Brownfield News

Southwest Missouri Congressman Billy Long recently came back from Brazil with House Ag Committee chairman Collin Peterson who will join Long next Friday on a tour of farms in Long’s district.

In the case of Brazil, Long says Peterson invited him to
Brazil to look at a million-acre cotton and soybean farm, “And he said, ‘I want
to get down there and look at it so we can come back and tell Trump to get this
trade deal done so it doesn’t go to three-Million acres’ because that’s exactly
what Brazil’s doing.

Continue reading Long and Peterson teaming up on ag issues at Brownfield Ag News.

     

Ceres Solutions Cooperative CEO Jeff Troike says he was disappointed in the latest USDA latest crop estimates.  

“When you do talk about the other people in the Midwest, no one seems like there having a bumper crop, so I think there is a lot of confusion and frustration with the USDA report,” he says.

He tells Brownfield the estimates are negatively impacting
the agriculture industry.

“Time will tell, unfortunately that impacts the markets now in a negative way and it’s going to take 2-4 months before more accurate information comes in to maybe change what the markets are doing,” he says.

Continue reading Troike: USDA estimates negatively impacting ag at Brownfield Ag News.

     

At the Chicago
Mercantile Exchange, live cattle futures ended the day lower in limited trade
volume on the weak cash trade and demand concerns.  Feeder cattle futures closed lower on the
same factors with added pressure from the day’s higher move in corn.  October live cattle closed $.47 lower at
$98.05 and December live cattle closed $.75 lower at $103.52.  September feeder cattle closed $.92 lower at
$132.37 and October feeder cattle closed $.90 lower at $132.85. 

There was a very light direct cash cattle trade to wrap up the week at $106 live. 

Continue reading Hogs, cattle futures slide into the weekend at Brownfield Ag News.

     

Farm Service Agency Administrator Richard Fordyce says the
MFP2 payments are on schedule to go out as soon as next week, “Sign-up began a
week ago last Monday and we’ve had overwhelming, as you can imagine, overwhelming
response to that.”

Brownfield Ag News caught up with Fordyce, former Ag Director of Missouri, at the Missouri State Fair, who emphasized that this time each county has its own unique rate, “You know, at least the producers that I’ve talked to here at the State Fair have been very happy with that rate in their county.

Continue reading Fordyce says MFP2 on track at Brownfield Ag News.

     

All their hard work paid off for the Grand and Reserve Grand
Champion steer exhibitors at this year’s Missouri State Fair.

Gage Baker is from Fulton, a member of the Rising Sun 4-H Club.  His Grand Champion market steer, named Fuzzy for his fuzzy ears, weighs 13-hundred-25 pounds. He tells Brownfield Ag News, “He’s from South Dakota… a long drive. We jackpotted him a lot. He’s done really good and he’s an overall good, fat steer.”

Interview with Gage Baker

Mikaela Rojas, from New Boston and a member of the
Shelby/Linn County 4-H Club, has the Reserved Grand Champion.

Continue reading Brownfield interviews steer winners at State Fair at Brownfield Ag News.

     

Kelly Visser

The theme of the Iowa Food & Family Project display at the Iowa State Fair is “Farming: Iowa’s Masterpiece”.

The centerpiece of the display is a mural comprised of 23,000 paint-by-number spaces. Visitors are invited to pick up a paint brush and leave their mark on the mural, which “showcases the creativity and collaboration of farming in Iowa and will be brought into full color using soy-based paint”.

We visited with Kelly Visser, consumer engagement manager with the Iowa Soybean Association.

Continue reading Iowa Food & Family Project showcases ‘Farming: Iowa’s Masterpiece’ at Iowa State Fair at Brownfield Ag News.

     

University of Illinois farm management specialist Gary Schnitkey expects 2019 corn yields to be lower than USDA’s latest forecast of nearly 170 bushels per acre.

“I think that number could go down. And you’ve got to remember that we’re just ending pollination, or still in pollination on a lot of those corn acres. So this would be like trying to take yield estimates at the beginning of July.”

He tells Brownfield with a lot of season remaining, there are many events that could be detrimental to crop development.

Continue reading Schnitkey doubts corn yields can reach USDA estimate at Brownfield Ag News.

     

Brownfield Anchor/Reporter Meghan Grebner will be on the ground in Winchester, Kentucky on Saturday, October 5, 2019 for the Hemp Harvest Festival.

Continue reading Hemp Harvest Festival at Brownfield Ag News.

     

A Missouri research team is working to create new heat-tolerant and herbicide resistant rice strains. Dr. Christian DeGuzman, rice breeder with Southeast Missouri State University, says rice yields declined several years ago because of extreme heat which prompted their research, “We wanted to be proactive and we wanted to look forward to
have a variety that is heat tolerant so just in case that happens again we have
it ready.”

He says they are also working to develop a herbicide
resistant strain of rice, “Clearfield is a trait that is patented with BASF and
we have an agreement with BASF to develop those lines that have the trait.”

DeGuzman says they are working to finalize an agreement with BASF on a new trait with a different mode of action, Provisia.

Continue reading SEMO research into new rice strains at Brownfield Ag News.

     

The Minnesota State Fair is confident its protocols are
enough to prevent the introduction of African swine fever.

Several Midwestern states, including Iowa, have implemented
additional swine health inspection requirements because of the threat of ASF.

Kent Thiesse helps with 4-H livestock exhibits and says State Fair officials and Minnesota Board of Animal Health officials have been very specific about proper protocols to help prevent disease.

“And that’s true whether it’s African swine fever or other diseases.

Continue reading Minnesota State Fair confident in livestock disease prevention at Brownfield Ag News.