Market volatility is expected to continue for quite some time. Much of the 2020 U.S. corn and bean crop has been sold and China’s demand remains impressive. Even South American farmers have sold 50% more of their new crop beans than usual by this point. Therefore, many are uneasy about shorting the market as it’s unknown who is left to sell into this rally.
Corn
China purchased a lot of corn recently, so the market now expects upcoming USDA reports to show increased export values and lowered carryout. Corn may need the price to rally to help ration what is left until harvest.
South American weather has turned from dry to wet. Parts of Brazil are experiencing bean harvest delays from the wet weather that could push back their second corn crop planting. This delay could push corn pollination on the second crop into late May when weather is drier and reduce yields.… Continue reading
Every year in January, around 80 of Ohio’s finest young junior and independent fair queens gather in Columbus for a chance to win the ultimate title of the Ohio Fairs’ Queen at the Ohio Fair Managers Association (OFMA) Convention. While the 2020 Ohio Fairs’ Queen Contest went on just as previous years had (three months before the pandemic hit), the 2021 Ohio Fairs’ Queen contest is going to look fairly different than years past and feature changes allowing the candidates to participate in person, all while optimizing social distancing requirements.
The 2021 OFMA Virtual Convention went on as planned, starting in early January with a variety of events on Zoom. Virtual OFMA workshops and seminars continue through February and into March. For a schedule see the OFMA December Newsletter at ohiofairs.org/newsletters/2020-12-newsletter.pdf. While most of the convention is being held virtually, for the safety of the queen candidates and an effort to provide an in-person event, the OFMA pushed back the to contest closer to spring.… Continue reading
Waterhemp populations across the Midwest continue to develop more complex variations of herbicide resistance. Multiple resistance to an increasing number of herbicide sites of action is the norm in many populations in states west of Ohio. Waterhemp has on the whole developed resistance to seven sites of action, including the following:
Group 2 – ALS inhibitors – chlorimuron, imazethapyr, etc
Group 4 – Synthetic auxins – 2,4-D, dicamba, etc
Group 5 – Photosystem II inhibitors – atrazine, metribuzin, etc
Group 9 – EPSP synthase inhibitor – glyphosate
Group 14 – PPO inhibitors – fomesafen, flumioxazin, sulfentrazone, etc
Group 15 – long chain fatty acid inhibitors – metolachlor, pyroxasulfone, etc
Group 27 – HPPD inhibitors – mesotrione, isoxaflutole, topramezone, etc
Individual populations with resistance to three or more sites of action are common. Mutations are occurring that confer resistance to several of these sites of action simultaneously, through a resistance mechanism that enhances the metabolism and inactivation of the herbicides by the plant.
Leading Ohio Farm Bureau’s Young Agricultural Professionals State Committee for 2021 are Chaircouple Megan and Tyrone Brannon of Tuscarawas County, Co-chair Kameron Rinehart of Fayette County and Secretary Bailey Elchinger of Henry County.
The Brannons are first-generation farmers who raise laying hens, pastured poultry, produce, herbs and specialize in microgreens. They market directly to consumers or at a local farmers market. Off the farm, Tyrone works for TMK Bakersville, and Megan is a graduate teaching and research assistant at Kent State University where she teaches undergraduate educational technology and takes part in research projects that advance the field of educational technology. She is a PhD candidate beginning work on her dissertation this spring.
Rinehart is a graduate research assistant at Ohio State University studying Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership. He has grown up in and around agriculture including FFA where he served as a state officer, and 4-H, where he was president of the Ohio 4-H Teen Leadership Council and a member of the Ohio 4-H Foundation board of trustees.… Continue reading
The directories will be distributed at all of the Farm Bureau events throughout the year in each of the counties, including county fairs, annual meetings, trade shows, health fairs, and more. The directory will also be available online and will be mailed to approximately 4,000 Farm Bureau member families in Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull Counties.
Goods and services listings
Farm Bureau members in Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, and Trumbull Counties can list their goods and services in the directory. The first three categories are FREE and additional categories are $5 each. These listings are for Farm Bureau members only.
Paid advertising spaces
These advertisements provide additional space to promote your business and are available in quarter page increments (¼ page, ½ page, or full page). Ad space is limited and will be accepted on a first-come, first served basis. You do not need to be a Farm Bureau member for paid advertising, however, Farm Bureau members save at least $100. … Continue reading
While it is nice to envision Ohio’s rural winters with snow-covered fields and rolling hills gleaming white under the sun, the unfortunate reality for many livestock producers is much less glamorous. Unfortunately, winter typically means mud, and plenty of it.
“It has been an easy year so far, but we don’t usually seem to get much frozen ground. We get 34 degrees and pouring down rain and, if your cows are not on a feeding pad or hard packed surface, you’re losing money. In those conditions, you can’t keep them dry and keep them from losing energy through the mud to maintain a cow, let alone a pregnancy that is inside of her,” said Jason Poorman, a Perry County cattle producer. “If it was 20 degrees and sunny every day, we would be able to go through winter no problem. Cold and rainy is miserable on livestock and expensive for feed and bedding.… Continue reading
By Harold Watters, Ohio State University Extension
This is the fun part of my job. I get asked questions or am told I misguided someone and so I do a little field work to investigate what may be the reality. I thank Joe, Nick and Zack at the OSU Western Agricultural Research Station for giving me the space to work, and I think they enjoy the challenge and quest to find answers too.
So once again I ran a trial comparing “older” open pollinated corn genetics to modern corn hybrids. I still use Reid’s yellow dent as a basis for my work because there is so much of that old variety carried through into modern genetics. A chance cross occurred in Ohio at about the time of the Civil War and that accident carries through to today’s genetics and yield improvement.
WARS 2020 Antique corn trial, for yield and harvest stand.
The monthly margin under the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program dropped by $3.09 per cwt in November to $8.78 per cwt in December, mostly driven by lower milk prices, generating payments to producers under the USDA’s flagship risk-management program.
The all-milk price declined by $2.80 per cwt for the month, mostly because of a substantially lower December cheese price. The DMC margin was further lowered by a $0.29 per cwt boost in the feed cost added to it. On a per hundredweight of milk basis, the higher feed cost consisted of cost increases of 19 cents, 7 cents and 3 cents for corn, soybean meal, and alfalfa hay, respectively.
The December margin will generate a payment of $0.72 per cwt for $9.50 per cwt coverage that month; for the year, average DMC payments were $0.73 per cwt per month.
Current futures prices indicate that the monthly all-milk price in 2021 won’t rise above the December level until late summer, while corn and soybean meal prices will remain above December levels at least that long.… Continue reading
Gov. Mike DeWine announced the investment of $100 million for the Ohio Department of Agriculture’s share of the H2Ohio program in his recent budget proposal. These funds will help farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin continue to implement best management practices that prevent nutrient runoff and help protect water quality for all Ohioans.
“We thank Governor DeWine and his team for their commitment to farmers as we continue to prioritize water quality,” said Ryan Rhoades, Ohio Soybean Association president and Marion County soybean farmer. “So far, the H2Ohio program has been successful in promoting the best practices for nutrient management on over a million acres of farmland and we look forward to building on that success in the coming years.”
The H2Ohio phosphorus reduction plan has focused first on reducing runoff into the Maumee River Watershed and Lake Erie and will eventually be offered to other parts of the state in the future.… Continue reading
Join the Ohio AgriBusiness Association Feb. 3, for Safety & Risk Management Day, included in the Industry Conference registration. Details on the day’s sessions are available under the Feb. 3 – Safety Day tab in the Agenda. We’ll hear from Matt Beal and Ryan King, Ohio Department of Agriculture; Kim Nelson, OSHA; Marlene Eick; and Steve Davis and Nate Boerger, ABIS/JH Ward – Assured Partners.
The Industry Conference is available on demanduntil April 30. To access on-demand content, navigate to the session’s description and click the on-demand link. On-demand allows you to see sessions you missed, or re-experience the sessions you loved. You may also earn the associated CCA credit by scanning the QR code upon completion of the video.
Finally, please take time to complete the brief Industry Conference Evaluation on the event platform. With a new event format, your feedback is more important than ever. We ask that you complete the “Event Evaluation” at the top of the page, as well as evaluations for any sessions you attended. … Continue reading
The last time I wrote here, in mid-December, there were all sorts of rumors around the 2020-21 Brazilian soybean crop, because it was planted about 30 days later than normal due to irregular rains in September, October and November.
The Brazilian delay was one of the main bullish fundamentals at that time in Chicago. Not that the crop was necessarily headed for a disaster (soybeans don’t fail during the vegetative stage!), but because the delay, combined to virtually zero beginning stocks, would leave Brazil out of the export game in January.
That would make room for more U.S. sales, especially to China — something that is really happening now and helping boost international prices even further, along with a very tight supply and demand balance in the U.S., speculations around the crop development in Argentina (it’s doing fine so far, by the way) and tensions between that country’s government and farmers.… Continue reading
As fertilizer costs increase, farmers want to either lower their fertilizer costs or find ways to conserve soil nutrients. Cover crops can help do both things. Legumes and clovers sequester nitrogen (N) and grasses and radishes make phosphorus (P) more available. Most conventional soil tests measure inorganic soil nutrients but are less reliable accounting for organic or carbon-based plant nutrients. As soil health improves, nutrient availability and nutrient efficiency generally improves due to higher soil microbial activity.
Manure improves soil health and soil organic matter (SOM). Solid chicken manure is high in N, P, and calcium. Liquid manures (hog and dairy) can be major sources of nutrients but have a high-water content (dairy, 98% water; hog, 95% water) and with high transportation costs, can be more expensive. Composting solid manure tends to concentrate available nutrients because as manure decomposes, the volume generally reduces to about a third of the original volume.
Join us on Wednesday, Feb. 17 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. for this virtual field tour of Working Woods. Making decisions about land management can be difficult if you haven’t seen what the results actually look like in the woods. Join us for this virtual field tour of Working Woods, the demonstration forest at the Holden Arboretum, where you’ll get to experience management sites through 360 photos, videos, and maps. Whether you have an interest in conserving your woods, performing a timber harvest, or managing invasives, gain a vision for your own management by seeing these real-world demonstrations.
Collaborators include Natural Resources Conservation Service, Geauga, Lake, Ashtabula, Portage, and Trumbull Soil and Water Conservation Districts, ODNR Division of Forestry, Ashtabula, Geauga, Lake, Trumbull, and Portage County Farm Bureaus, and ODNR Division of Wildlife.… Continue reading
The upcoming forecast of cold temperatures has sparked some concern about damage to the winter wheat crop.
Fortunately, winter wheat is very resistant to cold temperatures during the months of December, January, and February when the plant is dormant. During these months, winter wheat can withstand below freezing temperatures, especially when there is snow cover. In early 2019, Ohio experienced polar vortex temperatures without snow cover. However, no (or minimal) damage was observed in winter wheat.
Figure 1. Polar vortex temperatures with no snow cover in early 2019 resulted in survival of winter wheat.
Besides wheat’s natural ability to be resistant to cold temperatures, plant breeders have developed wheat varieties that are adapted to Ohio’s environments. Occasionally some companies have tried to push North varieties adapted to the Mid-Atlantic region that may be affected by extreme cold. However, most often wheat that has not survived cold temperatures was planted too late for adequate growth, planted too shallow to protect the crown, or too much water on low spots before the cold temperatures.… Continue reading
Matt, Kolt, and Dusty talk to Joe Logan of the Ohio Farmers Union. Joe talks about the Biden administration and how it aligns with the Ohio Farmers Unions’s priorities so far. Matt includes audio with Chris Henney, and Craig Schluttenhofer. Dusty has audio with Jordan Wade. All of this and more at ocj.com!… Continue reading
Susan Shultz, from Logan County, is the new president of the American Sheep Industry Association.
Susan and her husband Bill raise production-oriented sheep on their Bunker Hill Farm near DeGraff. Susan was elected president on Jan. 29 through the virtual 2021 American Sheep Industry Convention. Both Susan and Bill have been very involved at the state and national levels of the sheep industry.
“I got very involved in Production Education Research Council, which was kind of a natural since I was a retired teacher. I am very interested in research and education outreach at the national level,” Susan said in a 2019 interview for the couple’s Master Shepherd Award. “Then there was an opportunity to become a regional director and I represented six states.”
In her role at the national level, Susan is an advocate for the wide array of issues facing the U.S sheep industry.
The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation’s virtual Young Ag Professionals Winter Leadership Experience this weekend was an opportunity to build personal and professional experience while networking with agricultural leaders.
The theme for the 2021 Winter Leadership Experience was “Cultivating Progress in Times of Change.” The event, thanks to the support of Heritage Sponsor Nationwide and Platinum Sponsor Farm Credit Mid-America, offered participants the capability to connect with industry leaders and see several exciting new opportunities to engage and network with others from around the state.
“Just as in past years there will be a lot of great ideas and lessons to take away from the Winter Leadership Experience,” said Charlie and Casey Ellington, chairs of the Young Agricultural Professionals State Committee heading into the meeting. “The engaging speakers and diverse sessions that are lined up will give everyone a chance to learn from others as they look to grow personally and professionally.”… Continue reading
The Philippines’ government plans to hold a hearing to discuss a proposal to reduce its pork tariffs for in-quota and out-quota imports. Specifically, the country’s Department of Agriculture (DA) is recommending pork imports under the minimum access volume (MAV) have a 5% tariff for the next six months and a 10% tariff for the succeeding six months, compared to the current 30% tariff.
For pork imports outside the MAV, the DA proposes tariffs be reduced to 15% for the next six months and 20% in the succeeding six months, compared to the current 40%. The Philippine Tariff Commission plans to consider the DA proposal on Feb. 4. This proposal comes on the heels of NPPC’s meeting last week with U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Jose Manuel Romualdez.
The National Pork Producers Council has been working with the Philippines’ government for more than a year to negotiate lower pork import tariffs. NPPC welcomes the DA’s proposal, as the Philippines holds tremendous market opportunities for U.S.… Continue reading
OSU Extension will host a virtual three part“Planning for the Future of Your Farm” workshop on February 15, 22 and March 1, 2021 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. via Zoom. This workshop will challenge farm families to actively plan for the future of the farm business. This workshop is designed to help farm families learn strategies and tools to successfully create a succession and estate plan that helps you transfer your farm’s ownership, management, and assets to the next generation. Learn how to have the crucial conversations about the future of your farm.
Topics discussed during this series include: Developing Goals for Estate and Succession; Planning for the Transition of Control; Planning for the Unexpected; Communication and Conflict Management during Farm Transfer; Legal Tools & Strategies; Developing Your Team; Getting Affairs in Order; and Selecting an Attorney.
This workshop will be taught by members of the OSU Farm Office Team featuring Peggy Hall & Jeffrey Lewis, Attorneys from OSU Agricultural & Resource Law Program and David Marrison, Extension Educator for Coshocton County.… Continue reading
In accordance with the White House memo, Regulatory Freeze Pending Review, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended the processing and payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program — Additional Assistance and has halted implementation until further notice. Farm Service Agency local offices will continue to accept applications during the evaluation period.
In the coming days, USDA and the Biden Administration intend to take additional steps to bring relief and support to all parts of food and agriculture during the coronavirus pandemic, including by ensuring producers have access to the capital, risk management tools, disaster assistance, and other federal resources.
“The pandemic has taken an unprecedented toll on American agriculture, and the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program has provided a lifeline for farmers and ranchers across the country. Many growers who previously did not qualify for assistance continue to suffer losses and need the help CFAP provides,” said Zippy Duvall, American Farm Bureau Federation president.… Continue reading
Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal Ohio Ag Net | Ohio's Country Journal 
