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

Corn Leader Update
April 2, 2010


Effort Nets New Members!
Last month we sent out a membership recruitment mailing to prospective members. While the results are still coming in, we have signed up around 100 new members. This is fantastic news! The mailing included information on the Free Seed Deal and information on the legislative and regulatory efforts of the association. This is a great time for you, our leaders, to help spread the word to your neighbors and friends and encourage them to join KCGA as well. With so many front burner issues like ethanol and atrazine, just to name a couple, it’s never been more important to be a member of corn growers association. Call the office if you need any materials, free seed forms or other information at 800-489-2676.

Measuring the Success of the USMEF/KCC Trip to Europe
I think it’s clear the USMEF trip to Europe to promote US and Kansas beef was a success. Our own Kansas Corn Commission representatives have told us as much. This week, we spent a little time to measure the success of the trip in the media. Here is what we found. We did a Google search with keywords Hilton USMEF burger. The first three pages of the search results were reports from the trip. That’s great exposure. We did a media search for the trip. Our news releases and coverage were in the High Plains Journal, Kansas Farmer, Grass and Grain and FarmTalk magazine. In addition, several Kansas radio stations carried audio from the trip including WIBW and Kansas Ag Network; KFRM, KBUF and others. Several other publications in the US, (including many online beef publications) and Europe carried coverage of the event as well. If you would like to see some of the coverage, we’ve put some links to US and EU coverage on our KSGRAINS BLOG—follow this link. http://kansasgrains.wordpress.com/

Also on the blog, you’ll find a link to our YouTube video of the trip—this is definitely what you would call Must See TV! Or go directly to our YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/kansasgrains#p/a/u/0/Snxzgjm8xcE

Kansas Corn Up, Sorghum Steady in Planting Report
I heard an analogy this week that the prospective plantings report is kind of like your first round bracket picks on the NCAA basketball tournament—

Kansas:
Corn: 4.7 million acres, up 15 percent from 2009, largest acreage since 1936.
Sorghum: 2.7 million acres, unchanged from 2009.
Soybeans: 4.1 million acres, up 11 percent from 2009 and a record.
Wheat: 8.6 million acres, down 8 percent from 2009, lowest acreage since 1970

Kansas growers intend to plant a combined 7.4 million acres of corn and sorghum this year, according to this week's USDA Prospective Plantings report. The report showed an increase in corn and soybean acres, no change in sorghum acres and a decrease in wheat acres in Kansas for 2010. Kansas corn growers intend to plant 4.70 million acres this year, up 15 percent from 2009. If this projection is correct, 2010 will be the largest area planted to corn in Kansas since 1936. Kansas corn yields in the 1930s were less than 20 bushels per acre. Kansas joins Illinois, Missouri and Ohio in expected acreage increases of 300,000 or more. Corn acres across the U.S. are expected to reach 88.8 million acres in 2010, up 3 percent from last year. The largest decreases are expected in Iowa, down 200,000 acres, and Texas, down 150,000 acres.

“This projection tells us that there continues to be a high demand for feedgrains and that our growers are committed to meeting the needs of the livestock and ethanol industries. Thanks to improved crop genetics and better farming practices, Kansas growers are looking forward to continuing a trend of higher yields,” said Jere White, executive director for the Kansas Corn Growers Association and Kansas Sorghum Producers Association.

It’s about time…
UK Report on Food Crisis Vindicates Ethanol
From Domesticfuel.com
A new report commissioned by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has concluded that drought and high oil prices, not biofuels, were behind the so-called food crisis of 2007/2008.

“Available evidence suggests that biofuels had a relatively small contribution to the 2008 spike in agricultural commodity prices,” the report noted. “Studies which have found a large biofuel impact across agricultural commodities have often considered too few variables, relied on statistical associations or made unrealistic or inconsistent assumptions.”

The Global Renewable Fuels Alliance (GRFA) welcomed the report’s findings. “This food crisis event in 2008 allowed critics of ethanol to make an easy scapegoat of the industry during a period of unprecedented expansion in ethanol production,” said GRFA spokesperson Bliss Baker. “This is a lesson for us all about the dangerous impact of rising oil prices and the willingness to look to an easy answer, not necessarily the right answer.”

The report found that speculators responding to rapidly declining global wheat stocks caused by ongoing drought originally triggered the crisis, which was exacerbated by countries imposing export restrictions on grains that drove prices even higher. The simultaneous spike in crude oil prices to record levels put upward price pressure on all commodities making the food crisis a truly global event. “The primary impact of high oil prices on agricultural commodities seems still to be through the supply-side, via increased costs of production, rather than the emerging demand-side channel of biofuels,” the report noted. “Fuel and fertiliser account for over half of operating costs of crop farms but many commentators have ignored oil’s ongoing importance as an input into agricultural production.”

Going forward, the report is very optimistic about the world’s ability to respond to both demand for biofuels and the need for additional cropland citing vast amounts of under-utilized agricultural reserves around the world.
 

Corn Leader--March 19, 2010

USMEF Mission to Europe; Creekstone Farms; RMA Non-Irrigated Issue; Atrazine; Vinduska USGC Mission; Ag Day; KS Corn Online

On Last Day of Winter, Waiting for the Snowstorm
We hope the snow storm that is hitting Kansas doesn’t live up the hype! As Agriculture Week winds down and spring arrives Saturday, we are hoping for some drying weather so our growers can begin planting. Kansas Ag Statistics reported this week that subsoil moisture statewide is 67 percent adequate and 28 percent surplus.

Kansas Corn Commission, USMEF Ink Agreement with Hilton Restaurants for Classic U.S. Beef Burger in Europe
Representatives of the Kansas Corn Commission, the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) and Amsterdam-based importer Nice to Meat finalized an agreement Tuesday with Hilton Hotels for the launching of a premium U.S. beef burger. The U.S. burger will be featured at more than 120 Hilton Hotel restaurants across Europe, thanks in part to promotional support from Kansas corn producers.

Billed as the “Best Burger of the World,” the classic sandwich will be one of the most prominently featured U.S. beef items since the agreement was reached last year between the United States and the European Union on a new duty-free quota for high-quality beef derived from non-hormone-treated cattle. One of the U.S. Meat Export Federation’s (USMEF) strategies in Europe is to enhance the image and reputation of U.S. beef through prestigious venues such as top-tier hotels. The Kansas delegation includes Commissioners Brian Baalman of Menlo, Pat Ross of Lawrence, Ken McCauley of White Cloud and Mike Brzon of Courtland. They are accompanied by Kansas Corn Commission Executive Director Jere White, who says the Hilton burger promotion presents a very exciting opportunity for corn producers, who add value to their product through exports of U.S. beef.

“It’s the reintroduction of what they’re calling the classic US beef burger,” White said. “It’s the result of a chefs’ taste testing that took place in Europe and a cooperative effort with the importer.”

This project will be the most visible promotion for U.S. beef in Europe since the hormone ban. “It’s an entryway back into the Hilton Restaurants high end beef market and we’re excited to be a part of it,” White said. Visit the corn websites at http://www.ksgrains.com  for more information, photos and audio.

Creekstone Farms Is One Supplier for the EU Beef Project
Jere White, Pat Ross and Sue Schulte visited Creekstone Farms last week to tour the Arkansas City plant that is one of the suppliers for the EU Hilton beef project. Four of the five Kansas corn representatives are also livestock producers.

KCGA Sends Letter to RMA Addressing Non-Irrigated Crop Rotations in Western Kansas and parts of Colorado and Nebraska
Follow this link for a pdf file of the letter we sent to RMA
regarding the non-irrigated crops proposal. We, along with other organizations, have asked that RMA have workshops to address our concerns with the proposal.

Six Kansas Towns in Federal Lawsuit Filed Over Atrazine
On March 8, 2010, St. Louis trial lawyer Stephen Tillery and his Dallas-based partner, the Baron & Budd law firm, filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Illinois on behalf of 17 cities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ohio, and Missouri, asking Syngenta to pay for water filtration in their communities.

Plaintiffs in the case are water systems in Coulterville, Evansville, Farina, and Gillespie, and Greenville, Illinois; Creston, Iowa; Jasper, Indiana; Carbondale, Dodge City, Marion, Miami County, Oswego, and Plains, Kansas; Cameron and Concordia, Missouri; and Monroeville and Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

Thanks to Will Nichols for calling in the office about this issue. He wrote a letter to the Dodge City newspaper pointing out that farmers will ultimately pay for the city’s involvement in this lawsuit. Give me call if you are near one of the cities in the lawsuit and would like to write a letter.

These systems are in compliance with drinking water standards. It is not about atrazine. It is about greedy lawyers duping the systems into thinking they will get something for nothing. It should be noted that a similar federal lawsuit was dismissed in 1999 when the judge ruled that removing safe and approved levels of atrazine from drinking water was unnecessary.

Atrazine Is Safe
Atrazine is an herbicide farmers have safely used for more than 50 years. EPA has more than 6,000 atrazine studies in its files. It was after an exhaustive 12-year review of many of these studies that EPA re-registered atrazine as safe for use in 2006. EPA stated that the cumulative risks associated with triazine herbicides pose “no harm that would result to the general US population, infants, children or other . . . consumers.”  Atrazine has also been given a clean bill of health by the governments of Great Britain and Australia, as well as by the World Health Organization.  For 50 years, atrazine has been used safely in agriculture with no adverse effects on humans or animals. Not surprisingly, media reports have preceded any actual legal receipt notifying the registrant of this action. Included with this update is the actual filing from the plaintiffs.

 Terry Vinduska Sees Export Opportunities, Obstacles on USGC Mission
Kansas Corn Commissioner Terry Vinduska recently learned first-hand about opportunities and obstacles to building grain export markets to Colombia, Panama and the Dominica Republic. Vinduska, a Marion, Kan. farmer who is Vice Chairman of the US Grains Council (USGC), returned this week from traveling to the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Panama as a part of the USGC Board and Officers mission. “The purpose of visiting the Dominican Republic and Colombia was to show market presence and that we are a reliable supplier, along with increasing market share,” Vinduska said

In Colombia, the Grains Council had the opportunity to meet with the U.S. Ambassador for Colombia. Vinduska said the U.S. is missing out on significant exports to Colombia and other Central American countries because of the lack of a trade agreement. “The Ambassador briefed us on U.S./Colombian trade. There is a great deal of potential here, but the U.S. hasn’t signed the trade agreement,” said Vinduska. “We must do all we can in order to get that passed. We lose five million dollars a year with Colombia because we have no trade agreement. That’s huge. Colombia wants to trade with us because we can provide grain cheaper than our competitors because we are closer.”

Kansas Corn Joins Efforts to “Thank a Farmer” at March 18 Ag Day
“If you eat today, thank a farmer.” That’s the message Kansas commodity groups, along with the Kansas Department of Agriculture and Department of Commerce shared on Kansas Ag Day on March 18. The Kansas Corn Commission and Kansas Corn Growers Association united with agriculture organizations in celebrating Kansas Agriculture Day on Thursday. Ag Day highlighted a week long celebration of agriculture in Kansas and across the country. Ag Day activities were held in Topeka on Thursday. Legislators were treated to an Ag Day luncheon featuring Kansas products. The legislators walked away with full stomachs and a lot of information from our ag groups. In addition, the group worked with John Deere dealers to place tractors in the communities of Wichita, Overland Park and Tribune to raise awareness of agriculture. The tractors had banners that said, “If you eat today, thank a farmer!” We had a much better reception at Ag Day than growers in Wisconsin—their governor proclaimed Ag Day as a meat-free day to promote the vegan lifestyle.

Kansas Corn Is Busy and Visible on the Internet!
Since you may be snowed in this weekend, why don’t you check out some of the things we’ve been doing on-line?

Our corn websites at www.ksgrains.com

Our Atrazine News blog: http://atrazine.blogspot.com

Our Kansas Grains blog written by our not-so-new staff member DeEtta Bohling:
http://kansasgrains.wordpress.com/

(Read DeEtta’s blog on being banned from the Oprah Winfrey website because of comments she posted challenging Michael Pollan’s misinformation against agriculture.)

Our Kansas Corn Facebook page:
http://bit.ly/9C7Mp2

Our Twitter accounts:
Sue S.  http://twitter.com/kscorn

DeEtta  http://twitter.com/ksgrains

Jere http://twitter.com/kscornhead

 

 

Contact KCGA (staff directory)

Join  KCGA (membership)

Kansas ETHANOL Info

Corn News

Teachers' Resources

Environmental Resources

Corn Links

KCGA Leadership

Kansas Corn Commission (checkoff board)

National Corn Growers Association

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