" I heard it through the AgLine"

May 10, 2011

 

 

·        Weather wreaking havoc with global crops

·        US pesticide issue seen as ‘a national crisis’

·        Whole system redesign proposed for US ag

·        Sweet news for California honey business

·        Web tool to monitor stink bug populations

 

 

Weather wreaking havoc with global crops

 

(Bloomberg.com) – Less than a year after the worst drought in a generation destroyed one-third of Russia’s wheat crop and sent global food prices surging, more bad weather is damaging fields from North America to Europe to Asia.

 

Corn planting in the U.S., the world’s largest grower, is advancing at half of last year’s pace because of excess rain, government data show. The Canadian Wheat Board said fields are so muddy that only 3 percent of grain has been sown, compared with 40 percent normally. At the same time, drought left the Kansas wheat crop in the worst shape since 1996, and dry spells are threatening crops in France, Western Australia and China.

 

While the growing season is still early in the Northern Hemisphere, corn futures as much as doubled in the past year as U.S. stockpiles headed for a 15-year low, and wheat is up 58 percent from a year earlier. The United Nations says global food costs advanced in April for the ninth time in 10 months, and higher commodity expenses led food makers including General Mills Inc. and McDonald’s Corp. to boost prices to consumers.

 

“We needed everything to go perfectly, but there’s really a lot of potential for problems, based on these weather issues,” said Sterling Liddell, a vice president for food and agribusiness research at Rabo AgriFinance in St. Louis, who expects corn to reach a record $8 a bushel if conditions worsen. “It could be a very explosive situation, because we’re already so tight.”

 

Reduced Inventory

In a report tomorrow, the U.S. Department of Agriculture probably will cut its forecast of global corn reserves before this year’s Northern Hemisphere harvest to 122.5 million metric tons, the lowest in four years, according to a Bloomberg News survey of 14 analysts. The U.S. is the world’s biggest exporter of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton.

 

While the survey showed corn inventories probably will rebound to 125.4 million tons next year, as higher prices spur farmers to plant more, some analysts expected further declines before the 2012 harvest.

 

Weather, especially in the U.S., may be the “swing factor” for rebuilding global grain inventories, said Dan Manternach, a wheat economist with Doane Advisory Services, an agricultural research company in St. Louis.

 

“Things are so tight, if Mother Nature so much as hiccups on adverse weather, it can be unusually bullish for commodities,” Manternach said.

 

Time to Recover

There’s still time for crops to recover. About 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop was planted as of May 8, compared with 13 percent a week earlier, USDA data show. In Iowa, the biggest producer, planting was 69 percent complete, up from 8 percent.

 

Tyson Foods Inc. (TSN), the largest U.S. meat processor, said it is too soon to start hedging its corn-feed supply for livestock, before this year’s crop is harvested. “It’s pretty dangerous to start buying corn for the fall before you’ve planted the crop,” Chief Executive Officer Donnie Smith said yesterday in a conference call with reporters. “There’s way too many things that could happen.”

 

Rising profits also are encouraging farmers to plant more. The International Grains Council estimates that global wheat production may climb 3.4 percent this year to 672 million tons, while Memphis, Tennessee-based researcher Informa Economics Inc. forecasts production at 679 million.

 

Last year, the worst drought in 50 years spurred Russia, once the world’s second-biggest shipper, to ban grain exports through at least July 1, sending wheat futures on the Chicago Board of Trade to $9.1675 a bushel on Feb. 14, the highest since August 2008. Spring-wheat planting may decline from last year, Russia’s Grain Union said.

 

Export Ban

If the Russian government retains the export ban to protect domestic supply, farmers may sow less wheat and plant sugar beets, oilseeds including sunflower, and buckwheat, SovEcon managing director Andrei Sizov Jr. said May 4 in an interview in New York.

Dry weather in France and Germany and the U.K.’s hottest April in at least 352 years are threatening crops across the European Union, producer of one-fifth of the world’s wheat.

 

“We’re definitely going to be producing less grain than we can consume,” said Andrew Dewing, the owner of Dewing Grain in Aylsham, England. “That doesn’t bode well for next year.”

 

Parts of Western Australia have had the lowest rainfall on record for the past 16 months, according to the country’s Bureau of Meteorology. The government in Manitoba, Canada, has declared a state of emergency because of floods. Wheat output in China, the world’s biggest consumer, may decline for a second straight year because of dry conditions, Tommy Xiao, an analyst at Shanghai JC. Intelligence Co., said on May 5.

 

China Drought

Drought conditions may persist in wheat-growing areas from China, the world’s largest grower and consumer, to the U.S. and Western Europe, hurting crops and lifting prices, British Weather Services said on May 6.

 

Global wheat inventories may drop to 182.1 million tons by June 1, down from last month’s USDA estimate and 8 percent lower than a year earlier, according to last week’s Bloomberg survey. Inventories at the end of next year may be little changed at 182.27 million, analysts said.

 

The U.S. winter-wheat harvest, which begins next month, probably will total 1.387 billion bushels, the least in five years, according to the survey.

 

The crop in Kansas, the biggest U.S. grower of winter varieties, may shrink by 29 percent from last year because of drought, according to a survey of 55 analysts conducted last week by the Wheat Quality Council and based on field samples. The dry spell in Texas, the No. 2 grower of winter wheat last year, means the state may produce two-thirds less than normal, said Mark Welch, an extension economist at Texas A&M University in College Station.

 

Like Russia

“Texas and Oklahoma are very comparable to what happened to the Black Sea region” of Russia last year, Doane’s Manternach said. “It’s too late for rain to help those crops.”

 

Central Kansas had less than 25 percent of normal rainfall in the past 30 days, while parts of Oklahoma and Texas had less than 5 percent, said Drew Lerner, the president of World Weather Inc., an Overland Park, Kansas-based forecaster.

 

In Minnesota and North Dakota, the biggest spring-wheat grower, farmers face planting delays after receiving twice the normal amount of precipitation in the past month, Lerner said. Parts of the Ohio River Valley and the Mississippi River Delta have had up to four times the normal amount of moisture, he said.

 

“The window for optimal yields in the lower Midwest is closing, or it will soon,” Lerner said. “That doesn’t mean they can’t have a good crop, but their potential for yields is kind of escaping.”

 

Food Prices

Corn futures for July delivery rose 0.8 percent today to $7.13 a bushel in Chicago, leaving prices up 91 percent in the past year, while wheat futures for July delivery advanced 2 percent to $8.065.

 

The grain rally is boosting costs for meat processors and grocery stores that are passing the expenses along to consumers.

 

Tyson Foods posted fiscal second-quarter profit yesterday that missed analysts’ estimates as higher spending on feed eroded gains in beef and chicken prices. Grain costs in fiscal 2011 will rise almost $500 million from a year earlier, the Springdale, Arkansas-based company said.

 

Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald’s boosted menu prices in the U.S. by 1 percent in March, Chief Financial Officer Peter Bensen said on an April 21 conference call. General Mills, based in Minneapolis, said in March it would raise prices amid “volatile costs for food ingredients.” Denny’s Corp., the Spartanburg, South Carolina-based restaurant company, said May 3 that it plans to raise prices about 1 percent because of more expensive commodities.

 

“This year, more than most years that we’ve experienced, it’s more critical that we don’t have problems,” said Liddell, of Rabo AgriFinance, a unit of Utrecht, Netherlands-based Rabobank Group. “All of the crops are extraordinarily tight, so this needed to be the year where we didn’t have any problems in order to rebuild stocks.”

 

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US pesticide issue seen as ‘a national crisis’

 

(thenewstribune.com) WASHINGTON – If environmental groups get their way, West Mathison fears that it will be illegal to spray pesticides on up to 80 percent of the farmland in Washington state.

 

That’s why Mathison, the president of Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee, came to Capitol Hill this week to tell Congress that the pesticide issue “is now a national crisis.”

 

Farmers and growers from coast to coast are sounding alarms, fearful that regulators in Washington want to make it more difficult for them to spread chemicals on their land.

 

They’ve found allies in House Republicans, who are moving to ease the rules and strip some of the power from the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees the use of pesticides to control insects, diseases and weeds.

 

The agency is getting heat from all sides: Environmentalists say the EPA has been far too lax in regulating pesticides and protecting the health of humans and animals.

 

“It is often forgotten that agricultural pesticides and herbicides are poisons for both fish and humans,” said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations.

 

The battle is being fought on two fronts: on Capitol Hill and in the courts.

 

In March, the House voted to approve a plan that would negate the need for additional permits when spraying for pests near bodies of water. That legislation is pending in the Senate.

 

The court fight is focused on the Endangered Species Act, which requires the EPA to consult with other federal agencies regarding any pesticide that could harm a protected species. In January, the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity sued the EPA, alleging that it did not adequately consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service in approving pesticides.

 

The lawsuit seeks federal protection for 214 endangered and threatened species, including the blackfooted-ferret, the gray wolf, the northern spotted owl, the Red Hills salamander and the Alabama lampmussel.

 

“For decades, the EPA has turned a blind eye to the disastrous effects pesticides can have on some of America’s rarest species,” said Jeff Miller, conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.

 

The EPA defended its work at a House hearing last week.

 

Steven Bradbury, director of the EPA’s office of pesticide programs, told the Natural Resources Committee that the agency has “a well-regarded program” for evaluating pesticide safety.

 

“A typical new agricultural pesticide must undergo over 100 different tests to characterize its potential risks,” Bradbury said.

 

The lawsuit is prompting alarm among farmers and key lawmakers.

 

It could eliminate 380 pesticides used in 49 states, said Washington state Republican Doc Hastings, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.

 

Barry Bushue, the president of the Oregon Farm Bureau, said that managing for pests is “constant and critical.” He uses pesticides on his 70-acre farm east of Portland, where he raises strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes and pumpkins.

 

If the lawsuit succeeds and farmers and growers have to comply with 1,000-foot no-spray buffer zones around water, Mathison said, it would affect 80 percent of Washington state’s farmland.

 

“This would have a devastating impact on existing farms and orchards in Washington,” said Mathison, who’s also the president of the state’s horticultural association.

 

Hastings, a Pasco Republican, noted that the National Marine Fisheries Service has listed 28 populations of salmon as endangered in the Pacific Northwest and California. When federal officials determined that the continued use of pesticides could endanger the salmon, the fisheries service said it wanted to require a quarter-mile buffer zone around any bodies of water that flow into salmon-bearing streams. Hastings said that would affect up to 60 percent of the state’s farmland, and he said California, Idaho and Oregon would get hit hard, too.

 

With the issue in court, Hastings and 17 other House members — including Republicans Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Jaime Herrera Beutler and Democrat Rick Larsen — sent a letter to the White House asking that the administration take more time in advancing any regulations.

 

“At a time when our economy is already struggling, these regulations would cost jobs and impose a significant blow on the ability for the economy to recover,” they said in the letter.

 

Grader of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations said the economy would be hurt if rivers are poisoned and reduce salmon runs, which support tens of thousands of jobs. And he noted that hundreds of millions of dollars have already been spent trying to protect salmon.

 

“Poisoning these species with federally allowed pesticide practices that pollute rivers works at complete cross-purposes with all existing salmon recovery efforts,” he said.

 

In the Senate, a group of Republican senators led by Pat Roberts of Kansas sent a letter to Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., the head of the Agriculture Committee, asking that the panel take up the pesticide bill that cleared the House two months ago. In the letter, the senators complain of the “continued regulatory overreach” by the EPA.

 

“State and local officials have made clear that this is not merely a regulatory burden but could endanger public health as we enter mosquito season,” they said in the letter.

 

Environmentalists say farmers and the lawmakers who back them in Congress are trying to find new ways to avoid complying with the Clean Water Act.

 

“It’s disingenuous,” said Mae Wu, a staff attorney in the health and environment program at the National Resources Defense Council.

 

And agricultural experts worry that the heavy use of pesticides has already led to widespread water pollution.

 

“All that farming in the corn and soybean belts, which have our heaviest total pesticides use, makes its ways into the Mississippi River flowing out right through New Orleans to the Gulf of Mexico where we have a large dead zone,” said John Reganold, a professor of soil science at Washington State University.

 

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Whole system redesign proposed for US ag

 

(UC Davis) – Transformative changes in markets, policy and science, rather than just incremental changes in farming practices and technology, will be critical if the United States is to achieve long-term sustainability in agriculture, according to a nationwide team of agriculturists.

 

The team's recommendations, first published as a 2010 report by the U.S. National Research Council, appear as a Policy Forum piece in the May 6 issue of the journal Science. Lead author on the paper is John Reganold, Regents Professor of soil science and agroecology at Washington State University, Pullman.

 

"For decades, the agricultural industry, research community and government, have looked to incremental improvements in agricultural procedures and technologies for achieving advances in productivity," said Deanne Meyer, a Cooperative Extension livestock waste management specialist in the UC Davis Department of Animal Science and a member of the research team.

 

She noted that such incremental improvements have included adoption of two-year crop rotations, precision agriculture technologies, classically bred and genetically engineered crops, and reduced- or no-tillage management systems.

 

"While all of these have resulted in important improvements, it's become apparent that as modern agriculture also grapples with important issues such as global climate change, biodiversity, resource conservation and public health problems, a more transformative approach is needed," she said.

 

Such an approach would balance production goals with long-term sustainability concerns involving the environmental, social and economic impacts of agriculture. It would focus on a "whole-system redesign" that would address policy and market issues, as well as technological issues, the researchers recommend in their report.

 

The approach would incorporate innovative agricultural systems such as organic farming, grass-fed and other alternative livestock production systems, mixed crop and livestock systems, and perennial grains. And it would require significant changes in market structures, policy incentives and public funding for agricultural science, according to the report.

 

The research team suggests that with a new version of the U.S. Farm Bill due in 2012, the time is now ripe to begin reforming U.S. agriculture.

 

The team's 598-page 2010 National Research Council report, "Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century," is available online at: http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12832&page=R1

 

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Sweet news for California honey business

 

(The Fresno Bee) – It's a sweet time to be in the honey business.

 

California's abundant rainfall, a growing consumer demand and a tightening worldwide honey supply have the state's bee industry buzzing with excitement.

 

Honey prices have reached record highs, and there's no sign that they will fall anytime soon.

 

"Yes, we are having one of our best years in a long time," said Max Eggman, a Tulare County beekeeper and honey producer. "And we needed it."

 

Just five years ago, bees across the country were dying by the thousands. Some California beekeepers lost more than half their hives to the cyclical problem known as colony collapse disorder.

 

And while colony collapse still is a serious concern and continues to be studied, many of the state's bee colonies have bounced back. Today, California's bees are healthier, hungrier and have more to feed on.

 

California's above-average rainfall helped produce some of the honeybees' favorite native plants, including sage and buckwheat. Honeybees also make honey from citrus blooms, cotton and alfalfa blossoms.

 

The more nectar-producing plants, the more honey is made. Last year, beekeepers in California made 27.5 million pounds, a 134% increase over 2009. Honey production is just starting this year in California, but after so much rain, expectations are high.

 

At the same time, retail prices for honey have been climbing. In April, the average retail price per pound was $5.22, up from $3.78 for the same month in 2005, with mostly steady increases in between, according to the National Honey Board.

 

Stoking the higher price has been a tighter world honey supply and a growing interest among consumers who believe it has health benefits.

 

The U.S.' collective sweet tooth pushed honey consumption to 410 million pounds in 2010. Of that, 61% was imported.

 

But shorter crops in honey-producing countries such as India and Argentina are expected this year.

 

Squeezing supplies even tighter has been a continued federal crackdown on imported Chinese honey. Federal officials are working to stop the Chinese from circumventing U.S. tariffs by shipping honey through a different country.

 

Nationwide, the honey industry is trying to raise awareness about imported honey by calling for a program to verify the origin of honey sold to consumers.

 

About half of the honey used in the U.S. goes into cereals, snacks and food ingredients. The rest is sold at the retail level, where beekeepers say interest is growing.

 

"You definitely have more people talking about honey," said Mark Jensen, of the Montana-based Smoot Honey. "And we are starting to move more honey into retail than we have in the past."

 

Beekeepers say research showing the health benefits of honey along with the local food movement have all contributed to honey's popularity. Along with being a natural sweetener, honey is an energy booster and cough suppressant, beekeepers say.

 

For some, farmers markets have become a natural outlet for selling their homemade products.

 

Eggman, of Eggman Family Honey in Tulare County, travels to a San Francisco farmers market every weekend to sell his premium honey. His sales rose 25% last year.

 

"People are becoming more conscious of what they are eating and are buying natural products like honey," Eggman said. "And right now, we are selling everything that we can produce."

 

Third-generation beekeeper Brian Beekman hopes to attract people interested in the local food movement to his Clovis ranch. He is putting the finishing touches on a farm store that will sell his honey.

 

The store also will showcase the Beekmans' long history in the bee business. Photos of Beekman's father and grandfather harvesting honey will be on display, as will a 1929 Model A truck with the original Beekman Honey logo on the door.

 

"People are really into buying local and buying directly from the farm," Beekman said. "They want the real deal, and that's what we are going to give them."

 

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Web tool to monitor stink bug populations

 

(PennStateLive.com) – UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As crop growers and homeowners brace for another year of infestations by the brown marmorated stink bug, Penn State researchers have released a Web-based tool that they hope will help enhance their understanding of this invasive insect pest.

 

Developed in collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, the mapping tool is embedded in a website found at http://stinkbug-info.org/

 

"The goal of this tool is to give us another source of information about the population dynamics of the brown marmorated stink bug," said John Tooker, assistant professor of entomology in the College of Agricultural Sciences. Tooker developed the tool with Douglas Miller, associate professor of geography and director of the Center for Environmental Informatics in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.

 

Miller said the mapping tool will enable fruit and vegetable growers, field-crop growers, nursery operators and homeowners to report the location and size of infestations and the estimated dollar value of damages, if any, caused by the pest.

 

The website, which researchers will update and enhance over time, also acts as a portal for information about the stink bug, including photos, a description and management tips for homeowners. "We're looking at homes as point sources for potential agricultural infestations," said Miller.

 

Tooker said in the short term, data collected could provide an early warning for growers about where stink-bug populations are occurring so they can take appropriate action to protect their crops. "In the long term, we hope to learn more about how the pest spreads and moves between crops, with an eye toward developing better management strategies."

 

To report an infestation, visitors to the site first register to create a user name and password. They then will be able to enter information about their infestation, including the county and municipality, date and the number of stink bugs observed per plant or in and around a home. Growers also can report infestations in the two previous seasons to document economic loss.

 

"To get maximum benefit from the tool, we need as many people as possible to report their infestations," said Tooker.

 

A native of Asia, the brown marmorated stink bug first was found in the United States in Lehigh County in 1998, and it since has become a perennial nuisance to homeowners as the bugs seek winter shelter -- sometimes by the thousands -- in and around houses and other structures. But the insect has become a serious agricultural pest as well, last year causing extensive damage in some Pennsylvania apple and peach orchards.

 

This species of stink bug also has been found feeding on blackberry, sweet corn, field corn and soybeans. In all, it can attack an estimated 300 host-plant species. It has no known natural enemies in the United States, allowing its populations to grow unchecked.

 

The large number of host plants for the brown marmorated stink bug makes it even harder to manage, according to Greg Krawczyk, tree fruit extension entomologist at Penn State's Fruit Research and Extension Center in Biglerville, Pa.

 

"After emerging from overwintering sites -- sometimes as late as early June -- they move on to any green plant with succulent growth," he said. "Eventually, they will start moving into crops, but we have not yet seen a large number of these stink bugs in orchards this year."

 

Krawczyk said in 2010, an estimated 20 percent of all fruit grown in Pennsylvania was injured by the pest, with some growers experiencing losses as high as 40 percent or more. A fruit industry group has said losses last year reached $37 million for mid-Atlantic apple growers. Krawczyk explained that fruit damaged by the Asian stink bug is not destroyed, but it must be diverted to the processing market, yielding growers about 1/10th the income they would have received on the fresh-fruit market.

 

Because populations of brown marmorated stink bug at the time of overwintering were higher in 2010 than they were the previous year, Krawczyk expects them to be more plentiful in 2011, though he cautioned that nobody really knows what will happen due to variable weather and other environmental factors. But he said it's a matter of time until they begin moving into orchards, requiring action on the part of fruit growers.

 

"As a result of laboratory research over the winter, we now know which pesticides are most effective against these stink bugs," he said. "We've also identified some selective pesticides that are effective against stink bugs but have lower toxicity so they'll preserve the beneficial insects that growers rely on to control other pests as part of integrated pest management programs."

 

Such integrated pest management, or IPM, programs are credited with helping growers to reduce pesticide use by as much as 75 percent in the last two decades, through the use of natural enemies, pheromones for mating disruption and other tactics. Controlling the brown marmorated stink bug with broad-spectrum pesticides threatens that progress.

 

"But part of integrated pest management is economic sustainability, and sometimes pesticides are needed," Krawczyk said. "Having beneficial insects in the orchard doesn't do much good if you have no fruit to sell."

 

Krawczyk said research priorities now center on developing a better understanding of the brown marmorated stink bug's biology and behavior, developing effective monitoring tools such as traps and lures, and coming up with alternative management methods that are site-specific and allow growers to treat only those areas that need it.

 

"Right now, we're using monitoring tools developed for native species of stink bug, and these tools are not very effective for the Asian stink bug," he said. "But other stink bugs have been studied for 50 or 100 years, and we've only studied the brown marmorated stink bug for a couple of years. So we learn as we go."

 

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