FAPRI Analyst Provides Crop Outlook at AFBF

John Davis

afbf15-westhoffThe bumper corn crop this year means lower prices for the grain, but feed demand will continue to be strong… while demand to turn grains into biofuels will stagnate. That’s the mixed bag of information attendees of the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 96th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show heard from Patrick Westhoff, director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, updating them on his views of the 2014/15 marketing year.

One area representing more promise for corn and soybeans is feed demand from both the domestic and international livestock sectors. “We’re going to have a lot more animals out there and more need for feed,” he said.

On the other hand, the biofuels sector is expected stagnate, and may perhaps be even weaker. “We’ll have significantly smaller corn yields in 2015/16 caused in part by the low demand for ethanol. Yield numbers will change.”

Westhoff added that while China’s economy will still see growth, it will be less than in the past at about 6.5 percent of its gross domestic product.

He did conclude telling attendees that weather, oil prices and other factors will drive annual swings in prices.

2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Biofuels, Corn, Feed

Grain Shippers to Benefit from Rail Investment

John Davis

afbf15-bnsf1Billions of dollars to improve service on one of the most important railroads for grain producers looks to resolve problems that hurt the grain industry last year. Attendees of the recent American Farm Bureau Federation’s 96th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show heard from Greg Guthrie, director of ag products for BNSF, who updated them them on a $5 billion capital investment plan the company announced at the beginning of 2014, which grew to closer to $5.5 billion by the end of the year.

While the grain shipping industry isn’t one of BNSF’s largest customers, representing only 9 to 10 percent of total business, Guthrie called it one of BNSF’s oldest and most valued.

“From a railroad perspective, grain has been an inherent and significant part of our DNA,” said Guthrie. “Do you really think we don’t want to haul grain? We keep hearing ‘you want to haul oil, not grain.’ We want to haul everything and we’re going do whatever we can to handle that growth because in business if you’re not growing, you’re dying.”

In the last 14 years, BNSF added more than 150 origin locations nationwide. There were 77 BNSF origin destinations in 2000, and in 2014 that number rose to 233. Each station costs $25 million to $30 million to build.

“Our growth [last year] was double the GDP and we woke up one day and realized that we took on 50 percent of all the railroad growth in the United States in one year,” Guthrie said.

That growth ended up dramatically spiking the cost to reserve rail cars, so Guthrie said BNSF is adding more grain hopper cars to the pipeline, which will allow the market to decide a fair price for cars.

2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Ag Groups, Agribusiness

AFB Women’s Leadership Program Elects Chair

Jamie Johansen

afbf15-womenMembers of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Program elected Sherry Saylor, an Arizona row crop farmer, to a two-year term as chair of the American Farm Bureau Women’s Leadership Committee. Saylor and her husband, Rick, are partners in R&S Farms, where they grow cotton, wheat, alfalfa, and barley.

Saylor, pictured here on the right with outgoing chair Terry Gilbert of Kentucky, has been a Farm Bureau member since 1974 and is a former chair of the Arizona Women’s Leadership Committee. She was elected to serve on the AFB Women’s Leadership Committee in 1990 and most recently served as vice chair.

A graduate of Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology, Saylor also holds a master’s in counseling from the University of Phoenix. In addition to farming, she is currently the guidance counselor at Buckeye Elementary School, a position she has held for 28 years.

Saylor and the WLC members look forward to collaborating with other Farm Bureau committees and programs to advance the shared goal of furthering the cause of agriculture.

“It’s so important for those of us in agriculture to be transparent about what we do to produce food,” Saylor said. “We must commit to taking our messages to local, national and even global platforms.”

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AFBF, Ag Groups

ZimmPoll Results Find Ban on U.S. Poultry Extreme

Jamie Johansen

New Holland ZimmPollOur latest ZimmPoll asked the question, “Is China’s recent ban on imports of U.S. poultry & eggs justified?”

On January 8, the Chinese government imposed a nationwide restriction on U.S. imported poultry and eggs following the detection of avian flu in wild birds in the Pacific Northwest. There is no doubt the majority of those polled agree with the rest of the poultry industry in that this ban was unjustified and extreme. The longterm impact of this decision is unknown, but let’s hope our government can convince China that they have over reacted.

Here are the poll results:

  • Yes, better safe than sorry – 19%
  • No, unjustified & extreme – 68%
  • Undecided – 13%

Our new ZimmPoll is now live and asks the question, What’s your favorite Super Bowl party food?

The 2015 Super Bowl is right around the corner. What’s the game without monumental commercials and mouthwatering food. We want to know your favorite Super Bowl party food. Do you prefer a bowl full of chili, hot wings that make you sweat or are you satisfied as long as it contains bacon?

ZimmPoll

ARC Reinstates Ag Comm Scholarship

Jamie Johansen

arc-logo1The Agricultural Relations Council (ARC) is pleased to announce it is reinstating its scholarship program for college students studying ag communications. The organization, through its foundation, will grant one, $1,500 scholarship for the 2015-2016 school year.

ARC conducted a scholarship program up until about 10 years ago. Through the financial contributions of recent Hall of Fame recipients Richard Howell and Gary Myers, along with pledges from several others in the organization, ARC will now award its scholarship in the spring.

In the next couple years we hope to reinstate our internship program as well. A career in public relations can be satisfying and rewarding. Scholarships and internships are ways to show college students the value of pursuing jobs in this area.”

Notices were sent to universities and colleges in October & January announcing the program. Students will have until March 1, 2015, to submit their applications. Among those contacted will be Ag Communicators of Tomorrow (ACT) students through its state chapters.

Ag Groups, ARC, Education

Farm Foundation Forum Topic is Ag Research

John Davis

farmfoundationlogo3Farm Foundation is sponsoring another one of its conversations on topics affecting agriculture. The next free forum, “Tools to Fund Agricultural Research,” will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 28, at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., with a live audiocast also available free of charge for those who can’t be there in person.

For more than a decade, constraints on state and federal budgets have resulted in reductions in public funding of agricultural research. Funding for basic research has declined, limiting the ability of scientists to explore new and interconnected areas of study. The decline in public funding has also changed the dynamic of private funding, as companies step in to fund work being done at public institutions. Cutbacks in research investments also slow the pipeline of new information and technologies needed to sustain and expand agricultural production and productivity.

Panel members for the Jan. 28 Forum are:

Keith Fuglie of USDA’s Economic Research Service, who will provide an overview of trends in public and private research funding, including the funding model used in Australia.

Dr. Harold Browning of the Citrus Research and Development Foundation, to discuss that industry-led research effort.

Steve Rhines of the Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, who will discuss the potential role of agricultural research organizations in financing agricultural research.

Mark McKenna of the Foundation for Food and Agricultural Research, will discuss this non-profit corporation authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill to combine public funding and private donations in support of agriculture research

Registration information is available here.

Ag Groups, Agribusiness, Farm Foundation, Research

‘Farmland’ Star: Perseverance Makes All the Difference

John Davis

Leighton_Cooley1One of the farmers featured in the documentary “Farmland” says being willing to step forward for agriculture can make all the difference when it comes to connecting with consumers about food and feeding their families. That thought comes from Georgia farmer Leighton Cooley.

“We take every chance that comes along to let visitors see our farm,” Cooley told Farm Bureau grassroots leaders at a luncheon during the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 96th Annual Convention and IDEAg Trade Show. “It was a family decision to share our story,” Cooley said. He raises chickens, beef cattle and hay.

Reaching consumers through “Farmland”, a documentary that takes an intimate look at the lives of several farmers and ranchers in their 20s, all of whom are responsible for running their farming businesses, was an opportunity Cooley “never dreamed of.” He participated in the film – “a great experience” – because he wanted to play a part in helping consumers who had never stepped foot on a farm learn about what farmers do.

Cooley was a member of AFBF’s national Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee from 2009-2010.

2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Ag Groups, Agribusiness

Water Availability is Growing Concern

Cindy Zimmerman

A growing population, increasing environmental demands and climate change are combining to pose long-term questions for water availability, especially in the western part of the United States, and California in particular.

afbf15-wenger“I’m not an engineer, I don’t have a PhD, I’m just a farmer,” said California Farm Bureau president Paul Wenger during a workshop on water availability at the American Farm Bureau convention last week. “I’m a farmer that uses less water today and produces more crop. In California, we’ve more than doubled agricultural production on the same amount of water that we’ve used in the last 40-50 years.”

An almond and walnut grower, Wenger made the argument that agriculture is using water more efficiently than governments and urban areas. “There’s a lot of people that say the environment has to survive the way it has for millennia. No, it doesn’t,” said Wenger. “If we’re about results we can have great results.”

California Farm Bureau president Paul Wenger at AFBF convention


2015 AFBF Convention photo album

AFBF, Audio, Water

Introducing The Uganda Community Farm

Jamie Johansen

1959548_586002528156922_1741347293_nThe answer to extreme poverty in Africa could be Africa itself, if a new agricultural initiative lives up to its vision. The Uganda Community Farm (UCF) aims to create a prototype for self-sustainability within Uganda’s poor rural communities. Pursuing a comprehensive agricultural program, it intends to set a precedent for Africa’s rural poor to tread their own path out of hunger and extreme poverty.

Organic Perspectives, the Ugandan non-profit organization behind the project, has already worked with more than 2,000 small rural farmers from Kamuli and Buyende since 2007. The Uganda Community Farm anticipates reaching at least half of the 150,000 households in both Kamuli and Buyende in our first two to four years of operation, and to ultimately scale across Eastern Uganda thereafter.

Organic Perspectives most recently joined hands with celebrity chef Cat Cora’s charity “Chefs for Humanity” on a $250K crowd funding appeal for the Uganda Community Farm. The farm plans to train local farmers on organic horticulture systems that have faster/high returns, and to help the farmer’s access stable and collaborative organic marketing channels – particularly through collective marketing and an approach of Community Supported Agriculture.

UCF Founder Anthony Kalulu explains, “By providing smallholder farmers with a practical organic farming learning centre, based on low-input, sustainable practices, we can provide these communities with the ability to feed themselves, rather than relying on short-term relief programs. What’s more, UCF shall have an organic farming practice section (a Hectare or two) entirely managed by the farmers trained here—with all sales from the section supporting local projects of the community’s own choice. The farm also hopes to become a resource center for scaling Organic Perspectives’ current conservation activities in Uganda’s deforested countryside—in a financially self sustaining manner.”

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Ag Groups, Food, International

Ag Reacts to SOTU

Cindy Zimmerman

sotu-ernstA freshman Senator from Red Oak, Iowa brought the Republican response to the president’s State of the Union address last night home to the farm.

“As a young girl, I plowed the fields of our family farm,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) during her moment to represent the new Republican majority in the Senate. “We were raised to live simply, not to waste.”

Both the president and the GOP hit on many of the same themes, including trade expansion. “We should level the playing field,” said Obama. “That’s why I’m asking both parties to give me trade promotion authority to protect American workers, with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren’t just free, but are also fair.”

“Let’s tear down trade barriers in places like Europe and the Pacific,” said Ernst. “Let’s sell more of what we make and grow in America over there so we can boost manufacturing, wages and jobs right here, at home.”

“We are encouraged by Senator Ernst’s call to work together and tear down trade barriers,” said National Corn Growers Association president Chip Bowling. “Couple TPA with normalized relations with Cuba, and farmers and consumers – both here and abroad – will benefit.”

American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman was also encouraged by the president’s strong support for TPA and expanding trade, particularly with Cuba. “Congress must pass bi-partisan TPA legislation to strengthen U.S. negotiating positions in future trade agreements,” said Stallman. “We strongly support President Obama’s efforts to normalize trade and other relations with Cuba.”

“Soybeans are the nation’s leading farm export, and it’s critically important that Congress pass and the President sign a completed TPA package that will lay the groundwork for robust and comprehensive trade agreements,” said American Soybean Association president Wade Cowan of Texas.

On the other hand, National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson supports President Obama on reopening trade with Cuba, but opposes massive free trade agreements being considered with Asia and Europe. “Free trade agreements are not only exporting American jobs, they are contributing to an increasing trade deficit that has become a major drag on the economy,” he said. “The US government needs to clearly direct our trade negotiators to conclude trade agreements that will erase our trade deficit and lead to more balanced trade in the future.”

AFBF, ASA, NCGA