Uncategorized

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — It last rained in Waverly, Minnesota, on May 27, and farmer Dan Glessing is watching his crops nervously, hoping for a break.

The latest drought monitor shows expansion of moderate and severe drought in areas of central and southern Minnesota. In southern Minnesota in particular, the number of counties in severe drought jumped from parts of five counties on June 8 to parts of nine counties one week later (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/…).

Glessing, who grows dairy and beef cattle, as well as corn, soybeans and alfalfa in south-central Minnesota, said that without rain in the coming days, his crop faces significant yield losses ahead.

“Some of our areas of our field are going to be compromised by my guess is 20% yield loss,” he said. “Other areas are OK yet, but we do need it to rain soon. As far as drying us out, the extreme heat and low dew points, that really took a toll on the crop.

OMAHA (DTN) — The worsening Northern Plains drought is having a devastating effect on cow-calf producers as very little forage is now available because of the parched conditions. In response, producers in parts of Montana and North Dakota have already begun culling cows.

Longer term, the drought could also have a negative effect on the supply of all feedstuffs for cattle producers in the region. If feedstuffs can be found, high prices could keep some from purchasing the needed feed.

WORSENING NORTHERN PLAINS DROUGHT

The severe drought gripping the Northern Plains has been significant across the region, said DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick. The drought has gradually worsened during the last three to four months with D4 or exceptional drought — the highest category of drought — developing over a large portion of North Dakota.

Rain last week was significant but only in isolated areas. Some areas did pick up over 6 inches of rain, so the drought is not uniform across the entire Northern Plains, Baranick said.

WASHINGTON (DTN) — Questions about the meat industry dominated a Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee hearing Tuesday at which Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack appeared in person to discuss the Biden administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2022.

In an opening statement, Vilsack said, “The president’s budget for 2022 for USDA programs within this subcommittee is $192 billion, of which approximately $168 billion is mandatory funding and $23.2 billion is net discretionary funding. Its gives USDA a new set of tools and builds on our existing capabilities to address the urgent challenges of our time — containing the pandemic, responding to the nutrition insecurity crisis, investing in research, rebuilding the rural economy, strengthening and building markets for farmers and producers and addressing the impacts of climate change. This is not a list of things we would like to do — it is a plan for what we need to do to get USDA back on track and to help the U.S.

OMAHA (DTN) — Biofuel producers will split $700 million in aid funds for pandemic production losses, and livestock producers who have been left out of earlier aid also will see some assistance, as USDA announced more relief funds on Tuesday.

Also included in the aid will be funds for livestock producers who were forced to euthanize animals during the height of the pandemic’s shutdown and slowdown of packing plant capacity in spring of 2020.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced additional aid to agricultural producers and businesses as part of the USDA Pandemic Assistance for Producers initiative. The aid should start to roll out to producers and businesses over the next 60 days and will include support for biofuel producers, the timber industry, dairy farmers, livestock producers and contract poultry growers, as well as cost-share for organic conversion.

“USDA is honoring its commitment to get financial assistance to producers and critical agricultural businesses, especially those left out or underserved by previous COVID aid,” said Secretary Vilsack.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) — Fashions come and go, but really, stripes have never suited corn plants well.

Those unattractive yellow-white streaks on a corn leaf are seldom good news. At their worst, they signal herbicide injury or more commonly, a nutrient deficiency. At their best, they are a sign of a benign genetic response.

Since Scott Wallis’s favorite color for his cornfields is “so dark green it’s darn near black,” the Princeton, Indiana, farmer has taken special care to avoid early summer stripes. For his fields, the source is almost always sulfur deficiency, and a careful fertilizing protocol has sidelined the streaking and bumped his yields, he told DTN.

It’s a good investment to get to the bottom of your striped corn leaves, agreed Dan Quinn, Extension corn specialist with Purdue University. “Take tissue samples from the good areas and the bad areas, and soil samples, as well, and compare those results,” he recommended.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — The number of farms and ranches paying more in taxes would be dramatically higher if proposed tax code changes affecting agriculture become reality, a new study from Texas A&M’s Agricultural and Food Policy Center found.

Proposed changes to stepped-up basis and other tax provisions from the Biden administration and Democratic members of Congress have raised alarm bells on farms and ranches.

Two bills including the “Sensible Taxation and Equity Promotion Act” would eliminate stepped-up basis upon death of the farm or ranch owner and the “For the 99.5 Percent Act” would decrease the estate tax exemption.

The Texas A&M study conducted by Joe Outlaw, co-director of the Agriculture Food Policy Center, found larger farm operations in particular would face significant tax challenges. The center maintains a database of 94 farms in 30 states.

“Under current tax law, only two of the 94 representative farms would be impacted by an event triggering a generational transfer,” the study found.

Good fuel management begins in the fuel storage tank. Given tight tolerances for fuel in today’s diesel machinery, it’s important to consider the condition of fuel in your storage tanks. Keep the tanks clean and free of water. The tanks should be inspected two times, annually.

Water contamination is a common problem. Condensation contaminates diesel fuel and allows microbial growth. Microbial growth feeds on the diesel fuel but lives in the water. High sulfur diesel fuel once killed this growth. Today’s low sulfur fuels don’t. Biocides will kill the microbes. But then, deceased microbes settle to the bottom of the tank, along with rust and dirt — each contaminate potentially the cause of plugged filters and injectors. Eliminate the water, and you eliminate fuel problems.

Here are three ideas that will help keep your fuel clean:

— Check for water. As temperatures rise and fall, water droplets form both inside and outside of the tank.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — The IRS executed a federal search warrant at Zeeland, Michigan-based Boersen Farms on June 9 in connection with an investigation of the troubled farm, Detroit-based IRS Special Agent Henry Pletscher confirmed to DTN on Monday.

Charges have not been filed against Boersen Farms as of Monday morning. The IRS typically executes search warrants in connection to alleged financial crimes that can include tax evasion. Pletscher did not disclose the reason for the raid.

Boersen attorney Ronald J. VanderVeen told DTN, “Nicholas Boersen and Stacy Boersen believe that they have complied with all legal requirements and have committed no financial fraud on anyone.”

Stacy Boersen is the wife of Boersen Farms’ owner Dennis Boersen. Nicholas Boersen is the couple’s son who is listed as the agent for one of two other limited liability corporation farms owned by the Boersen family, New Heights Farm one and two. Stacy Boersen is listed as the agent for one of those farms.

By Pamela Smith, Crops Technology Editor, Adapted from DTN

Soybean gall midge adults are spreading their wings. Several sites in east-central and northeast Nebraska recorded emergence of the pest on June 8 and June 9, 2021.

(NOTE: This pest has not been detected in Ohio or the neighboring states yet.)

So far in 2021, no gall midge emergence has been reported in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. A diagnostic network of traps is being monitored in these states, where the pest has been identified in previous years. As of September 2020, soybean gall midge had been detected in 114 counties in the four states. It spread to 14 new counties last year.

University of Nebraska entomologist Justin McMechan said the secrets regarding the behaviors of this relatively new pest are still being discovered.

“But some strategies have been developed to help partially reduce pest pressure and losses,” he said.

Soybean gall midge adults look like small, long-legged flies.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) — Few farmers enjoy working outside when temperatures soar into the 90s or higher — and they aren’t alone.

Herbicides, weeds and crops all perform differently in high heat — generally not in the applicator’s favor. With hot, dry conditions roasting parts of the country this week, particularly the northern Midwest and Plains, weed scientists are asking farmers and applicators to keep these five things in mind before they roll the sprayer into their fields.

1. WATCH THE MERCURY

Droughty conditions expanded across the northern Midwest and Plains this past week, and as often happens, scorching hot temperatures played a role, explained DTN Ag Meteorologist John Baranick.

“For the most part, where drought currently is located is where the heat has been the most intense so far,” he said. “Since June 2, temperatures have been in the 90s and sometimes eclipsed 100 degrees from the Dakotas to Wisconsin.

OMAHA (DTN) — A federal judge in Wisconsin has ordered USDA to at least temporarily halt as much as $4 billion in loan debt relief payments to minority farmers in response to a lawsuit filed by white farmers who were not eligible for the same debt relief.

The case is just one of at least five federal lawsuits now filed against Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to block USDA from paying off loans for minority farmers without also paying off loan debt for white farmers.

U.S. District Judge William Griesbach issued a temporary restraining order Thursday blocking USDA from paying any loan debt to socially disadvantaged farmers while the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin considered a more extensive preliminary injunction request filed by attorneys for 12 white farmers and ranchers from Arkansas, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, South Dakota and Wisconsin who had joined a lawsuit against USDA’s debt-relief program.

DECATUR, Ill. (DTN) — Soybean gall midge adults are spreading their wings. Several sites in east-central and northeast Nebraska recorded emergence of the pest on June 8 and June 9, 2021.

Soybean growers with a history of issues with soybean gall midge are being encouraged to begin scouting now. Field edge applications of a pyrethroid may be helpful in soybean fields where emergence has been detected and the plant is at the V2 growth stage or greater, according to the June 10 alert issued by The Soybean Gall Midge Alert Network (https://soybeangallmidge.org/…).

So far in 2021, no gall midge emergence has been reported in Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. A diagnostic network of traps is being monitored in these states, where the pest has been identified in previous years. As of September 2020, soybean gall midge had been detected in 114 counties in the four states. It spread to 14 new counties last year.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — TC Energy Corp.’s termination of the Keystone XL pipeline project ended what would have been an economic boost for many states, many of which filed a legal challenge to President Joe Biden’s executive order that revoked the project’s federal permit.

The Biden administration canceled the permit in January 2021, saying Keystone did not match the administrations climate goals.

In a statement Wednesday, Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said ending the project will hurt his state.

“Without Keystone XL, the United States will not only be more dependent on overseas sources of oil, but our state will not enjoy the benefit of the jobs and property-tax revenue the project would have brought,” he said.

Twenty-one states sued the Biden administration in March, including Texas, Montana, Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — As the Biden administration focuses on carbon reduction in all segments of the economy, the National Corn Growers Association this week announced a number of sustainability goals it wants to see corn farmers in the United States achieve by 2030.

NCGA said in a sustainability report released on Monday that while farmers have become more sustainable in their operations since 1980, there is room to improve crop-production practices.

NCGA set goals for improving sustainability in corn production by 2030. That includes increasing land-use efficiency by 12%, reducing soil erosion 13%, increasing water-use efficiency by 15%, increasing energy-use efficiency by 13% and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 13%.

“The truth is that we have a great story to tell,” NCGA President and Ohio farmer John Linder said during a Zoom call on Monday.

“We have decades of documented improvements on our side, which happened long before sustainability became a part of our daily vocabulary in 2019.”

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — The water regulatory pendulum swung the other direction Wednesday, as the Biden administration announced it was working on a proposed change to the navigable waters definitions in the Clean Water Act. The Biden administration completed its review of the Trump Navigable Waters Protection Rule, concluding it is leaving many waters unprotected.

The Biden EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said in a news release Wednesday the Trump rule has led to a degradation in protection of waters.

The agency filed a motion for remand of the Trump rule on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts — one of several ongoing legal cases. The Biden administration had until May 2021 to conduct a review of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.

“As described in an EPA declaration requesting remand of the 2020 Navigable Waters Protection Rule, a broad array of stakeholders including states, tribes, local governments, scientists, and non-governmental organizations are seeing destructive impacts to critical water bodies under the 2020 rule,” the agency said in a news release.

OMAHA (DTN) — Aunbrea Zeleny and her family have been extremely busy in recent years. The family owns and operates the Oakland Meat Processing Plant located in Oakland, Nebraska.

Their business was already on the upswing before COVID-19 hit last year, and the worldwide pandemic has only increased the demand for local meats. So much so that they will break ground on a new facility along Nebraska Highway 32 on the west edge of the northeastern Nebraska town of about 1,200 people and leave the brick streets of downtown Oakland.

“We are just trying to keep everyone fed,” Zeleny told DTN.

Small meat lockers are seeing much demand for their products with some facilities with no available appointments well into 2022. Midwestern states have even passed legislation to help these businesses adapt to the changing way people buy their meats.

CHANGING BUYING HABITS

The mindset of consumers in how they purchase meat has changed in recent years, according to Brianna Buseman, University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) youth meat animal Extension educator.

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) — Tyler Stafslien counts the time since his last measurable rain in months, not weeks.

“The last real rain I got on my farm was in August 2020,” the Makoti, North Dakota, farmer told DTN. “Spotty rains since then have given us about an inch between now and then. It’s the worst dry conditions I’ve ever seen.”

Stafslien’s fields in north-central North Dakota are in the epicenter of a devastating drought in the Northern Plains, a drought a full year in the making, which is roasting away the yield potential of one of the most diverse crop areas in the country, farmers and agronomists told DTN.

“These are probably the worst crop stands that we’ve ever had and the least amount of moisture since probably 1988,” said Jason Hanson, an independent crop consultant based in Webster, North Dakota. “When you go into a field and look back at the rows perpendicularly, you see how big the gaps are, for every crop,” he said.

LINCOLN, Neb. (DTN) — California’s Proposition 12 provides no benefits to consumers while putting pork producers across the country at a disadvantage, the North American Meat Institute argues in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Monday, as the group tries to convince the high court to hear its case against the law.

In February, NAMI filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to review an earlier ruling upholding the law by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The law requires hog producers to abide by certain regulations to sell pork in California. Voters in the state passed Proposition 12 in 2018 with nearly 63% of votes supporting it.

NAMI opposes the law because the group said it will increase costs for producers and consumers. NAMI filed the brief in response to opposition coming from the state of California and the Humane Society of the United States.

OMAHA (DTN) — USDA will spend more than $4 billion to focus on diversifying “critical supply chains” after examining lessons learned from the coronavirus pandemic, and tie at least part of the funding to transforming livestock markets.

The USDA announcement comes as the White House released a 100-day examination of supply chains across key parts of the country’s economy. The White House sees the focus on supply chain resilience as a way to “reimagine and rebuild a new American economy, not go back to the way things used to be.” The report highlights the president’s focus to pass a large, encompassing infrastructure bill to help position infrastructure to help U.S. companies compete globally.

The initiative looks to leverage billions more in investments by the private sector to “transform critical parts of the U.S. food system” and shift away from heavy reliance on a small number of large processors. USDA stated it will use its supply-chain spending to “increase transparency and competition” in the livestock markets and the meat processing sector that “have resulted in thinly-traded markets and unfair treatment of some farmers, ranchers and small processors.”

ANKENY, Iowa (DTN) — Soybeans planted in December on a Wisconsin farm largely failed to emerge this spring, but the experiment to test hardiness of seed did yield valuable information.

Ryan Nell, who farms 2,200 acres with family near Beaver Dam, seeded 3 acres on Dec. 10 just to see how much stress seed could handle when it comes to early planting.

Nell had high hopes the extremely early planted soybeans, or at least some of them, would germinate and grow. Some germination occurred, but almost all did not grow.

“It’s not a great ending, let’s put it that way,” Nell said. “We dug some seed up in March, and they were germinating and trying to grow. But probably 99.9% didn’t make it.

“Maybe one or two did, but they are awfully hard to find,” he continued. “I really thought the December soybeans would make it. I’ll be the first one to admit defeat.”