In Farm Bureau

AFBF on reasonable air quality standardsThe American Farm Bureau Federation

is warning that the Environmental Protec-tion Agency’s proposal to place further restrictions on air quality standards would damage agriculture and rural communities if implemented.

The move to tighten already strict ozone standards would impose significant costs to farmers and ranchers without delivering a guaranteed benefit to the public, AFBF said in formal comments submitted to the EPA March 9. Although it is a relatively small contributor to ozone levels, agri-culture would be hit hard. Basic farming activities such as animal feeding, pesticide application and waste management would be further restricted even as proposed lim-its are at or near naturally occurring levels in some areas. Higher costs to meet special requirements for vehicles and fuel would be passed on to farmers and ranchers who depend on affordable energy to stay com-petitive in the global economy.

“EPA’s proposed ozone standards would limit business expansion in nearly every populated region of the United States. U.S. industry and agriculture, alike, will create fewer jobs and be less competitive in the world market if these proposals are imple-mented,” said Dale Moore, AFBF executive director of public policy. “The hardship to farmers, ranchers and rural America will be real and immediate, while the benefits are unverified and uncertain.”

In ArkansasNew ag secretary

Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced March 13 that he has submitted Wes Ward’s name to the Agriculture Board as his preference for the next Arkansas Secretary of Agricul-ture. Randy Veach, president of Arkansas Farm Bureau, expressed his support for the appointment.

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Farmers Jeff Rutledge (left) and Tommy Young (second

from right) joined ArFB’s Matt King (right) in welcoming

Quach Van Duc, chairman and CEO of Tinnghia Corp.,

a Vietnamese company visiting Arkansas to evaluate

expanded trade opportuni-ties. Arkansas Farm Bureau

helped arrange a meeting be-tween Tinnghia and several

agricultural organizations.

March 27, 2015 • Vol. 18, No. 6

Hundreds of Arkansas 4-H members from across the state filled the halls of the state capitol on March18, learning about leadership from members of the legis-lature, the state auditor and Gov. Asa Hutchinson, him-self a 4-H alumnus. Hutchin-son proclaimed the day to be Arkansas 4-H Day, and recognition of the work done by the 4-H Youth Develop-ment program was made in the House and Senate as 4-H members filled the galleries. Some 400 4-H members, volunteers, parents and staff took part in the day’s events.

“We look for-ward to working closely with Wes

Ward is his role as secretary of the Ar-kansas Agriculture Department,” he said. “This is an important position, not only for our farmers and ranchers, but the state’s economy. Agriculture is Arkansas’ largest business sector, adding $20 billion to our economy.

“We appreciate Gov. Hutchinson’s diligence in finding the right person for this position, and we will do everything we can to help Wes continue the positive work of Dick Bell and Butch Calhoun, his predecessors as Arkansas’ secretary of agri-culture. Wes’ background and experiences will help him as he works to move Arkan-sas agriculture forward.”

Water quality forumOn April 14, the University of Arkan-

sas Division of Agriculture’s Public Policy Center is hosting the Lower Ouachita Smackover Watershed Water Quality Stakeholder Forum. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss water quality issues and will be asked to identify local priorities for reducing non-point source pollution. Counties in the watershed are Bradley, Calhoun, Cleveland, Columbia, Dallas, Nevada, Ouachita and Union.

The forum is scheduled for 8 p.m. at the Sam Jones Senior Center, located at 1122 Prestress Drive in Hampton.

To RSVP for the meeting, or for more

information, email Amanda Perez at aperez@uaex.edu or call 501-671-2228. Fu-ture forums will take place at one location in each of these watersheds: Illinois River, Beaver Reservoir, Lake Conway-Point Remove and L’Anguille River.

Spring forage tourArkansas livestock producers who are

interested in better grazing and less hay feeding should consider attending the Arkansas Forage and Grassland Council’s spring bus tour April 24. Registration

opens at 8:30 a.m. at the Pocahontas Live-stock Auction in Pocahontas, and buses will depart at 9:30 a.m. for tours of two farms.

“One is a typical size cow/calf op-eration, and the other is a larger stocker operation with a cow herd as well,” said John Jennings, a forage professor for UA’s Division of Agriculture. ”Some key points that tour attendees will notice are how the producers have matched their forage prac-tices to their livestock needs with a very simple list of forages, the flexible options for livestock water and how their grazing systems have been developed with very few permanent electric fences.

“The producers will describe their experience with the forage and grazing practices that work well and those that do not work well,” Jennings continued. “Other speakers will discuss specific forage management practices on each farm and how to implement those in a season-long grazing system.”

While registration before the event isn’t required, it’s preferred. The registration cost is $25 per person and $10 for students and includes lunch, tour handout materi-als and comfortable bus transportation to the farms. To register, contact Jennings at 501-671-2350.

ElsewhereCover crop survey

Farmers are invited to share their

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On March 16, Pulaski County Farm Bureau board member Jeremy Bemis of Little Rock presented a beekeep-ing class at the Bemis Learning Farm near Wrightsville. Bemis operates an apiary on the property, as well as a honey bee supply store where beekeepers can purchase everything they need from hive components to accessories.

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Pope Co. FB held a legislative ap-preciation breakfast Feb. 14 in Rus-sellville. Thirty Farm Bureau members attended, and four state legislators, including (l to r) Sen. Greg Standridge, Pope Co. FB President Jeff Small, Rep. Trevor Drown, Rep. Mary Bentley, ArFB state board member Tom Jones, Yell Co. FB President Tommy Fink and Rep. Ken Henderson.

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Clark Co. FB Women’s Committee co-chair Karen Kirkpatrick (right) recently delivered supplies for the Backpack Program to Perritt Primary School counselor Elizabeth Morris in recognition of Food Check-Out Day on March 19. Food Check-Out Day allows local Farm Bureaus to celebrate the benefits of fresh foods grown by local farmers.

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Lindsey Triplett (left) of Damascus won the Farm Bureau Collegiate Dis-cussion Meet last month at Arkansas Tech University. Other participants in-cluded (left to right) Mark Dement of Paris, Will Welch of Alpena and Reed Kelley of Vilonia. Assistant ag profes-sor Randy Renfro assisted. Triplett went on to represent ATU in Arkansas Farm Bureau’s state discussion meet.

thoughts on cover crops—whether or not they use cover crops themselves—in a national survey, now in its third year of collecting valuable data on the increasingly popular management practice. The results, which will be released this summer, will help growers, researchers, agricultural ad-visors, ag retailers and policymakers more effectively address questions about cover crops and learn about best practices.

The online survey at http://tinyurl.com/covercropsurvey takes a short time to com-plete. Farmers who complete the question-naire are eligible for a drawing for one of two $100 Visa gift cards.

The survey is being conducted by the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) and is sponsored by USDA’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Edu-cation program, the American Seed Trade Association and Corn+Soybean Digest.

“It doesn’t matter if you’ve planted cover crops for 40 years or if you’ve never worked with them before,” says Chad Watts, project manager for CTIC. “We want to hear from farmers with all levels of interest and experience. It’s just as impor-tant to understand what might be prevent-ing a farmer from planting cover crops as it is to understand why another grower is so excited.”

Data from this year’s survey will be compared to information from the two previous years in an effort to identify

trends in cover crop practices or attitudes toward cover crops. Other questions will help conservation leaders zero in on details of cover crop practices.

Richard E. Bell: 1924-2015Richard “Dick” Bell of Stuttgart, Ar-

kansas’ first secretary of agriculture, died March 13 at the age of 81. In 2005, Bell was appointed ag secretary by Gov. Mike Huckabee after the state legislature merged several state agencies to create the state Agriculture Department. He remained in that job until retiring in 2012.

Bell also served as Riceland Foods president and chief executive officer. He joined Riceland in 1977 as executive vice president and chief operating officer and remained with the company for 27 years, until 2004.

“We owe Mr. Bell a debt of gratitude for all he has done for Arkansas farm-ers, said Rich Hillman, vice president of Arkansas Farm Bureau. “After serving with USDA in Washington D.C., he moved to Stuttgart, really on blind faith, to take the reins at Riceland Foods. He took the fairly simple, farmer-owned cooperative that was Riceland and turned it into the larg-est rice miller in the world. Through his

connections in Washington, he helped shape the federal farm bill and ensured that rice growers got a fair shake.”

Congressional Chicken CaucusOn March 10, Arkansas Rep. Steve

Womack and California Rep. Jim Costa announced the formation of a new, bipar-tisan Congressional Chicken Caucus in the House of Representatives. The caucus will serve as a formal group of members whose mission is to educate members of Congress and others about the history, contributions and issues of importance to U.S. chicken producers. Related issues include food safety, international trade, labor, animal welfare, immigration and environmental issues.

“The chicken industry is vital to the economy of the 3rd District of Arkansas, which is why I am proud to co-chair the Congressional Chicken Caucus, alongside Rep. Costa, with whom I share a long-standing bipartisan relationship,” said Rep. Womack. “We look forward to growing the caucus’ membership, working together to educate members and advancing the issues that are important to the U.S. chicken industry.”

EditorKeith Suttonkeith.sutton@arfb.com

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Ag instructor Matt Shekels (left), student Cami Farmer and assistant horticulture professor Clyde Fenton examine strawberries grown hydro-ponically at North Arkansas College in Harrison. Shekels encourages students to grow produce in greenhouses or high tunnels for income. The state-of-the-art greenhouse was built with a grant from the UA Strawberry Sustain-ability Initiative.

A combination of heavy rainfall, saturated soil and snow melt upstream has caused Arkansas rivers like the White, Cache, L’Anguille and Mississippi to overflow their banks, creating flood problems for many farmers ready to prepare their lands for spring planting. On this Woodruff County farm, floodwater from the Cache was inside equipment sheds last week.

In the Market

As of March 24, 2015:

Prospective Planting ReportOn March 31, the USDA will release

the 2015 Prospective Plantings Report. As always, there is a lot of anticipation for this report as it is the first official look at the 2015 crop. The market is expecting a slight decline in corn acres from 2014, while soybean acres are ex-pected to set another record this year.

Corn: The corn market remains supported by prospects for a smaller crop and continued uncertainty sur-rounding the weather this year. If acre-age declines and weather conditions reduce yields, the potential exists for a strong rally in corn as supplies will quickly become tight. If the market gets an average yield, supplies will likely be enough to meet demand, and we will see little if any stock growth. Prices will likely stay near $4.

Soybeans: The soybean market faces the most bearish outlook of all commodities. The market is currently working through a record U.S. and South American crop, and prospects are for another record amount of soybeans planted in the U.S. Because the weather risk remains less for soy-beans, this market is likely looking at another year of stock growth in 2015. For this reason, many private advi-sors are already suggesting that clients begin pricing 2016 soybeans. There remains substantial downside risk in this market, as a more than 30–percent increase in global stocks could get big-ger in 2015-16.

Sorghum: There remains a lot of talk about sorghum in Arkansas and across the nation. Sharp increases in demand, particularly from China, continue to support prices and are pushing sor-ghum to trade at a premium to corn in

many locations. Opportunities con-tinue to exist for sorghum, and it can be a viable option for many Arkansas growers. It’s important, however, to understand the risks surrounding this crop, particularly the fact that China demand is needed to maintain cur-rent premiums. With products like Transform insecticide not approved in China, the risk, while it may be small, remains that China could reject a load of sorghum, which would cause the price to collapse similar to what we saw in corn in 2013-14.

Rice: Expectations earlier were for rice acreage to be at least where it was last year, maybe even up a little from 2014. However, recent weather patterns and the lack of a true safety net for rice could lead to fewer acres in 2015 if producers cannot get into fields. With sharp growth in stocks this year due to weak export demand, smaller acres in 2015 could help pre-vent additional losses in rice prices.

While there have been a number of private surveys done over the past few weeks, the official range for estimates will not be released until after the deadline for this report.

China shifts focus from yields to safe foods

China will make safer foods a prior-ity and increase imports rather than chase bumper grain harvests, govern-ment officials say. The country will now put equal focus on quantity, qual-ity and efficiency of grain output, as well as environmental protection and sustainable development, whereas, in the past, China solely focused on yield at the expense of the environment, according to the head of the country’s top decision-maker on rural policy. The official says the nation’s large grain reserves should ease the transition and reduce the risk of grain shortages. The nation’s chief ag ministry economist said the country could achieve an 85 percent self-sufficiency ratio by 2020, which is down from the 95 percent ratio the country has long targeted.

Labeling GMO apples and potatoesOn March 20, the Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) echoed USDA’s recent approval of genetically modi-fied varieties of apples and potatoes. USDA looks mainly at whether the crops would pose a threat to other plants, while FDA review looks at food safety. FDA told both Okanagan (Arctic apples) and Simplot (potatoes) that certain differences between the genetically engineered apples and po-tatoes and conventional ones might be material enough to require disclosure to consumers. It urged the companies to consult further with the agency about voluntary or required labeling. Such labeling would refer to traits like resistance to browning or lower amounts of the suspected carcinogen in fried potatoes.

Cattle prices get mixed signalsLive and feeder cattle posted sharp

to limit gains to start this week after a bullish Cattle on Feed report on March 20. The report estimated placements were down 8 percent from a year ago, versus the average trade estimate of a 6.7 percent decline. Addition-ally, prices got an extra boost from strength in the cash trade last week where Kansas and Texas markets were up $2 from the previous week. How-ever, after markets closed on Monday, USDA reported record-high frozen beef stocks for February, reminding of backlogged supplies due to West Coast port disruptions. This news offsets the bullish tone set last Friday and will likely prevent further significant gains moving this market back into a sideways pattern.

CONTACT• Matt King 501-228-1297, matt.king@arfb.com.