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.

• Ford-Iroquois Ag Breakfast – June 4^th Mark your calendar and plan to attend the monthly Ford-Iroquois Ag Breakfast on Wednesday, June 4^th beginning promptly at 7 a.m. Cost per person for breakfast is $5 (please have exact change). Colleen Callahan will be the featured speaker with WGFA Radio serving as this month's sponsor. Colleen's topic will be "A Tale of Two Cities". Pre-registration for breakfast is requested by calling the Extension Office at 815/268-4051 or e-mailing Helen at heins@illinois.edu by noon on June 3^rd.
• A Farm Bill backfire occurred with some pages missing when the Congress forwarded it to the White House, and the President vetoed a document different than what had been approved on Capitol Hill. Reprising last week's action, the House voted 306-110 and the Senate voted 82-13. Unfortunately, the need to repeat everything also necessitates the Congress renewing the 2002 Farm Bill for another week to avert parity implementation.
• How will farms financially fare under the new Farm Bill, compared to past plans? IA State economists say reliance on farm program payments has provided some degree of stability during low price years. They say the lower 20% of farms has higher debt-to-asset ratios and is more dependent upon farm program payments for cash income. They say that group may be more vulnerable to changes in the cost structure of farm assets.
• The survey of Iowa farms found "The top 20 percent have improved their financial standing significantly over the period. The lowest 20 percent have made little financial progress. Between these extremes we see farm businesses, at varying degrees, meeting outside cash obligations and strengthening their equity position." The Iowa State economists believe, "Ultimately strong farm profits will be bid into land, rents and other asset values, resulting in tighter more volatile margins." Read a summary of their report at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/articles/jolly/JollyMay08.html .
• Grain market fundamentals are no longer driving prices says Kansas State economist Mike Woolverton, who says crude oil prices are in the driver's seat. He says planting rates should cause prices to fade, but corn and beans are now lumped with oil as inflationary commodities that have caught the eye of speculators, who are pushing prices up. His newsletter is at: http://www.agmanager.info/marketing/outlook/newletters/default.asp
• Woolverton says ethanol has enjoyed a strong defense lately, after IA Sen. Grassley revealed the Grocery Mfg. Assn. had created an anti-ethanol publicity campaign and he wanted a halt to it. Also USDA reported energy prices have played a larger role in food price inflation than ethanol, and the President's Council of Economic Advisors reported only 3% of the rise in global food prices was due to increased ethanol demand for corn.
• The ethanol controversy has significant implications for both the motoring public and for Cornbelt farmers, according to Woolverton, particularly if production is reduced. 1) 5% of motor fuel is ethanol, and if eliminated, gas prices would rise 10-12%. 2) If ethanol supplies rise 5%, gasoline prices would likely drop by more than 5%. 3) If ethanol demand for an extra 1 bil. bu. is eliminated, corn prices would fall to $3. 4) Despite a corn price drop, production costs have risen to $4 because of energy costs.
• Cold temperatures and heavy rains have killed many corn seedlings, says Extension crop specialist Emerson Nafziger, and stands less than 15,000 per acre will benefit from replanting. He says slow growth is not good either, and with this year's poor weather, replanting is "favored" this year. http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/bulletin/article.php?id=942
• Replanting decisions need to include insecticide considerations says IL Extension entomologist Kevin Steffey. He says if you may have already applied the maximum amount of one insecticide, you should not violate federal label regulations. But he says consider other insecticides. http://www.ipm.uiuc.edu/bulletin/article.php?id=938
• Cold soil delayed corn germination and it is delaying corn rootworm arrival also. Typically they hatch in the last week of May, but they may be hatching in the first two weeks of June, as they did in 1996 & 1997. IL Extension entomologists say that implies: 1) Early planting and a late hatch puts increased pressure on soil insecticide performance.
  2) Early planting of Bt corn followed by a very late hatch could mean more root injury.
  3) Late hatch and late planting may simply delay emergence and corn tasseling.
  4) This may increase the odds that these events occur during the hottest summer period.
• While you have been busy planting beans, black cutworms have been busy feasting on fresh greens emerging in your corn field. The adult moths that have been flying into the Cornbelt during the past month will give rise to larvae with voracious appetites.
• Don't assume that your biotech corn will control black cutworms. Yieldgard has no protection, and Herculex will give some protection according to Iowa St. entomologists. Researchers say a loss of 400 plants per A in 32,000 population would mean the loss of enough corn to cover the cost of control. That is 1-2% of the plants in $6 corn. Read more at: http://www.extension.iastate.edu/CropNews/2008/0516TollefsonRice.htm
• Seed applied insecticides such as Cruiser and Poncho are not preventing economic stand losses from grubs, wireworms, and cutworms, but Purdue specialists say it may not be their fault. The insecticide is supposed to be absorbed by a rapidly growing seedling to provide a "systemic" protection. But this year there wasn't much "rapid" in the growth. Purdue entomologists believe this problem will be thoroughly discussed before 2009.
• You were a good boy and planted your Bt refuge. But in your haste, you forgot to apply the insecticide. Purdue entomologist John Obermeyer says that is not a problem and you can apply a post emergent liquid insecticide now or at cultivation time. He says weather is often a limiting factor in getting post emergent insecticides applied timely.
• With the challenges to corn emergence, will soybeans face the same problems? Mich. State agronomist Mike Staton says if soybean replanting is considered, there will be a yield loss of 0.6 bu. per day after mid-May. 100,000 good plants per acre should be the target population for a good yield, and since soybean seed is fragile and good supplies are short this year, it may not be possible to obtain enough seed to replant significant acres.
• When the weather breaks, there will be a rush to spray weeds says Extension specialist Dennis Epplin, and decisions should be made to control the spray, instead of letting the wind control it. Extensive technology is available along with adjuvants that may help. http://www.herbicide-adjuvants.com/ . He says make the spray stay on target.
• Do you have purple corn? Purdue agronomist Bob Nielsen says pigments produce the color, and a hybrid's genetic make up determines its susceptibility to purple coloring: 1) The pigment appears when the plant is stressed by temperature and moisture. 2) Greater amounts of soil compaction this year can also cause stress. 3) Cool nights and bright sunny days with UV radiation can also turn corn purple. 4) Purpling is more pronounced with more stressors: disease, insect & herbicide injury. 5) Phosphorus deficiency is not the cause, but wet soils can aggravate a P deficiency. 6) The cause of leaf purpling, not the purpling itself, can lead to yield reduction. 7) Purpling will slowly disappear as temperatures warm and corn plants rapidly grow.
• When you get a virus, your doctor can't do much for you; and MO Extension's Laura Sweets says that is the same for your wheat crop. She says virus is prevalent in wheat, and there is not much that can be done about it, adding that fungicides will not cure a virus. She says wheat streak mosaic virus can sometimes reduce yields by 50%. Curl mites spread that particular virus, and they hang out in volunteer wheat.
• Consult your spouse about the theory of Purdue health specialist Bill Field, who says your blood pressure is probably higher this spring because the weather has compressed the planting season. He says that means less sleep, unawareness of one's surroundings, and poor decision making. He says any dry weather will create haste to get work accomplished, but in your haste, safety is compromised and your health declines.
• $58 is better than $35 meaning that hog prices are $23 higher than expected, says Purdue economist Chris Hurt, who says the price increase has come even with a 10% rise in production. Hurt says strong pork export demand, helped by a low value of the dollar, has substantially pushed demand higher than would have been seasonally expected.
• Both US and Chinese demand have helped the pork market says Chris Hurt, and that has caused him to revise his projections for the pork economy. Hurt says the adjusted prices should average $54-$55 through the fall, with prices moving into the mid-$60's next spring. With production costs averaging $58 in the foreseeable future, Purdue's Hurt says near term losses will be $2-4 per cwt., not the $20+ losses he'd expected.
• Pork exports got the attention of MO economist Glenn Grimes, who said March exports were 38% above year ago levels, and 63% of that growth was broad based, and not just from China. Grimes and cohort Ron Plain says one out of every 5.5 hogs slaughtered in the US was exported. At the same time the rate of imported hogs was declining.
• US beef exports are growing as well say Grimes and Plain. March exports were 36% above year ago levels, and beef imports were down 17% from year ago levels. Together, that means the domestic beef supply was reduced 3.6% and fed cattle demand increased.