www.agrinews-pubs.com | ILLINOIS AGRINEWS | Friday, May 1, 2020
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He also initiated the development of an infrared soybean tester to measure oil content and worked to eradicate hog cholera, a major threat to Illinois’ swine industry. He went on to serve as state representative from 1979 to 1993 and served on many House committees, including agriculture, higher education, appropriations, executive and public utilities. But there was so much more to his life beyond being a respected state leader. Fast-forward to the summer of 2007, when I was putting together a story on the 90th anniversary of the Silverleaf Let’s Go Ag and Silverleaf 4-H Club in McLean County, an organization that Gordy spent more than 60 years as a leader. As a youngster, he was a member of the club showing his prized Jersey cows. I met him at his farm just north of Normal, and we sat for a long chat at his kitchen table talking about the 4-H Club he loved so much. He had brought out numerous photos of the club from over the years and talked about the organization’s milestone. I remember asking him if it was the oldest 4-H club in Illinois. “I always say it’s the oldest in the world because no one has shown us proof otherwise,” he answered with a big grin. Sitting at the kitchen table talking 4-H and a myriad of other topics, including a little politics, was one of those special moments that I will always remember. I did mention to Gordy about the first time I met him at the Campus grain elevator. I’m sure he didn’t remember the geeky kid with the large format KoniOmega camera and Singer flash — with battery pack hanging from my side — but he did recall the tour with the prospective corn buyers from Hong Kong. There was much more to Gordy besides his public service to the state and long-time dedication to 4-H. He married Roberta Cutter in 1955, and they had three children, Diana, Darren and David. Roberta passed away in 1997, and his son, David, passed away in 2013. He graduated from Normal Community High School as valedictorian of his class and went on to the University of Illinois, graduating in 1955. During college, Gordy received his commission as a 2nd lieutenant in the ROTC program and was a member of the Farm House Fraternity. He returned to the family farm, raising anywhere from 40 to 100 Jersey cattle at a time. He and his family also raised grain crops for cow feed. In addition to working the family farm, Gordy was employed by Funk Seed Co. as a young man. He remained active in the agricultural community, getting selected as a delegate to the Illinois Agricultural Association Convention by the McLean County Farm Bureau in 1960, at the age of 27. Around this time, he was also state director of the American Dairy Association of Illinois, secretary-treasurer of the Illinois Jersey Cattle Club Association, president of the Dairy Herd Improvement Association of McLean County, served on the executive committee of the American Dairy Association and captain in the National Guard. At the end of his tenure as state ag director, Gordy returned to the Ropp Dairy Grain Farm. He remained actively involved in a variety of associations, committees and volunteer programs for a few years before deciding to run for the Illinois House. After his time as a state representative, he served as the rural affairs liaison to the secretary of state. It was in this position that he spent his last 10 years before retirement, connecting rural organizations and businesses with the Secretary of State’s Office and speaking before civic groups. Retiring in 2002, Gordy was still very active in the community. He worked as a Unit 5 substitute teacher and volunteered his time with a variety of organizations and clubs, including 4-H, Shriners, Masons, the David Davis Mansion Foundation, Normal Rotary, Timeless Clovers and local Barn Quilters. He was a very special person who dedicated his life to the agriculture industry and youth development, and I’m very fortunate to have known him. Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-780-7894 or tdoran@ agrinews-pubs.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_ Doran.
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Ag economic conditions weaken Federal Reserve survey provides snapshot of regions By Tom C. Doran
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
CHICAGO — A boots-on-theground look at the impact of the pandemic on economic activity was reported across Federal Reserve districts. The Federal Reserve System’s Beige Book included information collected on or before April 6 through reports from bank directors, interviews and questionnaires completed by businesses, community contacts, economists, market experts and other sources. “Economic activity contracted sharply and abruptly across all regions in the United States as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Producers of food and medical products reported a strong demand but faced both production delays, due to infection-prevention measurers and supply chain disruptions,” the report noted. “Income prospects for the agricultural sector deteriorated substantially as the spread of the coronavirus led to a dramatic fall in many commodity prices. A large drop in ethanol prices led ethanol plants to cut production and corn consumption, which pushed corn prices lower,” according to the Seventh
Federal Reserve District of Chicago survey, which includes the northern two-thirds of Illinois and Indiana and all of Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan. “The drop in ethanol production also reduced the availability of corn byproducts needed for nutritional balance in cornbased animal food rations. This led livestock operations to switch to soy-meal and helped support soybean prices. “In spite of shortages of some meat products in stores, most livestock prices fell as demand from restaurants and other food service providers weakened. Milk sales declined substantially as schools closed, but egg prices spiked. “Contacts expressed concern about the health and availability of agriculture workers, particularly for specialty crop production. Access to credit for farm operators was little changed, though loan requests increased.”
fected by poor weather. Corn, rice and soybeans were planted in greater quantities compared with last year. Southern parts of the St. Louis district have planted fewer acres of cotton and more of rice. District contacts stated that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a relatively muted effect on the agricultural sector to date. “Several contacts reported that farmers and agricultural suppliers do not have current plans to reduce output or employment at this time. Contacts cited continued trade disputes with China, weather, commodity prices and deteriorating credit conditions as sources of uncertainty for the industry,” the Eighth District reported. The district includes the southern parts of Illinois and Indiana and eastern half of Missouri, as well as parts of Tennessee, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi.
MODEST IMPROVEMENT The Eighth Federal Reserve District of St. Louis reported “agricultural conditions improved modestly from the previous reporting period.” The number of acres planted in the Eighth District for corn, cotton, rice and soybeans increased 8% compared with last year. All states in the district increased their number of acres planted as planting season in 2019 was severely af-
POTENTIAL ‘PERFECT STORM’ “District agricultural conditions were steady at low levels. Some contacts described the COVID-19 pandemic as a potential ‘perfect storm’ for an already struggling rural economy,” according to the Federal Reserve District of Minneapolis summary. Early reports suggested that Ninth District farmers intended to plant less wheat and more corn and substantially more
soybean acres this year. The Minneapolis-based district includes all of Minnesota, the Dakotas and Montana, northwestern Wisconsin and all of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. PRICE PRESSURE The Tenth District Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City repor ted agricultural economic conditions weakened. Macroeconomic developments related to COVID-19 were expected to put downward pressure on prices for many agricultural commodities, despite sharp increases in short-term demand for retail food products. District cattle prices declined rapidly in mid-March which reduced profit opportunities for producers. Corn prices also decreased sharply as demand declined alongside a substantial drop in ethanol production. Credit conditions weakened modestly from the prior survey period, and while many farm lenders cited uncertainty about the extent of the impact, most expected conditions to deteriorate further in coming months. Tenth District contacts connected to food processing and retailing reported supply chains have been well maintained despite rapid increases in demand. The Kansas City district includes the western part of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, Colorado and the northern New Mexico.
Parasites reduce cattle feed intakes Rotate dewormer class for treatment By Martha Blum
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
MADISON, N.J. — Reduction in feed intake is the No. 1 effect parasites have on animals. “Parasites cost the cattle industry over $2 billion per year just in treatment cost and lost production,” said Harold Newcomb, technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health. Worms do three things to animals, Newcomb said during a webinar. “Animals with worms won’t eat as much and then you’ll see a reduction in production that can be in daily gain, reproduction efficiency or milk production,” he said. “The third thing is impairing the immune response to vaccinations.” The impact of parasites occurs in all segments of the cattle production system from the cow/calf operation to the stocker and also with feedlot cattle. “If animals are parasitized, they’re going to eat less and you’ll see a reduction in the production of those animals,” Newcomb said. “You can see a 10% to 12% increase in the conception rates and 30- to 40-pound heavier weaning weights than with
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“The planting date trial response curves are not as steep as they would have been 20 or 30 years ago and it’s because better hybrids and varieties. It’s common to see a yield drop in later planted corn and soybeans, but it’s variable. “Both crop benefit from early planting. Early May is still early as a lot of the trial results continue to show maximum yield through the first 10 days of May. “Yield losses for both crops reach about 10% by May 25 plantings. “Yield losses with planting delays through mid-May total 5% to 6%. These losses roughly double by the end of May on average; yields also get more variable. But the yields do not fall off the table like they might have at one time. “The university has little data for corn planted past early June. Losses for soybeans total 20% by mid-June.” ON PLANTING DELAYS “There’s no need to panic. Corn and soybean yields are good to outstanding when planted in the first half of May. “Do not make changes with regard to maturity of hybrid or variety, seeding rate and such. If planting is delayed until the end of May, then we’ll have to think about that. “Soils in May will be warmer, meaning faster — and probably more uniform — emergence. “Warmer soils will help get mineralization started, but young corn plants will still need
animals not strategically de wor me d ,” he said. “If you have 100 cows, that is 10 to 12 extra calves.” It is impor tant for cattlemen to Newcomb underst a nd the life cycle of worms, Newcomb said, to be able to develop an effective treatment program. The adult worms are in the cow and they produce eggs that pass out the feces. After the larvae hatch from the eggs, they crawl up the blades of grass that the cows eat on the pasture and the life cycle repeats. “Depending on the age of the animal, that life cycle can be repeated in as little as three weeks,” Newcomb said. “From 90% to 95% of the parasites are on the pasture in the form of eggs and larvae and from 5% to 10% are in the host or cow.” Therefore, if a cattleman is only going to treat the cow, he must figure out a way to treat the cow that has the most negative impact on the worms in the cow, as well as on the pasture. “All the dewormers in the U.S. fit into one of three classes and each class kills a worm in a different way,” Newcomb said. “But each member of a class kills the worms in a similar way, so you need to rotate between
classes and use them in combination.” A fecal egg count reduction test is a tool that can be used to determine the level of parasitism in a cattle herd. “For this test, you take 20 samples at the time you treat the animals and 14 days later, take 20 more samples,” Newcomb said. “The 14 days are important because that is long enough to give any dewormer a chance to work, but not too long where the life cycle can repeat itself.” For the past 10 years, Newcomb said, Merck has maintained a fecal egg count reduction test database to evaluate the efficacy of different classes of dewormer products. “Pour-ons have an average efficacy of 51% and to have successful deworming 90% or better of the worms must be killed,” Newcomb said. “By using two products together, a pour-on with SafeGuard the efficacy jumps to 99 % effective,” he said. “And using two or more products in combination and concurrent will help to extend the life of each compound by 10 to 20 years.” Newcomb advises cattlemen to do diagnostic testing to figure out the level of parasitism within the herd and to determine what parasites are present. “Develop a deworming program targeted for the specific problems you have in your operation,” he said. “When you do that, sustainability will go way up be-
cause you’re not taking the shotgun approach to deworming.” Cattlemen should use the full dose of each dewormer when treating their cattle. “One thing cattlemen have in common is we underestimate the weight of cattle, but you need to know the actual weight to give the dose correctly,” Newcomb said. “All cows don’t weigh 1,000 pounds. The average weight for cows in the U.S. is 1,300 pounds,” he said. “For a sustainable program you need to dose the animals by their weight not an average weight because then we’re under dosing half of the animals.” The website, www.safeguardworks.com, has information to help cattlemen determine the optimal time to treat cattle, and it has a dosage calculator to calculate the amount of product that is needed to treat a herd. “Deworm your cows six to eight weeks after the grass greens up when the cow is harvesting the larvae off the pasture and just as they’re getting ready to mature and start producing eggs,” Newcomb said. “That will make the pasture parasite safe through the fall.” For more information about Merck Animal Health go to www. merck-animal-health-usa.com.
nitrogen near the roots by V1 or V2. “If things go badly for Aprilplanted crops, consider May replanting if soybean stands are less than 90,000 to 95,000 per acre and corn stands are less than 25,000 to 28,000 per acre uniformly distributed. If you have enough stand there, leave it and be done with it.”
inches deep in any soil except maybe sandy soils and that would probably work there. “In the trial data, two out of three years there were significantly lower yields at three inches deep than at shallower depths. It wasn’t because there wasn’t a stand there. It was because the plants get behind a little bit, some of them struggle and don’t establish their crown quite at the right depth.”
we’re not sure if the ones that do come up are going to develop completely normally.”
ON PLANT POPULATIONS “In 44 trials over seven years found the best population for corn was about 33,300 plants per acre, a planting rate of about 35,000 seeds per acre. The yield was 229 bushels per acre. “Yields dropped by four bushels an acre when the plant population was 30,000, a population of 40,000 only added one bushel per acre. As long as we’re in that planting range and get that population, we’re probably pretty good in most Illinois soils. “The optimum plant stand for soybeans in the trials was 106,800 plants per acre. That resulted in a yield of 72.1 bushels per acre. That would take planting about 134,000 seeds per acre.” ON PLANTING DEPTH Nafziger referred to a 19982000 planting depth study conducted at Urbana that found 1.5 inches to be the optimum planting depth. He brought up the topic in light of the growing use of soil moisture-sense planting depth controls and variable down-pressure planters. He asked an equipment person if he’d actually plant 3 inches deep if that’s where the moisture was, and he said, yes. “That’s a concern. There is no good reason to put seed three
ON EMERGENCE “Non-uniformity of emergence is something that people fret a lot about. It’s a function of what the temperatures are. If there is uneven emergence when the daytime temperatures are in the 70s, then there is something else going on, either seed quality issues or something that’s affecting how well those plants came up. “Once it warms up, that size difference, because it’s not really a large one, will diminish really quickly and that stand can look really uniform and nice. “Corn planted in April is taking up, or will take up, cool water as it germinates, which could cause some ‘imbibitional chilling injury.’ If the first water they take in has temperatures of 40 degrees or less it can damage some of the membranes and there isn’t much that can be done about it. This is relatively rare, especially when soils are on the dry side, but could happen this year. “Check un-emerged plants soon after the first plants emerge to see if their growth is normal. What it normally does with seedlings is twist them up and they’ll corkscrew or grow in circles and most of them don’t come up. And
Martha Blum can be reached at 815-223-2558, ext. 117, or marthablum@agrinews-pubs. com. Follow her on Twitter at: @AgNews_Blum.
ON EARLY ADJUSTMENTS “Cool soils through the end of April will mean a slow start to soil N mineralization, so corn’s need for early nitrogen should be supplied with fertilizer. “If no nitrogen has been applied before planting, UAN could be applied broadcast, placed 2 x 2, or dribbled onto or near the planted row at 10 to 15 gallons – 30 to 50 pounds of nitrogen — per acre. There’s also the option of applying stabilized urea broadcast at planting, placed 2 x 2, or dropped on top of the row after planting. “If the crop does not have enough nitrogen near the row after it emerges and starts to establish its permanent root system, yield potential can be reduced that you can’t get back later on by putting more nitrogen on. “When soils are cool that’s when we worry about this the most because even in high organic matter soils as long as they’re staying down in the 50 degree range they are not mineralizing very much nitrogen from the organic matter at all. “Low rainfall following an early anhydrous application could result in some release of ammonia gas in the soil that could damage seeds and seedlings. “Soils will dry slowly, and rainfall before emergence usually keeps such damage away. If these seem in doubt, not planting on top of the knife tracks is the only sure thing.” Tom C. Doran
