June 20, 2013

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Switching from corn to bean planting solves one problem, but others remain

June 20, 2013 By

The wet spring weather has forced some farmers to shift their planting from corn to soybeans as the beans have a shorter growing season than corn. But Grant Kimberley with the Iowa Soybean Association says the shift doesn’t solve all the problems of a late planting season.

“This is really worse than last year’s drought, it’s really worse than the 1993 flooding, it’s worse than the farm crisis of the 1980s. And this year that’s been the case where most of our crop has been planted in June and we still have probably 20-25 percent of our soybeans left to plant, and we will have many acres of corn fields that will not be planted at all. We will have to take prevented insurance coverage on ‘em,” Kimberley says.

He says once the beans get planted, then farmers have to worry about the ground being too wet. “Soybeans tend to not like what we call wet feet, that means we don’t want wet soil for the roots,” Kimberley explains.

A plant with “wet feet” is more likely to have problems growing. “It is very susceptible to various soil funguses and other diseases, that really hurts the productivity potential where corn may do a little better in some of those cases, but that’s certainly a challenge,” Kimberley says.

Fungus and disease can lead to lower yields come harvest time. Kimberley and his father farm near Maxwell in central Iowa. He says they’ve always had a crop in the ground by the end of May but this year planting may stretch into the summer.

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Many acres of corn and soybeans remain unplanted

June 18, 2013 By

corn---youngAn update from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows 94-percent of Iowa’s corn crop is planted, while about three-quarters of the intended soybean acreage is in the ground.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey says the historically wet spring has kept too many farmers out of their fields.

“We’re still hopeful we can get a few more (dry) days in a row and get a lot of stuff done, at least on the soybean planting side yet this week,” Northey says. The optimum date for planting corn was over a month ago, so roughly 800,000 acres intended for corn will likely be left alone.

Monday’s crop report listed 50-percent of Iowa’s corn in good or excellent condition. Twelve-percent of the crop is in poor condition. Northey says much of the corn is obviously shorter than it should be at this time of year and around 11-percent of corn plants haven’t even emerged from the ground.

“We have parts of the state where we have a lot water standing that drowned out the crops,” Northey says. “So, even in the midst of a field that got planted and is included in our acreage, there are holes that will not grow corn this year unless a farmer can get back there and try to replant.”

The final planting date for full crop insurance coverage in Iowa for corn passed on May 31. The final date for soybeans was June 15. “There’s a provision called ‘prevented planting’ that’s apart of that crop insurance. Some folks will likely take that,” Northey says.

“It’s a partial payment compared to what they would have received if they actually planted a crop, but at least it’s something to cover some of those ongoing costs that happen on a farm no matter if you get your crop planted or not.”

The U.S.D.A. already assumes the average amount of corn expected to be harvested per acre in the U.S. to be reduced to 156.5 bushels per acre — down from 158 bushels estimated a month ago.

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Professor says patent ruling won’t impact agribusiness research of GMOs

June 15, 2013 By
Jason Rantanen

Jason Rantanen

A University of Iowa law professor says the U.S. Supreme Court has given new guidance to medical researchers working with human genes to find cures to diseases, but the court’s ruling may prompt some researchers to be more secretive about their work until they’ve produced a break-through.

Jason Rantanan is a patent law expert who teaches classes about trademarks and intellectual property. “This is not an opinion that made broad, new statements about patent law,” Rantanan says. “It was largely confined to the specific analysis that was before the court, so that was question of: At what level is DNA patentable?”

The court on Thursday ruled researches who modify DNA in a significant way can patent their new invention, but simply isolating part of the DNA strand that is naturally found in nature cannot be patented.

“One of the things that has been troubling many of my researcher friends is the difficulty in sequencing the entire human genome because you’ve got these patents on isolated DNA sequences — if you have to get a license for each one of these isolated DNA patents, then that gets very, very complicated and difficult to do,” Rantanan says.

“If you remove that restriction on this basic, building-block component, you make it easier for researchers to work with those basic building-block components.”

Rantanan has one concern about the ruling’s impact, however.  “Because it’s going to not be possible to get a patent on isolated DNA, which typically is the earliest stage in terms of the research…it’s probably going to cause researchers — particularly companies maybe more so than university researchers — to delay disclosing information about their research until it’s reached the point where they can get a patent on it,” Rantanan says.

Rantanan doesn’t expect this ruling to have much impact on agricultural research focused on producing genetically altered seeds that resist pests, disease or even drought. Pantanan says those products are “highly modified” and would fit under the part of the court ruling that allows patents for modifying DNA in a significant way.

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Wet weather slows planting and corn growth

June 11, 2013 By
Cornfield near Anita.

This corn in a field near Anita is doing better than some in other fields that have been swamped by rain.

The latest U.S.D.A. crop report shows a statewide average of less than two suitable days for field work last week due to wet conditions.

Corn planting advanced only four percent to 92-percent when 99-percent of the crop is normally in the ground by this time of year.

Richard Choudor farms nearly one thousand acres near Manly in North Central Iowa. He says a good portion of his land has no crop because he can’t get into the fields.

“We’re extremely wet now the fields are 100 percent saturated and there’s more rain coming. We just need some warm dry weather,” Chouder says.

For the corn that has been planted, 81-percent has emerged, well behind the normal 96-percent for this time of year.

Carlyle Kiewiet farms near Forest City in Winnebago County. He did manage to get all of his 80 acres planted by dodging a snow storm and six inches of rain in early May — but the wet weather is showing its impact.

“The corn is yellowy color, it’s not a real nice green color, we should have,” Kiewiet says. “My beans look fair, they are about two-and-a-half inches tall, but they should actually be a lot higher from when I planted them. I’m fortunate to get them even out up out of the ground for the rain we got. I figured they may rot, but they didn’t.”

Choudor says many producers this week are faced with the decision of whether to plant anything and will turn in their losses for federal crop insurances claims. Farmers have planted just 60 percent of the soybean crop, an increase of 16 percentage over last week, but still far behind the normal 95-percent.

Only 39-percent of the soybeans have emerged, which is well behind last year’s 93-percent, and the five-year average of 83-percent. Both the planting and emergence for soybeans were the latest since 1993.

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Wet conditions continue to bog down planting

June 3, 2013 By

Continued wet conditions slowed farmers from making progress in planting the state’s two main crops. The latest U.S.D.A. crop report says most fields were too wet for machinery to get into them last week. East-central Iowa was the only area of the state which had a full day suitable for fieldwork.

Farmers were only able to plant an additional three percent of the corn crop statewide during the week. Corn planting now stands at 88-percent complete, behind the five-year average of 99-percent. Seventy-three percent of the corn crop has emerged, well behind last year’s 98-percent and the normal 91-percent.

Forty-four percent of the soybean crop is in the ground, trailing last year’s 99-percent and the five-year average of 91-percent. The report says 23-percent of the soybeans that’ve been planted have emerged — the lowest emergence at this time of the year since 1996.

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2013 yields to be lower, due to wet weather & late planting

May 30, 2013 By

Iowa’s secretary of agriculture says some Iowa farmers face tough decisions because of the wet weather. Secretary Bill Northey says some farmers may have to shift to seeding soybeans in fields they had planned to plant with corn this year.

“We still have 15 percent of the corn to be planted out there for the first time and, really, almost none of that’s going to get planted ’til June. I’m sure some of it may not even get planted just because some rivers are out of their banks. In other places it’s going to be hard to get planted,” Northey says. “We have 60 percent of the soybeans yet to be planted and normally that should be close to being done or at least within sight of being done and now we’re hardly within sight of getting that in the ground.”

In addition, farmers may have to replant fields that have been underwater for a while.

“Way back in 1993 we had issues where the crop actually, essentially drowned out just in really soggy soil. Normally that doesn’t happen in Iowa. We get some dry weather between our rains and the crop may struggle through some saturated soils, but it grows,” Northey says. “We’re at a point where we have to worry a little bit about making sure that soil dries out between these rains so that bean plant and that corn plant can stay healthy and keep growing.”

Farmers are looking for warm, windy days in the forecast.

“We don’t need 40 mile an hour winds, but we certainly could use 15-20 mile an hour breezes on those warm days to be able to get some of that drying done,” Northey says.

Seed treatments can help young plants survive wet conditions.

“Soybeans have different diseases, pythium and phytophthora – words farmers learn to pronounce after two years — and those are diseases that come out when you have warm, wet soils and can cause fungus on these beans and can kill them,” Northey says. “We now use seed treatments that help them get through that, so those are all good things, but they don’t fix being underwater and they don’t fix being in saturated soils for two weeks.”

Northey says June 10th is a sort of cut-off date for planting corn in Iowa and farmers can plant soybeans as late as the first week of July, but the shortened growing season means a shorter crop.

“Even some of that stuff with water on top of it now has time to dry out, if the weather would change and we could get beans in there — have a shot,” Northey says. “All this being later, though, than normal means we’re likely to see lower yields than what we would have gotten had we got stuff planted on time and I think everybody realizes that.”

Northey farms near Spirit Lake and he still has some planting to do in his fields. According to the Iowa Farm Bureau, planting progress is slower than it was in the dramatic flood year of 1993.

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Iowa Ag Secretary says voluntary approach faster path to improved water quality

May 30, 2013 By

A final version of the state’s latest strategy to reduce nitrogen run-off into Iowa lakes, streams and rivers has been released. Supporters like Iowa Department of Natural Resources director Chuck Gipp say the voluntary plan is the right approach.

“Whether you’re big or small, rich or poor, urban or rural, you need to understand as an individual that what you do on your property has an impact off your property and if we don’t all collectively — whether it’s federal, state, local or individuals — become a part of the solution, all we’re talking about today is just more talk,” Gipp said during a recent appearance on IPTV. “Everybody’s got to understand what they do has an impact.”

Critics like Des Moines Water Works CEO Bill Stowe say volunteer efforts aren’t working now and won’t work in the future.

“I’m not particularly optimistic,” said Stowe, who joined Gipp as a guest on IPTV’s “Iowa Press” program. “We have data over 40 years that shows the degradation of water quality in both the Des Moines and the Raccoon River.”

The Des Moines Water Works has been recording “historic” levels of nitrates in the two rivers this spring, prompting the utility to use its filtration equipment or tap into a nearby reservoir to ensure its water is safe to drink.

“The nutrient reduction strategy in our view is more of the same. The same is not working,” Stowe said. “We need leadership on this. We’re very concerned that we’re not seeing the tone of leadership at the state level that we would like to see. Clearly the next step, in our view, is federal intervention on this issue.”

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey expects a “large amount” of farmers to voluntarily accept the recommendations outlined in the state plan.

“If we actually were working on a regulatory process, we’d have legal battles. We’d have all kinds of rule-making battles. I think we’d be five or 10 years away from getting the first work done in a regulatory process,” Northey said Wednesday during an interview with RadioIowa. “We need to get at this right now.”

And Northey said by making it voluntary, farmers can choose which strategy works best on their land.

“None of these things work on every farm. None of these things work with every farmer’s situation, so we need to give those farmers options and encourage them strongly to adopt one or two of those practices on each of their farms,” Northey said.

Gipp said there’s a reason this year’s nitrate levels are higher.

“We had a dry year last year and therefore the yields weren’t as great with that crop and therefore it left nitrogen in that soil matrix that normally would have been taken up into the crop that’s harvested and because of in this particular, so that’s why you see the spikes you have today,” Gipp said.

The Nutrient Reduction Strategy is the state’s attempt to respond to concerns about a so-called “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico. In 2008 federal officials called upon the 12 states that border the Mississippi River to draw up plans to reduce nitrogen run-off into the river.

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