R.F.D. NEWS & VIEWS

By Tim Alexander for Chronicle Media

A group of farmers, county board members, city mayors, and other community members toured the lock and dam at Creve Coeur before visiting a grain terminal and an ethanol plant. The group learned about how the river and agriculture contribute into the local economy. (Photos provided by Stark Co. Farm Bureau)

In this week’s roundup of news for Illinois farmers and rural dwellers, we will spotlight the recent Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association Convention and yearly meeting, along with an award- winning collaboration between central Illinois county farm bureau offices. From the academic world, the Data-Intensive Farm Management Research Project is looking for a few tech-savvy farmers, and a new University of Illinois study is shedding new light on fungal viruses affecting soybean plants. Please read on …

IFCA tenets: Supply, service, stewardship

PEORIA — Members of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA) touted past accomplishments and looked towards the future during their annual convention, meeting and trade show, held Jan. 17-19 at the Peoria Civic Center. During the organization’s annual meeting, a new board and executive committee was seated and accomplishments from the past year were discussed. IFCA was very active with state and federal legislators during 2016, helping to establish the science behind Illinois’ nutrient recommendation guidelines, providing extensive input into the development of new Illinois anhydrous ammonia regulations, and paving the way for approval of expanded dicamba herbicide usage guidelines.

The theme of the 2017 convention — Supply, Service, Stewardship — supported IFCA’s mission to assist and represent the crop production supply and service industry while promoting the sound stewardship and utilization of agricultural inputs. “Everybody talks about sustainability, but for our organization it means service, profitability and stewardship; we believe there three things go together,” said Jean Payne, IFCA president, on the convention’s final day. “Ultimately, farmers have to be profitable in order to sustain their crop production practices here in Illinois. Our members have to provide the right services and the right recommendations. Stewardship has always been important because we have to have the public’s trust in how we use fertilizers and chemicals. So for us, this all fits into our sustainability theme.”

IFCA officials distributed ten scholarships to college students by Dr. Robert Hoeft and Brain Waddell during the annual meeting.

Illinois offices honored by AFBF

HENRY — The Marshall-Putnam County Farm Bureau, along with farm bureau offices in nearby Peoria and Stark counties, was honored by the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) for innovative program ideas during the annual 2017 AFBF Convention and trade show, held in January in Phoenix. The organization’s County Activities of Excellence Award (CAE) was bestowed on 34 winners from across the country, four of which were from Illinois. The three-county office collaboration between Marshall-Putnam, Peoria and Stark won a CAE for their “Barging Ahead for Stronger Economies” program that took lawmakers, ag commodity group representatives and Army Corps of Engineers workers on a daylong barge tour of the Illinois River.

“We visited three examples of river infrastructure,” said Tiffany Moodie, manager of the Marshall-Putnam office, “the Illinois River lock and dam near Peoria, the ADM grain terminal at Lacon and the Marquis dry mill ethanol plant at Hennepin. While traveling place to place, we had Adam Nielsen, who is director of national legislation and policy development for the Illinois Farm Bureau address a variety of topics with attendees. We also had Jim Tarmann, field services director for the Illinois Corn Growers (Association), discuss the impact of corn on the economy of the state of Illinois and the country.”

Other AFBF CAE winners included the Knox County FB for their “Farm to Fork Gala,” DuPage County FB for its “Farm Bureau Goes to the Farmer’s Market” promotion and Winnebago-Boone County FB for its “Ag All Around Us” campaign. Congratulations to all!

Illinois Farm Fact:

The Marquis Ethanol Plant at Hennepin is the largest dry-mill ethanol plant in the world.

DIFM project seeks corn growers

URBANA — A University of Illinois and Nebraska University-based project supported by the USDA that uses precision-based agriculture to conduct large-scale, on-farm nitrogen fertilizer and seeding rate trials is looking for a few tech-savvy farmers. The Data-Intensive Farm Management (DIFM) research project, a $4 million initiative, is seeking Midwest corn growers to participate in research projects this year and beyond. Interested growers — who could pocket a yearly $500 “thank you” check for their participation — must have access to precision equipment for planting and fertilizing and a yield monitor, and be willing to commit 80 acres or more available for field trials.

The DIFM project will “fully compensate” farmers for any profit losses incurred due to the project, according to a Jan. 24 U of I farmdocDAILY news release. Info meetings are scheduled at the U of I campus on Feb. 20 and 27. Please contact Krystal Montesdeoca (kmontes2@illinois.edu ) with questions.

Mycoviruses under study at U of I

URBANA — Fungal diseases account for around 10 percent of annual corn and soybean yield losses, according to University of Illinois research. A new U of I study is shedding light on how mycoviruses, or fungal viruses, can be used to create biological control agents to kill fungi and help crop yield, according to U of I and USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) virologist Leslie Domier.

Domer and his colleagues have learned that when certain mycoviruses infect these fungi, they can become less virulent, which is good news for corn and soybean growers. “In addition to viruses that make fungi less virulent, we were also looking for those that might be transmitted outside of the fungus the way a cold virus is transmitted,” Domier said. The team extracted genetic material, DNA and RNA from five major types of plant-pathogenic fungi and used computers to search for genetic sequences resembling those of known viruses, then isolated those that both reduce fungal virulence and can be transmitted outside the fungus.

The research may also be used to improve medical treatment options for human fungal diseases, the researchers discovered. Their findings were published in the Journal of Virology.

–R.F.D. NEWS & VIEWS–