Agriculture News
Trade is Not to Blame for American Job Loss
Hoosier Ag Today | Posted on September 13, 2016Those opposed to the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement say trade deals like this cost jobs in America. But the facts do not back that up. When managing plants in Indiana, Ohio, and other Midwestern states close and relocate their operations to Mexico or China, trade deals like TPP and NAFTA get the blame. But the actual figures do not back up that claim, according to John Hardin, Indiana farmer and member of the U.S. Meat Export Federation. “For every three jobs that are lost to foreign trade competition, 7 jobs are lost to automation. I don’t think we are properly analyzing the problem,” he states.
Federal District Court Ruling Concerning for Farmers
Indiana Agricultural Law Foundation | Posted on September 13, 2016Farmers should be concerned about a recent decision (Duarte Opinion) from the United States District Court of the Eastern District of California involving the federal Clean Water Act. Generally, the CWA provides that a landowner may not discharge a point-source pollutant (Section 402) or dredge and fill material (Section 404) into a “water of the United States” without obtaining the proper permit from the Environmental Protection Agency or the Army Corps of Engineers. There are significant agricultural exceptions to both Sections 402 and 404. Both of these principles are central to the Duarte case. Among other things, this case illustrates the broad reach of the current definition of WOTUS. Many feel the new WOTUS definition, which is currently stayed pending ongoing litigation, is even broader. The case also articulates an extremely narrow application of the agricultural exception to Section 404 of the CWA and the potential impact on normal farming activitie
Quick recovery unlikely for U.S. agriculture
Columbia Daily Tribune | Posted on September 13, 2016Recent reports by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and our institute mostly confirm bad news for the farm sector: Commodity prices and farm income are down, and a quick recovery appears unlikely. Grain prices for crops harvested in 2016 are projected to drop to the lowest level in a decade. Corn and wheat prices for this marketing year might be less than half the levels of just four years ago. he market update prepared by the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI) indicates the combination of record world crops and slower demand growth has resulted in a sharp increase in the amount of grain in storage, putting severe downward pressure on crop prices. The story isn’t much better for animal agriculture. University of Missouri colleagues project feeder cattle prices might fall 29 percent this year. Hog, chicken and milk prices also are down sharply from the record levels set in 2014.
Negative Economic Profit Margins for Dairy Producers in 2015, Likely to Continue Negative Trend in 2016
Farm Doc Daily | Posted on September 13, 2016Lower milk prices resulted in negative economic returns for Illinois dairy producers in 2015, according to figures summarized by University of Illinois agricultural economists in cooperation with the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management Association. The average net price received per 100 pounds of milk was $17.35, which was less than total economic costs of $19.17. The price received for milk in 2015 was the lowest since 2010. On a per cow basis, total returns from milk were $4,053 compared to the total cost to produce milk of $4,463 per cow. Total returns from milk per cow were the lowest since 2010 after 2014 being the highest on record at $5,730. The net returns per cow in 2015 were a negative $410. Total returns have exceeded total economic costs two out of the last ten years. Milk production per cow for all herds averaged 23,355 pounds. The average was 627 pounds more per cow than in 2014. This is the highest level in milk production per cow. Trends in total costs and returns per cow for all herds are given from 2006 to 2015 in Figure 1. The profit margin (return above all cost) decreased-- from $662 in 2014 to negative $410 per cow in 2015. The last five-year returns above all costs has averaged a negative $320 per cow. During this period, returns above all costs per cow have varied from a negative $935 in 2012 to $662 in 2014. In Figure 1, labor and interest charges are included in total costs only. Most dairy producers will incur hired labor and cash interest expense and would include them as cash operating costs.
USDA lowers cattle, hog, soybean prices, raises corn price forecast
Meatingplace (registration required) | Posted on September 12, 2016USDA lowered its forecast for total red meat and poultry production for 2016 from last month, projecting lower beef, pork, and broiler production. Turkey production was raised. Corn production was lowered and soybean production raised in its latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report.
GM may be crucial to forge a more sustainable route for agriculture, says food expert
Irish Times | Posted on September 9, 2016The adoption of new technologies, including GM, may be crucial in making agriculture more sustainable, a leading food policy expert has claimed. Jack Bobo, chief communications officer for US biotech company Intrexon, said agriculture is having the most negative impact on the planet and yet there is nothing more critical to human survival. Resolving this contradiction was perhaps the greatest challenge of the age, he said. “The reality is that much of the beer, wine and cheese in Europe is produced with GMOs, it’s just that Europe’s labelling laws don’t require it to be labelled,” he said.
Can California agriculture remain sustainable?
Western Farm Press | Posted on September 9, 2016Not all the data are in just yet, but California is already banking on a lower gross value of its agricultural output for 2015. The California Department of Food and Agriculture collects reports from each of the county agricultural commissioners on crop output during the previous year. Several, but not all of the major crop-producing counties have submitted their reports. Of those that have, the numbers are disappointing and predictable. Citing U.S. Department of Agriculture numbers, the CDFA suggests gross crop values could be down about $9.5 billion from the 2014 figure that came in above $50 billion for the first time in history. Tulare and Fresno counties have released their reports. Kern County’s report should be out this month. These are consistently the top three in the state. Fresno and Tulare counties were down considerably for much the same reasons. Softer commodity prices in the major crop categories – tree nuts, grape and milk – factored in as some acreage declines because of water availability.
Booms for the birds are nuisance for some, necessity for others in Wine Country
The Press Democrat | Posted on September 9, 2016At first, Sebastopol area resident Nancy Martin and her husband did not know what to make of the frequent booming noises they suddenly started hearing in mid-August. Neither did their neighbors. “We were walking around the neighborhood and we’d run into people, and they’d say, ‘What’s that noise we’re hearing?’ ” Martin said. “And we would say, ‘I don’t know, maybe hunting.’ ” But the sounds were going off at very frequent intervals — sometimes as much as 20 per minute — and could last for 13 hours a day, Martin estimated. So hunting-related gunshots didn’t sound quite right. Then a neighbor emailed with the most likely answer: bird cannons. Vineyards employ the noise-making devices powered by propane to scare away birds that may seek to prey on their valuable crop as harvest approaches. The use of bird cannons is nothing new, particularly in agriculture-heavy Sonoma County, but Martin, who said she has lived in her neighborhood for 30 years, could not recall ever hearing them before.
US egg industry faces hard choices amid cage-free rush
Watt Ag Net | Posted on September 9, 2016While the U.S. egg industry surges toward what looks like a cage-free future, individual egg producers and the organization that represents more than 90 percent of them, the United Egg Producers (UEP), find themselves at a crossroads. Should the organization of the country’s largest egg farmers go all in for cage-free production, or push back against the trend and defend enriched cage housing as an alternative to cage free? The UEP held a series of six regional meetings across the country in August and the staff of Egg Industry attended meetings held in Atlanta and Des Moines, Iowa, on August 15 and 23, respectively. At those meetings, several egg producers expressed frustration with the disconnect between the marketplace and the cage-free egg purchase pledges made by major retail, food-service and food processing purchasers.
Millions of bees dead after South Carolina sprays for Zika mosquitoes
The Washington Post | Posted on September 9, 2016On Sunday morning, the South Carolina honey bees began to die in massive numbers. Death came suddenly to Dorchester County, S.C. Stressed insects tried to flee their nests, only to surrender in little clumps at hive entrances. The dead worker bees littering the farms suggested that colony collapse disorder was not the culprit — in that odd phenomenon, workers vanish as though raptured, leaving a living queen and young bees behind. Instead, the dead heaps signaled the killer was less mysterious, but no less devastating. The pattern matched acute pesticide poisoning. By one estimate, at a single apiary — Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply, in Summerville — 46 hives diedon the spot, totaling about 2.5 million bees.