Featured News

By Ryan McAllister, CCA, Team Sales Agronomist, Beck’s Hybrids

In this agronomic update I want to take some time to discuss the two most common questions I am receiving from growers as of late. Those questions are…

1. Why are areas in my wheat field turning white?

2. Why is my corn leaning over? It looks like chemical injury.

First, there are several reasons why your wheat may be appearing to reach maturity early.

1. Nitrogen deficiency: with the abundant rainfall we received this spring, our wheat plants are running out of nitrogen. When a grass crop runs out of N it begins the process of cannibalization. It will cannibalize itself to make grain. Therefore, we are seeing wheat fields that are prematurely dying due to this nitrogen cannibalization.

2. Low areas or drowned out spots are dying sooner due to anaerobic conditions from waterlogged soils earlier in the season. These same areas also run out of nitrogen sooner as well.… Continue reading

Livestock and poultry organizations praised House lawmakers for approving an agriculture funding bill that prevents the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from finalizing its proposed regulation on livestock and poultry marketing contracts.

The House voted 217-203 to pass legislation that funds USDA, the Food and Drug Administration and related agencies for fiscal 2012, which begins Oct. 1, but denies money for USDA’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) to promulgate the livestock and poultry marketing regulation.

Known as the GIPSA rule, the regulation was prompted by the 2008 Farm Bill. But, as 147 House members recently pointed out in a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the proposed rule goes well beyond the intent of Congress and includes provisions specifically rejected during debate on the Farm Bill. Lawmakers also criticized USDA’s failure to conduct an in-depth economic impact study of the proposal before it was published.

The livestock and poultry groups expressed strong support for the House action:

“The National Pork Producers Council is grateful that the House is requiring USDA to take a timeout on the GIPSA rule, which as proposed is bad for farmers and ranchers, bad for consumers and bad for rural America,” said NPPC President Doug Wolf.… Continue reading

The U.S. Senate voted to pass the Feinstein/Coburn amendment that repeals the 45-cent per gallon Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit (VEETC) and the 54-cent per gallon tariff on imported ethanol is a giant step toward leveling the playing field for a bushel of corn. It was a 73-27 vote on the legislation introduced by Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.).

“The VEETC and the tariff on imported ethanol have put cattlemen and other end-users of corn at a competitive disadvantage to the corn-based ethanol industry when it comes time to buy a bushel of corn. Repealing the VEETC and the import tariff are important steps to fully leveling the playing field. We commend the 73 U.S. Senators who supported the Feinstein/Coburn amendment,” said Bill Donald, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association president. “Cattlemen aren’t opposed to ethanol. In fact, we support our nation’s commitment to reducing our dependence on foreign oil.… Continue reading

By Matt Reese

Ohio Rep. Jim Buchy (R-Greenville) recently introduced a bill (229) to close a loophole used by local governments to block the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) permitting process for a poultry facility.

“We recently denied a permit for the Hi-Q egg facility permit. The current law says there has to be a meeting between the local government jurisdiction, township or county, and the company to discuss issues like traffic and roadways,” said Rocky Black, ODA deputy director. “In this case, the township refused to send the letter back to the company after that meeting. Effectively, they pocket vetoed the facility.”

The inaction from the township forced the State to deny the permit.

“Following a thorough review of the hearing officer’s report and recommendations regarding the Hi-Q permits, I’ve concluded that the Department of Agriculture has no other viable option but to deny the West Mansfield permits due to an incomplete application,” said Jim Zehringer, ODA Director.… Continue reading

Strawberries, particularly the June-bearing types, tend to produce a lot of runners and daughter plants in a patch. This leads to overcrowded plants that compete for light, moisture, and mineral nutrients and leads to a reduction in the amount of berries produced in a strawberry patch, said a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator.

“In order to minimize competition among plants and maintain a productive June-bearing strawberry patch over an extended period of time, the patch needs to be renovated immediately at the end of harvesting season every year,” said Maurice Ogutu. “The patch can be renovated until the plants have had three to four fruitings or until the plants are not performing optimally. The plants that are not performing optimally may be destroyed and a new strawberry planting established on a different location,” he said.

Ogutu described renovation as the removal of the higher percentage of old strawberry plants from established plantings to allow natural replacement with new daughter plants that will produce more fruit.… Continue reading

Many Ohioans in agriculture are familiar with the Harbage family in Clark County and now, residents of Washington, D.C. will be getting to know them as well.

The Ohio farm family is featured in an ad campaign as part of the Corn Farmers Coalition program that debuts at Union Station, an important venue for reaching policymakers inside “The Beltway.” This is the third year for the program highlighting U.S. corn growers.

“Even in the 21st Century, corn farming remains a family operation,” said Kansas Corn Commission Chairman Mike Brzon, a farmer from Courtland, Kan. “In many cases, such as mine, this vocation goes back multiple generations. The family farmer growing corn for a hungry world isn’t a myth, but a critical economic engine for our country and it’s important that policymakers and influencers realize this.”

Corn farmers from 14 states and the National Corn Growers Association are supporting the Corn Farmers Coalition program to introduce a foundation of facts seen as essential to decision making, rather than directly influencing legislation and regulation.… Continue reading

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association CEO, Tom Ramey, was recently reprimanded by the Cattlemen’s Beef Board Executive Committee for secretly listening in on National Cattlemen’s Beef Association conference calls.

Though he has not be asked to resign, Ramey is required to provide a written apology and has a 6-month employment probation period.

“Mr. Ramey has assured the CBB Executive Committee that he recognizes that his actions were improper and a breach of ethical standards and has promised to never do it again,” attorney Richard Rossier wrote in a letter to NCBA President Bill Donald in response to a number of allegations NCBA made against Ramey and other CBB officials.… Continue reading

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the establishment of four additional Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) project areas to promote the cultivation of crops that can be processed into renewable energy. Acreage in Arkansas, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania will be designated to grow giant miscanthus, a sterile hybrid warm-season grass that can be converted into energy to be used for heat, power, liquid biofuels, and bio-based products.

“Renewable, home-grown, clean energy from American producers is vital to our country’s energy future because it reduces our reliance on foreign oil and creates good-paying production jobs that cannot be exported,” said Vilsack. “Today’s announcement will make a significant contribution to rural America and create nearly 4,000 jobs, demonstrating the great economic potential the production of renewable energy holds for our rural communities.”

It is estimated that each of the four project areas and conversion facilities would earn about $50 million per year. According to industry estimates, a large number of biorefinery, agriculture and support jobs will be created in each area.… Continue reading

There are no good ways to control nematodes in corn once the crop is planted. Votivo has proven effective as a nematicide when applied as a seed treatment. However, because it adds cost, not everyone chose to add it. Companies varied in their policies for adding and charging for treatments.

Nematodes have traditionally been thought of as soybean pests – the soybean cyst nematode. In recent years, though, it became apparent that other nematodes attack corn, particularly in lighter soils. What’s not known is how widespread nematode infestation might be.

The way to see if there is a corn nematode problem is to do soil samples in June, said Dave Nanda, director of genetics and technology for Seed Consultants. Obviously, you’ve already made your decisions for the year as whether to apply the nematicide or not. What you’re looking for by testing in June is looking ahead to making the most economical decisions next year.… Continue reading

For the third year in a row, our nation’s capital will learn about the U.S. family farmers who produce corn, our nation’s top crop, as part of the Corn Farmers Coalition program that debuts today at Union Station, an important venue for reaching policymakers inside “The Beltway.”

“Even in the 21st Century, corn farming remains a family operation,” said Kansas Corn Commission Chairman Mike Brzon, a farmer from Courtland, Kan. “In many cases, such as mine, this vocation goes back multiple generations. The family farmer growing corn for a hungry world isn’t a myth, but a critical economic engine for our country and it’s important that policy makers and influencers realize this.”

Corn farmers from 14 states and the National Corn Growers Association are supporting the Corn Farmers Coalition program to introduce a foundation of facts seen as essential to decision making, rather than directly influencing legislation and regulation.

“Once again, we’re putting a face on today’s family farmers to showcase the productivity and environmental advances being made in the industry and to provide factual information on how innovative and high-tech corn farmers have become,” said Brzon.… Continue reading

By Pierce Paul and Dennis Mills, Ohio State University Extension

We have received several reports of bleached wheat heads in fields across the state. The distribution of symptoms in the affected fields ranges from individual bleached heads scattered throughout the field to huge sections of fields or entire fields with bleached heads. Timing of symptom development ranges from one to three weeks after flowering. In some instances, bleached heads are empty (blank). Such a wide variety of patterns and symptom characteristics is causing considerable confusion among producers as to whether they are dealing with head scab or some other problem. Scab does indeed cause bleached heads, but it is not the only cause of this type of head disorder. Along with head scab, take-all, hail, frost, flooding, and injuries caused by insects (wheat stem maggot) may all lead to bleached or white discoloration of wheat heads.

Useful information to help you determine whether you are dealing with scab include 1) the weather condition shortly before and during flowering, 2) the timing of symptom development after flowering, 3) the bleaching pattern on the head and the plant, and 4) the distribution of affected heads in the field.… Continue reading

Area residents with aspirations of learning how to grow, maintain, harvest, store and distribute local produce and animal products will now have the opportunity to begin their educational journey at Owens Community College as the academic institution’s Department of Science unveils a new Urban Agriculture and Sustainability Certificate Program. Beginning Fall Semester 2011, the new academic program will be offered on the Toledo-area Campus in Perrysburg Township and at The Source Learning Center in downtown Toledo.

“Owens Community College is excited to expand our academic curriculum specific to the urban agricultural concentration area and offer this region’s first Urban Agriculture and Sustainability Certificate Program,” said Matthew Ross, Owens Faculty Member of Urban Agriculture. “The popularity of community gardening, especially within urban areas, has grown immensely within the last few years as result of increased awareness of our food systems and the desire of local residents to grow their own produce for economic and health reasons.… Continue reading

Area residents with aspirations of learning how to grow, maintain, harvest, store and distribute local produce and animal products will now have the opportunity to begin their educational journey at Owens Community College as the academic institution’s Department of Science unveils a new Urban Agriculture and Sustainability Certificate Program. Beginning Fall Semester 2011, the new academic program will be offered on the Toledo-area Campus in Perrysburg Township and at The Source Learning Center in downtown Toledo.

“Owens Community College is excited to expand our academic curriculum specific to the urban agricultural concentration area and offer this region’s first Urban Agriculture and Sustainability Certificate Program,” said Matthew Ross, Owens Faculty Member of Urban Agriculture. “The popularity of community gardening, especially within urban areas, has grown immensely within the last few years as result of increased awareness of our food systems and the desire of local residents to grow their own produce for economic and health reasons.… Continue reading

One of the world’s most destructive wheat pathogens is genetically built to evade detection before infecting its host, according to a study that mapped the genome of the fungus.

Stephen Goodwin, a Purdue and U.S. Department of Agriculture research plant pathologist, was the principal author on the effort to sequence the genome of the fungus Mycosphaerella graminicola, which causes septoria tritici blotch, a disease that greatly reduces yield and quality in wheat. Surprisingly, Goodwin said, the fungus had fewer genes related to production of enzymes that many other fungi use to penetrate and digest surfaces of plants while infecting them.

“We’re guessing that the low number of enzymes is to avoid detection by plant defenses,” said Goodwin, whose findings were published in the early online edition of the journal PLoS Genetics.

Enzymes often break down plant cell walls and begin removing nutrients, leading to the plant’s death. M. graminicola, however, enters the plant through stomata, small pores in the surface of leaves that allow for exchange of gases and water.… Continue reading

“We started planting June 2 and finished everything on June 8. We planted all the corn that we were going to plant. We finished beans and corn on the same day. The corn planter never shut off for four days. We had a half-inch of rain last Thursday. It was perfect. Corn and beans were coming up in four days. Maybe we’ll make up for some lost time. If it were a month earlier, the crops would be great. Now we’re putting on anhydrous and spraying.

“We had 40 acres of beans planted early and we had to spray them because the bean leaf beetles were really working on them. We’ve got a lot of people in the county that use ATVs for spraying and they were able to keep the weeds in check for the most part.

“The water created a lot of replanting in the heavier soils. We guessed 10% prevented planting in Defiance County.… Continue reading

In the monthly report of World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE), the USDA’s World Agricultural Outlook Board (WAOB) reduced the forecast of U.S. planted and harvested acreage of corn and rice. Forecasts for the other major crops were not changed from the forecasts in the March Prospective Plantings report, said University of Illinois agricultural economist Darrel Good.

“Analysts lowered the corn planted acreage forecast due to planting delays in the eastern Corn Belt and northern Plains. In contrast, some increase in acreage is expected in the western Corn Belt and central Plains where planting was more  timely,” he said.

USDA judges that planted acreage will total 90.7 million acres, 1.5 million fewer than revealed in the March survey of planting intentions, he said.

According to Good, area harvested for grain is projected at 83.2 million acres, 1.9 million below the May forecast. The large reduction reflects expectations that some planted acreage was lost to flooding in the lower Ohio, lower Mississippi and Missouri River valleys.… Continue reading

By Dave Nanda, Ph. D. 
Director of Genetics & Technology 
Seed Consultants, Inc.

When the developers of technology for Roundup resistance and Liberty (Ignite) resistance released these products for marketing to the farmers, they were recommending that farmers let the weeds grow until the corn and soybeans are fairly tall to form a canopy and then spray their weeds and kill them all in one pass. Well, it was a good salesmanship and many farmers bought into it as a way to save money on weed control. Little did they realize that the smaller weeds also hurt the yield potential of the crops.

Studies conducted by several universities and my own observations have indicated that smaller weeds do reduce the yield potential of the crops. When the infra-red light is reflected from the chlorophyll of the neighboring plants, whether crop plants or weeds, each individual plant, because of its micro- environment, “decides” early on how many ears and the seeds on the ears or how many beans it will try to produce.… Continue reading

OHIO CROP WEATHER HIGHLIGHTS

WEEK ENDING SUNDAY JUNE 12, 2011

The average temperature for the State was 75.4 degrees, 7.6 degrees above normal for the week ending Sunday, June 12, 2011. Precipitation averaged 1.26 inches, 0.31 inches above normal. There were 162 modified growing degree days, 36 days above normal. Reporters rated 5.5 days suitable for fieldwork during the seven-day period ending Friday, June 10, 2011. Topsoil moisture was rated 0 percent very short, 9 percent short, 75 percent adequate, and 16 percent surplus.

FIELD ACTIVITIES AND CROP PROGRESS

Temperatures and precipitation were higher than normal for the second straight week. The isolated showers did not prevent farmers from getting in their fields. Most field activities included cutting hay, and planting corn and soybeans, with some replanting required. Emerged fields were applied with fertilizer and herbicides. Fungicide was applied to many wheat fieldsas evidence of head scab started to appear. There were isolated reports of cut worm in corn, as well.… Continue reading

By Matt Reese

From bison and bacon to bok choy and baby food, consumers from around Ohio and the Midwest now have the chance to get quality, fresh, local foods delivered to their door courtesy of Green BEAN Delivery.

The BEAN acronym stands for Biodynamic, Education, Agriculture and Nutrition, but customers know the business better for its dependable delivery of local, often organic, foods to their door. Green BEAN owner Matt Ewer harnessed his passion for local and sustainable foods to find an effective and efficient way to help farmers capitalize on the true market value of their crops while conveniently providing customers in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dayton, Louisville and Ft. Wayne the local foods they want.

“We started our Midwest-based local food network in June of 2007 in Indianapolis and spread out since then. I grew up half in the city and half in the farm so I have always been connected to rural and urban areas,” Ewer said.… Continue reading

By Leisa Boley Hellwarth, a dairy farmer and an attorney

Many years ago, my Aunt Grace told me that if a cat sleeps with its nose in the air, then it would rain. Peanuts, my beautiful long-haired tortoise housecat, is more reliable than Doppler radar and more entertaining than the local weatherman. This has been one of the wettest springs on record, with old-timers recalling 1981 and 1967. And our barn cats have been sleeping with their noses in the air since February. Hoping to get a much-needed break from precipitation, I am now waking cats reclining with their noses pointing up.

Regarding felines, there’s a saying that you own a dog, but you feed a cat. Witty, but true. Recently, cats, which required a sitter to feed them when their owner went on vacation, led to an interesting case decided by Ohio’s Sixth District Court of Appeals. This matter is worth discussing because it upheld the Fourth Amendment’s protection from unreasonable search and seizure by the government and the state.… Continue reading