Ill. researchers adjust after funding cuts
CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) — Illinois soybean researchers are struggling to continue with their work after a board’s decision to invest in areas other than research where the board believes they’ll have a larger impact.
The Illinois Soybean Association is focusing on opening new foreign markets to soybeans and advocating for infrastructure improvements, The Southern Illinoisan reported.
Soybean farmers across the country contribute 0.5 percent of their crop sales to research. The funds are split between state, regional and national soybean boards, which then distribute the funds. The Illinois Soybean Association’s board, which is comprised of 24 elected farmers, allocated about $12 million last year.
The association spent 41 percent of its 2017-18 budget on promoting Illinois soybeans, 24 percent to helping farmers adopt new technology to improve yields and sustainability, 17 percent to improving transportation efficiency and 16 percent to outreach to corporate groups and Illinois farmers.
The association believes private industry donors, chemical and seed companies and the national United Soybean Board have a larger impact on research, according to Lynn Rohrscheib, the association’s chairwoman.
The funding cuts have forced researchers to seek funding elsewhere and adapt their research approach, said Jason Bond, a plant pathology professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
N.Y. grape growers get state help
ITHACA, N.Y. (AP) — New York is spending $1.3 million to support the state’s Concord grape industry.
The money will go to the new Concord Vineyard Improvement Program at Cornell University. The program will help growers renovate vineyards, plant new vines or diversify their operations.
New York’s $340 million Concord grape industry has had to endure lower prices tied to a drop in juice consumption and oversupply.
The Concord Vineyard Improvement Program will provide grants up to $50,000 to eligible applicants. The program will help Concord grape growers replant grape varieties or other crops and will provide production and marketing resources.
Tenn. producers finance promotion
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s corn producers have agreed to raise money to help increase the consumption and sale of corn grown in the state.
State agriculture officials said corn farmers and landowners have voted to add an assessment of 1 cent per bushel of corn sold. Officials said the funds will be used to finance a program of research, education, market development and advertising “to promote the increased production, consumption, use, and sale of Tennessee corn products.”
Corn producers cast ballots at University of Tennessee extension offices. Officials said 64 percent of those who voted supported the measure.
Agriculture Commissioner Jai Templeton had authorized the referendum at the request of the Tennessee Corn Growers Association, the state’s largest corn organization.
Assessments are set to begin in March.
Ill. organic farmers adapt to change
ATLANTA, Ill. (AP) — Organic farmers in Illinois are adapting their business practices due to a shift in the local market prompted in part by large grocers offering organic produce and meal-kit startups gaining popularity.
Many small organic fruit and vegetable producers have traditionally relied on sales through community-supported agriculture programs, in which community members pay for a weekly box of vegetables, The Chicago Tribune reported . But such sales are decreasing as retail options change.
“It’s not necessarily that the local food movement is going away. It’s more of a change in how consumers are buying food,” said Raghela Scavuzzo, local foods program manager for the Illinois Farm Bureau.
Farmers need to adapt to the industry changes, said Arthur Neal, the deputy administrator of the transportation and marketing program for the USDA.
“Farmers are not immune from having to deal with market competition and production innovation,” he said.
Organic farmers get $60K for training
(AP) — A group representing Maine organic growers has received a grant to train the next generation of farmers.
The USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s grant will support training 116 beginning farmers over the next three years.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association will use the money for its existing training program and a new Maine Farm Resilience Program.
The group said more than 92 percent of the Journeyperson Training Program’s participants over the last 18 years are still farming. That’s in contract to over half of all farms failing nationally in their first five years.
The group will use some of its grant to help farmers move beyond their startup phases.
Rain devastates La. soybeans again
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The trade disputes with China are hurting Louisiana’s soybean farmers at a time when rain during harvest season has also hit them badly, a Republican congressman from the state said, asking the federal government for help.
Many soybean shipments are being sent down the Mississippi River instead of the West Coast, filling storage silos and leaving “little to no space to take in any additional, locally grown crops,” U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham wrote in a letter Tuesday asking U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to find a way for the USDA to help the farmers.
“Many of my farmers who have grown late soybeans are being told by elevators that unless the soybeans were previously booked or are of uncommonly superior quality, they cannot and will not accept them. … Farmers must choose between harvesting soybeans with no place to bring them, or letting them rot in the fields,” Abraham wrote.
Louisiana’s soybean acreage this year was about 1 percent of the U.S. total.
Report: 15 NY crops ranked in top 5 in U.S.
SILVER SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — The Office of the New York State Comptroller says farms in the Empire State produced 15 agricultural products that ranked in the top five nationwide last year.
A report released Sept. 20 by Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli says the state’s more than 35,000 farms generated $4.8 billion in revenue in 2017.
The New York crops that landed in the top rankings nationally include cottage cheese, sour cream, yogurt, apples and grapes. DiNapoli’s report found New York’s production of milk, snap beans and maple syrup also rose in national rankings.
DiNapoli said New York farmers are facing challenges ranging from low milk prices to tariffs and restrictions on immigrant workers.
Ind. farmers struggle with grain storage
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — Indiana agricultural officials are predicting grain storage problems amid forecasts of higher-than-average yields and lingering tariffs from President Donald Trump’s trade disputes with China.
Jordan Seger is the deputy director of the State Department of Agriculture. He tells The Journal Gazette that some grain from last year remains unsold and is occupying storage space because of low prices and the tariffs.
Indiana officials announced last week that licensed facilities, such as farmers and grain elevators, can apply to store grain outside in covered piles if grain bins fill up.
Roger Hadley is the Allen County president of the Indiana Farm Bureau. He said some grain elevators have 25 percent of their capacity in leftover grain. He said some locations aren’t accepting grain yet this season.
USDA offers aid to pecan growers
WASHINGTON, D.C. (USDA) — The USDA will give additional assistance to pecan growers to replant and replace trees through the Tree Assistance Program as they recover from the impacts of 2017 weather events, which was made available by the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018.
“Pecan orchards were hard hit in by storms in 2017. I saw first-hand the damage inflicted on communities, resources and the land.” said Bill Northey, USDA farm production and conservation undersecretary. “These funds will help the industry recover and replace lost and damaged trees.”
Up to $15 million is available to eligible pecan orchardists or pecan nursery tree growers for certain mortality losses incurred during 2017. To be eligible, the grower must have suffered a mortality loss on a stand in excess of 7.5 percent, but less than 15 percent, adjusted for normal mortality.
For more information about this or other FSA programs, contact your local FSA county office or USDA Service Center.