partnership Act along with Springfield Democrat Sen. Dick Durbin, Highland Park Republican Sen. Mark Kirk, and fellow Transportation Committee member Rodney Davis, a Taylorville Republican.

The bill encourages publicprivate partnerships that could speed lock upgrades and reportedly save taxpayer funds. Last week, Bustos, an

‘It can’t be same old, same old anymore.

We have to look at innovative approaches for planning, design, construction, and financing.’

— U.S. Rep. Cheri Bustos East Moline Democrat

“We have $60 billion in backlogged projects on our lock-and-dam system,” she told FarmWeek. “It can’t be same old, same old anymore.

the measure from groups such as the national Waterways Council Inc. and American Waterways Operators, Illinois Corn Growers Association,

Barge accident causes oil spill

A chain-reaction accident on the Mississippi River near Alton last week caused an oil spill and 14 barges to break free.

The Coast Guard as of Friday was assessing the environmental impact of roughly 300 gallons of crude oil it report-

ed had spilled into the river.

The accident forced an hour-long closure of a four-mile stretch of the Mississippi near Alton. All of the runaway barges were corralled and secured, the Associated Press reported.

Illinois Soybean Association, and Illinois Farm Bureau. She said she hopes it can be incorporated into comprehensive Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) reauthorization.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee recently approved a WRDA package, and the Senate’s expected this week to set the stage for WRDA floor debate.

That package reportedly would include provisions of the RIVER Act, an industrysupported plan aimed at prioritizing projects, improving U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project operations, and replenishing lock improvement resources under the Inland Waterways Trust Fund through a 30-45 percent hike in barge diesel fuel taxes.

Meanwhile, the House Transportation/Infrastructure Committee is reviewing its own WRDA proposals. Representative Davis and Belleville Democrat Rep. Bill Enyart are

promoting a separate bill that would enable the Corps to respond more quickly to maintain river traffic during drought or flood events.

According to a new Congressional Budget Office report, the water projects portion of the Senate bill would cost $3.4 billion over the 2014-2018 period.

Bustos applauds industry willingness to accept higher “user fees” in order to boost industry cost-share funds, but maintains private partnerships would offer a fresh funding infusion that would further offset federal costs.

Even if Congress fully funded currently proposed lock projects, their completion would take at least 40 years on the Corps’ year-toyear appropriations schedule, Davis told FarmWeek.

“We have to have a better revenue stream to be able to make that happen, and that’s where our approach to private-public partnerships comes in,” he said. — Martin Ross

FarmWeek Page 6 Monday, May 6, 2013

CROPWATCHERS Bernie Walsh, Durand, Winnebago County: Greetings from Winnebago County where my wife, Deb, and I farm about two miles from the Wisconsin state line. We raise corn, soybeans, and wheat and sell seed. This is my ninth year writing Cropwatcher reports, and this year is starting out very different than most. We had record amounts of rainfall in April — about 8 inches here at our farm, and 10 inches in other parts of the county.

That was welcome rain to begin with because of last year’s drought, and most of it soaked in, but there was considerable flooding along the creeks and rivers. Because of all that rain, the planting season has been delayed by about 10 days to two weeks. There was some corn planting last week on the higher ground before Thursday’s rain. The planters are now parked again. I hope everyone has a safe and prosperous year.

Pete Tekampe, Grayslake, Lake County: I’m from Lake County — one of the longest-term Cropwatcher (21 years). I farm corn, beans, and Phoenix in the winter. In two weeks, I will retire as supervisor of Freemont Township after 20 years. Where did the time go? There has not been much fieldwork done in Lake County. We had two 80degree days, which really turned everything green. Ground was almost ready Thursday before the rains started again. We got 0.7 of an inch of rain Thursday night. Not much flooding damage in Freemont Township. Thank God my great grandfather settled in Freemont Township, where it stayed mostly dry. Unfortunately, rain is in the forecast the next several days.

Leroy Getz, Savanna, Carroll County: Welcome to Northwestern Illinois from the Lucky Clover Dairy Farm on a very cold 38-degree May morning. The first spring work in the area was some potato planting on April 4 on the sand. After 11.3 inches of rain in April, some flooding and very soggy fields, we were able to seed our oats and alfalfa on April 26 — one of the latest seedings that I can remember. Some corn was planted on April 28, but at this time, only a small percentage has been planted. We have not planted yet and are waiting for some time to pass after the anhydrous application.

Ryan Frieders, Waterman, DeKalb County: Hello from Waterman. I am really looking forward to the 2013 growing season.

April showers have brought more than 10 inches of much-needed precipitation. The rain helped recharge groundwater supplies, but at the same time it has also slowed spring fieldwork. Thursday was the first day that any tillage was done, and then that night we received more rain. There are a few fields of corn planted in the area, but they are few and far between. Planting progress is less than 2 percent.

We are ready and waiting for the work to begin.

Larry Hummel, Dixon, Lee County: It is great to be back for another season of Cropwatchers. I farm with my brother, nephew, and son where the corn always grows tall and bean pod heavy.

Well, except for last year. This past week was a mixed bag for fieldwork. North of us, there were six good days of fieldwork and a chunk of corn was planted. Closer to home, not much happened until the middle of the week and then Thursday’s rain shut everything down. It’s hard to believe that I’m actually hoping that we are on the short side of rainfall this time around. Just save it for July, please.

Joe Zumwalt, Warsaw, Hancock County: Welcome to a cold and rainy 2013. Winter can go now!

My family and I farm mainly along the Mississippi River between Warsaw and Quincy. We grow corn and soybeans, but also a little wheat, alfalfa, Charolais cattle, and Arabian horses. What a winter! And it seems to not want to end. As I wrote this, snow was falling just 100 miles to the west of me. Very little corn has been planted, but I would guess that 10-15 percent of the crop is in locally. Some was planted in early April and more last week. There has been a lot of fieldwork in areas with spraying and cultivating on the lighter ground, but overall very little field activity for the first week of May. On a brighter note, the winter wheat is looking decent. This year is looking to be another unusual year. Looking forward to sharing the rest of the growing season with you.

Ken Reinhardt, Seaton, Mercer County: Corn planting is off to a rough start with more than 6 inches of rain in April. Planters were running the last few days and corn planting is 10 to 20 percent done. With a couple of inches of ice water on freshly planted seed of dubious quality, it will be interesting to watch.

Ron Moore, Roseville, Warren County: Hello again from soggy Western Illinois. The drought has officially broken. I had water in my basement again Friday morning. We have had 18 inches of moisture since Jan. 1.

That is more rain in four months than we received in all of 2012.

This is the second time water has been in my basement this spring. More rain was forecast for the weekend and this week.

Now for some positive news: We started planting Wednesday. We had two good days of avoiding wet spots and now have about 25 percent of the corn acres planted. The pastures could sure use some warm sunshine.

The grass is green but not growing very fast.

It is rapidly becoming a very late spring.

Jacob Streitmatter, Princeville, Peoria County: Another spring season is here. Early April allowed for some nitrogen applications and fieldwork, but it was followed by the flood of 2013. My rain gauge was full! Brought back memories of 2009 and 2010. As far as damage goes, everything was pretty much destroyed. It was amazing to see how many farmers own dirt scrapers, and so many old plows were dug out of the barn and used to fill in gullies. On a different note, some corn has been planted, but many are waiting for the weekend rain event to pass.

Tim Green, Wyoming, Stark County: I farm 70 percent corn and 30 percent beans on the border of Stark and Marshall counties.

This spring is going to be as hard as last spring was easy. We planted our first corn on Wednesday, and on Friday morning it was raining again. Conditions were marginal, but we wanted to get a little corn planted the first part of May. We had 7 to 7.5 inches of rain in April, which caused a lot of gullies. People are working hard cleaning up fields, fixing tiles, etc. to keep their minds off of how late it is getting.

Mark Kerber, Chatsworth, Livingston County: Welcome to another year of the infamous Cropwatchers. Hopefully, we will get our seeds planted so we will have a crop to watch. Livingston County is a large county with many variable soil types and a ridge that runs through it that was left by a glacier. Along this ridge are slowdraining soils and a lot of rock. We also are blessed with some of the dark, well-drained soils. The ground is now full of water and tiles are running as we wait for warm, dry weather to dry our top soil enough to plant. There was some field activity last week, including spraying, cultivating, and a small amount of corn planting.

It still is a little muddy and farmers were waiting to see what this last rain event will do. Markets could go either direction, depending on summer weather. Be prepared.

Ron Haase, Gilman, Iroquois County: Hello again! I farm with my brother, David, on the western side of Iroquois County near La Hogue. We are the fourth generation of farmers in our family and the third generation at this location. We plant all corn on our farms. The last time we planted soybeans was in 2003. We have nothing planted as I make out this report, much like the slow start to planting in the years of 2009 and 2011. In 2010 and 2012, corn planting was mostly done at this point. Some planters did hit the fields last week with a few starting on Tuesday and others on Wednesday and Thursday. We had showers that brought things to halt on Thursday with more expected over the next two days. We had 5.5 inches of rain spread out over the month of April. The cold and wet soils eliminated most opportunities to get into the field. Local closing bids Thursday were: nearby corn, $6.84; newcrop corn, $5.35; nearby soybeans, $14.52; new-crop soybeans, $11.80. Corn bids are a little higher than a year ago at this time, while new-crop soybeans are lower with nearby soybeans similar to last year.

Brian Schaumburg, Chenoa, McLean County: Hello from northeastern McLean County. A lot of new paint sits idle as farmers wait for drier weather. No fieldwork was done in April.

Thursday gave us our only day to plant and a few were able to take advantage. Some pre-plant and burndown herbicide has been applied. On the bright side, soils are fully recharged from last year’s drought. Prices at Prairie Central Co-op: corn, $6.97, fall, $5.39; soybeans, $14.64, fall, $11.80; wheat, $6.91.

Steve Ayers, Champaign, Champaign County: Raindrops ... keep falling on my head again and will continue through today.

We had 0.5 of an inch Thursday in a thunderstorm and 0.6 of an inch Thursday night with another 1 to 1.5 inches expected.

Ivesdale, in southwestern Champaign County, was hit Thursday with a cell that dropped 3 inches of rain in 20 minutes plus significant hail. More rain is expected beginning this Thursday.

Fieldwork in the area has been minimal. I have seen reports that corn planted April 5 emerged in 20 days or 127 growing degree days. Stay dry!

Wilfred Dittmer, Quincy, Adams County: Greetings from Adams County where we are still cold and have more rain in the forecast. There is very little corn planted in this area and some fertilizer has been applied. Southern parts of the county had corn planted a couple weeks ago.

Quite a contrast to last year.

Rainfall here totaled 7.5 inches since April 1.

Lawn mowing is almost a full-time job. Have a safe week in the fields and on the road as the new farming season begins.

Carrie Winkelmann, Tallula, Menard County: My husband, Kyle, and I farm mainly corn and soybeans with my in-laws in Menard County. I grew up farming with my dad in Farmersville, in northern Montgomery County. I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Illinois. I have been the ag literacy coordinator in Menard and Sangamon counties for 10 years. I have one daughter (16 months old) and another child due in late September. Now on to the good stuff: We started planting corn on the last day of April after receiving 4.7 inches of rain during the month. We put in a couple fields of beans Wednesday and Thursday. We have been successful in working around rains and getting some spraying done, but the big topic here is the late spring and all the rain, as I am sure it is everywhere else. We have been catching five cutworms moths a day in my trap for a week now, so that could be a problem this year.

Tom Ritter, Blue Mound, Macon County: Rains came in overnight Thursday. Friday morning, the total was 0.6 of an inch, but there was a lousy forecast for the next four or five days. We got in a day and a half of planting corn. For the most part, most fields have been too wet to get in and plant anything. Less than 5 percent of the acreage in this area has been planted. Fields also have been too wet for application of chemicals. Many fields are getting green and are going to require an extra tillage or extra burndown to bring the weeds under control. Farmers are anxious after being spoiled by last year when a lot of corn was planted the end of March or the first week of April and planting was done by mid-April.

This year hardly anything was planted in the month of April. It will be a challenging year, but each year is new and different.

Jeff Guilander, Jerseyville, Jersey County: We are off to a roaring start for 2013. So far the only fieldwork around here has involved a baseball and an umpire. Field tiles started running the last week of March and have not stopped. I am not complaining because it sure beats the alternative. On the other hand, Jersey County Grain in Hardin can be reached by boat only, which makes it awfully hard to deliver corn. With the temperatures and the rain, everybody seems a lot less anxious than normally would be expected. But if the sun shines for a few days, I am sure things will change in a hurry.

Page 7 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

CROPWATCHERS Todd Easton, Charleston, Coles County: As the calendar turns, it brings another exciting Cropwatcher season amid another one of those rainy, late-start springs. So far, the weather pattern and planting situation bear little resemblance to 2012. Older farmers have been quick to say one extreme follows another, and the current extreme is too cold and too wet for about all of the last month. Along with regular cold spells, April brought us more than 7 inches of rainfall, keeping fieldwork to a minimum.

A very small window in the first week enabled a handful of fields to be planted and they are just beginning to emerge. On Wednesday, conditions were finally at the point where light sprayers could go, and several did. A few tillage tools, and one planter that I know of soon followed, but it was short-lived when popup showers started mid-afternoon. Thursday brought us another quick 1.25 inches of moisture, and the forecast was calling for more.

About the only good news for now is the goodlooking wheat crop scattered about in a few locations around the county, including some on my farm for the first time in several years.

We will keep our fingers crossed that the other crops will soon be in the ground where they should be and the growing season can begin.

Jimmy Ayers, New City, Sangamon County: My wife, Sydney, and I farm at New City, which is 10 miles southeast of Springfield. We have 550 acres of corn and 370 acres of beans. We also custom farm 370 acres of corn and 210 acres of beans, for a total production of 920 acres of corn and 580 acres of beans this year. Our daughter, Catherine, is a senior at the University of Illinois. Our son, Cameron, will be graduating from Lincolnland Community College in Springfield. We are striving to produce 300 bushels of corn and 100 bushels of beans per acre. It has been a slow start to the 2013 production season. We have worked quite a bit of ground, which was wet. Some corn was planted April 3-4 through about April 7-8 and some of that is starting to come up. It is extremely pale yellow. There was fieldwork done late last week. We sprayed chemicals on the no-till ground that was more solid. We had 0.5 of an inch of rain overnight Thursday, and it was raining Friday morning.

Doug Uphoff, Shelbyville, Shelby County: I am a fourthgeneration farmer (also a grandpa now) and my son, Elliott, is following in my footsteps as a farmer and an employee of Effingham Equity. We’ve had rain and more rain. I wish the corn was growing as well as the weeds are. But for that to happen, we would have to have the corn planted, wouldn’t we? Very little corn countywide has been planted. Henbit and winter annuals are major problems in some fields of the county and it is too wet to spray. Some have sprayed, but the fields were rutted severely. Rainfall for the last five years on our farm for April, May and June is as follows: 2009 April, 6.1 inches; May, 8.6; June, 5.6; finished planting corn June 4 that year. In April of 2010, we received 3.4 inches of rain; May, 3.3; June, 13.85. In April 2011, 9.1; May, 3.5; June, 4.8. In April of 2012, 5.7; May, 1.6; June, 0.2 of an inch. This April, 8.2 inches; May, 1.5 so far.

David Schaal, St. Peter, Fayette County: Welcome back to soggy Fayette County for the 2013 growing season. What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, it was hot and dry, and now we are wet and unseasonably cool. We’ve had above-normal precipitation for the month of April, totaling about 7 inches. Planting progress for the county is slim to none. There has been a little bit of anhydrous applied and some spraying done, along with some fertilizer spreading. Last year at this time, corn had emerged in the Kaskaskia River bottom and now the water is out in the bottoms. The river levees broke in the Vandalia area in seven or eight different places. Farmers who farm in the bottom ground have sent their seed corn back and are hoping to plant beans on those acres. Cash grain prices: corn, $6.90; beans, $14.57; wheat, $7.18.

Weather forecast was for a wet and cool weekend, so nothing is going to happen in the fields anytime soon. Nobody is in panic mode yet, but we are hoping for drier and warmer weather.

Dave Hankammer, Millstadt, St. Clair County: Welcome back to another crop growing season and the weather challenges farmers must deal with to produce food, fiber, and fuel in the State of Illinois. I farm in a partnership with my brother. We grow corn, soybeans, and wheat in St. Clair County between the City of Belleville and the Town of Millstadt.

I also serve as president of the St. Clair County Farm Bureau. Spring fieldwork started later than last year due to a more typical winter weather pattern and early spring snowfall. Farmers were able to start fieldwork during the first few days of April by applying herbicide to wheat fields and to fields intended for corn. Anhydrous application to cornfields started off at a slow pace on some of the better-drained fields, but picked up speed as field conditions became favorable for fieldwork.

During the month of April, we received almost 9 inches of rain, which delayed corn planting for most farmers. I observed some cornfields planted in the river bottoms during April, and now they have to deal with flooding conditions. As I submit this report, more cold rain was falling and it was predicted to last through the weekend. Local grain bids: corn, $6.53; soybeans, $14.52; wheat, $7.20.

Rick Corners, Centralia, Jefferson County: Well, they haven’t fired me yet, so I’m back for another year of reporting on the life and times of a Southern Illinois farmer. Fact or fiction — it’s hard to predict.

Believe what you may. What a difference a year makes. A year ago, all of the corn was planted and a lot of the beans also. The wheat was headed and a lot of hay already had been cut. This year finds nothing planted — zero, nada, zip, zilch. Some ammonia was applied about a month ago, but with the rain falling now, and the seven-day forecast calling for multiple inches of precip, it looks like we won’t be in the field for awhile.

Dan Meinhart, Montrose, Jasper County: Welcome to another late spring. The rivers were out of their banks for a couple of weeks in April. Light showers moved through the area Thursday. No planting has taken place this spring. Some fertilizer and herbicide were applied earlier this spring. The second shot of nitrogen and herbicide has been applied on the wheat. Some fungicide also has been applied. More rain and cooler temperatures were in the forecast for the weekend.

Kevin Raber, Browns, Wabash County: Corn planting has been going strong locally. I didn’t get any corn planted in April, but I planted on Wednesday and Thursday.

Friday morning brought a drizzling rain, so fieldwork may be done for awhile. The wheat crop looks good, and will be ready for fungicide treatment soon.

Dean Shields, Murphysboro, Jackson County: My wife, Patty, and I farm in Jackson County in the river bottom ground, and we’ve been there for several years. The weather is not going to cooperate starting out this year. We’ve had a lot of rain and a lot of floodwater. As of right now, very little corn has been planted. Most of the ground has had anhydrous put on it and is ready for corn, but it has just been too wet to plant. No beans planted, of course. The wheat crop looks pretty decent. I hope this rain is not going to take us back to 2011 with all of the flooding.

Randy Anderson, Galatia, Saline County: Some planting took place this past week.

We are approaching 30 to 35 percent on corn for the county.

There are scattered reports of a few producers planting some soybeans. Still quite a few pockets of very wet soil conditions, so it is not ideal for planting.

Wheat looks very good. Flag leaf has emerged.

Ken Taake, Ullin, Pulaski County: Welcome to a new season of Cropwatchers. I farm with my two brothers in the rolling hills of Pulaski County in deep Southern Illinois. What a difference a year makes.

Although a few area farmers started planting corn as early as the beginning of April, the weather has really kept planting progress behind normal. So far, we’ve only managed to plant about 60 acres of corn. It was raining again Friday morning as I called in this report. Heavy rains were predicted for the weekend, with totals up to 3 inches. It just seems like every time it almost dries out enough to get in the fields, another set of showers comes through. Please take time to be careful as we enter this busy planting season.

April fourth-wettest on record; more flooding expected

BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek

Farmers usually don’t complain about rain, particularly after a historic drought.

But many people probably are hoping and praying Mother Nature will tighten the water spigot after more downpours inundated the state late last week and more was expected over the weekend.

“We have a low-pressure system from the west that’s expected to drop quite a bit of precipitation across the state (through the weekend),” Jim Angel, state climatologist with

the Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois/Illinois State Water Survey, said Friday.

“We expect to see quite a bit of flooding from these events.”

A wide swath of Illinois, from the Quad Cities in the northwest to the southeast tip of the state, was expected to receive 1 to 3 inches of rain during the weekend. Rainfall was expected to be lightest in the northeast corner of the state.

“That’s pretty substantial, especially when a lot (of rain) is falling on soil that already is saturated,” Angel said.

The National Weather Service Friday issued flood watches and warnings along the Illinois, Mississippi, and Wabash Rivers.

The Mississippi River last month at St. Louis crested at 35.5 feet, 5.5 feet above flood stage, on April 25. As of Friday the Mississippi was projected to swell again, to nearly 35 feet, at St. Louis by Thursday.

The torrential downpours last week continued a remarkable tur naround from last year’s drought.

Illinois in April received an average of 6.9 inches of pre-

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

cipitation, 3.13 inches above t h e l o n g - t e r m ave r a g e, t o become the four th-wettest April on record, Angel noted.

“It’s really incredible,” he said. “We’ve gone from a fullblown, serious drought in 2012 to this year it’s doing the exact opposite. We had way too much precipitation in April.”

The temperature, meanwhile, was quite a bit below average last month. The average temperature in the state in April was 50.1 degrees, 2.3 degrees below normal.

The combination of cool, cloudy days and above-average

rainfall kept soils at many locations saturated in April and so far this month.

“We’ve had a lot of cool, cloudy days,” Angel said. “So even when it’s not raining, it’s not doing much to dr y the soils.”

Topsoil moisture statewide last week, prior to the latest round of downpours, was rated 55 percent surplus and 45 percent adequate.

The forecast for this week was for drier and warmer cond i ti o n s wi th tem p era tures expected to heat up into the 70s, Angel added.

AROUND ILLINOIS

FarmWeek Page 8 Monday, May 6, 2013

NRCS putting more emphasis on revised nutrient standards

BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Illinois recently released updated nutrient management standards.

NRCS will put more emphasis on those revised standards, commonly referred to as “590,” when farmers apply for conservation programs that involve nutrient practices, said Brett Roberts, NRCS

state conservation agronomist.

NRCS spent six months on the revision and worked closely with agriculture and other interest groups, including Illinois Farm Bureau.

In its comments, IFB encouraged NRCS to make the standards flexible enough so farmers will continue to enroll in conservation programs.

“There has never been more effort applied to one

project where stakeholders have had so much input and influence on the final product,” Roberts told FarmWeek. “We (NRCS) wanted to do this with them.

The outcome is largely due to their recommendations and input.”

The management standards cover a range of nutrient-related practices, including application rates and timing, and sug gested actions to minimize water

Illinois wheat tour slated May 21

Wheat growers in the state later this month will have a better handle on the yield potential of this year’s crop.

The Illinois Wheat Association (IWA) on May 21 will host its annual Southern Illinois Wheat Tour.

Participants will conduct field checks, assess disease pressure, and calculate yield estimates.

Tour participants will begin the tour at 9 a.m. from one of three locations.

They are: Siemer Milling Co., 111, W. Main St. Teutopolis (217-857-3131); Mennel Milling Co., 415 E. Main St., Mt. Olive (217-9992161); and Wehmeyer Seed Co., 7167 Highbanks Rd., Mascoutah (618-615-9037). Those interested should contact the company from

which they wish to depart prior to their arrival.

An evening report session and dinner will be held at the conclusion of the tour at the Brownstown FarmWeekNow.com Agronomy Check out details of the recent Research CenKansas wheat tour results at ter. Tour particFarmWeekNow.com. ipants can make a dinner reservation by contacting the IWA office at 309557-3169 or email cblary@ilfb.org by May 17.

Those unable to attend the tour but who would like to take their own wheat crop samples for testing should contact IWA for instructions to ensure sampling procedures are consistent.

and air pollution.

Roberts envisioned the revised standards, which include a risk assessment of potential nitrate and phosphorous losses, being applied when a farmer develops a nutrient management plan.

The plan would detail how nitrogen would be added to a field, the potential ways nitrate may be lost, and how potential losses would be addressed, he explained.

“I don’t think they (farmers) will see a huge difference, at least with fertilizer

management,” Roberts said of the revised standards. “It is almost hard for farmers to find ways to be more efficient than they already are with nutrients.”

Instead, NRCS is looking at other conservation practices for farmers to implement with fertilizer management, Roberts said. For example, fall cover crops could help recycle excess nutrients.

For more information, contact your local NRCS office.

Six districts selected for wind energy ed projects

The Illinois Wind for Schools (ILWFS) program, based at Western Illinois University (WIU) and Illinois State University (ISU), last week selected six districts for wind energy education projects during the 2013-2014 school year.

The districts are: Freeport School District 145, Stephenson County; Collinsville Community Unit School District 10, Madison County; Jasper County Community School District 1; Champaign Community Unit School District 4 and Prairieview-Odgen Community Consolidation School District 197, both in Champaign County; and Webber Township High School District 204, Jefferson County.

ILWFS is made possible through Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grants and is sponsored through a partnership with the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at WIU, the WIU College of Business and Technology, the Center for Renewable Energy at ISU, and the ISU College of Education.

The program integrates wind energy topics into the classroom, and offers curriculum resources, teacher professional development, on-site technical assistance, and instructional equipment to middle school and high school teachers throughout Illinois.

The ILWFS program will begin this summer with a teacher workshop for all participating teachers at each of the six schools. Teachers will be given curricula and lesson plans, equipment for hands-on activities, and basic supplies at no cost.

The wind energy curriculum covers energy and electricity, wind and weather, turbines and engineering, environmental considerations, and economics.

In the fall, ILWFS staff will install scientific weather instrumentation at each of the six schools. Wind energy lessons will be integrated into the existing curriculum throughout the year with the program concluding in the spring.

In addition to working with the six schools, the ILWFS program will offer a free summer workshop for any Illinois middle school or high school educator interested in incorporating wind energy topics into his or her curriculum.

For more information, call WIU’s Jolene Willis at 309-2982835 or ISU’s Matt Aldeman at 309-438-1440.

Chicago Farmers to discuss estate planning The Chicago Farmers will discuss goal-based estate planning for farms and farming during the group’s May 13 annual meeting in the Athena Restaurant, 212 S. Halsted, Chicago. The registration deadline is May 10.

The speaker will be Ray Odom, senior vice president and director of wealth transfer strategies of The Northern

Trust Co. Members also will elect officers for 2013-2014 and award the plowman of the year.

Registration will be limited to the first 80 committed and/or reservations. Registration will start at 11:30 a.m. followed by lunch and the program at noon.

The fee for members is $25 in advance or $35 at the door.

The fee for non-members is $50.

To make a reservation, go online to {chicagofarmers.org} or call 312-388-3276.

Page 9 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

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PRODUCTION

FarmWeek Page 10 Monday, May 6, 2013

Wheat nears critical phase; disease outbreaks possible

BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek

The majority of the Illinois winter wheat crop was in good to excellent condition as of the first of last week.

But the crop may be getting too much of a good thing as heavy rains in recent weeks could increase disease pressure just as the crop enters its critical heading phase.

“We’re coming up on a critical time,” said Steve Stallman, a wheat grower from Chester (Randolph County) and president of the Illinois Wheat Association (IWA). “We need dry weather so we don’t have a scab outbreak.”

Illinois, unfortunately, was in line for more drenching showers through the weekend and into this week, particularly in Southern Illinois wheat country, if Friday’s weather forecast hold true.

“With this wet weather we could see diseases like tan spots, septoria leaf spot, and powdery mildew show up at any time,” Kyle Brase, a wheat grower from Edwardsville (Madison County) and IWA vice president, told the RFD Radio Network.

Last week, the condition of the Illinois wheat crop was rated 77 percent good to excellent, 21 percent fair, and just 2 percent poor.

Most fields received timely applications of nitrogen, despite the wet spring, and some farmers applied fungicide in recent weeks, Brase reported.

Stallman said he believes most wheat growers will spend the time and money, if necessary, to apply fungicides to protect this year’s crop since it has such good yield potential.

“But they may need to use aerial applications this year because the ground is so wet,” Stallman said.

The size of this year’s wheat crop in Illinois, 830,000 acres, is up 26 percent from a year ago.

IWA on May 21 will host its annu-

al wheat tour to scout for disease pressure and estimate the potential wheat yield in Southern Illinois.

A crop tour held last week in Kansas, the largest grower of winter wheat in the U.S., estimated an average yield in central Kansas of 45 bushels per acre.

If realized, that yield would be up slightly from last year’s averages of 44 bushels in central Kansas and 44.5 bushels in the north-central region of the state.

The drought and below-normal temperatures this spring are expected to limit wheat yield potential in the Central and Southern Plains.

IDOA market reports extensive, around the clock

BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek

The Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) offers extensive reports on grain, livestock, and hay markets around the state.

Free reports in audio and text are available online at {agr.state.il.us/news/mrktrprts.html}.

Since last fall, the site added audio reports and

became “a lot more click friendly. Three clicks and you’re there,” Jerry Millburg, an IDOA ag market news reporter, told FarmWeek.

IDOA’s ag marketing news covers five to six livestock auctions weekly. Two sheep auctions also are reported.

Three hay auctions are reported regularly, while a fourth seasonal hay auction is covered from December

through March.

Grain markets are reported daily from Illinois country elevators, Illinois river grain terminals, and Central Illinois soybean and corn processors.

IDOA’s site also offers some of USDA Marketing News Service’s regional and national reports for livestock and grain prices.

Millburg noted a report on Illinois production costs,

located under the Illinois grain report icon, has proved to be “one of the most popular reports.”

Updated twice each week, that report provides price information on six types of fertilizer and diesel fuel.

For more information, contact ag marketing news between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at 217-782-4925 or toll-free at 888-458-4787.

IFB offering election campaign workshop

Illinois Farm Bureau will offer a campaign workshop Aug. 7-8 for candidates and campaign leaders. The non-partisan workshop will cover organizing, managing, and working within election campaigns.

The workshop is geared toward those considering running for office or helping with a candidate’s campaign or a ballot issue.

Participants will learn to select issues, build an organization, raise and manage money, develop strategies, work with political parties, choose a candidate, and develop a campaign calendar.

For more information, contact Kevin Semlow, IFB director of state legislation, at 309557-2308 or email him at semlow@ilfb.org.

U of I Veterinary College offering animal welfare forums to public

The Center for One Health Illinois at the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine will have two free public forums on animal welfare May 21 at the college in Urbana and May 22 at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. Both two-hour programs will include an hour of presentations by a panel of experts followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience.

The speakers and their topics include: Dr. Mark Ernst, state veterinarian with the Illinois Department of Agriculture, state regulatory issues; Janeen Salak-Johnson, U of I College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences (ACES), livestock welfare issues; Dr. Tom Meehan, Brookfield Zoo veterinarian, zoo animal welfare; and Vickie Jarrell, U of I College of ACES: research animal welfare issues.

More information is online at {vetmed.illinois. edu/ope/onehealth}.

Seminar focus farm estate planning

The University of Illinois Tax School is offering a oneday seminar on estate and succession planning June 24 in the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center, Normal. The advance registration deadline is June 17.

“The seminar is designed for hard-working family farmers,” said Gary Hoff, the tax school associate director.

A team of farm estate and succession planning experts will discuss the pros and cons of various entity choices available to farmers. Other topics covered will include gifting, establishing the correct type of trust, and financing retirement.

The speakers include farm consultants, certified public accountants, tax attorneys, and a certified financial planner.

The event will start with breakfast at 7:30 a.m. followed by the program from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The cost is $40 per person through June 17 and includes seminar materials and meals.

After June 17, the fee increases $10 and seating will be available as space permits.

For information, go online to {taxschool.illinois.edu/legacy}. For questions, call the U of I Tax School at 217-3330502.

PRODUCTION

Page 11 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

Remember to call JULIE before digging on the farm

COLORFUL OFFERINGS

BY KAY SHIPMAN FarmWeek

Farmers, and any contractors working for them, may not be aware of the locations of all underground utility lines that cross farm fields.

That’s why it is critical to notify JULIE before beginning any digging project. It’s also the law.

JULIE (Joint Utility Locating Information for Excavators) provides free information about the location of underground utility equipment in Illinois.

State law does not require farmers to call before doing routine tillage, but notification is required for some farmrelated projects, such as installing field tiles, building waterways, and setting posts.

Dave Van Wy, damage prevention manager with JULIE Inc., noted 811 is a national

telephone number that will reach a one-call center in any state. In addition, Illinois’ JULIE has a toll-free number — 800-892-0123. Call center representatives are available to process requests 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Under the law, an individual must call no more than 14 days in advance but at least 48 hours, excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays, before digging. JULIE representatives then notify the appropriate utility companies that send technicians to the project site to mark underground line locations.

For example, an individual

must call by 4 p.m. on a Wednesday if he plans to dig on Saturday, Van Wy explained.

Individuals also may submit a request online at {www.illinois1call.com}, but online requests are designed only for single-address excavations.

The individual filing an online request must have a valid email address and understand the online request is not valid until he or she has received an email confirmation with a start date and time from JULIE. For information, go online to {www.illinois1call.com}.

The Illinois FFA Convention June 11-13 has a new cellphone app that will allow attendees to view schedules, exhibitors, biographies, and more.

FFA members, advisers, and

guests may customize their convention schedules and receive alerts directly on their mobile device.

To download the app, open the app store on your device, install the “Guidebook� app, search for

“85th Illinois FFA Convention,� and download the file.

For more information, contact the state FFA office at 217-753-3328.

Illinois FFA Convention going mobile

Connie Burgett of rural Latham in Logan County, owner of Connie’s Country Greenhouse, last week was busy transplanting salvia. She sells annual and perennial flowers, vegetable plants, and herbs from seeds and cuttings. The 20-year-old business sells wholesale and retail and makes plants available for school fundraising events. Burgett will provide flowers and landscaping for this year’s Farm Progress Show in Decatur. Her husband, Greg, and their son, Elliot, grow corn and soybeans. (Photo by Ken Kashian)

Travel to Paradise with other Farmers!

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This famous Hawaiian Farm Tour has been offered by YMT every year since 1974. Discover the natural wonders and breathtaking scenery as you visit the four main islands. Sightseeing of all the major highlights plus additional, special sightseeing for those in the Ag industry are all included.

Plus you will be accompanied throughout by one of our friendly Polynesian Tour Directors, which adds a unique cultural perspective to your tour experience.

Highlights: Honolulu, world-famous Waikiki Beach, Punchbowl Crater, Pearl Harbor, USS Arizona Memorial, Wailua Riverboat Cruise, mystical Fern Grotto, Steel Grass Farm (bamboo, vanilla and cacao), Old Whaling Capital of Lahaina, lao Valley, Maui Gold Pineapple Plantation, Hilo Orchid Nursery, Volcanoes National Park, Giant Ferns, Macadamia Nut Factory, Black Sand Beaches, Kona Coffee Plantation, Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, Abalone Farm and much more.

Includes: a flower lei aloha greeting, quality hotels, inter-island flights, baggage handling, tour director, special events & escorted sightseeing.

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EDUCATION

FarmWeek Page 12 Monday, May 6, 2013

IAA Foundation names 2013-2014 scholarship winners

Fifty-seven students received college scholarships from the IAA Foundation for the 2013-2014 school year based on their academic ability, leadership involvement, professional career goals, and financial need.

This year, an Illinois Farm Bureau Legacy of Leadership scholarship of $7,500 was awarded for the first time.

“The foundation wants to encourage the best and brightest to pursue careers in agriculture,” said Illinois Farm Bureau President Philip Nelson. “We feel the size of the scholarship sets it apart and will attract students’ attention.

“Agriculture is the bright spot in our economy and our state’s biggest industry,” Nelson continued. “There continue to be many great career opportunities.”

Through contributors and funds set up to honor loved ones and leaders committed to agriculture, $125,900 will be invested through tuition assistance for the upcoming school year.

“It is an honor and a privilege to support so many bright

and deserving young students through our growing and diverse scholarship program,” said Susan Moore, IAA Foundation director. “We will witness the future of the agriculture industry through these students, and it’s a great thing to say we were all a part of that.”

The recipients: Seely Sayre, Arenzville, daughter of Tim and Tracie Sayre, is the first recipient of the Illinois Farm Bureau Legacy of Leadership scholarship. This $7,500 award is given to a student who exemplifies leadership qualities. Sayre will attend the University of Illinois this fall to study pre-veterinary medicine.

Students receiving IAA Foundation general scholarships worth $7,500 each are: Andrew Klein, Amboy, son of Laura Hicks and Terry Klein, Joliet Junior College (JJC); Kelcie Woker, Greenville, daughter of Craig and Jan Woker, U of I; and Erin Salz, Tonica, daughter of Jon and Jolene Salz, U of I. The recipient of the $1,100 IAA Foundation general scholarship in the name of Robert F. Rouse is Trisha Ferguson, Bushnell, daughter of Richard and Beth Ferguson, U of I.

Receiving the $1,000 IAA Foundation general scholarship in the name of Fletcher A. Gourley is Amie Burke, Fithian, daughter of Debbie Burke and Virgil Burke, Illinois State University (ISU).

Receiving the $1,000 IAA Foundation general scholarship in the name of Leonard Southwell is Abby Marten, Effingham, daughter of Kevin and Cheri Marten, U of I. Awarded a $1,000 William J. Kuhfuss Memorial Scholarship is Rachel Vaessen, Sublette, daughter of Michael and Brenda Vaessen, JJC. Receiving a $1,500 Greg Carney Scholarship is Jordan Flewellyn, Lee, daughter of John Flewellyn and Carri Flewellyn, U of I. Awarded the $1,200 Walter and Martha Wills Scholarship is Zachary Kuberski, Tamaroa, son of Paul and Christina Kuberski, Southern Illinois University (SIU) Carbondale.

Receiving a $1,000 Illinois Award is Carmen Savage, Ashland, daughter of Garrett and Julie Savage, U of I. The recipient of a $1,000 Dale E. Butz Scholarship is Ethan Wieland, Princeville, son of Brian and Renee Wieland, Purdue University.

Receiving the Robert F. Rouse

Scholarship worth $1,100 is Lukas Beelow, Mundelein, son of Duane and Karen Beelow, University of Wisconsin-Platteville.

The recipients of Heartland NAMA, Steven Hammerschmidt Scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each are: Elizabeth Collins, Minooka, daughter of William and Melinda Collins, ISU; and Taylor Wilkinson, Wyoming, daughter of Philip and Patricia Wilkinson, U of I. Those students receiving $1,000 Dorothy and Wilhelmine Ratermann Scholarships are: Caroline Bremer, Metropolis, daughter of Jeff and Lisa Bremer, Oklahoma State; Bradley Braddock, Patoka, son of Harry and Angie Braddock, Kaskaskia College; Katelyn Fryman, Ellery, daughter of Wesley and Kelly Fryman, SIU Edwardsville; Tamar Adock, Assumption, daughter of Jim and Jan Adcock, Kansas State University; Emily Tanner, Stonefort, daughter of Brian and Tempa Tanner, St. Louis College of Pharmacy; Alexis Lintker, Venedy, daughter of Carl and Lisa Lintker, Illinois College; Zachary Hollis, Columbia, son of Richard and Gail Hollis, Rose Hulman Institute of Technology; Matthew Hadden, Taylorville, son of Kenny and Susan Hadden, undecided; William (Billy) Hatfield, Dahlgren, son of Richard and Paula Hatfield, U of I; Kea Evans, Carrollton, daughter of David and Sandra Evans, U of I; Kari Weis, Highland, daughter of Richard and Margaret Weis, University of Missouri-Columbia.

Cole Ohnesorge, Altamont, son of Ron and Deb Ohnesorge, ISU; Nicole Hanke, Carlyle, daughter of Timothy and Christine Hanke, SIU; Allyson Renth, Mascoutah, daughter of Randy and Kimberly Renth, Saint Louis University; Kristi Frederking, Nashville, daughter of Mark and Karen Frederking, Maryville University; Amanda Jo Barr, Altamont, daughter of Clyde and Barbara Barr, Oklahoma Panhandle State University; Mary Perkins, Effingham, daughter of Kevin and Carol Perkins, SIU; Samantha Austin, St. Elmo, daughter of Bruce and Terri Austin, Lake Land College; Erin Furmanek, Belleville, daughter of Phil and Celeste Furmanek, U of I; and Evelyn Epplin, Cutler, daughter of David and Susan Epplin, SIU; Recipients of the Fletcher A. Gourley, Leonard Southwell, and Roger Capps Memorial Scholarships, awarded to children of employees of Prairie Farms Dairy in the amount of $2,000 each are: Madelyn Mensing, Breese, daughter of Michael and Monica Mensing, St. Louis College of Pharmacy; Katelyn DeNap, Collinsville, daughter of Daniel DeNap and

Lana Hediger, Missouri State University; Stevi Short, Farmington, Mo., daughter of Robin and Steve Short, University of MissouriKansas City; Sydney Schmidt, Carlinville, daughter of Michael and Lori Schmidt, U of I; Cutter Koehler, Wabash, Ind., son of Phillip and Tracy Koehler, Butler University; and Chelsea Hargrove, Waterloo, daughter of Donald Hargrove and Linda Hargrove, SIU-Edwardsville.

Recipients of the Fletcher A. Gourley, Leonard Southwell, and Roger Capps Memorial Scholarships, awarded to children of patrons of Prairie Farms Dairy in the amount of $2,000 each are: Hilary Charlet, Kewanee, daughter of Kevin and Dawn Charlet, Illinois Wesleyan University; Dayne Voelker, Perryville, Mo., son of Charles and Nancy Voelker, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Jenny Eichhorn, Altenburg, Mo., daughter of John and Reva Eichhorn, University of MissouriKansas City; Bernadette Brehm, Epworth, Iowa, daughter of Tom and Molly Brehm, Clarke University; Laura Wente, Sigel, daughter of Timothy and Betty Wente, University of Missouri-Columbia; and Michele Thole, Trenton, daughter of Ronald and Jeanne Thole, SIU-Edwardsville.

Students receiving a $4,000 Illinois Soybean Association Crop Science Scholarship are: Clayton Carley, Milford, son of Kenton and Lisa Carley, U of I; Kevin Schabacker, Chana, son of Marvin and Shawn Schabacker, SIU; Ben Hutchcraft, Ewing, son of Joey and Rhea Hutchcraft, SIU; Elliott Engele, Nashville, son of Calvin Engele and Jane Tull, SIU; Collin Lynch, Taylorville, son of James and Marsha Lynch, SIU; Michael Probst, Wheeler, son of Randall and Lori Probst, U of I; Elizabeth Bollin, Nauvoo, daughter of Wayne and Lori Bollin, Western Illinois University; Matthew Anzelc, Newark, son of Thomas and Cathleen Anzelc, ISU; Lanae Ringler, Blue Mound, daughter of Brian and Carole Ringler, U of I; and Madison Knezik-Smith, Hamel, daughter of Rebecca Knezik, SIU. Since 1989, the IAA Foundation has awarded 734 cholarships.

“The way to grow our scholarship offerings is through the collective support of Illinois Farm Bureau members and industry partners,” said Moore. Individuals interested in contributing to the general scholarship program may make a donation online or call the foundation office at 309-557-2230 to discuss establishing a new scholarship.

Applications for the 2014-2015 school year will be available on Dec. 1. Specific details and eligibility requirements may be found online at {iaafoundation.org} Dec 1.

FROM THE COUNTIES

Page 13 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

State health department working B on regulations for sale of raw milk A recent focus of the Illinois Department of Public Health’s (IDPH) Food Safety Advisory Committee (FSAC) Dairy Work Group, which met last week in Bloomington, has been to develop rules on the production and sale of raw milk in the state.

Several Illinois dairy farmers serve on this committee and represent producers who sell milk through their dairy cooperative, market their own pasteurized fluid milk, or market raw milk directly to customers.

Currently the sale of raw milk in Illinois is permitted from the farm only, provided the customer brings his own container and the producer does not advertise.

The committee met last week

BY JIM FRALEY

with several raw milk consumers, producers, and supporters. It is focusing on ensuring dairy producers that are selling raw milk do so in a sanitary manner.

Proponents of raw milk consumption cite numerous purported health benefits such as: improved digestion, relief from food allergies, and improvements in the immune system.

IDPH regulations permit the sale of pasteurized milk only on retail shelves. Pasteurization eliminates pathogens which may be harmful to humans.

It is credited with saving many lives in the last 100 years, but raw milk sellers point to many differences today. Knowledge of microbiology and pathology has grown vastly, as have methods of harvesting milk from a cow or

ENVIROTHON CHAMPS

Students from Madison County’s Triad High School will represent Illinois this summer at the North American Envirothon in Bozeman, Mont. Team members left to right are: Lindsey Roberts, Jessica Barberis, Christian Vanhooser, Zachary Jefferson, and Lillian Barkley.

Last week, five-member high school teams tested their knowledge in forestry, soils, aquatics, wildlife, and an environmental issue in a two-day contest at Allerton Park near Monticello. The state and local Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Illinois Farm Bureau were among the contest sponsors. (Photo by Kay Shipman)

LEARNING ABOUT FARMERS

Hadden Farms of Jacksonville, which is operated by Illinois Farm Bureau Director Dale Hadden and his parents and brother, and CassMorgan Farm Bureau teamed up the 18th year in a row to present a farm tour to fourth graders in the two counties. The tours this year were done on five days in late April and involved 21 classrooms and about 435 students. Here, some of the students learn about a planter and other farm machinery from volunteer Dean Werries of Chapin. (Photo by Dee Dee Gellerman, IFB Region 3 manager)

doe in a safe and sanitary manner. They believe they are producing a much higher-quality milk than in the early part of the 20th century.

However, the Centers for Disease Control analyzed its database for dairy-associated disease outbreaks during 1993–2006. It found 121 outbreaks for which the product’s pasteurization status was known. Among these, 73 (60 percent) involved non-pasteurized products and resulted in 1,571 cases, 202 hospitalizations, and two deaths.

The FSAC will continue to work with all stakeholders to develop consensus language that the industry can support. The IDPH has indicated it wishes to have the regulations drafted by the end of 2013.

Jim Fraley is Illinois Farm Bureau’s livestock program director and manager of the Illinois Milk Producers Association.

UREAU — Bureau and Stark County Far m Bureaus will sponsor a day in LeClaire, Iowa, on Wednesday, June 5. Cost is $60. Call the Bureau County Far m Bureau office at 875-6468 for more information or to register. Registration deadline is May 22.

• Far m Bureau, the Bureau County Pork Producers Association, and the Bureau County Cattleman’s Association will sponsor an agricultural ser vice award.

A nominee must be a resident of Bureau County and have given exemplary leadership and ser vice to agriculture and far mers in Bureau County and beyond.

Nomination for ms are available at the Far m Bureau office. Deadline to submit nominations is May 31.

ONTGOMERY — Prime Timers will meet at noon Wednesday, May 15, at the Hillsboro Lions Club. Cost is $9.

Auctioneers Dan Matthews

M

of Nokomis and Gavin Pope of Raymond will host an “Antiques Road Show.”

Call the Far m Bureau office at 532-6171 for more information.

• Prime Timers will see “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” on Wednesday, June 26, at the little Theatre on the Square in Sullivan. Cost is $46. Call the Far m Bureau office at 532-6171 for more infor mation.

ANGAMON — Far m Bureau will visit eight elementary schools today (Monday) through Friday with the AgVenture Barn Tour. Approximately 2,000 elementary students are expected to participate.

S

“From the Counties” items are submitted by county Farm Bureau managers. If you have an event or activity open to all members, contact your county Farm Bureau manager.

PROFITABILITY

FarmWeek Page 14 Monday, May 6, 2013

2013 weed challenges, planting delays reminiscent of ’08-’09

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that this year is shaping up to resemble 2008 with some characteristics of 2009.

It’s amazing to see the yearly contrasts. Last year at this time, corn planting Jeff Bunting already had come and gone, and today we are far behind the five-year average.

BY JEFF BUNTING

The good news is we still have plenty of good planting days ahead.

As we think back to previous years, crop protection challenges vary more drastically today than they did even five years ago.

The number of glyphosateresistant weeds has grown and the use of other chemistries has increased.

While we continue to see increasing rates of glyphosate and the use of residuals to manage or mitigate glyphosate-resistant weeds, both have evolved into effec-

Illinois Forage Expo set for July

The 2013 Illinois Forage Expo will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Tuesday, July 16. Adam Schroeder, Coal Valley, will host the event on Niabi Zoo Road, just east of the zoo in Rock Island County.

The expo will include field demonstrations of forage-harvesting equipment and commercial displays of forage-related products and equipment. Educational sessions focusing on forage management will be offered.

Farmers may compete in a free quality hay and haylage contest for forage harvested in 2013. Entries must be delivered between 8:30 and 10 a.m. to the site. Bales weighing more than 100 pounds will need an official scale weight ticket.

Four hay classes and a haylage class will be available. Winners will receive a certificate.

To reach the expo site, take the Quad Cities airport exit from the I-74/I-280 interchange and go east on Route 6/First Avenue, which turns into 69th Avenue. Continue about three miles to Niabi Zoo Road. Then turn right and travel 1.5 miles to the expo.

More information on the expo will be available in several weeks at {illinoisforage.org}.

The Forage Expo is co-sponsored by the Illinois Forage and Grassland Council, University of Illinois Extension, and Natural Resources Conservation Service.

M A R K E T FA C T S Feeder pig prices reported to USDA* Weight 10-12 lbs.

40 lbs.

Range Per Head $30.55-$48.00 NA

Weighted Ave. Price $38.12 NA

This Week Last Week 93,478 82,800 *Eastern Corn Belt prices picked up at seller’s farm Receipts

Eastern Corn Belt direct hogs (plant delivered) Carcass Live

(Prices $ per hundredweight) This week Prev. week Change NA NA NA NA NA NA

USDA five-state area slaughter cattle price (Thursday’s price) Steers Heifers

This week NA NA

Prev. week $127.21 $126.00

Change

CME feeder cattle index — 600-800 Lbs. This is a composite price of feeder cattle transactions in 27 states.

(Prices $ per hundredweight) Prev. week Change This week NA $134.35

Lamb prices Slaughter Prices - Negotiated, Live, wooled and shorn 85-169 lbs. for 105.86-138 $/cwt. (wtd. ave. 119.23); 175-195 lbs. for 112-115 $/cwt. (wtd. ave. 112.60)

Export inspections (Million bushels) Week ending

Soybeans Wheat Corn NA NA NA Crop marketing year began June 1 for wheat and Sept. 1 for corn and soybeans.

tive weed management strategies.

The impact of this delayed spring could bring us back to the weed challenges that we saw in 2008 and 2009 where residual herbicides and possibly 2,4-D was left out because of the busy season.

In those years planting was delayed, and in order to avoid the plant-back restrictions, 2,4D was not applied in the burndown applications. The planned residual herbicide program was eliminated because soybeans emerged in fewer than three days.

This all resulted in issues during the post-application

season when it came to providing effective levels of control. The impact of the compressed season this year could change our strategy as it did five years ago.

In the past I have mentioned the global impact of crop protection products and the supply challenges associated with many of the currently used products, such as glyphosate.

The good news today is we have more options to control weeds than we did five years ago. We will continue to see glyphosate in many burndown applications, but most likely at a higher rate as we watch the

weeds grow taller while the fields are unfit for application.

Your FS crop specialist has worked with you this past year to develop your Weed Management System (herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides).

It will be imperative that we don’t relive the challenges we saw five years ago. We encourage you to utilize your FS crop specialist and the value he or she brings to develop the best plan for your fields. Best of luck to you all this season.

Jeff Bunting is GROWMARK’s crop protection division manager. His email address is jbunting@growmark.com.

Options available for fertilizer applications

BY DANIEL GRANT FarmWeek

The window for applying nitrogen fertilizer obviously narrowed in recent weeks due to cold, wet conditions that limited fieldwork.

But farmers still have options to ensure their corn crop, if and when it’s planted, has adequate nitrogen for the season, according to Howard Brown, GROWMARK manager of agronomy services.

“Overall, we’re in pretty good position with nitrogen (fertilizer),” Brown said. “A lot of farmers had an opportunity to put it on.”

Those who don’t have an opportunity to complete preplant applications of anhydrous ammonia should consult with their crop specialist or local fertilizer provider.

“We still have options,” Brown said.

Farmers can transition from pre-plant applications of anhydrous ammonia to urea ammonium nitrate (UAN).

The fertilizer industry in recent years built additional UAN storage capacity and most of that storage is full, according to Joe Dillier, GROWMARK director of plant food.

“However, if we plant 97 million acres of corn this spring and if delays cause anhydrous ammonia pre-plant usage to plummet, demand for UAN solution could outrun supply,” Diller previously told FarmWeek.

Farmers who aren’t able to complete pre-plant applications also can apply fertilizer at pre-emergence or postemergence. High-speed applications of some products are available.

“We still have capacity,” Brown said.

“Farmers who have not put on nitrogen should visit with their crop specialist to make sure they know the source (of

‘ Fa r m e r s w h o have not put on nitrogen should visit with their crop specialist.’

— Howard Brown GROWMARK manager of agronomy services

nitrogen) and logistics available,” he continued. “Now is the time to make plans and commitments.”

Brown recommended farm-

ers consider splitting N applications, sources, and application methods in future seasons to spread their risk, increase crop use of N, and reduce environmental impacts.

“We need to look at N a little differently,” he said.

“Instead of viewing it as an application, farmers should manage N as a system and methodically put N on in different doses and from different sources.”

Fertilizer prices through the end of last month were steady despite the weather challenges, according to the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s production cost report.

Class III milk prices on the rise

The Class III price for milk adjusted to 3.5 percent butterfat for the month of April was $17.59 per hundredweight, 66 cents higher than the previous month.

Strong export demand, coupled with increasing domestic demand and steady cow numbers, is helping to keep a solid footing under prices. USDA is predicting higher milk prices through the summer fueled by these strong demand factors.

PROFITABILITY

Page 15 Monday, May 6, 2013 FarmWeek

Corn Strategy

CASH STRATEGIST

How corn planting equates to yields

Everyone knows timely planting of crops increases the odds of good yields. The clustering of data points (years) in the upper right hand quadrant of the accompanying graphic illustrates that relationship. Nineteen of the past 41 years observed with at least 50 percent of the crop planted by mid-May had trendline or better yields.

There are only four years that had classic droughts; all with yields close to 77 percent of trend. The year 1993 had an extremely poor yield, but that was due to implications of a flood that started about mid-May. April precipitation across the Midwest 20 years ago was mostly a little above normal, with a few isolated areas 50 percent above normal. But May precipitation was 150 to 200 percent of normal from the Mississippi River west into the Great Plains. And June rains were more than 200 percent of normal across Northern Illinois, most of Iowa, and southern Minnesota.

In 1993, the Mississippi River didn’t crest until July 1 at the Quad Cities and Aug. 1 at St.

Louis. Even with the heavy rains across the Midwest this April, it looks as though the rivers already have crested and flood problems are subsiding.

Everyone tended to forget this April’s rains fell on relatively dry soils in most locations, relieving drought problems for many.

It’s even more interesting to note that of the 12 years (left side of chart) when less than 50 percent of the crop was planted by mid-May, only four had below-trend yields. Eight had above-trend yields, including 1984 as we discussed in last week’s column.

Those other years with late planting and good yields were: 1972, 1973, 1978, 1979, 1981, 1982, and 2009.

Other than 2009, all of the years in the upper left quadrant were in a documented cyclic weather period in which droughts were expected to be more frequent. Long-term weather cycles suggest we should be in one of those periods again.

But history still indicates we string together more good crops than bad ones. From 1972 to the present, only 12 of 41 years had yields more than 5 percent below trend. Ninetyfive percent of trend this year is 153 bushels per acre, a yield that will produce more than needed, even with 2 million fewer acres than projected in March.

AgriVisor endorses crop insurance by

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Policies issued by COUNTRY Mutual Insurance Company®, Bloomington, Illinois AgriVisor Hotline Number

309-557-2274

ü2012 crop: The dramatic shift in weather at the end of April set the stage for corn prices to quickly move higher.

Prices were lifted to a level at which upside movement will be more difficult. Sell any inventory other than “gambling stocks” you want to carry into summer. ü2013 crop: The shift in the weather forecast reversed the short-term trend for new-crop prices. There’s an opportunity for prices to go higher yet as long as weather remains unruly.

Use a rally to $5.65 on December futures to make catch-up sales. Plan to add to sales if December moves to $5.95. vFundamentals: The “about face” in weather and weather forecasts quickly forced the trade to put some risk premium back into the markets. So far, planting is matching 1984’s record slow pace. Weather forecasts tend to suggest that may not change soon either. But the moisture that is being laid down will help insulate the crop against drought risk this summer. Unless planting speed improves, the uncertainty should guide prices higher in the short term.

Cents per bu.

Soybean Strategy

ü2012 crop: Of the three major crops, soybeans performed the poorest last week.

Even though basis is strong, it is starting to soften, with Gulf basis characterized as weakening.

Sell any remaining bushels other than “gambling” inventories you want to carry into summer. ü2013 crop: The longer weather remains an issue for corn planting, the more the threat that soybean acres will increase. Use any bounce to make catch-up sales. If weather were to allow planting eventually to have a reasonably good pace, new-crop prices could slip 50 cents to $1. vFundamentals: The pace of Brazilian shipping is starting to have repercussions on demand for U.S. soybeans.

Basis at export points has started to fall. Soon soybean meal from there will start to enter the world pipeline, decreasing demand for U.S. product and undermining our crush pace.

The price difference between U.S. and South American soybeans is close to making imports into the U.S. from there viable.

Rumors of that have surfaced.

Wheat Strategy

ü2012 crop: If Chicago July futures hold $7.10 support, it still has potential to make another push higher. If it moves above $7.40, wrap up old-crop sales. But if $7.10 fails, prices could turn down again. Check the Hotline if that occurs. ü2013 crop: Wait for Chicago July to trade above $7.36 before making catch-up sales. Stay close to the Hotline,

as we could recommend adding to sales, especially if prices move to $7.50. vFundamentals: Constant waves of cold weather reinforce the notion that significant damage is being done to the hard red winter crop in the Southern Plains.

But a recent tour estimated the Kansas crop at 313 million bushels, larger than many expected. The Oklahoma crop has been forecast to drop to 85 million bushels, down 45 percent from last year. The soft red crop continues to have very good potential.

The trade will be looking ahead to the first USDA winter wheat forecast coming on Friday.

PERSPECTIVES

FarmWeek Page 16 Monday, May 6, 2013

Livestock farmers feeling pressure from antibiotic use

Hawaii critically important to family farmers

Editor’s note: Christian County farmer Leon Corzine describes the importance of biotechnology in a winning essay selected by the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association.

I am a fifth-generation family farmer in Assumption, which is near the center of the state. I farm with my son, Craig, sixth generation, and my wife, Susie.

We grow corn and soybeans and have a few LEON Angus cows on CORZINE our farm.

We sometimes grow identity-preserved grains such as white corn, seed corn, or soybean seed. I live where I was born, and my son’s family home is where my grandmother was born.

I learned from my Dad as my son has learned from me to utilize and protect the great natural resource we were blessed with, which is our soil. Biotechnology helps us do this.

It was in the 1930s when hybrid seed corn became available to Midwest farmers. It took 15 to 20 hard hours to produce 100 bushels of corn.

The family had been using open-pollinated corn utilizing seed that was saved from the best ears hoping to get the best results on the family’s farm.

Grandpa and Great-Grandpa tried some of the “new stuff ” and it greatly improved the productivity as well as produced higher quality corn for the cattle and hogs and the production of corn meal.

Dad began testing the soil on a regular basis to establish the need for fertilizer and to monitor the health of our soil. Our soil evaluation records go back to the 1950s.

Seed corn companies and universities were improving the genetics and the yields kept improving. There was a major setback in 1954 as a major drought devastated production across the United States. Some farms did not survive, but most did as farmers knew how to adapt — to take a deep breath, grit your teeth, and try again!

I finished college in 1972,

worked at the local co-op elevator until 1974, then had an opportunity to join the family farming operation. Susie was teaching school, so we made the leap hoping with her working we could survive some tough times.

Our family has always been good stewards of the land, but we learned in the 1970s we needed to improve our tillage system.

Even though our land is “flat” we needed to better control erosion from both wind and water. This meant trying to leave residue on the surface and put away the plow. This was a huge challenge, and we were not very successful. Weeds and insects were nearly impossible to control.

During the 1980s genetics continued to improve, and it only took an average of 2.5 hours to produce that 100 bushels, but we still were not controlling weeds or insects.

By the 1990s we were gaining on the erosion, but we were applying more chemicals than we wanted in order to control the pests. Biotechnology brought us new tools to use on the farm; first in a new weed-control system and then in insect management.

Roundup Ready soybeans and corn changed our weed-control methods dramatically. We eliminated the old system that counted on soil-applied chemicals to control weeds. The new system dramatically reduced the amount of chemicals we used and were much more environmentally sound.

Better weed control made us successful in our reduced tillage efforts after years of problems.

We not only reduced (nearly eliminated) erosion, we also have lowered our greenhouse gas emissions. Our carbon footprint is lowered because we have cut our fuel use by more than 50 percent.

Insect pressure always has been present but seemed to increase in the new millennium.

European corn borer and rootworm pressure caused us to continue and even increase insecticide use.

Bt corn reversed this direction, and chemical insecticide use was immediately reduced by more than 80 percent. With

reduced insect damage we greatly improved the quality of the grain we produce. The chance of chemical residue on the grain virtually is eliminated.

Last year we began using refuge in the bag, which is offered by several companies.

We had good results on our farm so this year we are eliminating the insecticide. My son no longer has to handle toxic chemicals that were applied with the planter.

But 2012 brought us a severe drought, and what we found was the stability of yield is incredible. Our yields were reduced by 30 percent but we still had 145 bushels per acre. Without the seeds we have today our yields would have been below 100, maybe below 75.

Hawaii became a state in 1959. What a wonderful addition to the United States of America!

The culture and beautiful islands are beyond priceless.

What has been learned is the value Hawaii brings to U.S. agriculture; specifically in the Midwest and corn production.

I am thrilled the seeds I plant on our family farm were researched, developed, and produced in the United States of America. We cannot say that about anything else we use on the farm. It would not be possible without Hawaii. Every seed I plant comes through Hawaii. I am proud and thankful that it does.

My Grandpa and my Dad were excellent farmers. I learned from the best. My son and I have become better farmers because of the new tools and choices biotechnology offers us.

The U.S. produces at least 20 percent more corn on 25 percent fewer acres than in 1930.

We produce more with less and by lowering our environmental footprint, we are more sustainable.

My family has been farming our land for 140 years, and each generation will always strive to leave the farm better than we found it. New technologies in our seeds, developed in Hawaii, are helping us do this.

Leon Corzine farms near Assumption in Christian County.

There are many pressures on livestock farmers today. Many of these pressures are not the typical economic and resource challenges faced by all businesses but additional political pressures related to antibiotic use in food production.

Setting aside the politics, all scientific H. SCOTT HURD risk assessments published to date have shown a negligible risk to human health guest columnist from resistant bacteria resulting from food animal antibiotic use.

Those who argue against the use of any antibiotics in livestock raised for food should consider that animals not treated for and exhibiting residual effects of illness are more likely to cause foodborne sickness in humans.

Further, failure to prevent or treat animal illness causes unnecessary animal suffering and death. It’s also important to note that infectious diseases occur in both modern animal confinement facilities as well as in outdoor group housing situations.

Every farm with animals is both a maternity hospital and a day care. Animals need medicines at times, just as kids do.

This becomes a moral and ethical issue. At what point will we deny treatment? It’s not right to withhold veterinary care from animals. Antibiotics for animals are needed because illnesses can move quickly through populations and livestock cannot “stay home” when they are sick.

“Meat without drugs” or “antibiotic free” meat may lead to very negative consequences to animal health. In fact, meat produced without drugs may very well mean “animals without medicine.”

A relatively new area of scientific inquiry is the question of whether animal health is quantitatively correlated with public human health risk.

Slogans promote the concept that “healthy animals make safe food” and it is a concept we all “feel” good about. However, the research is just beginning and much more is needed.

One interesting study showed an increase in human illnesses from non-resistant bacteria caused by eating broiler chickens with residual effects of illness due to denial of antibiotics.

Farmers and veterinarians are committed to maintaining the public’s trust by promoting and documenting appropriate use of all medicines used for animals raised for food. Learn more at {hurdhealth.com}.

Scott Hurd is associate professor and director of the Food Risk Modeling and Policy Laboratory at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in Ames, Iowa, and former deputy undersecretary for food safety at USDA.