2009 Kansas Corn Leader Update File
Bi-weekly report from Kansas Corn Growers Association

 

Kansas Corn Leader 1-15-10

MEETING REMINDERS:

Kansas Commodity Classic will be Wednesday, February 3 in Topeka

We are looking forward to seeing you at the Kansas Commodity Classic in Topeka on Wednesday, February 3 at the Topeka Ramada Inn.

Find out what is brewing at the state capitol, how policies like climate change legislation can affect your farm, and gain a better understanding of the roles of state agencies in agriculture at the Kansas Commodity Classic in Topeka on Wednesday, February 3 at the Topeka Ramada Inn. This annual convention will bring together Kansas grain sorghum, corn and wheat growers for a high powered general session and luncheon. It all starts at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 3 at the Topeka Ramada Inn, 420 SE 6th Avenue, Topeka. The program and lunch are free to growers.

Kansas Senate President Steve Morris of Hugoton will open the event with welcoming comments at 9:30 a.m. Bill Hudson, founder of ProExporter Network will be the keynote speaker focusing on national policy issues, especially climate issues that will affect agriculture.

A state agency panel will follow featuring top staff from the Kansas Department of Agriculture, Kansas Conservation Commission and Kansas Water Office.

Acting Secretary of Agriculture Josh Svaty will speak at the Commodity Classic Luncheon. The lunch will wrap up the day’s events. In the afternoon, growers are encouraged to visit their state legislators.

KCGA Annual Meeting Will Be Tuesday, Feb. 2 in Topeka
Kansas Corn Growers Association Annual Meeting will be at 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 2 at the Topeka Ramada Inn. A joint KCGA/KCC meeting is scheduled from 1-4 p.m. The annual Corn Dinner will begin at 6:30, following the annual meeting. Bob Timmons will speak at the dinner about the US Grains Council Corn Mission to Morocco, Egypt and Jordan, and Robert White of the Renewable Fuels Association will give an ethanol update.

SENT OUT TODAY:
Over 50 Ag Groups Call on EPA to Continue to Use Science, Not Politics in Atrazine Review
Jan. 15, 2010--Agricultural groups from Kansas and across the nation signed onto a letter to EPA clarifying growers’ support for atrazine. The letter was sent to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson today. Earlier this month, environmental activist groups submitted a letter to EPA saying growers oppose the use of atrazine.

“It is truly disheartening when political agendas attempt to overturn scientific process,” the letter states. “Such is the case in the January 5th letter submitted to the EPA by a handful of special interest groups misrepresenting themselves as the voice of the agriculture community in an attempt to negate the overwhelming support and confidence in the herbicide atrazine and to gain media attention for themselves.”

Jere White, executive director of the Kansas corn and grain sorghum growers associations said farmers have been involved in EPA’s reviews of atrazine since the mid-1990s. The groups that signed the letter in support of atrazine represent a very large number of farmers and agricultural producers.

“Over 50 national, state, and local grower and agricultural groups signed on to this letter which reaffirms their support of the use of atrazine. These groups represent hundreds of thousands of farmers from Hawaii to Pennsylvania,” White said. “Many of these grower groups have been involved in the EPA’s repeated studies and reviews of atrazine for more than 15 years. I don’t think the environmental activist groups understand that there are trade-offs. For example, removing atrazine would actually hinder many of our row crop farmers’ efforts to use conservation no-till and reduced-till practices. Without atrazine, many would have to return to tilling their land, increasing the risk of erosion and runoff.”

The groups signing the letter asked EPA to understand that the majority of farmers support the use of atrazine and asked EPA to use science, not politics, to arrive at a decision on the safety of atrazine.

The letter states: “Our growers have actively participated in the process and supported the safety and scientific approval of atrazine by the EPA over the last fifteen years and three White House Administrations. Mainstream agriculture has participated in every Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) concerning atrazine since the beginning of the Special Review in 1994. As stated clearly to the November 3, 2009 SAP, we strongly believe the scientific weight of evidence, based on EPA's own analysis for decades, shows atrazine to be both safe and effective and that it is the best kind of tool that farmers can have.

We are troubled by the activist forces that seem to be guiding the very intensive and urgent re-evaluation (actually a re-re-evaluation) of atrazine despite its recently completed re-registration, which provided for its continued safe use.

. . . The benefits of atrazine use to agriculture are well documented and part of existing EPA record. Recent efforts to downplay these benefits in the media are simply the wishes of activists who suggest they have better insight on producing abundant food, fuel and fiber from their comfortable desk than the farmer who has been doing it all his life. It should be noted that our farmers consider themselves the ultimate conservationists, for without the careful cultivation of their land...their own livelihoods are at risk.”

 


December 31, 2009 -- Corn Leader Update

Happy New Year! We wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year. The office will be closed on Friday, Jan. 1.

Reminder: Kansas Commodity Classic will be Wednesday, February 3 in Topeka

We are looking forward to the Kansas Commodity Classic in Topeka on Wednesday, February 3 at the Topeka Ramada Inn. This is the annual convention of the Kansas corn, grain sorghum and wheat growers. A complete schedule will be released soon. After the 2008 Classic, we decided to take a new approach and hold the Classic in Topeka during the Kansas legislative session. The new date was an especially good choice this year because of the late harvest! Watch for more information on the program to be released soon!

Annual Meeting Will Be Tuesday, Feb. 2 in Topeka
Because of the late fall harvest, we postponed plans to hold a KCGA Annual meeting before the end of the year. We are in the process of finalizing our plans to have the annual meeting at 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 2 at the Topeka Ramada Inn. The meeting will be held prior to the Kansas Corn Dinner held in conjunction with the Kansas Commodity Classic.

Facebook, Twitter, Social Media, What’s It All About???? Are we too old to Tweet?
Social media—yes, your kids or grandkids do it. They are Facebooking on Facebook. They are Tweeting on Twitter. But they might be shocked to know that old geezers like us have Facebook and Twitter pages too! There is a very large and growing number of farmers who are using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter not only to communicate with each other but also to help consumers gain a better understanding of agriculture. So why not hop on line and give it a try? Direct links to the Kansas Corn Facebook and Twitter pages can be found at www.ksgrains.com . You’ll need to create free accounts on both Facebook and Twitter to use the sites, but it is very easy. We already have several Kansas growers using social media. One that comes to mind is Tom Tibbits, the son of KCGA board member John Tibbits. Tom does a great job posting information about what is going on at their Kansas farm. He even posted some photos of harvesting milo in the snow earlier this month. It’s fun for people like us to read Tom’s Twitter and blog entries, but it becomes very powerful when a consumer who has never visited a farm gets to see what is happening on a farm in Kansas. Anti-agriculture activists and special interest groups are masterful in their use of social media sites to spread misinformation about agriculture. It is important that our growers fight back by using social media to share factual information with the public. Blogs are also becoming more important. Blog, short for Web Log, is an informal website where you can post your thoughts. Here is a great blog featured on the Kansas Beef Council website from Kansas farmers Mark and Kim Harms: http://www.kansasbeef.org/ranchfamilyblog.aspx

NCGA Corn Image and Activism Campaign
The National Corn Growers Association and its state affiliates including Kansas, are embarking on a major corn image and activism campaign. This is under the leadership of NCGA”s Grower Services Action Teamwhihc discussed priorities for 2010 during the December 2009 Action Team meetings held in St. Louis, Mo. Action Team Chairman Tim Dolan reports that the team will focus on the farmer image and activism campaign and will remain mindful of the overall goal of gaining public support on issues critical to farmers such as cap and trade legislation and ethanol issues. “I see this as our most important campaign in that we take a careful look at how we present ourselves to the public,” said Dolan. “It also provides us with a chance to gauge how effectively we mobilize our grassroots support. Through their efforts, we are able to keep issues important to growers front and center.”

Specifically, the team wants to use the activism campaign to show the public that family farmers they already trust are still out there and do continue the proud tradition of American agriculture. The team hopes that these efforts will help the public develop informed, fact-based views on hot button environmental issues that will impact farming. “As NCGA grower leaders, we work tirelessly to ensure that the interests of corn growers nationwide are represented in Washington,” said Dolan. “Right now, we must work to demonstrate to the public that farmers are environmentally friendly stewards of the land. In doing so, we will weather the current storm and guarantee the future of our industry.”

Usual Suspects, Usual Wrongheaded Spin
NCGA Corn Commentary post:
The Grocery Manufacturers Association and its anti-ethanol cadre have developed yet another attack Web site, with the usual misinformation about corn and ethanol production. Just consider these statements from their home page:

Myth: “Producing more corn ethanol could threaten air quality in many communities, destroy millions of acres of forests around the world, and increase emissions of greenhouse gases. In particular, plowing up forests to grow more corn could increase farmland runoff, expanding low-oxygen dead zones that hurt commercial fishermen.”

Fact: We don’t need to destroy forests around the world because we’re growing more corn per acre. That’s a big part of the push for higher ethanol blends in the first place — we have more corn for all needs, not less. Check out NCGA’s strategic plan for information on expanding corn production without absorbing more acres.

Myth: “Diluting gasoline with more corn ethanol could divert more than half of America’s corn crop from food and feed to fuel, increasing the cost of feeding livestock and poultry and the cost of making food. Higher food prices disproportionately impact low-income Americans.”

Fact: According to our strategic plan, by the year 2020, we expect to be able to produce 17 billion bushels of corn, of which only 4.75 billion will be used for ethanol. That will only be 25 percent of the total corn supply (18.8 billion bushels) that year.

Myth: “Thousands of jobs and farms were lost when feed prices more than doubled in 2008. Adding more corn ethanol to our gasoline will increase feed prices again.”

Fact: There is general agreement among those who know these things that ethanol demand had little to do with the 2008 increase in the price of corn. Corn now costs less than in 2007, but more corn is going into ethanol production. Many other factors conspired to run up the cost of corn.

National Corn Growers Yield Contest Results:
Kansas Corn Growers Produce Outstanding Yields
Kansas growers may have not received national honors in the 2009 National Corn Yield Contest, but they have much to be proud of. In the contest, sponsored by the National Corn Growers Association, Kansas produced record yields compared to past years. Kansas beat the yield of 296, set in 2008, with a whopping 315 bushels per acre.

The combined average yield of the Kansas winners was 271 bushels per acre compared to 261 bushels in 2008. The highest irrigated yield from Kansas belonged to Merl Rexford of Meade, who had a yield of 315.4 bushels per acre in the irrigated division. The highest non-irrigated yield was from Hugh C. Kinsey of Troy who had a yield of 282.2 bushels per acre in the non-irrigated division.

The national and state contest winners will be honored at the 2010 Commodity Classic to be held in Anaheim, California, March 4-6. The Kansas winners of the National Corn Yield Contest are listed below.

Non-Irrigated
1. Hugh C. Kinsey of Troy planted Pioneer 33D49 for 282.2 bushels per acre
2. Corey Franken of Troy planted Pioneer 33D49 for 278.0 bushels per acre
3. Dean Sudbeck of Seneca planted DEKALB DKC63-42 for 257.9 bushels per acre

No Till/Strip Till Non-Irrigated

1. Jeff Koelzer of Onaga planted DEKALB DKC63-42 for 279.7 bushels per acre
2. Justin Urban of Clay Center planted Pioneer 33D49 for 278.1 bushels per acre
* Hugh C Kinsey of Troy planted Pioneer 33D49 for 276.2 bushels per acre (awarded in the Non-Irrigated category)
3. Joe Elias of Atchison planted DEKALB DKC63-42 for 266.9 bushels per acre

No Till/Strip Till Irrigated
1. Brett Oelke of Hoxie planted Pioneer 35K03 for 288.7 bushels per acre
2. Danny Koehn of Montezuma planted Pioneer 33P84 for 288.3 bushels per acre
3. Todd M. Cyr of Clyde planted Pioneer 32B34 for 285.7 bushels per acre

Ridge Till Non-Irrigated
1. Jimmy R. Elder of Linwood planted Pioneer 33K44 for 206.6 bushels per acre
2. LeRoy R. Elder of Linwood planted Pioneer 33D49 for 200.3 bushels per acre

Ridge Till Irrigated
1. Faye Cyr of Clyde planted Pioneer 32B34 for 287.8 bushels per acre
2. Ron Jacobson of Concordia planted Pioneer 32B34 for 276.9 bushels per acre
3. Roger Johnson of Hoxie planted Pioneer 33D47 for 268.9 bushels per acre

Irrigated
1. Merl Rexford of Meade planted Pioneer 33D47 for 315.4 bushels per acre
2. Damion Cyr of Clyde planted Pioneer 32B34 for 279.1 bushels per acre
3. DML Farms LLC in Belle Plaine planted DEKALB DKC64-79 for 267.1 bushels per acre.

 

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Kansas Corn Growers Association
110 West 4th Ave., Garnett, KS 66032
Phone: 800-489-2676              E-mail:
corn@ksgrains.com