Farm Bureau Press for October 25

OCTOBER 25, 2019 • VOLUME 22 • ISSUE 21

Farm Bureau Press A PEEK INSIDE

ARKANSAS VETERANS SMALL BUSINESS SUMMIT SET NOV. 8 Veteran entrepreneurs can get information about programs and services to help them succeed on Nov. 8 at the Arkansas Veterans Small Business Summit hosted by the Arkansas Procurement Technical Assistance Center at the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Cooperative Extension Service headquarters.

The free event will be from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the education wing of the Cooperative Extension Service state office, 2301 S. University Ave., Little Rock.

The event, which coincides with National Veterans Small Business Week, will include a panel discussion and resource fair and will offer information about small business certifications and how small business owners can access counseling, capital and contracts with Arkansas-based federal agencies.

Seeding Rural Resilience Act Will Help Farmers and Ranchers, page 2.

Col. Anita Deason (ret.), current staff advisor for military and veterans issues from U.S. Sen. John Boozman’s office, will be the keynote speaker.

Participants include the U.S. Small Business Administration, Arkansas Small Business Technology Development Center, Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE), The Conductor, Arkansas Women’s Business Center, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, Camp Alliance, Arkansas National Guard and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“These events are very important for networking purposes and to ensure our small business owners are aware of all the existing resources available to them at little to no cost,” said Melanie Berman, program director for the Procurement Technical Assistance Center.

“Successful veteran-owned small businesses will also be on hand to share how they were able to break into the government marketplace,” she said.

Vets4Ag Vets4Ag Looking to Reach Goal Nov. 11, page 3.

FOLLOW US ONLINE

The forum is free to attend, and lunch will be provided. Online registration is required: http://bit.ly/2019VeteranSmallBusinessSummit.

To contact PTAC for more information, or help with registration, email ptac@ uaex.edu or call 501-671-2390.

Arkansas FarmBureau

ArFB

A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION

arfb1935

SEEDING RURAL RESILIENCE ACT WILL HELP FARMERS AND RANCHERS The American Farm Bureau Federation supports the Seeding Rural Resilience Act sponsored by Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), which is designed to help farmers respond to stress and decrease the stigma associated with mental health care in rural communities.

“Farmers and ranchers are some of the most resilient people you will ever meet,” said AFBF President Zippy Duvall. “But times are tough on the farm and with challenges from weather, trade and low commodity prices, it can definitely wear down the resiliency of farmers.”

Farm to School | Secretary of Agriculture Wes Ward and Arkansas students gathered Oct. 15 at the State Capitol as Gov. Asa Hutchinson proclaimed October as Arkansas Farm to School Month during the Farm to School Celebration. The event was part of nationwide efforts to connect schools with farms to bring local, healthy food to children.

According to a Morning Consult research poll commissioned by AFBF in April 2019, a strong majority of farmers and farmworkers say financial issues (91%), farm or business problems (88%) and fear of losing the farm (87%) impact the mental health of farmers and ranchers, and nearly half of rural adults (48%) say they are personally experiencing more mental health challenges than they were a year ago.

The Seeding Rural Resilience Act creates three initiatives aimed at promoting mental health awareness in rural America: • Implementing a farmer-facing employee training program that requires the Agriculture Department to provide voluntary stress management training to Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency and Natural Resources Conservation Service employees;

4H & FFA | Local 4H and FFA students from around County served more than 400 guests Oct. 15 at the Farm Bureau annual meeting.

The evening focused on agriculture’s impact in the county and included placards with each entree food item, citing the production in the county of those proteins.

• Forming a partnership between the Department of Health and Human Services and USDA to create a $3 million PSA to increase public awareness of farm and ranch stress and destigmatize mental health care in rural communities; and • Directing the Secretary of Agriculture to work with state, local and nongovernmental stakeholders to collaborate and determine best practices for responding to farm and ranch mental stress.

Anyone who is experiencing a mental health crisis can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 24/7 at 1-800-273-TALK, or 1-800-273-8255.

2

Truck Restrictions | Montgomery Co. had its annual meeting Oct. 21. Officer Thomas Jackson of the Arkansas Highway Police spoke about highway truck restrictions and exemptions for farm vehicles. Attendees included: (front row, left to right) Dustin Hill, Jason Cranford, George Kostelnik and Bryan Whisenhunt. (Back row left to right) Jonathan Rowland, Jimmy Minton, Kevin Wilson and officer Jackson.

A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION

VETS4AG LOOKING TO RECRUIT MEMBERS Arkansas Farm Bureau is pushing an “11 x 11” plan that brings military veterans into agriculture, hoping to get 11 veterans in each county to sign up for the Vets4Ag program by Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11.

Vets4Ag is the collaborative effort of Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation, the Arkansas Department of Agriculture and the Arkansas Department of Veteran Affairs that provides support and resources for our veteran farmers.

Rice is Nice | Washington County Women’s Leadership Committee members Querita Faddis and Jewell Proctor judge entries in the recent Rice is Nice contest.

How to Win an Election | The ArFB Governmental Relations and Public Affairs team hosted the 2019 How to Win an Election seminar Oct. 22-23. Attendees covered the elements of a successful political campaign that included evaluating candidate, campaign strategies and organization.

Information on veteran-related benefits, resources, and events is available include mentorship for beginning veteran-farmers and the opportunity to organize with fellow veteran farmers to create vet/agrelated policy.

Vets4Ag was created and designed to help educate and prepare military veterans for potential careers in agriculture and explain the importance and how we hope to help veterans transition to a career in agriculture.

Providing veteran farm & ranch families with veteran-related resources and mentorship opportunities and assisting veterans interested in farming with tools, resources and mentors to support their transition to agriculture.

Help us, help our

VETERAN farmers

We need at least 11 veteran farmers in each county to sign up for the Vets4Ag program by Nov 11th.

This program gives veteran farmers: • Information on veteran-related benefits, resources and events • Mentorship for beginning veteran-farmers • Opportunity to organize with fellow veteran farmers to create vet/ag related policy

Sign up today at Vets4Ag.com

ARKANSAS DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS

h tt p : / / w w w. ve t e ra n s . a r k a n s a s . g ov

Vets4Ag

For more information, contact Jason Smedley, Farm Bureau’s coordinator for the program, at 501-2281627or visit www.Vets4Ag.com.

Levee Task Force | Rob Rash of St. Francis Levee District led the Arkansas Levee Task Force on tour of St. Francis Levee system near West Memphis.

Vets4Ag

A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION

3

MARKET NEWS as of October 24, 2019 Contact Brandy Carroll 501-228-1268 brandy.carroll@arfb.com

Cotton Cotton futures have been on a roller coaster ride over the past few weeks. Preliminary news that the U.S. and China had reached a partial trade deal sent the market to a new three-month high before the reality of the actual deal resulted in the market giving back most of those gains. While the U.S. announced China would buy $40-50 billion in agriculture goods under the agreement, China has stated they will buy using market-based principles. Net exports were strong at 206,500 metric tons last week, but China was not a buyer. The crop is now 40% harvested, compared with a 5-year average of 35% at this time of year. Concerns about the condition of the crop in West Texas have been supportive for prices, as 30% of the crop there is rated poor to very poor. December charted a bearish outside day on Monday, and is struggling to overcome the negative chart signal. The overall trend is still higher, but December needs to be able to close above 65.48 cents to suggest further gains are possible.

Rice Rice futures are currently testing technical support as harvest winds down. USDA says farmers have 93% of the crop in the bins. Arkansas is projected by USDA to harvest an average of 7,500 pounds per acre on 1.126 million acres, but many in the trade feel that yield estimate is 4

too high. Regardless, at this point, the smaller crop is already built in to prices. Exports have been somewhat disappointing, with last week’s shipments down 50% from the four-week average. A close below support at $11.62 for November and $11.92 for January would leave the market vulnerable to additional technical selling.

Corn Corn harvest is finally ramping up across the country, and USDA says that 30% of the crop is now in the bins. That is still well behind the 5-year average pace of 47%. We still don’t know the full extent of the damage of the early freeze across the corn belt and snowstorm in the Dakotas. Demand is a negative factor for prices, with export sales down 49.4% from last year, and shipments down 63%. Ethanol production has increased in recent weeks, but it doesn’t matter much because production remains significantly below year-ago levels.

USDA currently says 19/20 carryout will be 1.929 billion bushels, and the average on-farm price will be $3.80. December futures have major resistance at $4, with support starting at $3.80.

Soybean Soybean futures are chopping along mostly sideways, with the topside limited by resistance at the June high, which is $9.45 for November and $9.59 for January.

USDA says the U.S. is going to produce 3.55 billion bushels on a national average yield of 46.9 bushels per acre. However, the early freeze across the corn belt and the snowstorm in the Dakotas had to have significantly impacted yields there, and the full extent of the damage is not yet known.

Weekly export sales were dismal this week, coming in at just 17.5 million bushels, that’s down from

A PUBLICATION OF THE ARKANSAS FARM BUREAU FEDERATION

58.8 million bushels last week. Total export sales are down 11.9% from the year-ago total.

Cattle Live cattle futures continue their ascent, rallying back over $16 in recent weeks after bottoming out in reaction to a beef plant fire in August. December futures charted a bullish outside day on Wednesday, closing above previous resistance at the June high in the process. Boxed beef prices were also up sharply Wednesday, providing support for the rally.

November feeders also charted a bullish outside day Wednesday, but will have resistance at the recent high of $146.82.

Hogs Lean hog futures have been in a volatile trading pattern in recent weeks. Record-large hog supplies are keeping futures under pressure.

Cash hog and wholesale pork prices also remain under pressure from burdensome hog supplies on the market. Export demand remains strong, though, and is providing underlying support for prices.

December hogs have support starting at $63.

Dairy Total U.S. milk production was raised in the October report thanks to a larger dairy herd. 2019 production is now pegged at 218.2 billion pounds, while 2020 production is pegged at 221.6 billion. Price estimates were also increased slightly, with 2019 Class III now estimated at $16.55/cwt and 2020 Class III estimated at $17.20/ cwt.

EDITOR Ashley Wallace ashley.wallace@arfb.com