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A turnaround for ethanol? By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/05/2013 @ 4:03pm
With the ethanol industry running at about 85% of capacity and corn prices suddenly cheaper after last week's bearish USDA reports, the industry may be poised for a brief rebound, according to estimates ...
Thriving in a harsh climate By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/02/2013 @ 1:36pm
Ray Gaesser started using no till on his southwest Iowa farm in the early 1980s. That, combined with terraces, assured that "we had virtually no erosion," he said Tuesday. Then around 2010, his farm started ...
Farmers already adapting to erratic weather By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/20/2013 @ 2:17pm
Weather and climate aren’t the same, but near-term weather cycles and longer-term changes in climate have this in common: Both will bring more extremes of wet and dry years. So far, farmers are adapting to ...
Drought 2.0: Staying ahead of an uncertain 2013 By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/20/2013 @ 2:09pm
After the 2012 drought, the nation's worst since the 1950s, some farmers are preparing for a tough 2013. Winter wasn’t encouraging. Weekly U.S. Drought Monitor maps showed exceptional drought – the ...
Farming's new faces By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/20/2013 @ 10:56am
They are different, yet united by a toughness that farming demands. They are among the newest faces on the nation’s landscape, yet many have a long heritage in growing food.Laurie Schmidt of Nemaha, Iowa, is ...
Cuts target farm programs, insurance By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/11/2013 @ 11:00pm
Once again, farm programs are on the chopping block in Washington.Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) released a budget that would trim $4.6 trillion in federal spending over the next ...
Finding real solutions By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/06/2013 @ 5:12pm
We're at the start of a century that will test the planet's resources to produce food, fiber and energy, but the solutions from that challenge are likely to come first from landowners and ...
Business apps By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/04/2013 @ 1:32pm
Smartphones are being used more and more for crop production on farms. They're helpful for mapping, weed identification, and, of course, checking the weather.The apps listed here can also extend your ...
Three major commodity groups will leave the Commodity Classic in Florida without making big changes to their top goals for farm policy--getting a farm bill passed this year and defending crop insurance from ...
Vilsack outlines sequester hits to ag By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/01/2013 @ 12:14pm
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack shared his frustration with Washington gridlock as well as details of how spending reductions will hit agriculture when he spoke to members of corn, grain sorghum, soybean and ...
Leaders of the American Soybean Association and National Corn Growers Association said Thursday at their annual meeting in Kissimmee, Florida that a top goal remains passage this year of a five-year farm ...
Soybean board promotes healthier oil By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/28/2013 @ 5:01pm
The soybean checkoff and two major seed companies are fighting to regain the 28% share of the vegetable oil market that soybeans lost after the federal government required labeling of trans fatty acids in food ...
Better weather? By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/22/2013 @ 3:50pm
The odds are improving for a wetter spring and summer in the eastern Corn Belt, a seasonal forecaster with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center said on Friday at ...
Weather hangs over USDA price projections By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/22/2013 @ 10:58am
At the end of his talk about the outlook for grain and oilseed prices Friday, USDA economist Pete Riley listed the usual caveats that show that projections aren't really predictions.There's China ...
Farm income: Good for now By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/21/2013 @ 5:35pm
Net farm income is expected to increase 14.6%, to $128.2 billion in the current, 2013 calendar year, according to Kevin Patrick, an agricultural economist with USDA's Economic Research Service.Speaking at ...
Are funds starving the poor? By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/21/2013 @ 11:46am
After the dramatic increase in commodity prices in 2007-2008, a respected hedge fund manager, Michael W. Masters testified before Congress that commodity index investment was exaggerating prices trends by as ...
Modest acreage, big price changes By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/21/2013 @ 9:26am
USDA's latest projections for acreage and prices for major commodities show only slight changes in acreage from last year but big declines in prices as the department's economists factor in more ...
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow announced on Thursday that agriculture plays a key role in a plan by Senate Democrats to prevent across-the-board spending cuts scheduled to start March ...
Pressure on crop insurance By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/14/2013 @ 2:08pm
At $9 billion a year or more, federal subsidies for crop insurance are now the biggest single USDA program for farmers, making them a fat target for budget cutters. In Washington, there's talk of shaving ...
Not a good weather start By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/05/2013 @ 4:11pm
Mark Svoboda, climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, greeted participants to a regional listening session on the science of climate assessment Monday with a slide. It ...
Improve working capital By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/05/2013 @ 9:04am
To say that 2012 was challenging for hog producers is an understatement. As president-elect of the Illinois Pork Producers Council, Todd Dail knows that well. “If you're a hog producer and you buy feed ...
Iowa State University's Beginning Farmers Conference Saturday offered students who want to farm a crash-course in making the transition to the real world, with tips on getting low-interest loans from ...
USDA stands behind ethanol By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/30/2013 @ 5:26pm
Iowa's ethanol and biodiesel plant industry got a pat on the back Wednesday from the head of a key branch of USDA, Rural Development.Speaking at the Annual Iowa Renewable Fuels Summit in Altoona, Iowa ...
A visionary Vilsack is still enthused By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/24/2013 @ 5:51pm
Just when it seems that some of President Barack Obama's Cabinet members are leaving, exhausted or frustrated, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack welcomes staying on for a second term, undaunted by the ...
Possible cuts to crop insurance By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/23/2013 @ 4:32pm
Art Barnaby is counting the ways.No, the Kansas State University economist isn't trying to top Elizabeth Barrett Browning at writing love poems. If anything, he's advocating tough love for the most ...
Farm tax deadline is April 15 By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/22/2013 @ 10:04am
At the urging of Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) the IRS has moved the tax filing deadline from March 1 to April 15 this year.Grassley was concerned that the IRS might not have the forms needed by farmers in ...
Farm Bureau opposes insurance caps By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/16/2013 @ 12:48am
Any doubts that crop insurance tops the list of farm policy goals for farmers were dashed by Farm Bureau delegates at the group's annual meeting in Nashville Tuesday. The group made it clear they ...
Vilsack seeks farm policy certainty By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/14/2013 @ 9:11pm
Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who will serve as Agriculture Secretary in President Barack Obama's second term in office, got a warm welcome from American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman Monday as ...
Lingering drought effects hit markets By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/13/2013 @ 9:24pm
Chad Hart, Iowa State University Extension economist and grain market analyst, looks for another year of volatile prices. But with weaker demand and some drought recovery in the eastern Corn Belt, prices could ...
Optimism for immigration reform By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/13/2013 @ 1:59pm
Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman said Sunday that he's optimistic that some type of immigration reform might be passed in Congress, if it can happen within the next nine months, before the next election ...
Farm Bureau still wants farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/12/2013 @ 11:00pm
Farm Bureau President Bob Stallman said Sunday that he's optimistic that some type of immigration reform might be passed in Congress, if it can happen within the next nine months, before the next election ...
If you think that higher income tax rates don't kick in until you report income of $450,000 filing jointly with your spouse, think again. The new fiscal cliff tax legislation passed on New ...
An unusual coalition of farm groups, animal welfare experts and state officials Thursday announced a new Iowa group that will make it easier for anyone in the state to report perceived animal care ...
Can Civilization Age Gracefully? By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/09/2013 @ 9:05am
Long before most of us, Tom Gillaspy knew 2008 would not be a great year. He didn't know that Lehman Brothers would collapse that year, helping to trigger a financial crisis and the biggest downturn ...
Great new tax breaks . . . and pitfalls By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/07/2013 @ 11:00pm
As agricultural tax experts dig into a much-criticized fiscal-cliff deal, they're finding plenty that will benefit farmers and ranchers.Estate planning has more certainty, now that the Taxpayer Relief Act ...
Franken: new farm bill to be similar By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/05/2013 @ 4:12pm
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) said Friday that he doesn't expect major changes when the Senate writes a new farm bill this year."I think we're going to pass something very similar to what we passed in ...
Insurance payouts still lag 2011 By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/03/2013 @ 4:47pm
When 2012 ended, the nation's crop insurance companies, with the backing of USDA, had made just over $10 billion in indemnity payments to cover losses from one of the nation's worst droughts.While ...
Grassley sees mixed results By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/02/2013 @ 11:29am
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who has long championed reforms in how commodity payments are made, said Wednesday that he has mixed feelings about the nine-month ...
McConnell plunges into milk policy By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/31/2012 @ 9:45pm
In a last-minute addition to the fiscal cliff deal moving through the Senate, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is reportedly crafting his own farm bill extension that continues direct payments at ...
Avoiding the dairy cliff? By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/29/2012 @ 11:00pm
So much for reform.With no new farm bill to include in any last-minute "fiscal cliff" agreement, House and Senate agriculture committee leaders over the weekend agreed to extend the 2008 Farm Bill through next ...
Dispatch from the asylum By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/21/2012 @ 3:26pm
As a lobbyist for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, Ferd Hoefner takes a clear-eyed view of the dysfunctional world of Congress, whether he's talking about the fiscal cliff negotiations or ...
Recently the Environmental Working Group and a coalition of several conservative small-government organizations called for cutting $20 to $30 billion out of federal subsidies for crop insurance. That ...
Ag Census on its way By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/17/2012 @ 11:00pm
Starting today, some 3 million forms for the USDA's Census of Agriculture are being shipped from a federal processing center in Louisville, Kentucky. They'll be hitting the mailboxes of farmers and ...
Farm bill detour? By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/14/2012 @ 2:54pm
Some members of the U.S. Senate are looking for other ways to speed passage of a farm bill in addition to attempts to attach it to any legislation that might address the fiscal cliff, the year-end expiration ...
Farm bill at the cliff By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/12/2012 @ 11:00pm
With time to reconcile differences between a Senate and House Agriculture Committee farm bill running out, a bipartisan group of 33 senators today urged the Senate leadership to push for including its version ...
Higher farm income, higher farm risk By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/12/2012 @ 4:54pm
Every year University of Illinois agricultural economist Gary Schnitkey projects returns per acre for corn and soybeans grown in his state, and net income for a typical 1,200-acre farm. In spite of the ...
Grain market reprieve ending? By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/11/2012 @ 9:16pm
When ag economist Darrel Good kicked off the 2012 Illinois Farm Economics Summit at DeKalb County's Center for Agriculture on Tuesday, he acknowledged that it's very early to project crop prices for ...
Crop loss payouts speed up By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/10/2012 @ 3:55pm
Now that crop insurers and USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) know the final market value of drought-damaged crops, the pace of indemnity payments is starting to pick up, a senior official with the ...
Food stamps remain farm bill obstacle By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/06/2012 @ 5:18pm
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee said Thursday that committee leaders are working to resolve differences in commodity programs before a final farm bill is considered, it ...
Temple Grandin, a woman who overcame autism to become one of the world’s most influential authorities on livestock behavior, shared her ideas on how farmers can tell their story to the public at the Iowa ...
Selling now? By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/05/2012 @ 11:18am
Even before the election, Kansas Farm Bureau was urging members to ask Congress for a “virtual repeal” of the estate tax in the lame-duck session: an exemption of $5 million and a top rate of 35%. That ...
Livestock follows the corn By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/04/2012 @ 7:54pm
Iowa will likely add 600,000 new pig spaces in 2013, and finding a spot for them is getting tougher, Brian Waddingham, Executive Director of the Coalition to Support Iowa's Farmers told members of the ...
Ag leaders talking -- Grassley By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/04/2012 @ 8:48am
Behind the scenes, the leaders of the House and Senate agriculture committees may already be working out differences between their two versions of a farm bill, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a member of the ...
At a packed meeting room in Des Moines, Iowa, members of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation got a detailed look at the science and the politics behind the new Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy Tuesday.While some ...
Farm bill scenarios unfold By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/27/2012 @ 10:56am
On a day when political posturing in Washington sent the stock market plunging, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told reporters he remains optimistic that Congress will deal with the so-called fiscal cliff before ...
Grassley: farm bill has a chance By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/20/2012 @ 10:26am
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told reporters Tuesday that leaders of the committee remain optimistic about a new farm bill being passed in the current lame-duck ...
Crop insurance tax traps By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/16/2012 @ 2:46pm
Federal tax laws allow farmers using cash accounting to defer income into another year fairly easily by delaying grain sales.This year, a big chunk of your income may be indemnity payments from crop insurers ...
Crop insurance jitters By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/16/2012 @ 2:41pm
After drought, crop insurance indemnity payments could be one-sixth of a record $122 billion in 2012 U.S. net farm income. But this success makes it a political target – just one concern farmers have about ...
Futures shock By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/16/2012 @ 2:26pm
It doesn't matter what marketing experts advise. In the real world's uncharted sea of money, financial icebergs lie beneath the surface. In October 2008, VeraSun Energy, one of the largest ethanol ...
Ethanol tops out By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/16/2012 @ 1:12pm
Chuck Woodside, CEO of KAAPA Ethanol near Minden, Nebraska, is obsessed with corn this fall. By October, he had heard of irrigated yields as high as 250 to 300 bushels an acre farther east in the Platte River ...
Grassley on election and ag By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/13/2012 @ 3:33pm
Senator Chuck Grassley, one of few members of Congress to actively farm, sized up the election results for agriculture Tuesday, saying the voters' choice of president had little effect on the farm bill ...
Nearly all of ag wants farm bill action By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/12/2012 @ 11:00pm
On Tuesday, the day that Congress starts its lame-duck session, 235 groups representing nearly every facet of agriculture sent a letter to leaders of the House of Representatives asking for a vote on the 2012 ...
An Obama fan By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/09/2012 @ 4:59pm
It wasn't quite like New Jersey Governor Chris Christie shaking hands with the President when Barack Obama visited Christie's storm struck state. Another big fan waited until after the election to ...
Last gasp for 2012 farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/09/2012 @ 4:03pm
Farm groups are likely to make a push for getting a farm bill passed immediately when Congress returns to work late next Tuesday. But few are betting that a new five-year law will be passed in the lame duck ...
Day-after disappointment and hope By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/07/2012 @ 6:24pm
Last June, when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney made a campaign stop in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Ray Gaesser was among a small group of farmers who got to have breakfast with the former ...
Documentary brings Dust Bowl to life By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/06/2012 @ 10:10am
In Oklahoma, conservation is personal.About 400 showed up at the student union at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater for an advance screening of The Dust Bowl by documentary film maker, Ken Burns. There ...
Election could affect farm bill timing By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/06/2012 @ 8:10am
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) still wants to pass a farm bill in the lame duck session of Congress after the election, but it could be pushed into 2013, he said shortly before voting ...
Using cellulose By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/01/2012 @ 10:47am
For two years, Jeff Taylor, a Gilbert, Iowa, corn and soybean farmer, has sold corn stover to DuPont Industrial Biosciences. DuPont pays him $15 a ton for the 2 tons per acre taken off his fields by a custom ...
Ethanol tops out By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/26/2012 @ 11:24am
Chuck Woodside, CEO of KAAPA Ethanol near Minden, Nebraska, is obsessed with corn this fall. By October, he had heard of irrigated yields as high as 250 to 300 bushels an acre farther east in the Platte River ...
Oxfam: slim down; feed more By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/17/2012 @ 4:51pm
Oxfam America, part of a global network of food aid and development groups that started in Britain, served a meatless, locally grown meal in Des Moines, Iowa Wednesday to encourage overfed Americans to help ...
Avoid start-up pitfalls By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/01/2012 @ 2:39pm
A panel of relatively young but grizzled veterans of agriculture shared tips on everything from managing debt to avoiding divisions within agriculture at the New Century Farmer Conference in Johnston, Iowa ...
Dashboards By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/01/2012 @ 11:26am
Imagine driving a grain truck down a steep grade into the Ohio River Valley without a speedometer. If the brakes and transmission work, you can do it, of course. But that missing gauge could mean a speeding ...
Rotating saves By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/01/2012 @ 10:33am
Since 2003, Iowa State University agronomist Matt Liebman and other researchers have been comparing two-year corn-soybean rotations with two longer-term rotations on plots west of Ames, Iowa. Economic analysis ...
Stabenow to push farm bill after election By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/20/2012 @ 6:08pm
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said Thursday that she will push for completing the 2012 farm bill in the lame duck session of Congress that takes place after the November ...
Indemnity checks to spill into 2013 By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/20/2012 @ 4:02pm
As some 5,000 crop insurance adjusters work through the claims from one of the nation's worst droughts, delays in the process don't surprise Rhonda Smith, Vice President, Insurance, for Farm Credit ...
Farm Bill inaction risky, Vilsack says By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/14/2012 @ 3:59pm
The House could pass a farm bill in 24 hours if its leadership wanted to, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told members of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in Des Moines, Iowa ...
A bipartisan group in the House of Representives took one last stand Thursday to force a vote on a farm bill before Congress leaves town to campaign for re-election. Shortly after the House Agriculture ...
Recently Fitch Ratings warned that the rising land costs pose a threat to ag lenders “should prices reverse quickly.”“In the event that the long-term trends of low interest rates and rising commodity ...
Polite bashing By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/12/2012 @ 11:08pm
Two stand-ins for President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, managed to bash each other's candidate without raising their voices Wednesday at a debate agriculture in Des Moines ...
Farm bill is still doable, Stabenow says By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/11/2012 @ 3:43pm
One day before hundreds of farmers and farm group leaders rally for a new farm bill in Washington, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said it's not too late to pass a farm bill ...
Scientists at USDA's Agricultural Research Service are doing ground-saving research on watersheds across the United States, but they aren't always able to work with all of the information their ...
Groups urge farm bill vote By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/28/2012 @ 8:18pm
In a hot and muggy media tent at the Farm Progress Show outside of Boone, Iowa, leaders of a diverse coalition of farm groups made another pitch Tuesday for Congress passing a farm bill before the current law ...
Stabenow gets 'er done By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/13/2012 @ 3:43pm
If Congress had more leaders like Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Washington might not be gridlocked. As chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Stabenow treated the ranking Republican, Pat Roberts of ...
Lucas threads a thin needle By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/13/2012 @ 3:40pm
If anyone is qualified to be chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, it’s Frank Lucas. His rural western Oklahoma district comprises almost half the state and is one of the nation’s largest. He’s an ...
Ethanol industry faces critics, drought By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/09/2012 @ 3:19pm
The American Coalition for Ethanol marked its 25th anniversary at its annual meeting in Omaha Thursday. Celebrate wasn't quite the right word, the group's executive vice president, Brian Jennings ...
Costly crop insurance? By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/01/2012 @ 2:50pm
Crop insurance has solid support from the leaders of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees. They opposed Obama administration budget cuts for 2013 that would shave crop insurance premium subsidies for ...
Mixed views of disaster bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/31/2012 @ 11:00pm
Thursday, the House is expected to vote on a bill that would find funds for livestock disaster programs that expired last year. The effort is all that remains of a one-year farm bill extension that was ...
The House leadership, unable to muster support to pass a 2008 farm bill extension, has withdrawn the bill and will consider a separate measure to offer livestock farmers drought assistance, say farm group ...
Wheat Growers oppose extension By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/30/2012 @ 11:00pm
The National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) Tuesday joined other major farm groups in opposing a one-year extension of the 2008 farm bill which has been offered by the leadership of the House of ...
Ag groups oppose farm bill extension By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/30/2012 @ 6:42pm
Some of the nation's biggest and most influential farm and conservation groups came out against a one-year extension of the current farm bill Monday, with some saying that it offers virtually none of the ...
EPA asked to reduce ethanol mandate By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/29/2012 @ 11:00pm
A coalition of meat, poultry and dairy groups Monday asked the Environmental Protection Agency to waive all or part of the renewable fuels standard, which mandates the use of ethanol in the nation's fuel ...
Farm groups continued to call for a vote in the House on a five-year farm bill Friday, as its leadership appeared ready to vote only on a one-year extension the the existing farm bill. But a one-year extension ...
EWG: What? Me worry? By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/19/2012 @ 5:52pm
With charts supplied by Iowa State University economist Bruce Babcock, the Environmental Working Group explained to urban reporters Thursday that, thanks to crop insurance, there's no rush to push a farm ...
Pelosi calls for House farm bill vote By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/19/2012 @ 5:08pm
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) Thursday joined a growing chorus of national leaders urging the leadership of the House to vote on its version of a farm bill before the August recess.“I join ...
Livestock groups hit ethanol mandate By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/19/2012 @ 4:11pm
The nation's top livestock groups organized a briefing for congressional staffers in Washington Thursday that supports altering U.S. energy law to shrink the mandate for ethanol use in short crop years ...
Avoiding pitfalls, from debt to divisions By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/13/2012 @ 4:55pm
A panel of relatively young but grizzled veterans of agriculture shared tips on everything from managing debt to avoiding divisions within agriculture at the New Century Farmer conference in Johnston, Iowa ...
Ag Groups ask House to vote on farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/13/2012 @ 12:59pm
A letter calling for a farm bill vote was sent to the leadership of the House of Representatives today by 46 national farm, commodity, financial, conservation, rural, religious, and research organizations.The ...
House committee approves farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/11/2012 @ 11:00pm
At 12:55 a.m. Thursday, after more than a day of sometimes contentious debate, the House Agriculture Committee voted 35 to 11 to approve an amended farm bill.Those voting no included three Republicans who ...
Tension grows over food stamps By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/11/2012 @ 3:34pm
For decades, the farm bill has passed Congress with support from urban and rural politicians with a common interest in food. As the House Agriculture Committee marked up its version of a five-year farm ...
House committee takes up farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/11/2012 @ 2:42pm
The House Agriculture Committee began considering its version of a farm bill Wednesday, with some 100 amendments stacked on the table in the committee's hearing room. Staffers working for Chairman Frank ...
Digesting the House farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/06/2012 @ 6:47pm
The staff of farm groups and members of Congress were still digesting the House Agriculture Committee's draft of a Farm Bill Friday, and finding parts of it more palatable than others. To the National ...
The House Agriculture Committee released a farm bill "discussion draft," Thursday. As expected, the proposed Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM), cuts nutrition programs more deeply than ...
Senate passes farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/21/2012 @ 1:50pm
Early Thursday afternoon the U.S. Senate passed a farm bill, the Agriculture Reform, Food and Jobs Act of 2012, by a vote of 64-35, four more than the 60 votes required.The relatively narrow margin of victory ...
Negotiating over premium cut By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/20/2012 @ 12:42pm
In her press conference earlier today, Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) indicated that Senator John Thune (R-SD) and Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) are negotiating ...
Stabenow not enthused on crop insurance changes By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/20/2012 @ 9:57am
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said Wednesday that she doesn't think an amendment to tie conservation rules to crop insurance eligibility will pass when the Senate takes up ...
Crop insurance linked to income, conservation By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/19/2012 @ 11:00pm
In what could be a historic change of fortune for the nation's crop insurance industry, the Senate voted Wednesday to link eligibility for coverage to meeting conservation rules, and it approved reducing ...
Senate plunges into farm bill amendments By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/19/2012 @ 7:46pm
It's rare to see a speech on the Senate Floor that lasts only two minutes, but that's how much time each sponsor of a farm bill amendment had to argue his or her case Tuesday. Opponents had ...
South Dakota senator defends payment limits By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/18/2012 @ 6:19pm
Senator Tim Johnson (D-SD) called for action on the farm bill Monday, as leaders of the Senate and its agriculture committee continued negotiations to limit amendments to the bill.Johnson said that he hoped a ...
Long before most of us, Tom Gillaspy knew 2008 would not be a great year.He didn't know that Lehman Brothers would collapse that year, helping to trigger a financial crisis and the biggest downturn in the ...
Most of the farm bill action in the Senate this week was behind the scenes, as the leadership negotiated a smaller number of amendments to consider than some 250 offered so far.Late Thursday, Senate ...
Farm bill debate starts By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/12/2012 @ 11:00pm
Leaders of the Senate Agriculture Committee are working behind the scenes to get amendments to their farm bill down to a manageable number that are relevant to the committee's jurisdiction.By ...
The grain silos of small-town co-ops are like beacons for travelers crossing the Corn Belt and High Plains wheat country. They're so common they're easy to take for granted.But Chuck Conner ...
By Thursday, more than 30 amendments had been filed to the 2012 Senate farm bill, ranging from a ban on support for ethanol blender pumps, to two approaches to limiting crop insurance premium subsidies, to ...
On Thursday the Senate voted 90 to 8 to move the farm bill forward to debate and a final vote that ag committee members would like to hold soon.It was far more than the 60 required under Senate rules, but the ...
An amendment to limit crop insurance premium subsidies to America's largest farms is one of some 30 changes that farm groups will be watching for when the Senate begins active debate on its farm bill on ...
Hunting, fishing interests weigh in on farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/04/2012 @ 1:10pm
Farmers and nutrition advocates aren't the only groups lobbying for a farm bill. So are groups that represent the $100 billion-a-year hunting and fishing industry."Our top priority right now is to get as ...
Stabenow open to farm bill changes By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/03/2012 @ 11:00pm
Just before the Senate is expected to debate its 2012 farm bill this week, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said she's willing to consider last-minute changes to ...
Farm bill floor debate likely By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/03/2012 @ 10:30pm
Like many other agricultural organization leaders, Chuck Conner will be watching closely this week if the U.S. Senate starts floor debate on a farm bill.Conner, who is CEO of the National Council of Farmer ...
EWG spotlights $1 million subsidies By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/30/2012 @ 11:00pm
In what could be a prelude to a Senate floor debate over crop insurance spending, the Environmental Working Group released a study Thursday that documents large subsidies to farms to lower their cost of buying ...
June farm bill vote likely By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/25/2012 @ 11:09am
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) past chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Friday that a June vote on the Senate version of a farm bill is likely, along with some amendments that could affect how the ...
Meat export boom continues By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/24/2012 @ 10:49am
In spite of an array of challenges around the globe, the outlook for U.S. meat exports remains strong, according to the leaders of the U.S. Meat Export Federation, which is holding its board meeting in New ...
President claims progress with biofuels By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/23/2012 @ 11:00pm
After visiting a wind energy plant in Newton, Iowa, Thursday, President Barack Obama made a campaign stop at the Iowa State Fairgrounds, where he was greeted by an enthusiastic crowd of supporters at the Paul ...
Members of several farm groups told a House Agriculture subcommittee Thursday that they support giving producers choices of commodity programs in the next farm bill, instead of the approach taken by the Senate ...
House leans away from Senate farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/15/2012 @ 11:00pm
Members of the House Agriculture Committee cast doubt Wednesday that they’ll follow every detail of a Senate version of a farm bill, especially for crops that may benefit less than corn and ...
Ethanol saved you $1.09/gallon By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/15/2012 @ 2:57pm
In 2011, consumers saved an average of $1.09 a gallon for gasoline, thanks to the addition of less expensive ethanol in the mix, according to a study by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) ...
Grassley seeks clarity on farm bankruptcy law By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/15/2012 @ 10:32am
Chapter 12 bankruptcy, a provision of the law written for farmers who are trying to reorganize debts, was weakened by a Supreme Court ruling Monday that requires an Arizona farm couple to pay full capital ...
In writing the next farm bill, Congress needs to support programs for beginning farmers, too, an Iraq war veteran and young farmer from Plainview, Nebraska, told a House Agriculture Committee panel on Thursday ...
The historic upset of Senator Dick Lugar by Indiana Treasurer Richard Mourdock in Tuesday’s Republican primary in that state may affect ethanol. At least that’s the view of Senator Tom Harkin, who ...
Crop insurance showdown looms By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/09/2012 @ 11:00pm
Senator Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma doctor who is leading a crusade against the rising federal deficit, is planning to introduce an amendment to the Senate Agriculture Committee’s farm bill that would cap crop ...
Record Ukraine corn crop coming By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/08/2012 @ 2:25pm
Ukraine is expected to have record corn production and exports following the 2012 crop, according to a USDA report released this week. The Grain and Feed Annual produced by Foreign Agricultural Service ...
Global corn competition gets difficult By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/03/2012 @ 3:05pm
In a Washington, D.C., office building, Tom Dorr, president and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council, takes stock of big changes sweeping the global grain trade.“This year, for the first time, the U.S. will export ...
Can you afford costlier crop insurance? By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/02/2012 @ 11:00pm
In India, cows are sacred. In the Corn Belt and much of the rest of agricultural America, crop insurance seems to be revered. At least that’s the impression you’d get from attending recent farm bill ...
Fed backs off child labor on farms By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/27/2012 @ 11:08am
Thursday evening the Obama Administration announced that it is withdrawing a proposed rule that would have restricted child labor on farms that drew strong criticism from rural areas.According to a Department ...
Senate Ag Committee approves farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/25/2012 @ 11:00pm
Over the objections of southern Senators and one from New York, the Senate Agriculture Committee approved a five-year farm bill Thursday that now heads for a vote on the Senate floor.The bill, called the ...
A giant no more? By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/24/2012 @ 3:21pm
In a Washington, D.C., office building, Tom Dorr, president and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council, takes stock of big changes sweeping the global grain trade.“This year, for the first time, the U.S. will export ...
Grassley seeks funds for energy By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/24/2012 @ 12:53pm
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Tuesday that he and possibly two other Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee will introduce an amendment to provide $800 million in funding over 10 years for an ...
The Senate Agriculture Committee has released a 2012 farm bill draft that would repeal direct payments, countercyclical payments and the average crop revenue election (ACRE) program. The bill, if it becomes ...
Senate to end direct payments By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/20/2012 @ 1:36pm
Before laying out farm bill details, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) released a summary on Friday. As expected, the committee's draft of a bill ends direct ...
Farm bill still expected...maybe By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/20/2012 @ 10:24am
There are doubters among Washington’s farm lobbyists, but most are expecting the Senate Agriculture Committee to release a draft of a farm bill today ahead of a full committee session to approve it next ...
Farm bill draft near in Senate By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/17/2012 @ 10:16pm
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said she hopes to be able to make a draft of her committee’s farm bill public by Friday of this week, with the full committee voting on its ...
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Monday outlined a leaner 2012 version of what he calls a “Food, farm and jobs bill” that he expects to pass the Senate by early summer and defended his department’s ...
Fertilizer runoff threatens Midwest water By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/11/2012 @ 11:00pm
Forget the Gulf of Mexico or Chesapeake Bay, waters that conservation and environmental groups say are threatened by agricultural runoff. Thursday the Environmental Working Group released a report that ...
Mexico ups U.S. corn imports By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/10/2012 @ 1:21pm
The corn market in Mexico is hot, literally. The same drought that devastated Texas last year hit corn production hard in Mexico and Tuesday the USDA reflected that with a boost in its estimate of corn ...
The corn market in Mexico is hot, literally.The same drought that devastated Texas last year hit corn production hard in Mexico and Tuesday the USDA reflected that with a boost in its estimate of corn exports ...
Late this week more than 100 groups asked agricultural leaders in Congress to continue energy programs in any new farm bill. The 2008 Farm Bill included an energy title that the groups say represents ...
Asia will lead foods By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/05/2012 @ 3:23pm
Today, China is a key market for bulk commodities from the U.S. But in the future, we'll lose out if we don't anticipate demand from affluent Asian consumers for specialized foods that fit their ...
North Dakota's two U.S. senators, Democrat Kent Conrad and Republican John Hoeven, released a proposal for the next farm bill Wednesday that combines features of the current law's ACRE and SURE ...
Grassroots message: farm bill this year By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/23/2012 @ 6:52pm
Midwest farmers invited to a House Agriculture Committee field hearing Friday in Galesburg, Illinois, had a two-part message for Congress: Pass a farm bill this year and, as John Mages, a corn and ...
Commodity consensus? By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/21/2012 @ 11:30am
Major farm groups have been meeting to build consensus before the Senate Agriculture Committee holds its hearing March 21 on a commodity title for the next farm bill.Farm Bureau, National Farmers Union, and 11 ...
Senate wrestles with commodity programs By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/14/2012 @ 11:00pm
At the end of about five hours of testimony on commodity programs for the next farm bill, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow left the meeting Thursday with one parting comment to ...
National Farmers Union delegates wrapped up work on farm bill policy at their annual meeting in an Omaha suburb Wednesday, tackling dairy policy and the beef checkoff, among other things. Taking a break from ...
Farmers Union backs a grain reserve By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/06/2012 @ 7:47pm
By a large majority, delegates to National Farmers Union’s annual meeting in Omaha voted Tuesday for a 2012 farm bill program that would allow farmers to voluntarily take grain off the market if prices reach ...
Insuring against bad weather By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/06/2012 @ 10:45am
Doug Theobald's Shelbyville, Indiana, farm fought a wet planting season last year.“The majority of what we planted was at the end of May and early June,” he says. Fortunately, Theobald had insured ...
Groups representing corn and soybean farmers closed out the Commodity Classic in Nashville, Saturday with no major changes in their wish list for commodity programs in the next farm bill. Both have their own ...
Vilsack adds voice for farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/02/2012 @ 12:30pm
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Friday that the American people are tired of hearing excuses from Congress about its lack of action on the nation’s problems and called for speedy passage of a farm ...
Animal rules raise food prices -- study By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/01/2012 @ 11:00pm
Regulations that increase the cost of production for poultry and livestock could add $16.8 billion to the cost of food for U.S. consumers, says a study released Friday by the United Soybean Board at the ...
If you haven’t decided yet, you’ve got until March 15 to decide whether or not to opt for trend-adjusted actual production history (APH) – even less time if you’re considerate of your insurance ...
Groups unite for crop insurance By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/01/2012 @ 6:16pm
What do President Barack Obama and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan have in common?Maybe very little, but together they’re helping to united the four commodity organizations meeting in Nashville ...
Groups weigh in on conservation By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/27/2012 @ 6:08pm
The Senate Agriculture Committee holds a hearing Tuesday of this week on conservation policy for the next farm bill. Even before that, hundreds of groups are offering support for conservation programs, and one ...
Good times roll, maybe through fall By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/24/2012 @ 10:48am
On Friday USDA released more detailed analysis of its grain and oilseeds outlook for 2012 that shows an increase in corn exports this year but a lower, $5-a-bushel price for corn after this year’s crop is ...
Changes coming in BRIC nations By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/23/2012 @ 5:53pm
BRIC is an acronym for four of the world’s fastest developing nations Brazil, Russia, India and China. BRIC could also be a building block for dramatic changes in world agricultural markets, both as new ...
Good year ahead but big challenges By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/23/2012 @ 12:09pm
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack opened USDA’s annual Agricultural Outlook Forum with an upbeat view of what to expect in the farm economy this year, and a challenge to Congress to deal with pressing ...
Farm economy stays strong - USDA By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/23/2012 @ 11:14am
At the USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum Thursday, Chief Economist Joseph Glauber said the department expects another good year in 2012 for agriculture though it’s not likely to match 2011. That was a record ...
Sophisticated Asian markets ahead By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/22/2012 @ 2:54pm
Today, China is a key market for bulk commodities from the U.S. and South America. But in the future the U.S. could lose out if we don’t anticipate demand from affluent Asian consumers for specialized foods ...
Too soon for farm bill extension By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/17/2012 @ 1:11pm
Farm groups are getting nervous about the odds of a new farm bill getting done before the current one expires this year. But the Senate started hearings on the next bill this week and House ...
The premium rate shuffle By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/16/2012 @ 3:39pm
In late November, USDA's Risk Management Agency revealed good news: Farmers in much of the Corn Belt will see rates used to calculate 2012 crop insurance premiums fall by 10% or more for corn. Rates are ...
China seeks better ties here By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/16/2012 @ 3:02pm
DES MOINES, Iowa (Agriculture.com)--China’s vice president, Xi Jinping mixed nostalgia with high-level bargaining for closer agricultural ties with the United States at the first U.S. – China Agricultural ...
Chinese promise to buy soybeans By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/15/2012 @ 4:40pm
A delegation of Chinese leaders agreed to buy 8.62 million metric tons (MMT) of U.S. soybeans worth $4.3 billion at a signing ceremony in Des Moines, Iowa Wednesday. That amount equals almost 316 million ...
President’s insurance ideas rejected By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/15/2012 @ 11:55am
Members of both the Senate and House agriculture committees showed more resistance to proposed cuts to crop insurance put forth in President Barack Obama’s 2012 budget this week.“I would hope that we ...
Insurance cuts would hit farmers By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/14/2012 @ 3:57pm
Farmers would take a big hit in cuts to crop insurance premiums proposed in the Obama Administration’s 2013 USDA budget released Monday. That idea isn’t going over well, either in Congress or among farm ...
Why USDA's budget is extremely dead By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/13/2012 @ 4:26pm
It doesn’t matter which party controls the White House, USDA budgets have ideas that are often ignored by Congress, earning them a “dead on arrival” reputation every year.But the USDA budget ...
USDA projects $5 new crop corn By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/13/2012 @ 11:41am
USDA’s first look at prices for 2012 crops, a projection of current economic conditions and normal weather, not a forecast, has U.S. corn prices at the farm level averaging $5 a bushel for the 2012-13 ...
Major farm groups have been meeting to build consensus before the Senate Agriculture Committee holds its hearing March 21 on a commodity title for the next farm bill.Farm Bureau, National Farmers Union and 11 ...
Farm bill pressure grows By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/10/2012 @ 3:22pm
Pressure on Congress to write a farm bill this year instead of extending the old one is building. Today more than 80 organizations representing farmers, environmentalists, hunters, and churches wrote leaders ...
Facing cancer By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/10/2012 @ 10:36am
I last saw my father alive in a Lincoln, Nebraska, nursing home in 1993. He managed a weak smile before lapsing into morphine-enabled sleep. He died weeks later – five years after diagnosis of prostate ...
Prostate cancer: Now what? By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/10/2012 @ 10:28am
You’ve gotten a PSA test result that may indicate prostate cancer. Or, more daunting yet, you’ve been diagnosed with it. What’s your next step?If you’ve read my Healthy Manager column, you know that ...
Grassley: Farm bill needed soon By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/07/2012 @ 2:01pm
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a veteran member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday that he’s pleased the Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee has announced a series of hearings on ...
CRP signup set for March By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/01/2012 @ 11:37am
The USDA will hold a four-week general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program from March 12 to April 6, Acting Under Secretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services (FFAS) Michael Scuse announced ...
Too much ag optimism? By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/31/2012 @ 3:49pm
Writing a farm bill during good times for agriculture could result in programs that won’t help farmers much if prices crash.That’s the risk that University of Tennessee economist Daryll Ray laid out for ...
The incredible shrinking farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/30/2012 @ 3:13pm
The script says in 2012, a presidential election year, a dysfunctional Congress is supposed to write a five-year farm bill in a struggling economy with less money.We saw a preview last fall, when a hurried-up ...
Ag weighs in on Obama's energy plans By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/25/2012 @ 3:38pm
President Barack Obama devoted more than a tenth of his State of the Union address to Congress Tuesday to energy. And farm and ethanol groups welcomed his comments in a flurry of press releases Wednesday.But ...
Farm Bureau gets ready for farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/11/2012 @ 3:50pm
After hours of debate at its annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, this week, it appears that Farm Bureau will continue to press for some form of protection against catastrophic revenue losses as Congress ...
Caucus-day GOP ethanol rankings By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/03/2012 @ 2:35pm
Of all the Republican candidates seeking a win in the Iowa Caucuses today, Rick Perry seems to be the least supportive of federal support for ethanol and Newt Gingrich the most supportive, Senator Chuck ...
A farm land value bubble? By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/14/2011 @ 12:13pm
The big question on everyone’s mind after hearing that Iowa land values are breaking records is, is this a bubble?Iowa State University economist Mike Duffy, who conducted the latest Iowa Land Values survey ...
Iowa land prices rise at record pace By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/14/2011 @ 10:03am
The growth in land values jumped at a record pace of 32.5% in the past year, according to the Iowa Land Value Survey conducted by Iowa State University in November.ISU economist Mike Duffy, who conducts the ...
A tax credit that benefits the wind power industry doesn’t expire for another year, but already the specter of congressional gridlock over its extension is slowing investment. Iowa’s Senators Tom ...
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) said Thursday that he hopes congressional ag committees won't abandon their work on a farm bill that was submitted to the deficit-cutting "Super Committee" last month."I thought ...
Texan fights to enhance crop insurance By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/01/2011 @ 12:45pm
An add-on policy designed to cover shallow losses was part of the farm bill proposal that was being rushed to the failed deficit-cutting Super Committee, Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) told ...
Washington to cut subsidies By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/17/2011 @ 3:00pm
They mean it this time. Cuts to subsidies for commodity crops are virtually certain, even if the exact new farm programs haven't been hammered out by the congressional agriculture committees charged with ...
Wired for marketing By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/17/2011 @ 2:47pm
Two years ago, Successful Farming magazine described new ways to market grain electronically online. Some of those ways are still available, and some new players have entered the market. Following are two new ...
Ethanol: at the cliff's edge? By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/17/2011 @ 11:30am
Whatever you think of ethanol, it could well be the most emotional fuel on the planet. Midwestern farmers have invested in ethanol plants and see it as energy that's green and homegrown. Environmentalists ...
China's hogs need U.S. beans By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/17/2011 @ 10:44am
When it comes to soybeans, Jerry Gidel is a bull in China's shop of food imports.China's huge soybean market accounts for two of the three reasons the analyst thinks export demand for U.S. soybeans ...
More ag uncertainty than ever? By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/11/2011 @ 4:53pm
The experts assembled at a recent ag outlook meeting could hardly be described as pessimistic.Cattle feeders and hog finishers can at least lock in a break even margin months ahead, according to Extension ...
No farm bill deal yet By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/10/2011 @ 2:36pm
One of the reasons there is still no farm bill to offer to the deficit trimming Super Committee in Congress is that members of the ag committees still haven’t seen a written draft of the bill.That’s the ...
Getting closer on a farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/08/2011 @ 4:15pm
Members of congressional agriculture committees are learning more about the shape of a farm bill that may go soon to the deficit cutting super committee but regional disputes are still holding it ...
Jon Scholl, president of American Farmland Trust, told reporters Friday that his group favors streamlining the conservation title of the next farm bill, reducing the alphabet soup of programs from more than 20 ...
Debt delays By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/03/2011 @ 9:49am
Congressional ag committees could miss a chance to submit farm bill ideas to the Super Committee charged with drafting a deficit trimming plan by November 23, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee said ...
Ag Committees struggle with farm bill By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/01/2011 @ 5:26pm
A week ago, Senate Agriculture Committee member Chuck Grassley (R-IA) expected to be reading a draft of an abbreviated farm bill that the House and Senate ag committees expected to submit to Congress’s ...
Ag committees will meet deadline -- Grassley By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/25/2011 @ 2:02pm
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) a veteran member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Tuesday that he believes the leaders of congressional ag committees will finish drafting partial farm bill ...
By a vote of 85 to 14 early Friday morning, the Senate approved an amendment to a 2012 spending bill that ends direct payments to farmers with annual incomes exceeding $1 million. Fiscal conservative ...
Farm Bill ideas compared By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/19/2011 @ 5:29pm
Carl Zulauf, the Ohio State University economist who helped design the ACRE program in the 2008 Farm Bill, has put together a comparison of 10 of the top farm bill ideas, including those from farm and ...
Key farm groups back revenue plan By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/19/2011 @ 3:58pm
Three influential farm groups Wednesday urged the House and Senate agriculture committees to replace the main existing commodity programs with a revenue-based risk management plan that would pay for some ...
Debate intensifies over federal budget cuts to agriculture By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/18/2011 @ 1:26pm
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a veteran member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, told Agriculture.com Tuesday how he expects proposed cuts to USDA spending to break down when his committee and the House ...
Ag committees pick number for budget cuts By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/17/2011 @ 3:49pm
Both the Senate and House agriculture committees announced Monday that they’re recommending a $23 billion reduction in farm bill spending over the next 10 years to the congressional “super committee” ...
Lula da Silva’s Brazilian charisma By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/14/2011 @ 11:44am
In a speech at a World Food Prize event in Des Moines, Iowa. Friday, former Brazilian President, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva described his country’s successful programs to eliminate poverty and hunger as a big ...
For two years, now, the EPA has given fuel blenders a waiver from using the cellulosic ethanol mandated by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. That’s because, except for small amounts from ...
Thrifty grants for start-ups By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/30/2011 @ 3:16pm
After earning an agronomy degree at Iowa State University in 2010, Nathan Anderson returned to his family's corn and soybean farm near Cherokee, Iowa, with dreams of improving an already well-run ...
Hedging margins By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/30/2011 @ 2:54pm
Last July, Bruce Peterson, who farms with his brothers, Brian and Chris, near Northfield, Minnesota, was getting ready to buy some of his fertilizer for the 2012 corn crop.“Once we buy fertilizer, we'll ...
Ag's global meetup By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/30/2011 @ 9:33am
At the Community Food Security Coalition meeting in Des Moines, Iowa, in October 2009, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack drew boos when he disagreed with an activist who called crop biotechnology dangerous and ...
China wants quality soybeans at a good price By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/23/2011 @ 11:05am
A busload of visitors from China eagerly looked at partially shucked ears of corn and ripening soybeans at the farm of John Heisdorffer’s family near Keota, Iowa, Thursday afternoon. The group of 23 was ...
Group calls for effective ag cuts By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/20/2011 @ 2:38pm
The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition Tuesday said it’s calling on Congress’s deficit cutting “super committee,” to make cuts in ag spending that it says would be fairer and more effective ...
GOP pushes back on ag cuts By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/20/2011 @ 11:05am
Republican agricultural leaders in Congress are rejecting most of President Barack Obama’s proposed spending cuts for agriculture. House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) and Senator Pat ...
Obama would cut ag programs By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/19/2011 @ 4:05pm
When it comes to farm policy, Congress often ignores White House proposals. It passed the 2008 Farm Bill over President George W. Bush’s veto and it’s possible both parties will ignore some of the ideas ...
After more than a year of careful study and preparation, the National Corn Growers Association unveiled a 2012 farm bill idea that, if adopted by Congress, could offer farmers a safety net program that works ...
CHIMPing away at conservation By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/08/2011 @ 3:37pm
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), a member of two powerful ag committees, told Agriculture.com today that he’ll offer an amendment to cut direct payments as part of an effort to restore funding for conservation and ...
Measuring margins by the bushel By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/31/2011 @ 3:36pm
To outsiders, Jeff Taylor's picturesque farm near Gilbert, Iowa, looks idyllic. It has a pond for his passions of fishing and water skiing, and sheds for his kids' livestock projects. Yet, as Taylor ...
Harkin backs ethanol expansion By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/24/2011 @ 4:04pm
Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) told the American Coalition for Ethanol Wednesday that he’ll continue to work for passage of a bill that would expand ethanol’s access to markets.It won’t be easy.Harkin ...
More expensive ethanol? By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/23/2011 @ 6:05pm
Some in the ethanol industry have been saying they can survive without the federal 45 cent-a-gallon tax credit that expires this year. The Renewable Fuel Standard 2 still requires the blenders to use about 13 ...
Ethanol expects another tough year By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/23/2011 @ 1:23pm
The American Coalition for Ethanol is holding its annual meeting in Des Moines, Iowa this week without a lot to celebrate. The group’s president, Lars Herseth, joked Tuesday that ACE relocated one session of ...
DOT: No changes to road rules By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/10/2011 @ 9:29am
If you haul grain as part of a crop share agreement with your landlord, you’re not going to have to get a commercial driver’s license (CDL).That’s what the Department of Transportation says in an ...
Farm Credit gets boost from downgrade By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/09/2011 @ 4:48pm
Farmers who borrow from the Farm Credit System don’t need to join the panic on Wall Street yet. If anything, the volatility in stocks is making bonds more attractive to investors, including those who buy ...
Will farm programs escape deep cuts? By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/04/2011 @ 9:21am
No one really knows how the next step in trimming the growth in federal spending will play out, but it’s a hot topic in Washington.Congressional leaders haven’t even appointed the all-powerful super ...
Former Ag Committee chair has doubts By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/01/2011 @ 4:07pm
Representative Collin Peterson (D-MN) isn’t one of the liberal Democrats who are pledging to vote against the debt ceiling deal when it comes up in the House of Representatives today.But the former chairman ...
Debt deal leaves ag hanging By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/01/2011 @ 10:16am
The debt ceiling deal hammered out over the weekend puts off making decisions on cuts to agricultural spending and tax credits for ethanol. But that’s not necessarily good news, say lobbyists who have taken ...
Plan 2011 taxes now By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/29/2011 @ 9:13am
For Missouri farmers whose land disappeared under floodwaters last spring, Ohioans struggling with mud, and Texans whose land burned under drought-stoked wildfires, it seems like a cruel joke. But before an ...
Breaching the ethanol blend wall By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/28/2011 @ 1:13pm
On a fence-mending trip to the Midwest in April, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson put on a hard hat to tour a biodiesel plant in Newton, Iowa. It was a media event. Cameras clicked as reporters watched Jackson ...
Futurist takes on ag trends By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/25/2011 @ 4:48pm
In a world that is wealthier than ever before, and in a nation with more disposable income, the next generation of farmers will have more opportunities than ever.That’s the take home message of New Mexico ...
Farm sector wants debt deal soon By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/19/2011 @ 7:25pm
As the contentious debt ceiling negotiations in Washington approach the eleventh hour, the nation’s top farm and commodity groups are hoping to slip a letter under President Barack Obama’s door.“As ...
In the white-knuckle showdown over raising the federal debt limit, House Republican opposition to tax increases gets a lot of press. But Democrats are just as nervous about potential cuts to favored programs ...
The National Corn Growers Association’s Corn Congress ended in Washington Thursday, after two days of lobbying for continued support for crop insurance and ethanol, and debating the group’s own policy on ...
What was lost in the ethanol compromise By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/07/2011 @ 6:46pm
After the ethanol compromise was announced by members of the U.S. Senate Thursday, Growth Energy’s CEO, Tom Buis, pointed out that a compromise means that opposing interests give up something.In fact, the ...
Groups welcome ethanol compromise By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/07/2011 @ 11:31am
Ethanol supporters in the U.S. Senate on Thursday announced a deal that will preserve about $668 million in tax credits for the industry while allowing the main 45 cent-a-gallon blenders credit to expire on ...
The return of the native grasses By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/23/2011 @ 10:57pm
Nathan Anderson stood at the top of a pasture steep enough to be a ski slope.“Two years ago this was bluegrass and dandelions,” he said, as a group visitors looked over green bunches of big and little ...
Moving toward less ag spending By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/16/2011 @ 6:12pm
Thursday the Senate voted to kill ethanol’s tax credit but refused, by a vote of 41 to 59, to pass an amendment from Senator John McCain (R-AZ) that would prevent the USDA from spending funds on blender ...
A symbolic blow to ethanol By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/16/2011 @ 1:48pm
In a second try to eliminate ethanol’s tax credit Thursday, ethanol backers from both parties suffered a big, and at this point symbolic, defeat when the Senate voted 73 to 27 to end the increasingly ...
Another shot at ethanol this afternoon By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/16/2011 @ 9:28am
The Senate is expected to vote again on the Coburn-Feinstein amendment to end the ethanol blenders credit at 2 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. Another amendment that would prevent the USDA from spending Farm ...
Ethanol faces showdown Tuesday By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/13/2011 @ 11:31pm
Ethanol lobbyists and farm groups are urging members of the U.S. Senate to vote against an amendment that Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) is expected to offer Tuesday that would end the 45 cent-a-gallon blenders ...
More hail insurance? By: DANIEL LOOKER 06/10/2011 @ 3:44pm
Hail has already hit areas of the Corn Belt and, if you don't yet have coverage that supplements your federal crop insurance, an industry consultant, Steve Griffin, says now might be a good time to buy ...
Three Iowa Democrats in the House of Representatives said Friday that they’ve asked the Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittee to restore some of the funds that were cut in a House appropriations ...
Are the funds for ag and ethanol drying up? By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/27/2011 @ 3:54pm
On Tuesday of this week the House Agriculture Appropriations subcommittee approved a 2012 spending bill for agriculture with discretionary spending that would be 26% lower than in 2010, if the bill becomes ...
Agony of prevented planting By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/27/2011 @ 10:30am
As the final planting date for federal crop insurance on corn approaches many areas of a waterlogged Corn Belt, farmers are wrestling with a decision that gives even ag economists a headache.In some areas ...
Fair and sunny By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/23/2011 @ 11:52am
Before the shopping mall, there was the fair -- outdoor sites for trade and revelry with a history stretching back to the Romans and medieval church feast days. America's fairs have farm roots, starting ...
Booming land market continues By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/13/2011 @ 3:03pm
In the first quarter of 2011, land values in the U.S. heartland surged by 20% over a year earlier, according to a just-released survey of bankers in the Federal Reserve’s Tenth District – which ...
During oil bashing, ethanol takes a punch By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/12/2011 @ 3:00pm
On Thursday members of the Senate Finance Committee asked executives from the nation’s top five oil companies why they shouldn’t give up $2 billion a year in tax credits to help trim the federal deficit ...
Feed grain end users want easier opt-out for CRP By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/10/2011 @ 2:19pm
Seventy-two groups that represent livestock producers, feed processors and exporters have sent a letter to congressional ag committees asking that the 2012 Farm Bill make it easier for farmers to opt out of ...
All of the major ethanol groups backed a bill introduced in the Senate this week that would extend ethanol tax credits for a few more years after the current 45 cent-a-gallon credit expires in ...
Gene McAvoy, County Extension Director and Regional Vegetable Agent for Hendry County Extension in LaBelle, Florida, tells us:The USDA is moving forward with rulemaking for the National Leafy Green Marketing ...
Bill phases down ethanol tax credit By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/04/2011 @ 3:37pm
A bipartisan coalition of Midwest senators, headed by Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota, introduced a bill Wednesday that would extend the tax credit for ethanol over ...
A fair education By: DANIEL LOOKER 05/04/2011 @ 10:38am
Before the shopping mall, there was the fair – outdoor sites for trade and revelry with a history stretching back to the Romans and medieval church feast days. America's fairs have farm roots, starting ...
POET CEO meets with EPA administrator and Vilsack By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/21/2011 @ 1:31pm
When Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson visited Iowa earlier this week, they showed their support for biofuels by visiting the Renewable Energy Group biodiesel plant in ...
A friendly visit from the EPA By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/19/2011 @ 3:54pm
To say that farmers are worried about what the Environmental Protection Agency may require of them is an understatement. The agency is doing a five-year review of its standards for dust emissions under the ...
Jackson takes on EPA myths By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/13/2011 @ 2:20pm
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson says that some of the things you know about her agency are simply myths. Jackson has been attending hearings on Capitol Hill so often lately that members of Congress have ...
Tougher decisions coming for ag spending By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/12/2011 @ 8:44pm
The compromise bill that averted a government shutdown and trimmed nearly $40 billion from federal spending this year included about $3 billion in cuts to USDA programs. But if there’s one thing agricultural ...
Budget cuts will affect agriculture By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/12/2011 @ 2:59pm
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that the compromise agreement to trim 2011 federal spending will speed up some cuts that the administration had already proposed for 2012 and will give his agency about ...
Will the farm boom last? By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/11/2011 @ 3:09pm
USDA’s chief economist and an official of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City shared a crystal ball for crop farmers Monday that’s still pretty rosy, at least in the short term—but don’t count on ...
Senate targets ethanol infrastructure By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/07/2011 @ 3:59pm
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Thursday gave Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) a chance to promote a bill that would open larger markets for ethanol. It could be the first step toward passing ...
The White House announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement with the government of Colombia aimed at protecting the rights of labor leaders in that country, which it hopes will improve chances of ...
Path to Prosperity goes through your fields By: DANIEL LOOKER 04/05/2011 @ 2:03pm
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) released his 2012 budget proposal this week, called "The Path to Prosperity" and his belt-tightening ideas include agriculture.Ryan focuses mainly on reforms to ...
A bipartisan amendment introduced in early March to repeal the 45 cent-a-gallon tax credit died in the Senate this week when one of its sponsors, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) said he would not hold up a ...
Iowa farmland jumps 25% By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/22/2011 @ 3:09pm
Farmland values are racing ahead at a breathless pace, according to the latest survey released Tuesday by the Iowa Farm and Land Chapter of the Realtors Land Institute.Average cropland values in Iowa have ...
Ohio leads in boosting bio-based products By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/09/2011 @ 4:55pm
Ohio is a national leader in requiring state entities, colleges and universities to give purchasing preference to bio-based products when the products are comparable in price, performance and availability.A ...
Last-minute insurance checkup By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/08/2011 @ 3:14pm
If you’re still considering changes in crop insurance coverage before the March 15 deadline that applies to the Corn Belt, Kansas State University is offering a webinar this Friday, March 11, at noon CST.If ...
If you’re still considering changes in crop insurance coverage before the March 15 deadline that applies to the Corn Belt, Kansas State University is offering a webinar this Friday, March 11, at noon CST.If ...
If you live in farm country, you’ve probably seen them –– the almost poetic television ads that are a montage of landscapes, bountiful harvests and photogenic families. They begin with the ...
If you live in farm country, you’ve probably seen them –– the almost poetic television ads that are a montage of landscapes, bountiful harvests and photogenic families. They begin with the ...
Delegates to the National Corn Growers Association’s annual Corn Congress took a step toward reducing the direct payment program at their meeting in Tampa, Florida Saturday. They changed their ...
Corn growers pump up ethanol By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/05/2011 @ 8:26pm
After voting for shifts in farm policy and ethanol subsidies Saturday, members of the National Corn Growers Association went through an exercise that generated little controversy.Delegates to the Corn Congress ...
Rabobank’s ways to reduce risk By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/04/2011 @ 3:06pm
Farm debt is rising along with land values and a volatile commodities market, but Rabo Agrifinance has several tools to help its farm borrowers withstand any downturns.That’s the view from the Commodity ...
Vilsack, Lucas share policy visions By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/04/2011 @ 11:30am
Two of the most powerful agricultural leaders in Washington, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas (R-OK) spoke to the Commodity Classic in Tampa, Florida ...
USB targets livestock support By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/04/2011 @ 7:57am
Soybean farmers seem to have forgotten who their biggest customer is as the livestock industry has separated from crop production, leaders of the United Soybean Board said Friday at the Commodity Classic in ...
Spending bill spares E15 By: DANIEL LOOKER 03/02/2011 @ 12:09pm
A spending bill that keeps the federal government going for two more weeks will not stop EPA from putting regulations in place for 15% ethanol blends (E15) or cut food programs for the poor, as a House bill ...
A strong majority of farmers around the globe back continued subsidies for agriculture, according to a poll conducted by the British publication, Farmers Weekly, with cooperation from Successful Farming ...
Leaders of Growth Energy said Thursday that stopping EPA from writing gas pump labels and rules for 15% ethanol blends (E15) is the wrong thing to do when U.S. national security is threatened by oil ...
Signs of trouble for ethanol By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/22/2011 @ 3:38pm
One of the strongest supporters of ethanol in the U.S. Senate, Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa, conceded Tuesday that last week’s vote to slow expansion of ethanol’s market by blocking EPA funds for E15 ...
Bad time to kill E15, retired Navy leader says By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/21/2011 @ 3:52pm
On a day when Libya teeters on the brink of civil war and cuts oil production, Retired Vice Admiral Denny McGinn takes little comfort from an announcement by the remaining members of OPEC that it will ...
Rising food prices have consumers worried in the U.S. and they’re being blamed for unrest in the Middle East, with some American environmentalists saying corn ethanol is the real culprit. To respond ...
Groups scramble to save ag spending By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/15/2011 @ 4:18pm
On the day that President Barack Obama defended his administration’s proposed cuts to federal spending in 2012, farm groups in Washington were fighting to save agricultural programs from even deeper ...
Obama’s USDA budget to shrink $3 billion in 2012 By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/14/2011 @ 5:25pm
The Obama Administration’s proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year that starts next October would fall by about $3 billion from the Administration’s 2011 request to Congress. The 2012 total spending ...
COMBO merges revenue products By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/14/2011 @ 1:49pm
After long anticipation, USDA’s Risk Management Agency last summer unveiled its common crop insurance policy, or COMBO. Since then, experts have pored over it, finding few surprises, at least in the ...
Making ethanol even greener By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/14/2011 @ 10:33am
For some time, a cloud has dimmed the greenness farmers see in ethanol. It’s a fog spewed by Washington interest groups. It leads some to believe that higher corn prices loosely tied to ethanol also ...
After learning Friday of a House Appropriations Committee plan to trim international food aid by $544 million this year, former Senator George McGovern (D-SD) told Agriculture.com Saturday that he plans to ...
In 2008, former senators and presidential candidates George McGovern (D-SD) and Bob Dole (R-KS) earned the World Food Prize for their bipartisan achievement, convincing Congress to pass ...
Tight world supplies of sugar are contributing to the demand for corn in Wednesday’s USDA in two ways, by increasing exports of U.S. ethanol into markets usually served by Brazil, and by increasing ...
Bullish report to boost crop futures By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/09/2011 @ 8:07am
Look for old crop corn, soybean and wheat futures to be sharply up today following a monthly USDA supply and demand report that cuts ending stocks of corn in the U.S. to 675 million bushels, down from ...
USDA lowers corn ending stocks By: DANIEL LOOKER 02/09/2011 @ 7:38am
Today's USDA supply and demand report lowers corn ending stocks. According to the report released this morning by the World Agricultural Outlook Board:"U.S. corn ending stocks for 2010/11 are projected ...
For some people February means Valentine’s Day. But for farmers, it’s one of the most important business planning months of the year. When this month ends, USDA’s Risk Management Agency will ...
More no-till benefit By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/26/2011 @ 2:12pm
No-till and a corn-soybean rotation can significantly cut field emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide, a Purdue University study shows.Agronomist Tony Vyn says no-till reduces nitrous oxide ...
Obama on trade, energy By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/26/2011 @ 10:49am
In case you missed it, President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address touched on some issues important to agriculture, including energy and trade.Here’s what Obama had to say about energy:“At the ...
Biofuels' near future By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/25/2011 @ 5:20pm
The next step the nation’s move toward energy independence is still likely to come from corn and soybeans, a panel of industry experts told the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association in Des Moines, Iowa ...
EPA grows E15 By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/21/2011 @ 1:33pm
The EPA widened a crack in the so-called blend wall Friday, announcing that it has approved the use of gasoline blends of 15% ethanol for use in light passenger vehicles made for the 2001 model year ...
Vilsack announces grants and loan guarantees for biofuels By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/20/2011 @ 3:45pm
On Thursday Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced grants and loan guarantees to all regions of the country to foster renewable fuel development through programs authorized by the Energy Title of ...
Farm Bureau delegates voted to give their lobbyists the flexibility to work for continuing nearly all of the existing commodity programs at their annual policy debate in Atlanta, Georgia Tuesday, even ...
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack braved a rare Atlanta snow and ice storm Monday to thank members of the American Farm Bureau Federation for what they do as farmers and ranchers and pledged to ...
Martin Richenhagen, CEO of ACGO and chairman of this year’s Ag Connect Expo in Atlanta said Sunday that the machinery and technology show’s second year drew more farmers. Registration for the show ...
Speaking to the 92nd annual meeting of the American Farm Bureau Federation in Atlanta, Georgia Sunday, the group’s president Bob Stallman vowed to fight overregulation. He announced that Farm Bureau ...
Plenty of soy oil for fuel By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/08/2011 @ 5:10pm
The biodiesel industry is slowly coming back to life after a year without a $1-a-gallon tax credit, and there’s plenty of soybean oil available when it does. That’s part of the message that the United ...
Ethanol 'all about national security' By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/08/2011 @ 3:04pm
To farmers who pioneered the ethanol industry, the goal was creating another market for corn. To retired General Wesley Clark, it’s about patriotism and national security. Clark, who is co-chairman ...
Korean Trade Agreement best deal for ag in years By: DANIEL LOOKER 01/08/2011 @ 12:15pm
Korea’s ambassador to the U.S. and a former top ag negotiator the U.S. government told farmers why passage of a free trade agreement is crucial for agriculture Saturday at the AgConnect Expo in ...
With only 20 days allowed to respond to a December 28 antidumping case against U.S. exports of distillers grains to China, the U.S. Grains Council has been working around the clock to help this ...
Grassley predicts lawsuit will fail By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/21/2010 @ 1:36pm
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Tuesday that he believes a lawsuit filed this week to challenge EPA approval of E15 in newer cars will fail. “I think they’re going to loose because I think the ...
Biodiesel industry finally gets good news By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/17/2010 @ 2:38pm
The Biodiesel industry is breathing a sigh of relief today as the compromise tax bill passed by Congress heads to the White House for President Barack Obama’ signature. The law restores the ...
Farm bill funding squeeze By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/15/2010 @ 3:06pm
By now, it’s common wisdom that a tight federal budget is likely to make writing the next farm bill harder than usual. At the Iowa Soybean Association’s annual policy ...
City kids learn real ag By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/15/2010 @ 1:48pm
In September, I visited the cornfield where my son, Nate, worked last summer. The rented land on the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge at Prairie City, Iowa, is where Iowa State University (ISU) ...
Insuring dairy By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/15/2010 @ 11:06am
Gary Kregel welcomes new ideas that work on his northeast Iowa dairy farm. Just out of college, he was among the first to use embryo transplants in his 240-cow herd. Today, he’s also among very few ...
Best case for ethanol credit next year: gradual phaseout By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/14/2010 @ 9:07am
So far, Senator Chuck Grassley and other Midwestern senators from both parties seem to have salvaged ethanol and biodiesel tax credits for another year. But next year they’re not expecting to ...
How the stars aligned for ethanol By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/10/2010 @ 5:06pm
In spite of the coverage you’re seeing of angry liberals in the House and of Senator Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) filibuster in the Senate, the Obama-congressional compromise on extending tax cuts is very likely ...
Looking ahead to 2011 By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/10/2010 @ 3:55pm
It's a time-honored tradition in publishing: During the slow news cycle near the year's end, we look back at the year that was and make fearless predictions about the new one. After talking to ...
Ethanol lobby looks ahead By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/10/2010 @ 1:25pm
Leaders of Growth Energy, the newest of several groups lobbying for ethanol, expressed thanks Friday for the Senate’s inclusion of a 45 cent a gallon tax credit for ethanol in a tax bill the is ...
Groups that lobby for the ethanol industry thanked supporters in the Senate Thursday for getting a one-year extension of the 45 cent per gallon tax credit included in pending tax legislation.Brian Jennings of ...
Ethanol tax credit set at 45 cents By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/09/2010 @ 6:19pm
The Senate's tax bill will include a 45 cent-per-gallon ethanol tax credit for one more year, through the end of 2011, a spokesperson for Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) told Agriculture.com at Thursday ...
On Thursday, Marc Curtis, of Leland, Mississippi, was elected chairman of the United Soybean Board, which administers the national soybean checkoff of 0.5% of the initial gross sales of ...
Lower rate for ethanol credit likely By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/09/2010 @ 11:14am
Democrats in Congress who don't like the tax extension compromise worked out between the Obama administration and Republicans are still fighting for changes in the tax break extension.One of them, Senator ...
Tax deal includes ethanol, biodiesel credits By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/07/2010 @ 9:51am
After meeting with Republican leaders Tuesday morning Senator Chuck Grassley, the ranking GOP member of the Senate Finance Committee, told reporters that 71 tax credits that expired in 2009 as well as credits ...
Looking ahead to 2011 By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/06/2010 @ 1:45pm
It's a time-honored tradition in publishing. During the slow news cycle at the end of the holidays, we look back at the year that was and make fearless predictions about the new one. After talking to ...
The ethanol industry scored a public relations coup Thursday when NASCAR officials announced at their annual awards meeting in Las Vegas that its 2011 races will be powered by Sunoco Green E15. It’s ...
Tax bill includes ethanol credit By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/03/2010 @ 2:51pm
Late Thursday Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-MT) unveiled a bill to extend middle class tax cuts that also includes a one-year extension of the ethanol tax credit through 2011 ...
Will a tax deal leave out ethanol credits? By: DANIEL LOOKER 12/02/2010 @ 12:23pm
As behind-the-scenes negotiations of the fate of Bush-era tax cuts continue, one senator who supports keeping a tax credit for ethanol said Thursday that he’s not certain of its fate. Senator Tom ...
Farm groups back $5 million estate tax exemption By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/30/2010 @ 2:39pm
At least 10 groups agreed on one part of the looming tax battle in Congress next month. On a day when President Barack Obama and Republican and Democratic congressional leaders met to talk about the Bush ...
Boatloads of meat By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/19/2010 @ 9:29am
James Herring is CEO of Friona Industries, the fourth biggest cattle feeder in the nation with four Texas Panhandle feedlots of 275,000-head capacity combined. He and the rest of the U.S. livestock ...
Hedging margins By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/18/2010 @ 11:21am
Norm Brown, who farms about 1,500 acres near Aledo, Illinois, and finishes 40,000 hogs a year, is fine-tuning the goal of every farmer – making a profitable margin. For decades, soybean processors ...
Feeding a growing giant By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/17/2010 @ 3:55pm
China is HUGE. The most populous nation on earth, with 1.3 billion people, is now the planet’s second biggest economy after the U.S. It’s big in area, too, ranking fourth in the world.Big as China is, two ...
Don't panic, lock in margins By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/16/2010 @ 8:13am
Even with the recent selloff in corn and bean futures, one specialist isn't swerving from his advice to lock in margins, in part by starting to sell 2011 crops at prices that are relatively high."People ...
Even with Friday's selloff in corn and bean futures, Iowa State University Extension farm management specialist Steve Johnson isn't swerving from his advice to lock in margins, in part by starting to ...
GIPSA debate heats up with economic study By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/10/2010 @ 5:10pm
A USDA rule intended to put teeth in the 89-year-old Packers and Stockyards Act was debated at dueling press conferences held in Kansas City, Missouri, Wednesday as the National Association of ...
Obama’s own fringe group problem -- environmentalists By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/04/2010 @ 4:10pm
Remember Terri Schiavo? The Florida woman with brain damage whose husband sought a court order to pull her feeding tube while her parents and family fought back? Congress voted to make it a federal case (which ...
Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, told reporters Wednesday that he doesn’t expect a major shift in support for ethanol after the Republican takeover of the House of ...
With more than half of the 28 Democrats on the House Agriculture Committee defeated in Tuesday’s election, the new Republican dominated panel is likely to have a lot of fresh faces. Farm groups are ...
Growth Energy’s new COO optimistic over election results for ethanol By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/02/2010 @ 3:29pm
This week a director of the ethanol lobbying group, Growth Energy, may have surfed the Republican wave in Congress to a higher profile with the group. Growth promoted Jim Nussle, an eight term former ...
Grassley: ag will gain from today’s election By: DANIEL LOOKER 11/02/2010 @ 11:33am
Senator Chuck Grassley, the top ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee and one incumbent who appears headed to victory in today’s election, predicts more bipartisanship in his own ...
Panel sees ethanol as expensive, inefficient By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/19/2010 @ 2:58pm
The food versus fuel debate found a new audience Tuesday at the Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Florida sponsored by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.The consensus of a panel of experts was ...
To David Beckmann, feeding the poor is a moral obligation tied to his Christian faith as a Lutheran Minister and president of Bread for the World. “God is calling us to get with the program,” he ...
The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce later today that it’s approving limited use of 15% ethanol blends in cars that are 2007 models or newer. It would be the agency’s latest ...
As the ethanol industry grows toward a 15 billion gallon market by 2015, exports of its byproduct, distillers grains, are expected to grow from 7 million metric tons (mmt) last year to 11 mmt, That’s the ...
Distiller grains from the ethanol industry are one of the big growth sectors in agriculture, if the Export Exchange in Chicago this week is on track. Speakers at the joint meeting of the U.S. Grains Council ...
U.S. Grains Council releases estimate of China’s corn crop By: DANIEL LOOKER 10/05/2010 @ 10:33am
China will likely harvest a corn crop of 158 million metric tons (mmt) this year, according to an in-field survey and sampling conducted by the U.S. Grains Council. The Council released its results ...
This week USDA released its final weighted average price for 2009 crops covered by ACRE, the last piece of information the agency needs before making payments this fall.Kansas State University ag economist Art ...
Ethanol tax credit vote still likely this year—Harkin By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/30/2010 @ 9:20am
When the Senate adjourned yesterday it left a lot of business unfinished until the lame duck session after the November 2 elections. It includes debate over whether or not to extend the Bush era ...
South Dakotans aim to ease prevented planting penalties By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/29/2010 @ 4:14pm
South Dakota growers know something about excess moisture, with parts of the state getting hammered by rain just last week, after a season that saw planting delays from heavy rains last spring. ...
Ethanol tax credit vote could be delayed until 2011 By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/28/2010 @ 11:20am
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), shared his view of how a Republican takeover of Congress might affect agriculture Tuesday. He sees little change in farm policy in the agriculture committees, more support ...
The partisan logjam broke in the Senate Thursday, long enough to pass the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act. But when Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) tossed in a small twig – an amendment to renew a ...
Strong signup for CRP By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/14/2010 @ 12:30pm
The USDA announced Tuesday that it has accepted 4.3 million acres that were bid into the 39th general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program during the month of August.The agency had more than 50,000 ...
Strong signup for CRP By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/14/2010 @ 11:21am
The USDA announced Tuesday that it has accepted 4.3 million acres that were bid into the 39th general signup for the Conservation Reserve Program during the month of August. The agency had more than ...
Managing a nightmare soybean disease By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/10/2010 @ 4:57pm
It sounds like the plot for a cheap horror movie: For months, a monster lives buried in the soil, only to reach up and kill healthy looking soybeans, sometimes in broad swaths across the landscape. That ...
The Farm Progress show might seem an odd place to set up a booth on organic farming. The Varied Industries Tent is a bastion of the latest technology for conventional agriculture. Several farmers were ...
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey and Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis told reporters and members of the ethanol industry Wednesday that they believe Congress is likely to renew the ethanol tax credit ...
China’s corn crop could grow By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/01/2010 @ 10:14am
Widespread flooding in China this summer is thought to have damaged parts of that country’s corn and soybean crops. But a grains and oilseeds analyst for Rabobank, says the global lender’s Beijing staff is ...
China’s corn crop could grow By: DANIEL LOOKER 09/01/2010 @ 10:07am
Widespread flooding in China this summer is thought to have damaged parts of that country’s corn and soybean crops. But a grains and oilseeds analyst for Rabobank, says the global lender’s Beijing ...
The U.S. Senate begins its August recess next week without passing even a scaled down energy bill. If the bill comes up when it returns in September, a bipartisan group of midwestern senators will try to amend ...
Energy bill less likely to pass without ethanol included, Harkin says By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/04/2010 @ 11:00pm
The U.S. Senate begins its August recess next week without passing even a scaled down energy bill. If the bill comes up when it returns in September, a bipartisan group of midwestern senators will try to amend ...
Senators get some answers on E15 By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/03/2010 @ 10:17am
A bipartisan group of senators met with EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and a Department of Energy (DOE) official Monday to learn more about why a request for higher ethanol blends is taking so long. They ...
Senators get some answers on E15 By: DANIEL LOOKER 08/02/2010 @ 11:00pm
A bipartisan group of senators met with EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and a Department of Energy (DOE) official Monday to learn more about why a request for higher ethanol blends is taking so long. They got ...
A bipartisan group of senators who support ethanol will meet with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu Monday to try to find out why industry requests for higher blends of the ...
Lawmakers want ethanol answers from EPA and DOE By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/29/2010 @ 11:00pm
A bipartisan group of senators who support ethanol will meet with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Energy Secretary Steven Chu Monday to try to find out why industry requests for higher blends of the ...
Ag is bright spot in slowly growing economy By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/26/2010 @ 11:00pm
Terry Barr, an economist who heads CoBank's Knowledge Exchange, isn't one of the analysts who's looking for a double dip recession.Barr expects the U.S. economy to continue growing at a rate of ...
Terry Barr, an economist who heads CoBank's Knowledge Exchange, isn't one of the analysts who's looking for a double dip recession.Barr expects the U.S. economy to continue growing at a rate of ...
Veterans of the 1980s look at today’s farm debt By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/22/2010 @ 11:00pm
Today they have the appearance of grizzled veterans, a little grayer than when they started in 1989 to tackle a woeful hodgepodge of financial record keeping methods that left lenders and farmers ...
Thanks to GPS-based field mapping and harvest data, it's getting easier to use managerial accounting, says Paul Gorman, a farm management specialist who has taught farmers better record keeping at South ...
Thanks to GPS-based field mapping and harvest data, it's getting easier to use managerial accounting, says Paul Gorman, a farm management specialist who has taught farmers better record keeping at South ...
Stick with ethanol tax credit, Grassley says By: DANIEL LOOKER 07/20/2010 @ 11:02am
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said Tuesday that he doesn't support a proposal to shift federal support for ethanol from a tax credit to building ethanol pipelines, blender pumps and more flexible fuel ...
