House Passes Permanent Estate Tax Relief Bill

Amanda Nolz

Kisses If you’re like me, then you have been watching closely the progress of the Estate Tax Relief Bill. As the average age of the American farmer or rancher nears 60, agriculture businesses will start switching hands, and unfortunately, poor succession planning can result in the end of a long-standing family tradition. Here is a release that was published in Hoosier Ag Today about this estate tax relief bill…

H.R. 4154, the Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009, passed in the House of Representatives Thursday by a vote of 225 – 200. Introduced by North Dakota Representative Earl Pomeroy, the bill would permanently extend the death tax. It would exclude amounts up to 3.5-million single and 7-million married, and permanently set the death tax rate at 45 percent. Under current law the death tax would expire in 2010. According to Palmeroy, “This bill will provide full and permanent estate tax relief for 99.75 percent of families, farmers, and small businesses in this country, who would not have to pay any estate tax.” Pomeroy adds, this bill will, “Provide the stability families need to make long-term decisions and avoid the estate planning roller coaster that will result from current law.”

Livestock

Dirt!

Amanda Nolz

9780520248700 Yesterday, at the South Dakota Cattlemen’s Association’s Annual Trade Show and Convention, I had the opportunity to listen to Terry Gompert, a University of Nebraska-Lincoln Educator with a speciality in grazing. His presentation was titled, “Money Saving Ideas Including Extending the Grazing Season,” and he offered up tips for producers to consider in cowherd management, improved grazing systems and evaluating calf performance.

One of his points was derived from a book he is currently reading titled, Dirt, by David R. Montgomery. He discussed how the book showed him the importance of good soil to societies. An interesting thought? Yes, but I think this book looks like it might be worth checking out. Here is a description of its contents:

“Dirt, soil, call it what you want—it’s everywhere we go. It is the root of our existence, supporting our feet, our farms, our cities. This fascinating yet disquieting book finds, however, that we are running out of dirt, and it’s no laughing matter. An engaging natural and cultural history of soil that sweeps from ancient civilizations to modern times, Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations explores the compelling idea that we are—and have long been—using up Earth’s soil. Once bare of protective vegetation and exposed to wind and rain, cultivated soils erode bit by bit, slowly enough to be ignored in a single lifetime but fast enough over centuries to limit the lifespan of civilizations. David R. Montgomery sees in the recent rise of organic and no-till farming the hope for a new agricultural revolution that might help us avoid the fate of previous civilizations.”

Will you be reading this book?

Organic, Sustainability

Debriefing On Morocco

Chuck Zimmerman

Corn MissionThe Morocco portion of the U.S Grains Council Corn Mission has concluded. The final step for the team was to sit down at our hotel and discuss the visits we’ve made and what we learned. We were asked to submit one observation and action step.

You can see our team here in deep discussion. I interviewed Joe Zenz, Wisconsin corn grower to get his thoughts. I’ll do this after each country visit.

Joe says that in general he sees some great potential in the Morocco market. He thinks producers still have a lot to learn about production and that the USGC has played a key role in providing educational resources so far. He says that corn quality is an issue that needs to be addressed when they get home. In the future he thinks there’s a lot of market potential with ddgs by setting up some trials to show producers how well it can perform for them.

Our team will be heading to Cairo, Egypt tomorrow so look for a lot more from this group of corn growers in coming days.

You can listen to my interview with Joe below.

USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

Audio, USGC

FISA Is Poultry In Morocco

Chuck Zimmerman

Corn MissionThe Morocco Poultry Association is FISA and its Executive Director is Chaouki Jerrari (pictured second from left). FISA hosted the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team this morning and to lunch. We had a great discussion with Chaouki and other members that included concerns over the recent quality of U.S. corn they received and how American farmers and the USGC can continue to work with them to grow demand and production of poultry in their country.

FISA was created in 1995 and has grown significantly and has received recognition from the Moroccan government recently for the work it does. Members include individual producers, feed mills, hatcheries and others. Their biggest challenge is to increase consumer demand for their product. They’re really starting to look at new ways to conduct marketing on a limited but growing budget.

They like U.S. grain but they have received some corn recently that caused them a concern. In our discussion Corn Mission team members made it very clear that the U.S. had some real weather issues last year but that this year’s crop is one of the best ever.

You can listen to my interview with Chaouki below.

USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, International, Poultry, USGC

Growing The Poultry Industry In Morocco

Chuck Zimmerman

Corn MissionThe U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission team visited a nearly new poultry operation today. The owner is pictured on the right. With the assistance of Morocco’s Green Plan for agricultural development Ahmed Addioui has built several of these poultry farms to raise chickens for the market. Each building houses approximately 15,000 birds.

I spoke with him via USGC Consultant Abdellah Ait Boulahsen (arms raised in photo). Ait has been involved in the Moroccan poultry industry for a long time and worked with the USGC when it helped start the Morocco Poultry Association, FISA.

According to these two guys all the chicken consumed in Morocco is produced locally. No chicken is imported. As the industry sector has grown, per capita consumption has grown from 7 kilos in 1990 to 15.5 in 2008. They believe there’s still a lot of growth to come.

They also discuss how many changes have occurred in poultry production since there are now standards for producers to follow which have reduced mortality and the use of inputs like vaccines and labor. One thing that hasn’t changed is the need to import feed. They import about 90 percent of what they need. On average 60 percent of the feed is made up of corn.

You can listen to my interview with them below and watch a video clip of the poultry house tour.

USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

Ag Groups, Audio, International, Poultry, USGC

Morocco Has Good Grain Market Potential

Chuck Zimmerman

Corn MissionThe Deputy Minister of Agricultural Production for Morocco is Ahmed Bentouhami, pictured on left, who met with the U.S Grains Council Corn Mission team for dinner.

We had a very informal discussion as we sampled more wonderful Moroccan food. Mr. Bentouhami’s comments are translated in the audio file below by USGC Consultant Mustapha El Youssoufi, pictured on the right. He says he’s had a long and positive relationship with the Grains Council. He believes Morocco’s agriculture sector, especially beef and poultry, have benefited greatly from that relationship.

He believes there is great potential for continued growth and development of USGC programs in light of Morocco’s Green Plan for agricultural growth which means even more need for imported grains in the future.

You can listen to Mr. Bentouhami’s remarks below.

USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

Audio, International, USGC

Just Say No to PRRS

Cindy Zimmerman

Boehringer Ingelheim PRRSBoehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica (BIVI) is hosting its second annual “Area Regional Control of PRRS” seminar in Chicago today, prior to the start of the 2009 International PRRS Symposium. The theme this year is “From Ideas to Implementation” – actually getting the concept of area regional control (ARC) on the ground and running.

Boehringer Ingelheim PRRSBIVI has taken an active role in the challenge of managing PRRS (Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome) for the benefit of the swine industry. I talked with BIVI’s Stephan Lange who told me the purpose of today’s seminar is “to get the swine industry together to talk about a ‘game changing’ approach to PRRS control, meaning you step away from individual farm control and really go into area control.”

I will be posting much more from the seminar after I get back in the office, since internet access is very slow here. Listen to or download my interview with Stephan here:

Boehringer Ingelheim, Swine

Zimfo Bytes

Melissa Sandfort

    Zimfo Bytes

  • Midwest Direct Marketing, Inc., and Farm Journal Media jointly announced that Midwest Direct will represent Farm Journal’s FarmReach database to national list brokers and managers.
  • Minnesota Farmers Helping Families recently donated 125,000 pounds of cheese and ground pork to Hunger Solutions Minnesota.
  • For the 2010 growing season, growers using Headline fungicide will receive returns on their investment in multiple ways. Click here for more information.
  • DuPont announced that Dean C. Oestreich, DuPont vice president and Pioneer Hi-Bred chairman has elected to retire effective Dec. 31.
    Zimfo Bytes

    New Shipping Port In Morocco

    Chuck Zimmerman

    Corn MissionMorocco is nearing completion of a major new port facility south of Casablanca. The El Jaddah Port was one of the stops for the U.S. Grains Council Corn Mission.

    While there we met with Ammar Bouchaib, pictured left, who is not only involved in shipping grain into the country but also has a large storage facility for feed products. I interviewed USGC Consultant Mustapha El Youssoufi, pictured to the right, about the project and what it means to Morocco and our grain imports.

    USGC Corn Mission In Morocco Photo Album

    Ag Groups, Corn, International, USGC, Video

    Expert Advice From David Asbridge

    Chuck Zimmerman

    dave-asbridgeLet me introduce you to the David Asbridge and his United Soybean Board, Expert Advice column – Market Production Analysis & Market Outlook. David operates NPK Fertilizer Advisory Service, an independent consulting firm that covers the crop and fertilizer markets, both domestically and globally. Here’s an excerpt from his current column.

    The already record large U.S. soybean crop just keeps getting bigger, at least according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in its latest monthly supply-demand report. The department now expects U.S. soybean production to reach 3.32 billion bushels for 2009. This represents a 3.8 percent increase over the previous record set in 2006 and nearly 12 percent higher than last year’s crop. USDA bases this production estimate on the record 77.5 million acres planted this year coupled with a record 43.3 bushel per acre yield. The yield is 0.2 bushels per acre higher than the previous record set back in 2005.

    David is one of several Expert Advice columnists I’ve had the opportunity to introduce you to over the past couple weeks. Producers can got to the website, read the information and submit questions and get answers.

    Ag Groups, Soybean, USB