R. F. D. News & Views, April 30, 2014

Will Cool, Wet Weather Sway Corn Market?

PEORIA – The corn market has yet to react to the cold, wet weather that has delayed planting. But with the National Weather Service’s 6-to-10 day outlook for April 30 – May 4 calling for extensive rain and below-average temperatures, could it be long before corn prices begin to tick upward?

“There is a sense of complacency in the market, which is probably good,” Jerry Gulke of The Gulke Group told AgWeb, powered by Farm Journal, last week. “The market is telling us, at $5 (per bushel), they aren’t real worried about corn acres and believe the corn will get planted eventually.”

Gulke said the weather and strong global demand for corn is making for a really interesting market. “We probably have about 30 days to make some major marketing decisions,” he said. “We will keep this market nervous through May and see if we can catch up on our planting.”

Severe thunderstorms with possible tornadic activity are possible during this week in areas stretching from the southern Plains into the Midwest, according to USDA’s weather forecast.

 

U of I Team Working to Advance Sorghum in Midwest

URBANA – A research team at the University of Illinois (U of I) Department of Crop Sciences and the Urbana Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) is continuing to explore new uses for sorghum that could result in expanded markets for producers of the crop. Patrick Brown, an assistant professor in plant breeding and genetics at U of I, said he and his team had completed the first comprehensive genomic analysis of molecular changes adapted by sorghum to be grown in temperate climates. Having a complete characterization of the locations affecting specific traits will speed up the adaptation of sorghum and other related grasses to new production systems for both food and fuel, according to Brown.

The research team is still at work selecting and crossing exotic sorghum lines with temperate sorghum lines to create breeds that develop and mature early, and are of a height that can be harvested with traditional wheat combines. “Most of these tropical sorghum lines won’t flower in Illinois, making them very difficult to work with. We’re focusing on two traits– plant height and flowering time,” Brown said, adding that while some varieties of sorghum cannot flower in the Midwest, they can still be grown for biomass.

“We’ve been growing a lot of sorghum for biomass and have conducted yield trials here in Urbana for the past couple of years,” he continued. “Issues surrounding biomass sorghum are mostly logistical. It weighs a lot. It’s high-moisture. Hopefully you don’t have to move it too far before you do something with it. And the other issue is, who is going to pay you for it?

“In 2012 (U of I Dept. of Crop Sciences) made a fair amount of money selling biomass sorghum to farmers for feed for their livestock. But that was the drought year and feed was in demand. During a regular corn year, I don’t know if you’ll make as much money.”

 

farmdocDAILY Issues SCO Analysis

URBANA – The University of Illinois Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at Urbana has issued a fresh analysis of crop insurance options under the 2014 Farm Bill, including the new Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO). The analysis, written by Nick Paulsen and Jonathan Coppess, examines what the crop year MIGHT look like after rulemaking and implementation of the farm bill is complete.

“They explain that understanding SCO coverage and how it works with the various individual insurance plans has important implications for producers as they evaluate commodity program options and risk management decisions,” according to Lindsay Mitchell, project coordinator for Illinois Corn, who studied the analysis and passed it on to corn growers in the state. “Because SCO is limited by the statute to the deductible range of the underlying policy, it will operate as individual-based coverage, but the indemnity is triggered and scaled by area-wide (county) losses.

“One strategy that has been discussed extensively is the option to reduce individual insurance plan coverage and adding SCO coverage. While this strategy may reduce premium costs due to the 65 percent subsidy rate on SCO premiums, it does create some additional basis risk for the farm because the deductible coverage provided by SCO required county losses to be triggered. The farm could suffer losses at the individual level and not receive SCO payments if losses are not experienced on a county wide basis.

“Furthermore, while the analysis of the decision to use SCO can be delayed until the 2015 crop year when the program is intended to be introduced, producers need to consider their potential desire to use SCO in future crop years when making the choice between the PLC and ARC commodity program decisions.”

 

Earth Day Facts for Farmers

BLOOMINGTON – In recognition of last week’s Earth Day, Illinois Corn’s Tricia Braid took to the Web to point out that in agriculture, every day is Earth Day for Illinois farmers. Braid called attention to some little-known facts about corn farms and their positive environmental aspects. For instance:

1) One acre of corn removes 36,000 pounds of carbon dioxide from the air in a growing season. That’s enough to neutralize the CO2 pollution in a year’s time from six cars.

2) One acre of corn produces enough oxygen for 131 people’s needs for an entire year.

3) A corn field “sweats” through the transpiration process more water than it needs to grow, making it part of the continual water cycle.

4) A corn plant’s leaves are like solar panels, absorbing energy from the sun that is unusable to animals and humans as energy and depositing it in the kernel in the form of caloric energy. (Ill. Corn Daily Update)

 

Illinois Farm Fact:

During the week of April 15-21, Illinois corn planting progressed to five percent complete but remained well behind the five-year average of 22 percent. (USDA-NASS Ill. Weather & Crops Report)


(Tim Alexander is a freelance reporter who writes agriculture, news and feature articles for the News Bulletin, Farm World and many other publications.)