IFYE President Victoria Warren, left, and Deputy Secretary of Agriculture, Stephen Censky hold signed copies of a memorandum of understanding between the two organizations from a ceremony held earlier today. (Photo from prnewswire.com)
The International Farm Youth Exchange Program recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA and IFYE (iffy) will work together to promote cultural understanding between the U.S. and overseas countries. The MOU commends IFYE for its past and continuing contribution to international cultural understanding of rural areas across the world. Victoria Warren is President of IFYE. She says the MOU also means the USDA and her group will work together to continue the IFYE mission into the future.
The IFYE program sends young adults 19 and over to farms and rural areas in other countries and helps them learn to understand different cultures and ways of doing things. Warren says the experience isn’t just for young adults in rural America either.
Program participants should be interested in things like agriculture, foods, nutrition, or family consumer science to get the best possible program experience. Warren talks about what the participants will do when they’re overseas with exchange families.
Warren says IFYE isn’t like other exchange programs because participants aren’t there to go to school. However, that doesn’t mean the young adults don’t learn anything.
Warren participated in the program too. She made an overseas trip back in the late-1970s.
For more information about the program, go to www.ifyeusa.org.
Here is the full podcast with Bryce Anderson. You can download for later if you like. Just click on the three dots on the right and hit the download box.
Weather and agriculture go together like husband and wife, hand in glove, or ball and chain. I caught up to a guy who knows a lot about agriculture and weather. He’s Bryce Anderson, Senior Ag Meteorologist with DTN.
Bryce Anderson, seen here speaking at a recent NAFB convention in Kansas City to farm broadcasters, is the senior ag meteorologist from DTN.
Temperatures have turned cool in the Midwest recently and it has some farmers concerned about a potential impact on crop development. Anderson says that cool trend is going to continue for several more days.
He says the cooler-than-normal temps cover most of the Corn Belt. In some cases, certain locations in the Corn Belt have been double-digits below where they normally are in late August-early September.
Cool high pressure dropped down from Canada and took control of the weather in the Corn Belt. However, Anderson says that high pressure will begin to move away soon.
Because much of the crops in the ground went in late, all eyes are on the weather forecast and trying to anticipate when that first frost will be. While Anderson says an early frost doesn’t look likely, that may not be good enough for this year’s crops…tape
He says the weather during harvest should be good enough to help farmers get their crops into the bins quicker than last fall. Anderson says the bigger question will be how good the condition of those crops are when they’re taken out of the fields across farm country.
Here’s the podcast with Jeremy Miller. If you want to download it for later, go ahead and click on the three dots on the right side of the player and hit download.
Agricultural Trade is a sore topic of conversation these days. The agricultural sector in Minnesota and around the country has been struggling for more than a year due in large part to trade disputes with other nations, including the biggest one with China. However, there is some good news out there in international market opportunities for Minnesota farmers. District 28 Republican Senator Jeremy Miller recently took part in an overseas trade mission to Taiwan July 21-26 and says there are opportunities out there for Minnesota farmers to find markets for their commodities.
Minnesota State Senator Jeremy Miller of District 28 got to see firsthand that there are still agricultural trade opportunities overseas for Minnesota farmers, thanks to a recent trade mission to Taiwan. (Contributed photo)
“A representative from the Taipei Economic and Cultural
Office in Chicago reached out to me earlier this year about leading a
multi-state, bipartisan legislative leaders’ delegation to Taiwan,” he
recalled. “Before we go any further, people have asked who paid for the trip. I
want to make it clear that the trip was paid for by Taiwan’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs. The whole purpose of the trip was to develop relationships
between the United States of America, specifically Minnesota, and partners in
Taiwan.”
It was the second trip Miller has taken overseas, with the
first one taking place in South Korea back in 2011. He said the number one
focus of these trips is to “meet people,” with the number two focus of “looking
at opportunities.” The third and most important focus of the trip is
“developing relationships” to see what kinds of business dealings can evolve in
the future.
“The potential is there for a lot of different relationships between Minnesota and Taiwan,” he said. “By far, the biggest opportunity I see in Taiwan is for agricultural trade. Minnesota already exports a good number of crops, especially soybeans, to Taiwan. I think there’s even more opportunity there, whether it be for corn, more soybeans, and especially for pork.”
Miller looked into the numbers and found that Minnesota exported about $413 million worth of goods to Taiwan in 2018. However, that number is likely to go higher. “Last year, there was a agricultural trade mission to Taiwan that both Minnesota and Iowa took part in,” he recalled. “On that trip, Taiwan signed a $1.5 billion-dollar deal to buy 3.9 million metric tons of soybeans from both Minnesota and Iowa before 2021.
“What I’m driving at is there are even more opportunities
for Minnesota and Taiwan to increase the amount of business done,” Miller said.
“But, it comes down to keep lines of communication open and building on those
relationships once they’re established.”
Trade is important to agriculture. There, I said it. American agriculture is the best in the world. When you produce goods at the rate we do, there has to be somewhere to sell it overseas. However, thanks to the trade dispute with China, as well as recent disputes with some of our top trading partners, trade isn’t happening with the regularity it needs to.
Trade has never been more important for U.S. agriculture. One analyst says U.S. agriculture might have become a little too reliant on China as a customer? (Photo from thepacker.com)
In turn, when trade doesn’t happen the way it should, prices drop and farmers can’t make a living. I wanted to find out more about the trade dispute and what’s really going on. When you want to learn something like that, you find someone with skin in the game that can teach you the ins and outs.
Dan Ujczo (YOOT-zoh) is an international trade lawyer with the Dickinson-Wright Law Firm of Columbus, Ohio. I’ve known him for over a year now, ever since the dispute began. In typical Chad Smith fashion, my first question is “what the hell is going on here?” How’s that for direct and to the point?
“There was never going to be a deal in which things would go back to the way they were prior to January of 2017, when President Trump was inaugurated,” Ujczo said. “When Trump met with President Xi last December, they both thought we’d have a deal inside of 90 days. Then we heard they would make a deal in May.
“We never thought there would be a deal in which tariffs were completely rolled back,” he said. “Certainly not on the items from List One and List Two, which were an initial 25 percent duty on $50 billion worth of goods.”
When it comes to the items on List One and List Two, Ujczo says the U.S. government talked with industry and looked at the future of manufacturing, deciding then that these are the items we don’t want China taking the lead on. “Tariffs probably weren’t ever coming off those items,” he said.
Markets occasionally confuse me. However, one part of a career in journalism/broadcasting that I really enjoy is calling people who can educate me on things I really don’t have much expertise in. The older I get, the more fun it is to learn (and try) new things, but I digress. I was working on an assignment with the National Association of Farm Broadcasting the other day and had to find out how the trade dispute between the U.S. and China is affecting commodity markets.
Mike Zuzolo of Global Commodity Analytics in Atchison, Kansas, has been analyzing markets for 2.5 decades. He talks on the podcast about the markets reacting to the trade war between the U.S. and China, as well as the pending USDA reports coming out on Monday, August 12. (photo from YouTube.com)
Well, here’s the thing. Commodity markets are not my area of expertise, so I called up Mike Zuzolo of Global Commodity Analytics and Consulting in Atchison, Kansas. He’s been in the markets for 2.5 decades so if you have a question, he’s the guy that can answer it.
As a farm broadcaster/editor, I was curious about how the China announcement that they wouldn’t be buying any American farm products right now was affecting the markets. Obviously, the effect wouldn’t be a positive one. However, as you’ll hear in the conversation, it could have been even worse.
And believe me, before we progress any further I need to
stress that no one is saying things aren’t bad right now in the agricultural
sector. I wanted to find out what the market reaction was to the announcement
from China. Mike said the key reaction market reaction took place in the
currency and stock markets.
“Quite frankly, Chad, I think this is maybe one of the few
glimmers of good news, or potentially supportive news, for the commodity
markets,” he said. “I think we’ve done a fairly good job in the markets of
pricing in a good portion of the end result of these trade frictions turning
into the beginnings of a trade war. It’s going to be playing out in the
currency markets as we go forward.
“The net result is the commodity markets didn’t react as
negatively as they could, simply because the strength of the U.S. dollar was
dropping,” Zuzolo said. “When the dollar goes down, it makes our goods cheaper
to export. At the same time when we had the news out of China, the gold market
was making fresh, 6.5-year highs. That too is commodity supportive.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) opened enrollment for the Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program on June 17 and has started issuing payments to producers who purchased coverage. Producers can enroll through Sept. 20, 2019.
“Times have been especially tough for dairy farmers, and while we hope producers’ margins will increase, the Dairy Margin Coverage program is providing support at a critical time for many in the industry,” said Bill Northey, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “With lower premiums and higher levels of assistance than previous programs, DMC is already proving to be a good option for a lot of dairy producers across the country. USDA is committed to efficiently implementing the safety net programs in the 2018 Farm Bill and helping producers deal with the challenges of the ever-changing farm economy.”
Authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, DMC replaces the Margin Protection Program for Dairy (MPP-Dairy). The program offers protection to dairy producers when the difference between the all-milk price and the average feed cost (the margin) falls below a certain dollar amount selected by the producer. To date, nearly 10,000 operations have signed up for the new program, and FSA has begun paying approximately $100 million to producers for January through May.
May Margin Payment
DMC provides coverage retroactive to January 1, 2019, with applicable payments following soon after enrollment.
The May 2019 income over feed cost margin was $9.00 per hundredweight (cwt.), triggering the fifth payment for eligible dairy producers who purchase the $9.50 level of coverage under DMC. Payments for January, February, March and April also were triggered.
With the 50 percent hay blend, FSA’s revised April 2019 income over feed cost margin is $8.82 per cwt. The revised margins for January, February and March are, respectively, $7.71, $7.91 and $8.66.
Coverage Levels and MPP Reimbursements
Dairy producers can choose coverage levels from $4 up to $9.50 at the time of signup. More than 98 percent of the producers currently enrolled have elected $9.50 coverage on up to 95 percent of their production history.
More Information
On December 20, 2018, President Trump signed into law the 2018 Farm Bill, which provides support, certainty and stability to our nation’s farmers, ranchers and land stewards by enhancing farm support programs, improving crop insurance, maintaining disaster programs and promoting and supporting voluntary conservation. FSA is committed to implementing these changes as quickly and effectively as possible, and today’s updates are part of meeting that goal.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) extended the acreage reporting deadline for farmers in states impacted by flooding and heavy moisture. The new deadline is July 22 for producers to report spring-seeded crops to USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) county offices and crop insurance agents. The new deadline applies to producers in Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
“These are challenging times and we are here to help,” said Bill Northey, USDA Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “This deadline extension is part of our broader effort to increase program flexibility and reduce overall regulatory burden for producers who are having to make some tough choices for their operations.”
Producers not in the selected states must file reports or be added to a county register by the original July 15 deadline.
“Producers in many parts of the country are experiencing a challenging spring and early summer. However, producers in these states are struggling with large delays and are unable to complete their other fieldwork,” Northey said.
Filing a timely crop acreage report helps farmers maintain eligibility for USDA conservation, disaster assistance, safety net, crop insurance, and farm loan programs. A crop acreage report documents all crops and their intended uses. It’s also an important part of record-keeping for your farm or ranch.
FSA offices are asking producers to set up appointments ahead of time before they come in to file a report. Producers who schedule appointments before the deadline will be on time, even if the appointment is after July 22.
Likewise, reports from producers in non-affected states who set up appointments before July 15 will be considered timely filed.
“We encourage you to contact your FSA county office today to set up an appointment,” Northey said. “Our team is standing by to help you complete this important process that keeps you eligible for key USDA programs.”
Other USDA Efforts to Help Producers
USDA is taking additional steps to help producers across the country, including:
Updating the haying and grazing date for producers who have planted cover crops on prevented plant acres;
Offering special sign-ups through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program for assistance to plant cover crops; and
Extending the deadline to report prevented plant acres in certain places.
Farmers in different parts of rural America are still dealing with flooding. Bryce Anderson, Senior Ag Meteorologist from DTN, says those struggles are continuing in some areas, while other parts of farm country are continuing to show some improvement.
Flooding has devastated farmers across a good chunk of rural America. Unfortunately, a senior ag meteorologist with DTN says some of those areas will be dealing with the excess water for some time yet. (Photo from Drovers.com)
Other parts of the Midwest are still dealing with flood stage and don’t have an immediate end in sight.
The rainfall isn’t over for parts of the country still dealing with saturated soils.
Anderson says the last time farm country had flooding problems that covered such a large area at the same time was back in 1993. He says the wet pattern will likely stick around at least through the end of June and possibly early July…
Bryce Anderson is Senior Ag Meteorologist with DTN.
For some perspective on how bad the flooding has been, an article on the Pacific Standard Magazine website says the Mississippi River has received rain and snow levels at a staggering 200 percent above normal.
And, it’s not just farmers who are suffering because of the flooding. The flooding has wrecked homes, contaminated drinking water, and done billions of dollars in damages. Unfortunately, industry experts are warning that it may take years for agriculture and rural America to recover from the extensive damages.
Dairy farmers have had a tough go of it lately as milk prices continue to struggle. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) is rolling out its new Dairy Assistance, Investment and Relief Initiative (DAIRI) program to provide financial assistance for farmers. To be eligible, the state’s milk producers have to sign up for five years of coverage in the USDA Farm Service Agency’s Dairy Margin Coverage (DMC) program.
The Minnesota Dairy Assistance, Investment, and Relief Initiative is now taking applications. The program is designed to help the state’s dairy farmers stay afloat during very tough economic times. (Photo from nal.used.gov)
“Minnesota farmers are the cornerstone of our state’s economy,” said Governor Tim Walz. “We know that this has been a tough year for agriculture, and our dairy farmers need our support. I’m proud that our budget secured $8 million for the Dairy Assistance, Investment and Relief Initiative, The new initiative will help make sure our dairy farmers can continue doing the work they love and providing for our state.”
Applications to the program are being accepted now through October 1, 2019. In order to qualify, Minnesota farmers must have produced less than 160,000 cwt (hundredweight) of milk in 2018. Again, they also need to have signed up for five years of coverage through the DMC program during its current enrollment period, which is open between June 17, 2019 and September 20, 2019.
The MDA will issue payments on a rolling basis. Producers can expect to receive their first payments roughly two to four weeks after successfully applying. Minnesota dairy farmers will be paid based on production levels, up to 50,000 cwt of milk produced in 2018.
An application form, a W9, a copy of their DMC enrollment form, and a statement from their processor(s) detailing the amount of milk produced in 2018 are all required to complete an application.
Dairy farmers may receive a second payment this fall after the application period has ended, depending on remaining available funds.
Dicamba is an important tool for farmers when it comes to controlling weeds. The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) wants to remind pesticide applicators of the state-specific dicamba cutoff for the 2019 growing season. Product application cannot take place in Minnesota after June 20.
The 2019 Minnesota dicamba cutoff is in addition to those established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The affected formulations are XtendiMax by Monsanto, Engenia by BASF, FeXapan by DuPont, and Tavium by Syngenta.
The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is reminding farmers and pesticide applicators that the dicamba cutoff date is set for June 20th. (photo from agweb.com)
“We understand that late planting this season has caused concern for growers who want to use this crop management tool,” said Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen. “However, delaying applications in an attempt to control later emerging weeds can result in poor control and presents other risks. If you are one of the growers that has invested in dicamba technology, now is the time to use it for the dicamba cutoff date. The University of Minnesota Extension says late planting combined with pre-plant tillage can offer advantages for weed control.”
The June 20, 2019, the dicamba cutoff date is based on the MDA’s ongoing investigations and informal surveys into reports of crop damage from alleged dicamba off-target movement over the past two growing seasons. In 2017, the MDA received 253 reports of alleged dicamba drift; 55 of those were formal complaints requesting investigations. Those reports impacted an estimated 265,000 acres. After state restrictions were put in place for the 2018 growing season, the number of complaints dropped dramatically to 53 reports, of which 29 were formal complaints. Just over 1,800 acres were impacted in 2018.
This year’s dicamba cutoff date was first announced on December 10, 2018. Over the winter, approximately 5,800 pesticide applicators attended trainings across the state as required by the product labels.
Dicamba is most effective early in the growing season. Product labels recommend application on small broadleaf weeds that are up to 4 inches tall.
To manage weeds after June 20, growers can use herbicides from Group 9 (Glyphosate), Group 2 (Pursuit, Classic, FirstRate), and Group 14 (Flexstar, Cobra, Cadet, Ultra Blazer). If you have herbicide resistant weeds such as water hemp, follow University of Minnesota Extension recommendations on layering of residual herbicides such as Dual, Outlook, Warrant, and Valor.
In Minnesota, the XtendiMax, Engenia, FeXapan, and Tavium formulations of dicamba are “Restricted Use Pesticides” for retail sale to, and for use only by, certified applicators.
