Precision farming data could help improve the accuracy of USDA statistics, while at the same time simplifying the reporting process for farmers.
At the recent InfoAg 2011 Conference in Illinois, USDA Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse said that the Acreage Crop Reporting Streamlining Initiative Project (ACRSIP) may well be the “most important thing that USDA has ever done.”
According to Scuse, the concept would simplify and provide new reporting options for producers. “Rather than a farmer or rancher going to the local FSA office to do their crop reports as they do now and have to give a second report to their agent, they can actually do the report from home,” Scuse said. “Our ultimate goal is for those that have precision ag equipment in their planters and combines to actually use the information that’s collected from that equipment to be downloaded directly to their Farm Service Agency and to the crop insurance agent, to simplify the process even further.”
Scuse says they plan a pilot test of the program this fall and hope to have it implemented by 2013. “This is how we’re going to provide a better service for farmers and ranchers,” he said. “It will ultimately save the taxpayers a great deal of money with this initiative.”
* Update 1/18/12: Regarding the title and content of this post, we have to admit the author of this post made a mistake. We know there are other members of Congress actively involved in agriculture, and we are glad that Politifact helped set the record straight on a blog post written six months ago.
Farmers have at least one friend in Congress these days in Representative Stephen Fincher (R-TN), who *in an address to the 2011 Southern Peanut Growers Conference said he was the “working farmer currently serving in the House.”*
“We’re 7th generation cotton farmers from the Frog Jump community in West Tennessee and still actively farm,” Rep. Fincher told me in an interview. “It’s an honor to serve in Washington and represent rural ag communities.”
Fincher is one of the freshman class in Congress that is shaking up the status quo in the Capitol and he is very concerned about cuts in agriculture funding being considered on the federal level. “Farmers understand that we’ve all got to tighten our belts a little bit, but we can’t kid ourselves and think that we can balance the budget on the back of one percent of the budget, which is what ag gets.”
Because of the current hot political climate in Washington, Fincher would like to see the current Farm Bill extended until after the 2012 election when cooler heads might prevail. “Where we could sit down and have a reasonable discussion about our next 5-6 years in the ag world,” he said. “I’m afraid from some of the comments made by some of our colleagues in Washington that they want to slash and burn the Farm Bill on the ag side!”
For the vast majority of Americans, the idea of personally visiting their House or Senate representatives in Washington sounds somewhere between intimidating and uninteresting. Despite the fact that they, together with the other members of their state or district, directly determine if said legislator keeps his or her job, most citizens simply do not feel heard or as if their opinion is truly valued.
Last week, I had the opportunity to accompany a group of farmers as they met with two House members and one Senator from their home state. The experience left me hopeful that our government might actually work for us if only we made the effort to tell them what we think is best for the country.
While most often we met with staffers, who appeared to be quite young, two of the three representatives that we visited took the time to greet the delegation and briefly discuss a few key issues. One particularly interested House member even asked a grower speaking with him on farm policy to walk with him as he headed to the floor to cast a vote.
He did this because he was interested. The staffers were just as interested and, in most cases, already knew about our concerns over ethanol, trade agreements and transportation issues from National Corn Growers Association staff if DC. After the second visit, it began to set in that these people are in DC, devoting countless hours to their work, because they honestly believe that government can improve the lives of both Americans and the world as a whole. It also became obvious that an organization like NCGA merely sets the stage on an issue but it is the individual constituents that turn up the volume and make the message stick.
Maybe what sets them on fire, that same deep seated conviction, is what they saw in the farmers. These two men were not paid to be there. They had traveled a long way, during a busy season, because they too believe that government impacts their life and, with information and dialogue, they too could create change for their families, their farms and their fellow corn growers
As I tiredly descended the stairs that day, I felt like we had truly accomplished something. Unlike when politicians hold partisan battles with one another for the cameras, when ordinary Americans enter their legislators’ offices they can be open and receptive without the fear of being vulnerable. They can take the time to try and understand what impacts the lives of their constituents without worrying about the next sound bite. They can listen.
So, the impetus is on us. We must let them hear what we need as an agricultural community. The first step toward actively informing your legislators on farm issues may take time and effort, but it will be worth it. Someone will make the visit to the Hill to speak with legislators personally. Let’s make sure that they see the same passion from us and get a personal update on how legislation is effecting what is arguably our most important industry.
These days, volatility is becoming the norm rather than the exception when it comes to commodity prices.
“I mean, when you lose about a buck off the price of corn in two days – that used to be the price of corn, a buck, and we lost that in two days,” said Dr. Mike Boehlje, agricultural economist with Purdue’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business.
“We are seeing volatility at an unprecedented level in terms of fluctuations in prices of our products,” Boehlje noted. “But on top of that we see volatility that we’ve never experienced in the past in our costs. Put those two together and we have margin – the difference between price and costs – that is up 4-5 times in terms of its fluctuations.”
Dr. Boehlje told farmers at a recent corn strategies field day that they need to have a strategy to deal with this unprecedented volatility, and his main piece of advice is to determine their cost of production per bushel, not per acre. “That’s what you sell, you sell bushels,” he said. “Knowing your costs is a critical part of any successful business, whether it be manufacturing widgets, or automobiles, or corn.” He says farmers need to use that business practice to do a better job of managing margins in today’s turbulent times.
As they say, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that gets you this time of year and the crops are feeling it too. Unfortunately, they don’t have air conditioning or a refreshing pool to jump in when it gets to be too much!
“The main stress that we’re seeing right now in corn and soybeans is not the high temperatures, but it’s this lack of overnight cooling because of the high humidity that’s forcing the plant to put energy in at a time of day when it really should be winding down just like you or me,” says USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey. “The plant needs some down time during the night, otherwise some of the carbohydrate that goes into the production of the stalk or the vine, and also the fruit – the soybean or ear of corn – is burned off at night because the temperature is so high.”
Rippey says even irrigated crops are wilting under the assault of this heat and yield potential could suffer. “It has started to take just a little bit of a dent out of those good to excellent corn and soybean conditions that we’ve been seeing throughout most of the growing season,” he said. As of Monday, corn condition was rated 66 percent good to excellent, down about three percent from last week. Progress is trailing behind normal, with 35 percent of the corn silking compared to 47 percent average for this time of year.
Meanwhile, the markets are reflecting the weather, with prices rising right along with the heat and the humidity.
Probably because they know that “curtailing” policies created to promote domestic, sustainable, renewable energy will fatten the wallets of their benefactors, not the animals they feed. If these poultry pushers and meat marketers have their way, the production of corn-based ethanol will cease altogether.
Not only would this flood the market with unsustainably cheap corn, it would impact what consumers pay at the pump. In modern America, almost every citizen relies on motorized transit, be it public or private. As studies have shown , without ethanol consumers will pay more for every gallon of fuel thus negating grocery aisle savings.
Higher fuel prices impact more than the cost of filling up the family car. Nearly all goods purchased in the United States are transported to the final point of sale from another destination. Higher fuel prices mean that each of these products will reflect the increase. By channeling all corn from ethanol production, they would have us trade a more reasonable fuel cost felt throughout the economy for momentary meat savings. But then again, poultry and meat are trucked to grocery stores too.
Global positioning system technology, better known as GPS, is one of the top contributions to agriculture in the last century, allowing farmers to plant and harvest faster and more efficiently than ever before.
However, a threat to this important use of GPS technology developed earlier this year when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) came darn close to signing off on a plan that could create significant interference issues. It might have happened if GPS users, including agriculture, had not stepped in and called for testing before the plan was implemented.
The Coalition to Save Our GPS was formed in response to the proposal by Virginia-based company LightSquared to set up 40,000 wireless broad-band stations across the nation on a frequency that is right next to the one used by GPS. The coalition consists of a wide variety of industries and companies, including agricultural interests and technology providers such as New Holland, Deere, GROWMARK, Leica Geosystems and Trimble Navigation.
The issue was a major topic of discussion and the subject of the final session at the 2011 InfoAg Conference in Springfield, Illinois. In a presentation entitled, “GPS Under Seige: Lightsquared and the Threat to High-End Global Positioning,” Kevin Kobb of Topcon and Doug Schmuland of NovAtel talked about the impact that this proposal could have on agriculture and what farmers can do to have their voices heard on the issue.
World Outlook Board Chariman Gerry Bange says global corn production is now forecast at 872.4 million tons. “That’s an increase of nearly one percent from last month and a 6.4% increase compared to 2010-11,” he said, noting that most of the increase comes from the higher acreage forecast in the US. Corn production for 2011/12 is projected 270 million bushels higher based on planted and harvested area as reported in the Acreage report. Meanwhile, foreign corn production was lowered 0.6 million tons, with declines of 0.5 million tons each for Mexico and Russia, and 0.2 million tons for Canada.
The forecast for corn exports in the report was increased by 100 million bushels mostly reflecting increased demand from China. “We now think that China will take somewhat more in 2011-12 than we previously thought,” Bange said. “We’ve increased our estimate from about a half a million tons to two million tons even.”
Bange adds that the 2011/12 season-average farm price for corn is now projected at a record $5.50 to $6.50 per bushel.
Some people may complain about the price of corn when it gets above around $4 a bushel, but there are corn connoisseurs who are willing to pay the equivalent of hundreds per bushel for special varieties that contribute to unique and delightful dishes.
Iroquois White Corn has an unusual earthy flavor and a varied texture that chefs love and it’s worth about $840 a bushel for Marty and Kris Travis of Spence Farm in Livingston County, Illinois.
Marty and Kris started growing the heirloom corn several years ago. “We harvest it, dry it and then we roast it over an open fire, shell it and run it through our stone mill to make a roasted corn meal,” Marty said. “We sell that to the general public and to chefs for $15 a pound.”
The Travis’ have also started growing a red flint corn from Italy this year, a typical polenta corn that took them two years to find and is in high demand with chefs right now. “The red corn has this incredible, floral flavor that is unlike any of the corns that we’ve ever tasted,” said Marty.
Kris and Marty are seventh generation farmers and their operation is the oldest family farm in Livingston County, IL. The unique farming operation was a stop on the Conservation Technology Information Center Indian Creek Watershed Project field tour last week. Watch them talk about their specialty corn crops and how they’ve found a market for just about every part of the plant!
At the 2011 Fuel Ethanol Workshop last week, the CEO of the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) accepted an award for promoting the advancement of ethanol on behalf of the corn industry as a whole.
“It’s more of an award for the people that I work with, the farmers, our leaders, our great staff, the state groups,” Rick Tolman told Chuck Zimmerman after he accepted the ethanol industry’s High Octane Award. “I think it reflects how committed we are to this industry, how much we have gotten engaged and involved.”
One way that NCGA has gotten involved in a big way in the promotion of ethanol recently is the commitment to the American Ethanol NASCAR program, which Rick says has exceeded his expectations. “I think it’s one of the best things we’ve ever done,” he said. “It has real potential to be a game changer for ethanol.”
Rick also talked about the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), which he calls “phenomenal in the way it’s gotten together” noting that over 40 organizations are part of the group which is less than a year old. “We’re starting to the agribusiness component now,” he said. “John Deere, DuPont, Fertilizer Institute and Farm Credit Banks are the first four.”
Precision farming data could help improve the accuracy of USDA statistics, while at the same time simplifying the reporting process for farmers.
Farmers have at least one friend in Congress these days in Representative Stephen Fincher (R-TN), who *in an address to the 
“I mean, when you lose about a buck off the price of corn in two days – that used to be the price of corn, a buck, and we lost that in two days,” said Dr. Mike Boehlje, agricultural economist with Purdue’s Center for Food and Agricultural Business.
As they say, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity that gets you this time of year and the crops are feeling it too. Unfortunately, they don’t have air conditioning or a refreshing pool to jump in when it gets to be too much!
Global positioning system technology, better known as GPS, is one of the top contributions to agriculture in the last century, allowing farmers to plant and harvest faster and more efficiently than ever before.
The 
Iroquois White Corn has an unusual earthy flavor and a varied texture that chefs love and it’s worth about $840 a bushel for Marty and Kris Travis of 
