R. F. D. News & Views, September 11, 2013

DeWitt Top County for Cash Rents

SPRINGFIELD – DeWitt County has the highest reported cash rent for farmland in the state, averaging $385 per acre, according to the USDA-NASS Cash Rents by Counties report, issued September 6. Other top counties for cash rents for non-irrigated farmland include Sangamon ($371), Macon ($309), Logan ($308) and Christian ($303), the report stated. Overall, cash rents increased across the state by five percent.

In Peoria County, cash rents average $218 per acre, Tazewell $238, Woodford $236 and McLean $272. Central Illinois counties fetched the highest prices for cash rents, averaging $282/acre, followed by the west-southwest district, at $244. Farmers in southeast counties paid the least for rent, averaging $124, according to the report.

Additional information, including irrigated and pasture cash rents, may be accessed at www.quickstats.nass.usda.gov/.

 

Study: Farmers Cutting Nutrient, Sediment Losses

BLOOMINGTON – A new study shows that U.S. farmers have significantly reduced the loss of sediment and nutrients from farm fields through voluntary conservation work, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced August 27. The USDA report claims farmers in the Mississippi River watershed area have reduced edge-of-field losses of sediment by 35 percent, nitrogen by 21 percent and phosphorus by 52 percent. The study was conducted in the lower Mississippi River basin.

The study represents a shot in the arm for farmers, conservationists, USDA and their Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and others who have supported conservation practices designed to reduce nutrient runoff from crop fields, according to Jean Payne, president of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association. “For the last three years we’ve really been focused on working with farmers with what we call the ‘MOM’ approach– minimizing environmental impact, optimizing harvest yields and maximizing nutrient utilization,” Payne said after reviewing the USDA study results. “For there to be broad changes and improvements in water quality on a broad basis like the entire Mississippi Valley, we really have to have all the farmers engaged in the (MOM) process. It can’t be little projects here and there, it has to be incremental approaches on a large number of acres. When you talk to them about MOM, everything about it makes sense to farmers when you return an economic value to them. And that is what really drives the change.”

More on the study can be found at USDA’s website (www.usda.gov).

 

Farmers Beginning Corn Harvest

PEORIA – Farmers were observed harvesting corn near Chillicothe last weekend. With corn plants dried out or scorched all over central Illinois for the second straight year, some producers apparently are giving up on this year’s crop and looking to avoid long lines at local elevators by harvesting early and salvaging what they can. A Peoria County farmer told me last week that though he hadn’t begun to harvest corn yet, more than likely the kernel fill is as complete as it will be. He’s now turned his focus to his struggling soybean crop.

“The top end is gone out of corn yields,” said Dale Benson, who farms near Trivoli. “I think the beans could be on the cusp. It’s hard for me to envision how they are going to live up to their full potential. The longer we go without rain, the more certain I am that we are going to see poor beans. I saw tremendous potential in our beans, but now I’m looking at a lot of aborted pods and probably a yield that is average rather than above average.”

Corn plantings in Peoria County have several issues, Benson continued, denitrification being one. “You can look across a lot of fields out here with yellow spots that are now turning brown, which is in old-timer’s parlance ‘burned up.’ It’s just not maturing evenly, and when you see that, you’ve got a problem,” he said.

Peoria County did receive some much-needed rain early Sunday, but most of the precipitation took place southeast of Peoria in Fulton County. No estimate on rainfall amounts was available at press time.

 

Shaffer Tours Peoria Dam With Durbin, Bustos

PEORIA – Rob Shaffer, a district director for the Illinois Soybean Association from El Paso, toured the Peoria lock and dam last week with Democratic U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Cheri Bustos, both of Illinois. The three were promoting the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), passed earlier this year by the Senate and currently awaiting House consideration. Also known as the Water Infrastructure Now Public-Private Partnership Act, WRDA would create a pilot program to explore agreements between the Army Corps of Engineers and private entities as alternatives to traditional financing, planning, design and construction models for lock and dam construction and repair on the Illinois and upper Mississippi rivers.

Shaffer promoted WRDA’s new public-private partnership system as capable of expediting river projects while saving taxpayers money. Public-private project delivery and financing arrangements have been shown to reduce up-front public costs through accelerated or more efficient project delivery, according to the ISA, by leveraging private sector financial and other resources to develop infrastructure. Shaffer told the legislators that Illinois soybean producers are thankful for the progress made in passing WRDA in the Senate and are looking forward to working with Congress to achieve a final WRDA this year. (ISA news release)

 

Illinois Farm Fact:

Although negative media portrays Illinois as unfriendly to livestock producers, Illinois is enjoying growth in livestock numbers. Dairy cattle numbers in Illinois have seen their third consecutive year of growth with 100,000 head in 2012, and hogs are at their highest number since 1998, with 4,600,000. (USDA-NASS, Illinois Corn)

 

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