Another Good Planting Week for U.S. Corn Growers
Favorable weather in areas of the Corn Belt helped many growers catch up in their planting last week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Monday that, as of May 15, 63 percent of the U.S. corn crop had been planted, only 12 percentage points below average for this time of year.
In several key states, such as Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, corn planting progress has surpassed the average, while some states that were lagging saw great progress, especially Illinois and Michigan, where farmers planted 35 and 33 percent of the crop last week, respectively. Ohio remains far behind, with only 7 percent of crop planted compared to a five-year average that is ten times that, while North Dakota is only 14 percent planted.
Last week, the USDA also predicted a record corn crop of 13.5 billion bushels, with a national average yield of 158.7 bushels per acre, assuming a planting of 92.2 million acres. At the end of June, the USDA will provide its complete yearly look at 2011 planted acreage.
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NCGA Opposes Proposed Rule Change that Would Increase Futures and Options Market Volatility
The National Corn Growers Association recently sent a letter to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission stating the organization's opposition to a proposed rule change that would increase daily price limits on Corn Futures and Options CBOT Rule 10102.D. A petition filed by the CME Group requests approval to increase the daily cap on corn futures and options trading from $0.30 per bushel to $0.40 per bushel. NCGA believes that this will not aid price discovery and that, ultimately, growers will bear the cost.
"We recognize the valuable role non-commercial traders and speculators play in the Futures market, but we also recognize that daily price limits serve as a check against irrational price runs," NCGA President Bart Schott said. "This increase will needlessly increase market volatility and this added risk will, ultimately, be passed along to farmers."
Schott also pointed out that, while the CME group cites the number of contracts that settled at their daily limit in the proposal, CME failed to show that trading was halted due to limits on back-to-back days.
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Hard Work, Dedication Pay Off as Next Generation of Corn Products Enters the Market
This year, the dedicated effort of agribusiness, farmers, biotechnology advocates and others, including NCGA, is producing results as a new generation of corn technologies are set to enter the market. Now, farmers can look forward to specialty products intended for specific markets and corn capable of better coping with climate-based stressors.
Earlier this year, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service deregulated corn engineered to produce a common enzyme called alpha-amylase that breaks down starch into sugar, thereby facilitating a vital step in ethanol production. This represents a major change in the types of corn traits available to growers.
Now, APHIS is in the final stages of consideration for deregulation of the first biotech corn variety that targets abiotic stress, drought. This will be the first variety available that reduces stress from a purely climatic factor. In the future, further abiotic traits better suiting corn for cooler weather and other climate-based stressors are expected.
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UN Group: Ethanol Helps Boost Food Security
NCGA has always believed that ethanol production is good for American agriculture and the economy at large, and now on the global scale we are seeing support from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, which this week published a new analysis that supports the claim that biofuels could help improve food security in rural economies.
According to the FAO, the cultivation of crops such as corn for fuel can bring desperately needed investment in agricultural and transportation infrastructure to rural areas throughout the world. If the development is managed sustainably, this investment could provide opportunities to access export markets, raise incomes, alleviate poverty and increase food security. Heiner Thofern, who heads FAO's Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) project, commented, "FAO has been saying for years that under-investment in agriculture is a problem that seriously handicaps food production in the developing world, and that this, coupled with rural poverty, is a key driver of world hunger."
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New Research Finds No Plausible Land Use Change from Ethanol Production
After a thorough analysis of empirical evidence, new peer-reviewed research calls into question one of the chief claims of ethanol opponents, the negative impact of so-called "indirect land use change" as a result of corn production for ethanol. To the National Corn Growers Association, this disproves yet another anti-ethanol myth that spread so easily in the mainstream media.
The new study, "Indirect Land Use Change for Biofuels: Testing Predictions and Improving Analytical Methodologies," was prepared by Seungdo Kim and Bruce Dale of Michigan State University, and is to be published in an upcoming issue of Biomass and Bioenergy. Prior studies on indirect land use change have failed to compare their predictions to past global historical data, Kim and Dale pointed out.
They use an empirical approach to detect evidence for indirect land use change that might be catalyzed by United States ethanol production through a data-driven statistical approach, and the results show that biofuel production in the United States between 2002 and 2007 was not significantly correlated with changes in croplands for corn plus soybean in regions of the world that are corn and soybean trading partners of the United States.
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Cooking Show Provides Common Ground for Grower, Consumers
This week, attendees of the Taste of Home Cooking Show in Lincoln, Neb., learned more than a few new recipes as Kristen Eggerling, a farmer from Martell, Neb., was on-hand to address their food concerns.
Eggerling spoke openly with attendees about her own operation and helped them to better understand both the practices employed by modern agriculture and the values inherent in the farming culture.
Eggerling estimated that at least three-quarters of the 800 attendees visited her booth, sponsored by CommonGround, during the four-hour show. The majority of questions focused on food safety issues and the difference between conventional and organic crops. Many who visited the booth expressed interest in delving deeper into these issues by later visiting the website or through reading the food facts literature available in the booth.
This event was organized by the Nebraska Corn Board and the Nebraska Soybean Association through the CommonGround program. CommonGround, a joint effort of the National Corn Growers Association and the United Soybean Board, works with state associations to provide real farm women with the tools and opportunities to take the story of their farms to open a one-on-one dialogue with consumers on where food comes from and how it is grown.
NCGA Washington Office Welcomes New Intern from Nebraska
NCGA's Washington office welcomed Alissa Doerr, an intern sponsored through a partnership between the Nebraska Corn Board and NCGA. Doerr will assist NCGA staff on a variety of issues related to environmental regulations, transportation, pending free trade agreements, biotechnology, ethanol and energy.
"We look forward to having Alissa with us this summer," said Jon Doggett, vice president of public policy for NCGA. "The Nebraska Corn Board's intern program provides exceptional opportunities for both the interns and NCGA. These bright, energetic college students provide a fresh perspective. It is absolutely vital for young people, especially those who want to be involved in agriculture, to understand how their government works and the best ways to become part of the process. We appreciate the Nebraska Corn Board's support in this outstanding program."
Doerr, who grew up on a cattle and corn farm, is an agricultural economics major with a public policy option at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
