Farm Bureau Press for September 6

SEPTEMBER 6, 2019 • VOLUME 22 • ISSUE 18

Farm Bureau Press A PEEK INSIDE

SECRETARY SONNY PERDUE VISITS ARKANSAS

Scholarships & Grants Available to Students & Teachers, page 2-3.

United States Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue and Rep. Rick Crawford met with Vantage Midsouth Precision Agriculture Owner Chris East to discuss trade and other key Ag issues.

ArFB Foundation Recognized by Red Cross, page 3.

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Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach (left) asks a question of Secretary Purdue and Gov. Asa Hutchinson at the Department of Agriculture Roundtable. A standing-room crowd of leadership in Arkansas agriculture attending a question and answer session on critical Ag issues including trade, disaster relief and forestry.

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AFBF AG INNOVATION CHALL $145K AVAILABLE FOR FOO The American Farm Bureau Federation, in partnership with Farm Credit, has opened online applications for the 2020 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge. In its sixth year, the Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge is a national business competition for U.S. food and agriculture startups.

Entrepreneurs will compete for $145,000 in startup funds.

Teacher of the Year | Peggy Thomas (left), Grant County Farm Bureau president, presented Serena McGinley with the Sheridan School District Teacher of the Year award. McGinley teaches fifth-grade science at Sheridan Intermediate School, where she and her husband started a school garden which won the 2018 Arkansas School Garden of the Year Contest.

Launched in 2015 as the first national competition focused exclusively on rural entrepreneurs, the competition continues in its sixth year to provide an opportunity for U.S. startups to showcase business innovations in food and agriculture. Startup funds for the Challenge are provided by sponsors Farm Credit, John Deere, Bayer Crop Science, Farm Bureau Bank, Country Financial and Farm Bureau Financial Services.

To apply for the 2020 Farm Bureau Ag Innovation Challenge, competitors can apply online at http://fb.org/ aginnovationchallenge by midnight Eastern Standard Time on Sept. 30.

Apron Contest | Grant County 4-H members modeled their creations in the annual county Sew with Cotton Apron contest at the Grant County Farm Bureau annual meeting at Sheridan High School. Participation in the sewing contest more than doubled from recent years as more than two dozen children took part. A record crowd attended the meeting in the new high school cafeteria.

Ten semi-finalist teams will be announced on Nov. 5 and awarded $10,000 each. All 10 semi-finalist teams will travel to AFBF’s Annual Convention, in Austin, Texas, in January 2020, with all expenses paid, to compete in a live competition to be the Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year. The 10 teams will compete in Austin to advance to the final round where four teams will receive an additional $5,000 and compete live on

STUDENT ADVOCATES FOR AG $21,000 IN SCHOLARSHIPS College students are gearing up for the Animal Agriculture Alliance’s annual College Aggies Online (CAO) Scholarship Competition, which kicks off Sept. 16. This year’s students and collegiate clubs are competing for more than $21,000 in scholarships and a chance to win a trip to the Alliance’s 2020 Stakeholders Summit. For more information or to sign up, visit https://collegeaggies.animalagalliance.org.

Farm Family | County President Mason Sickel and Lt. Governor Tim Griffin presented the Prairie County Farm Family of the Year plaque to Chris, Amanda and Morgan Berg at the annual county meeting.

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CAO connects college students from across the country who are interested in promoting agriculture. Individual division participants receive training from experts and engage with their peers on social media by posting information about current and emerging issues facing farmers and ranchers and telling personal stories.

In the club competition, students are challenged to host events on their campus to talk about modern agriculture with their

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LENGE: D & AG ENTREPRENEURS stage in front of Farm Bureau members, investors and industry representatives. The final four teams will compete to win: • Farm Bureau Entrepreneur of the Year award and $15,000 (chosen by judges), for a total of $30,000 • People’s Choice award and $10,000 (chosen by public vote), for a total of $25,000 Entrepreneurs and startups with businesses in the following categories are encouraged to apply: • Farm, ranch, greenhouse, aquaponics • Input product or crop variety • Method or tool for growing, monitoring or harvesting crops or livestock • Production support services • Retail, agritourism or farm-to-table business • Food/beverage/textile product or ingredient • Method of production, preparation or packaging of food/ beverage/textile products or ingredients • Value-added processing including yogurts, cheeses and processed meats, wineries, breweries, cideries and distilleries Entrepreneurs must be Farm Bureau members to qualify as a top-10 semi-finalist. Detailed eligibility guidelines, the competition timeline, videos and profiles of past Challenge winners are available at http://fb.org/aginnovationchallenge.

GRICULTURE: AVAILABLE

Disaster Relief Donation | The Arkansas Farm Bureau Foundation was recognized for its 2019 disaster relief donation to the American Red Cross of Arkansas. The foundation presented a check on June 12 of $50,000, marking its largest donation to disaster relief efforts to date. Lance West, chairman of American Red Cross of Arkansas, presented the award on Aug. 27.

ARFB POULTRY PROMOTION CONTEST

County Farm Bureaus are encouraged to engage in community activities as part of ArFB’s annual Poultry Promotion Contest, designed to stimulate the use of poultry products locally and to increase awareness about the importance of the poultry industry in Arkansas.

ArFB has resource materials available to assist in local promotion efforts, outlined in the Poultry Promotion Program handbook, which have been distributed to county offices. Award program rules are included in the poultry promotion program booklet.

The deadline for reports and recordings for the State competition is Oct. 11. For more information, visit http://bit.ly/2019PoultryPromotionContest.

peers. Events include “Scary Food Myths,” where students hand out candy with myths and facts about food and agriculture; “Undeniably Dairy,” where students host a booth on their concourse about dairy farming; and “Newbies on the Farm,” where students invite their peers who have never visited a farm to tour a local operation. Last year, students reached 2 million people on social media and more than 13,000 people at club events.

“College Aggies Online is an opportunity for college students who are passionate about agriculture to learn how to communicate about the industry from some of the best agriculture advocates out there,” said Casey Kinler, Alliance communications manager. “This year we doubled the number of mentors available to the students and made sure to include farmers and ranchers who are active on social media.”

State Recognition Awards will be presented at the 2020 Winter Commodity Division Meetings.

WHITE-REINHARDT SCHOLARSHIPS

The school year is underway, which means it is time for Spring 2020 White-Reinhardt mini-grants and scholarships! The scholarship program provides travel expense funds for educators to attend the National Ag in the Classroom Conference.

Applications are available on our website, www. agfoundation.org, under Projects: White-Reinhardt Mini-Grants or White-Reinhardt Scholarships. All applications must be submitted electronically by Oct. 15.

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MARKET NEWS as of September 5, 2019 Contact Brandy Carroll 501-228-1268 brandy.carroll@arfb.com

USDA Announces Enrollment for 2019 and 2020 ARC and PLC USDA has announced an enrollment period for the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs. Eligible producers can make an appointment with their Farm Service Agency office to sign up between September 3, 2019, and March 15, 2020, to enroll for 2019. Enrollment for 2020 will begin on October 7, 2019, meaning producers waiting until that date can sign-up for two years at once.

Farm owners have a one-time opportunity to update PLC payment yields that take effect beginning with crop year 2020. Producers who elect PLC have the option of purchasing Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through the USDA Risk Management Agency, but producers who elect ARC are ineligible for SCO. Upland cotton farmers who choose to enroll seed cotton base acres in ARC or PLC are ineligible for the stacked income protection plan (STAX) on their planted cotton acres.

Texas A&M University has a decision-making tool that will help farmers analyze payment yield updates and expected payments for 2019 and 2020. The tool can be found at the following address: https:// www.afpc.tamu.edu/ Cotton December cotton futures continue to chop along mostly sideways between support at the recent low of 56.59 cents and resistance at 4

60 cents. The market continues to be pressured by worries of large export cancellations, and although they haven’t materialized yet, it is still possible that customers will cancel purchases made when cotton was significantly higher priced.

The cotton crop in the Carolinas and Georgia could be significantly impacted by Hurricane Dorian, and the drought in Texas is beginning to have an impact on the cotton there, as well. Nation-wide, 48% of the crop is rated good to excellent by USDA, while another 37% is in fair condition.

Soybeans The soybean crop is still behind the usual schedule, with USDA reporting 86% of the crop is currently setting pods, compared with a 5-year average of 96%. 55% of the crop is rated good to excellent nationwide. In Arkansas, the total is 57%.

Pod counts are down, and the yield is far from made. Many farmers in the mid-west need a very late frost.

Demand continues to be extremely disappointing. There is some optimism creeping into the markets on news that the U.S. and China will return to the negotiating table in October, but any results from those talks are still several months away.

November has resistance at $8.80.

Rice The rice harvest is getting under way in Arkansas, with 11% harvested as of September 1. That is compared with 18% last year and a 5-year average of 17%. Nationwide, the crop is 21% harvested. Crop conditions improved slightly this week, with 70% of the crop rated good to excellent, but in Arkansas that total is 61%. Futures have staged an impressive rally, but November has run out of steam and has so far been unable to overcome resistance at $12. Surprisingly robust export sales last week gave the market a boost when USDA reported that 128,000

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metric tons were sold last week, with Mexico, Haiti, and Iraq all booking at least 30,000 metric tons.

Cattle Cattle futures collapsed in reaction to a fire at Tyson’s Holcomb, Kansas, beef plant in August, and have not been able to build any upward momentum. The plant processed roughly 6,000 head a day, which accounts for 25% of Kansas’ production and more than 5% of production nationwide. The market has stabilized somewhat, finding support from the monthly Cattle on Feed report, which pegged the August 1 inventory at 100.2% of the year ago total, which was at the low end of expectations. October has moved to a new contract low and could retest support in the $94-95 range. December has now violated support at $103 and could test the $100 level in short order. The huge chart gaps left as the markets traded limit down two days in a row in reaction to the fire will likely prove to be very tough resistance in the event of a rebound. The recent highs of $101.68 for October and $106.55 for December could cap the market.

Packer margins are still extremely strong.

Hogs News that the U.S. and China will return to the trade negotiating table in October has given hog futures a much-needed boost. October has bounced off support below $60 and is working higher. The market has run into resistance at $67.50 for the time being. Cash prices are likely to remain under pressure in the near term as hog supplies rise this fall.

EDITOR Ashley Wallace ashley.wallace@arfb.com