A weekly publication of University of Illinois Extension, Ford-Iroquois Unit

Prepared in part by Stu Ellis, former Extension specialist and Karen Moore, County Director, Ford-Iroquois Unit.

• Revised machinery cost estimates have just been posted on farmdoc. These are often used to set custom hire rates for machinery operations in Illinois. The estimates are available in the management section of farmdoc at www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/manage/ . Scroll down the page to "Machinery: Costs and Other Issues" and select from field operations, harvest operations, tractors, forage field operations, or the summary.
• The 2007 Farm Bill has been approved in Congress by a 318-106 vote in the House and an 81-15 vote in the Senate. It awaits the expected veto by President Bush, however, the plurality of the votes indicates the likelihood of an override of the threatened veto.
• Cornbelt farmers will find familiar programs in the new legislation that renews direct payments and marketing loans. However, beginning with 2009, farmers will have the option to replace those with a safety net program that calculates state-based yield data and a two year national average price to generate a revenue type of payment.
• The new Farm Bill is more of a food bill, since over half of the $280 bil. will be for food stamps, school lunches, and other public feeding programs. It also contains extensive programs for soil and water conservation, as well as a permanent disaster program. 577 farm and consumer groups jointly lobbied Congress to approve the 2007 Farm Bill.
• New crop prices are expected to be higher than in the past year, based on estimates from USDA contained in last week's May Supply and Demand report. The price range of corn rises to $5 - $6 from $4.10 - $4.40 for the old crop. New crop soybeans will range from $10.50 - $12, compared to $10 for old crop beans. New crop wheat will be $6.60 - $8.10.
• But IL Extension's Darrel Good says the market's nervousness of production prospects has pushed prices into the upper part of the price ranges. For example, he says USDA's 153.9 bu. national corn average is higher than trendline yields, and still only leaves 763 mil. bu. in ending stocks. He also hints that feed demand may be underestimated. His newsletter is at: http://www.farmdoc.uiuc.edu/marketing/weekly/html/051208.html
• Soybean prices, says Good, are clouded by yield and acreage uncertainties. Delays in bean planting could lead to reduced yield in a year USDA is projecting a larger than normal jump of 0.9 bu. in the national average yield. He says the domestic crush is expected to reach a record amount, exports are quite strong, and he says USDA is forecasting an increase in soybean meal consumption, but less overall feed use.
• USDA's corn estimates last week caught the eye of Mich. State ag economist Jim Hilker, who said, "There was only one change to the US corn 2007-08 estimates, but it is significant. The USDA lowered the corn used for ethanol estimate by 100 million bushels, 3% of the total, but a 10% reduction in the 2007-08 projected increase. It appears that there has been a bit of a slow down in both plant completions and capacity use. This makes sense with the lower, yet still profitable, returns. They decreased the use and increased estimated ending stocks by 100 million bushels, a bit extra for next year."
• Is La Nina history? Elwynn Taylor at Iowa State says its indications are fading, but there is still a 33% risk of a Cornbelt drought. He says the La Nina sets the stage for hot and dry weather, but the risk fades as the La Nina factors fade. He adds, "The drop in soil temperature from the 60s to the low 50s last week is not desirable for the health of plants as disease often gets the advantage when soils cool early in the life of a plant.
• Ohio State meteorologist Jim Noel says even with a La Nina, at least the topsoil and subsoil will be fully charged with moisture. He's expecting "Below normal temperatures and near normal rainfall with frequent light to moderate rains can be expected the next 2 weeks. It appears a warmer and drier pattern will close out May into early June.
• If your corn has been in the ground for 2 weeks, Extension's Emerson Nafziger is not surprised it has not emerged. He says corn needs 110 to 115 growing degree days, and corn planted on May 1 may not have accumulated enough GDD's yet. If the shoot is near the soil surface, it should progress, but unsprouted seeds should be considered dead.
• Seeds in a saturated soil may not be growing very fast, since they need oxygen, and that is going to be in short supply in a saturated field. While cool temperatures are beneficial in slowing development and keeping the seed alive, Nafziger suggests that farmers be ready to replant all or parts of fields that have stayed very wet since the initial planting.
• Fungicides are not an automatic bridge to higher corn yields says OSU agronomist Pierce Paul. Reasons for the wide variability escape researchers, and he's recommending on-farm research on a couple strips through the field, rather than the whole field. He seems to think the yield benefit comes only when the corn is drought-stressed.
• Think about what you are doing says Iowa State ag engineer Mark Hanna, if you are tempted to use shallow tillage to clean out a weedy, but wet field prior to planting. He says wet soils may slab into large blocks or clods and require even more tillage. And he says that also adds random wheel tracks that compact the soil, hurting root growth.
• Soybeans respond to early planting, but Iowa State's Palle Pedersen says that is moot at this point. Soybean yield is being lost day by day, but do your soybean crop a favor:
  1) Mudding-in beans causes compaction and outweighs any early planting benefit.
  2) With poor seed quality, stress on the seeds can result in higher than usual mortality.
  3) Warmer and drier soils give faster emergence, reducing time in the soil for the seeds.
  4) Apply a fungicide for Pythium, if you have to plant in cold wet soils.
  5) Plant your highest productive fields first, to minimize financial loss from delays.
  6) Planting into weed-free fields, and timely weed management also minimizes losses.
• If you need to justify your delay in planting soybeans, get some advice from Purdue agronomists Ellsworth Christmas and Andrew Robinson. Christmas says the later planting will benefit the fragile seed coat, since it will not have to sit in the ground too long. Robinson says his recent research shows that with late planted soybeans, the yields might decrease 1% or more per day, but protein content rose with later planted beans.
• Wheat trying to grow in saturated soil does a poor job with root development says IL Extension's Nafziger. As a result, nitrogen uptake has been minimal, and that may cause the pale-colored wheat, along with minimal sunlight. He says the nitrogen may have been moved by the water to beneath the zone where the wheat roots are trying to grow.
• If you are a bug, you probably don't like raindrops. And despite the incessant rain, one of its benefits may be reducing the numbers of insects that would ordinarily be rapidly multiplying at this time of year. IL Extension entomologist Kevin Steffey says aphids and other small insects seem to be reduced in number and not liking the weather. But he says to continue scouting for armyworms and cutworms, which are grounded anyway.
• White grubs in your corn could be one of four different species, and may or may not have an economic impact depending on the specie. IL Extension entomologist Mike Gray says your concern should be the cool, wet weather which slows growth of corn seedlings, and that gives grubs more time to cause damage if that's what they do. Check the identification patterns at: http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/bulletin/article.php?id=933 .
• Is your problem big weeds, which you know will probably escape cultivation? Healthy roots can be tough to sever, says OSU agronomist Mark Loux. http://corn.osu.edu/#H .
  1) If using both tillage and herbicide, apply the chemical 24 hours ahead of tillage.
  2) Glyphosate is the most logical choice of an herbicide treatment prior to tillage.
  3) Gramoxone can be used, but is going to be less effective on larger weeds.
  4) Avoid 2, 4-D or dicamba ahead of corn, since tillage will spread it into the root zone.
• You can hedge a bit, and plant switchgrass now for forage or conservation, and you'll have a good stand, just in time to deliver to an ethanol plant accepting biomass feedstock. IL Extension's Dennis Epplin says it is a warm season grass, planted at 4-6 lbs per acre in April or May, but it will take 2 years to become fully established producing 7 T per acre.
• You may not be ready to switch completely to sustainable agriculture, so Iowa State researchers are suggesting a partial step to low external input farming that reduces energy use in agriculture, but utilizes some fertilizers and pesticides. They found that a four year rotation exceeded conventional agriculture in yield, weed suppression, and profitability. Read more: http://www.leopold.iastate.edu/news/newsreleases/2008/051208_LEI.htm .
• The export market wants pork, but transportation is a problem, believe Glenn Grimes and Ron Plain at MO Extension. Their sources say a shortage of ocean shipping containers is slowing down pork exports. And they say that is confirmed by the fact that cold storage stocks set a record high price at the end of Feb., and was broken in March.
• Futures prices are the carrot on a stick for cattlemen, and economists Grimes and Plain say that is causing longer stays in the feedlot. "Even with the high price for feed, the average weights of fed cattle in recent weeks are about 20 lbs. heavier than a year earlier. About the only rational reason why cattle are being fed to higher weights with the current losses is that the futures markets continue to climb. With higher prices just around the corner, feeders decide to hold cattle for another week after they are market ready."