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Kansas Corn
Leader Update |
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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
Kansas Corn Commission, USMEF Ink Agreement with Hilton Restaurants for Classic
U.S. Beef Burger in Europe 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
KCGA Sends Letter to RMA Addressing Non-Irrigated Crop
Rotations in Western Kansas and parts of Colorado and Nebraska
Six Kansas Towns in Federal Lawsuit Filed Over
Atrazine 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
Terry
Vinduska Sees Export Opportunities, Obstacles on USGC Mission 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
Kansas
Corn Is Busy and Visible on the Internet! 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:
Our
Kansas Corn Facebook page: Our
Twitter accounts: DeEtta http://twitter.com/ksgrains Jere http://twitter.com/kscornhead
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