Illinois AgriNews_050120

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YOUR SOURCE FOR INSEASON SEED NEEDS. AGRONOMY, PRODUCTS AND SUPPORT.

May 1, 2020

www.agrinews-pubs.com

800.937.2325 SM-LA1774287

‘Plenty of food’

‘Gordy’ Ropp dedicated life to ag, youth A fringe benefit of spending the last 45-plus years in the newspapers business is the amazing people that I’ve been Tom C. Doran blessed to have met. AgriNews I’ve had the Publications honor to meet national, state and local political leaders, company CEOs, researchers, teachers, students, coaches — I covered a lot of sports back in the day — the 5,000-acre farmers, the 10-acre farmers and a whole bunch of other folks from all walks of life. Meeting them enriched my life, and I will always be grateful for those opportunities. I’ve been reflecting on this since I learned the other day of the passing of Gordon “Gordy” Ropp, 87, of rural Normal, Illinois. I first had the honor of meeting Ropp Gordy in 1974, when he was serving as the Illinois agriculture director. I was in high school working for the Dwight Star & Herald and was assigned to cover a visit of some potential corn buyers from Hong Kong to Hamilton Grain in Campus, Illinois. This is a frequent occurrence today, but very rare back then. Gordy in his role as ag director was at the front line in promoting Illinois-grown products to international buyers and really set the groundwork for the agency’s marketing efforts. It was a watershed year for Illinois and the nation in terms of agricultural exports. U.S. agricultural exports increased from $12.9 billion in 1973 to $21.32 billion in 1974. Gordy was very gracious to this high school kid still learning the ropes of the newspaper business. During his four years leading the state agriculture department, Gordy began the centennial farm program. See ROPP, Page A3

SEE SECTION B

INSIDE

Parasites reduce cattle feed intake A3 Food pantry adopts grocery store format A7 Funding for conservation projects B9 AgriTrucker A9 Alan Guebert B7

Farms For Sale B2 Lifestyle A7

Auction Calendar B1

Livestock B6

Business B8

Opinion B7

Classifieds B3

Weather A6

Vol. 43 No. 10

CONTACT AGRINEWS: 800-426-9438

Empty grocery shelves don’t signal shortages By Tom C. Doran

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS AGRINEWS PHOTO/TOM C. DORAN

Scott Severson of Dwight, Illinois, plants corn April 20 in a field west of Campus. He was able to plant 80 acres of soybeans the previous week and then switched over to corn to begin last week.

Planting on a roll Better hybrids and varieties aid early start By Tom C. Doran

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Cool soils were the norm as planters began to roll in April. Emerson Nafziger, University of Illinois Extension agronomist, said growing degree days through April are forecast to total 186, over 60 GDD behind the average in the central part of the Prairie State. “We never get a huge chunk

of GDDs in April. We’re looking at less than 7% or 8% of what we would get for the season comes in April,” Nafziger said during a recent webinar. Better corn and soybean seed quality have improved overall emergence even when conditions aren’t necessarily ideal. “Corn comes up out of conditions now that probably back in my youth at least we would never have considered planting into soils that cool,” Nafziger noted. “Don’t get me wrong, if seed could vote they’d say put me in warmer soils than this because I want to get up and get growing. And we certainly like to see

that with the crop and we’re not going to see that with the crop that gets planted in April this year. But hopefully the germination will be good, emergence should be good, and we’ll have a crop that’s ready in May to take off and grow.” Here are some of the other early season topics Nafziger covered during the webinar. ON PLANTING DATE “Based on data from 28 soybean trials and 39 corn trials, any time soybeans were planted in April they were up to 100% of their maximum yield level. See ROLL, Page A3

COVID-19 ‘shock to the system’ Economists weigh effects of virus on ag By Erica Quinlan

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Coronavirus concerns are disrupting U.S. food distribution and marketing, reducing demand for key commodities and putting severe financial pressure on farmers, said James Mintert. Mintert, director of Purdue’s Center for Commercial Agriculture, hosted a webinar April 30. “This is a huge shock to the system,” he said. “The system isn’t designed to accommodate a huge shock.” CORN WOES Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s planting estimates projected

corn acreage at around 97 million acres. “We think wea ken i ng returns for corn suggest an acreage shift is likely,” Mintert Mintert said. “We think planted corn acreage could easily fall 1 million acres below the intentions. It might even be more than that. “We don’t have experience with this kind of shock to the system at this time of year, and I think that’s important to remember. “People have already made plans, already laid in supplies. There’s some rigidity there in terms of making adjustments. Nevertheless, we think we’re going to see a shift.” The shift will likely go towards soybeans. “If we have trend yields,

we’re going to see pretty big increases in stocks at the end of the 2020 marketing year,” Mintert said. “And that is especially true for corn.” TROUBLE AHEAD FOR ETHANOL The estimates in demand for ethanol are all over the map, according to Mintert. “We’re going to be in a recessionary environment for an extended period of time,” he said. “That’s going to take its toll in terms of fuel demand and ultimately ethanol demand. “We looked at three scenarios and estimated reductions at about 350 million bushels and as much as 640 million bushels for the 2019 crop year.” The estimates depend on how long restrictions on activity continue and how rapidly the U.S. economy recovers. The result will likely be larger projected ending stocks and lower prices this year and next. See SHOCK, Page A2

FFA staying connected — apart

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Do we have enough food and are we going to have enough food? Jayson Lusk, professor and head of Purdue University’s Agricultural Economics Department, said that is the single most common question he’s being asked as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the nation. “The answer is, yes. It may not mean that we have it in the places we need it and it may not mean that we have the workers always to get it to us. But just in terms of pounds of food or gal- Lusk lons of liquid that we want to consume, we certainly have enough to support us for the time being,” Lusk said during an April 21 University of Illinois farmdoc webinar. Concerns were brought to the forefront in mid-March when there were significant short-run disruptions at grocery stores due to a spike in food sales as the stay-at-home recommendations were unveiled. There is plenty of food in storage. For example, there is quite a bit more total commercial cold storage of pork than there’s been in the last three years. The short-run disruptions were caused by a combination of increased purchases at grocery stores and challenges in logistical changes. Grocery stores saw a large demand spike in mid-March that has since leveled off to the point shoppers are making fewer visits to those stores than they were in March 2019. See FOOD, Page A4

Farmland adds stability in downturn Interest rates, low supply help values By Martha Blum

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

MEANINGFUL MONDAY: MAKING CONNECTIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

TASTY THURSDAY: FFA OFFICER SERVING UP POSITIVE BYTES

By Ashley Langreck

By Ashley Langreck

INDIANAPOLIS — Mondays are typically known as being the day of the week that most people dread because it marks the end of the weekend and the start of a new work week. However, Mamie Hertel, who is serving as the 20192020 National FFA central region vice president, has made it her mission to help FFA members get more out of their Mondays. Hertel, along with her fellow teammates, decided Hertel to start a social media campaign to help stay connected with FFA members while travel bans, and restrictions are in place to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The six National FFA officers each have a day of the week, Monday through Saturday, where they host a themed video to connect with FFA members across the country.

INDIANAPOLIS — Tess Seibel, the 20192020 National FFA eastern region vice president, has been using social media to make pantry snacks and chat with members. Seibel and her officer teammates decided while they are practicing social distancing to start a social media platform to stay connected with FFA members and host a themed-video every Monday through Saturday featuring one of Seibel the six National FFA officers. Seibel said that connecting with students is something she and her fellow teammates love, which is why they ran for National FFA office in the first place, but everything going on in the world right now has taught them it’s just not about connecting with FFA members in person or connecting with them at schools.

OMAHA, Neb. — Farmland values provide stability for the agricultural industry during downturns in income. “Farmland is growing in importance since it makes up 83% of the total assets in agriculture,” said Randy Dickhut, senior vice president of real estate operations for the Farmers National Company. “And it almost makes up 100% of the equity in agriculture.” Since the peak of land values in 2013, Dickhut said during a webinar sponsored by The Chicago Farmers, they haven’t fallen as much as many people think. “The average land value in Illinois has plateaued, and we’ve come off the top,” he said. “The return on investment has declined over time to around the 3% range, and the value is at $7,000 on average.” In Kansas, land values are very different. “They have irrigated land, dry land, wheat land in the western part and a lot of pasture and CRP land,” Dickhut said.

See MONDAY, Page A6

See THURSDAY, Page A6

See VALUES, Page A5

AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

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