ICMB Evaluates Projects, Goals

BLOOMINGTON – The Illinois Corn Marketing Board (ICMB) recently finalized a reevaluation of its corn checkoff-funded programs, focusing on projects’ contributions to the profitability of Illinois corn farmers. The ICMB funds projects based on a set of twelve goals and seeks to eliminate those that fall short of the goals, according to ICMB Chairman Kent Kleinschmidt, of Emden. “Our goals help to keep us on track and prevent us from funding projects that might seem like a good idea, but do little to forward the course of corn marketing and utilization,” Kleinschmidt said, in a message sent to media and members by Illinois Corn last week.

The week-long evaluation process of ICMB projects included a review of goals pertaining to ethanol efficiency gains, the health of the livestock industry and lock and dam improvements, Illinois Corn’s Lindsay Mitchell reported. “Within the past three years, the board can document success in improving the efficiency of ethanol production and maintaining livestock numbers in Illinois, even increasing the pork inventory to an all-time high since 1998,” Mitchell wrote.  

Among the ICMB’s restated goals: expanding corn to ethanol usage to 5.5 billion bushels by 2014, while increasing by 400 million bushels the amount of Illinois corn processed for food, feed and fuel in-state by 2015, and reducing the cost of distilling ethanol from corn by 10 cents per gallon by 2016.

ICMB goals can be accessed at www.ilcorn.org.

Hodel Honored By ISA For Contributions

BLOOMINGTON – Kent Hodel, a soybean farmer from Metamora, received the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA) Lifetime Achievement Award (Membership Focus) at the organization’s annual awards program held recently in Florida. He joined retired ISA CEO Lyle Roberts, who received a Special Meritorious Service Award,  in being honored for his long commitment to the organization.

Hodel, who is often seen manning an ISA informational booth at farm shows or bringing Agriculture in the Classroom to area school children along with his spouse, has worked part-time with ISA in outreach and education for more than 20 years. Hodel was lauded by ISA chairman Bill Wykes as a successful membership recruiter for the ISA and the American Soybean Association who can speak from experience about the value of membership in the organizations. “The ISA Board of Directors nominated Lyle and Kent for these awards because of their many years of dedication and service to Illinois soybean farmers. On behalf of us all, we congratulate them both,” said Wykes. (ISA news release)

Global Ag Summit Nearing

HOFFMAN ESTATES – As U.S. agriculture faces new challenges in meeting global demand for food and fiber products for an increasing world population, agribusiness leaders in Illinois have a major economic stake in the future of the agriculture industry.  Millilkin University’s Kirkland Fine Arts Center (Decatur) will be the site of the 2013 Global Agribusiness Summit on Wednesday, March 13, featuring an outlook of the agriculture industry for the next decade regarding technology, genetics, government policy and more.

Chris Olssen, vice president of community and government affairs for summit sponsor Tate & Lyle, spoke by phone about the summit: “Because agribusiness is so wide ranging, we wanted topics that covered as much of the spectrum as possible. We tried to gather the academic side, the genetics side and the policy side and wrap it all into a conference with wide appeal,” he said.

Summit sponsors are making an extra effort to reach out to FFA chapters and university ag programs around the state to encourage youth to attend. “We’d like nothing better than to see young people who will be the future of agribusiness come to the summit,” said Olssen.

More information on the summit can be found at www.globalagsummit.com.

New VIPS Database Launched

NORMAL – A revamped VIPS (Varietal Information Program for Soybeans) database was unveiled by officials with the Illinois Soybean Association (ISA), National Soybean Research Laboratory ( NSRL) and Illinois Department of Agriculture during the Illinois Soybean Profitability Summit, held March 4 on the campus of Illinois State University. “(VIPS is) a very powerful tool used by farmers and those who provide information for farmers. With new soybean varieties coming out developed by universities and private industry, it’s very important to have head-to-head comparisons (available),” said Linda Kull, ISA director of strategic research.

Rowen Ziegler, an ISA director from LaHarpe, called the relaunched VIPS website “a joint effort to help soybean producers reach maximum profitability while contributing to ISA’s goal of utilizing 600 million bushels of soybeans by 2020.” Another ISA director, Greenfield farmer Ross Prough, said the website can be used to gauge composition quality in soybeans such as crucial oil and protein levels. “Fortunately, tools such as VIPS can make these tasks easier and that’s why it is important for farmers to use VIPS to validate their seed selections,” said Prough.

The relaunched VIPS database, which features yield data for over 500 soybean varieties tested annually by the University of Illinois, may be accessed at www.vipsoybeans.com.

Specialty Crops Grants Available

SPRINGFIELD – The Illinois Department of Agriculture announced late last week that farm bill funds are available for federal specialty crop grants. The IDOA will accept grant proposals until April 15. Requests for proposal packets can be accessed at www.agr.state.il.us/Grants/specialtycrops.html. (IDOA news release)

Illinois Farm Fact:

More than 101,000 acres of Illinois farmland are devoted to growing specialty crops, producing nearly $392 million in annual sales. (2010 Illinois Specialty Crop Survey)

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