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September 20, 2019
USDA cuts yield forecasts
www.agrinews-pubs.com
Exploring digital ag WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue University’s College of Agriculture hosted the Digital Agriculture Roundtable Sept. 10 to showcase the different application uses for digital agriculture. The event included demonstrations on how digital agriculture is being used in the fields and in the air.
By Tom C. Doran
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
WASHINGTON — Indiana, Illinois and national corn and soybean yield estimates were lowered in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Sept. 12 crop production report. INDIANA CORN YIELD Indiana’s corn yield is forecast at 161 bushels per acre, down 28 bushels from 2018 and down five bushels from the August forecast. Harvested area is projected at 4.9 million acres, 300,000 less than last year. Production is forecast at 789 million bushels, down 20% from a year ago. If realized, the 2019 crop would be the smallest crop total production-wise since the drought-ravaged crop of 2012. ILLINOIS CORN YIELD The Illinois corn yield was forecast at 180 bushels per acre, down one bushel from the August projection and 30 bushels lower than 2018. Planted area is estimated at 10.7 million acres, down 3% from last year. Harvested area, forecast at 10.45 million acres, is 4% lower than last year. Production is forecast at 1.88 billion bushels, down 17% from a year ago. U.S. CORN YIELD Based on conditions as of Sept. 1, U.S. yields are expected to average 168.2 bushels per harvested acre, down 1.3 bushels from the previous forecast and 8.2 bushels below 2018. Area harvested for grain is forecast at 82 million acres, unchanged from the previous forecast but up less than 1% from 2018. INDIANA SOYBEAN YIELD Soybean yield in Indiana is forecast at 49 bushels per acre, down 9.5 bushels from last year and down 1 bushel from last month. Harvested area is estimated at 5.37 million acres compared to 5.92 million in 2018. Total production is forecast at 263 million bushels, down 24 million from last year. This also is the smallest forecasted crop since 2012 when the state averaged 44 bushels per acre. See USDA, Page A4
SEE SECTION B
INSIDE
Headless Horseman haunts Conner Prairie A3 Electrolytes correct calf dehydration B6 China lifts U.S. soybean, pork tariffs C4 AgriTrucker A5 Auction Calendar B1 Business C4
Farms For Sale C1 From The Fields A8
Calendar C3
Lifestyle B3
Classifieds C2
Livestock B6
Fall Getaway A3
Opinion C7
Vol. 41 No. 51
CONTACT AGRINEWS: 800-426-9438
AGRINEWS PHOTOS/ASHLEY LANGRECK
Richard Grant, a Purdue University agronomy professor, demonstrates equipment he uses in nitrogen research.
Ana Morales, a graduate student at Purdue University, checks on a drone before it launches during a demonstration at the recent Digital Agriculture Roundtable.
Researchers deploy Field research shows nitrogen emission losses drone scouting projects By Ashley Langreck
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The digital agriculture industry continues to grow thanks to research studies, including the one by Richard Grant, a professor of agronomy at Purdue University, who is using light transmissions to study nitrogen and other gases. “We are studying nitrogen losses to atmosphere through different management schemes,” said Grant, adding that the purpose of the research is to discover the actual amount of nitrogen that is being lost to the atmosphere. Grant said he uses light transmission by shooting a laser across a field at a reflector to see
how much gases are absorbed and determine what kind of gases and how much are left over after they have been emitted into the atmosphere. Grant said he and his colleagues are using optical measure to determine what is in the air by figuring out what no longer is there. “We send a beam of light to reflect, and it’s sent back,” he said, adding they then have to subtract what gases are coming in from the outside, such as nitrogen emission from farms and livestock. Grant said studying nitrogen loss and emission has been their main goal over the past nine years. See LOSSES, Page A7
By Ashley Langreck
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Even though unmanned aerial vehicles are everywhere these days, there still is a lot to learn from them. Bob Nielsen, a Purdue University professor of agronomy, has been busy running research projects at the Indiana Corn and Soybean Innovation Center. Nielsen and graduate student Ana Morales have been working on a study using a new app called Drone Deploy. A drone flies over a corn or soybean field, taking photos. Drone Deploy uses the photos to create a panoramic view of the field.
“It takes 26 images and stitches them together into a panoramic view, with quite a bit of overlap,” he said. Nielsen said that as the pilot, he decides how slow or how high the drone will fly, making sure it doesn’t go over the 400-foot limit regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration. “On short young crops, I fly lower because it’s a better resolution,” he said. Nielsen said that right now, he and Morales are using the drones for scouting projects, including checking for yellow spots in fields and making sure even though there are bare spots, fields may still be uniform. See DRONE, Page A7
AGRIINSTITUTE RURAL MENTAL HEALTH SYMPOSIUM
Farmers share struggles, healing, hope By Erica Quinlan
levels skyrocketed. It always had been his dream to farm. Alongside his wife, Foster raised sows in INDIANAPOLIS — When Dallas Foster’s Greenfield starting in 2006. farming career began to crumble, his stress Due to the changes in the livestock indusAGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
DALLAS FOSTER
“Moving into 2017, I was having a bad year,” Dallas Foster said. “I struggled with living two lives. With hosting farm bill sessions while, at the same time, I was getting the first major late notice from the bank.” He and his family earned young farmer awards and other honors, but at the same time, his hogs were facing health issues. Then the market crashed. Financially, things weren’t looking good. “In that time period, I was stressed,” Foster said. “I wasn’t eating. I wasn’t sleeping. I wouldn’t eat for like four days. I had to lay off some help. So, I worked and worked. “Eventually, we were forced to get out of the hog business. We picked a bad year to do that. “In three weeks, I liquidated 13 years of hard work. The only thing is, I can tell you that because of the people who helped me along the way, I was prepared to do it. See FOSTER, Page A4
DOUG LEMAN
Doug Leman built Sunny Ridge Dairy in 2001 alongside his wife and four sons. “For me, getting into this, we had a dream,” he said. “We put together a business plan. Business plans are great, but they don’t always go like you plan. “Timing is very important. The month we started milking cows, October 2001, milk prices dropped $3, heifer prices went up $300 a head. It didn’t bother me. We were building our dairy.” Leman considers himself a spiritual person. He relied on his faith in God to guide him through tough times. The farm experienced good times from 2007 to 2008. But when 2009 came, things took a turn for the worse as the economy suffered. “Life was getting hard,” he said. “In 2009, it cost me $3,000 a day to open the door. Those are tough times. See LEMAN, Page A4
try, he closed up shop in December 2018. Foster, Doug Leman and Tony Goldstein bravely shared their stories at the recent AgrIInstitute Rural Mental Health Symposium. TONY GOLDSTEIN
Tony Goldstein moved from the Netherlands to Indiana to start a dairy with his family in 2003. “One of the reasons we came all the way here was to give my kids a future,” he said. They started construction on Union Go Dairy in 2005. From 2007 to 2008, the dairy was prosperous. But, as it did with many dairy farmers, 2009 brought challenges. The farm struggled financially as the United States faced historically low milk prices. “I’m not from the United States,” Goldstein said. “I didn’t have anybody to go to. We just sat together as a family. The bank was just awful. I said, what are we going to do? My friend said to get a lawyer. We got in touch with her. “We got the most amount of advice we could get from her. Finally, there was someone who could listen. See GOLDSTEIN, Page A4
Farm State of Mind: Signs of stress, how to talk about it By Erica Quinlan
AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS
INDIANAPOLIS — This year, Bayer Health Sciences launched a mental health initiative that connects farmers to the relief they need. “Farm State of Mind is an outreach initiative to rural communities to help reduce the stigma of mental health and to also provide resources, and a place for these people to go,” said Kelly Crabtree, adviser
at Bayer Crop Science, at the Rural Mental Health Symposium. When a person is experiencing a mental health challenge, they may not even realize it. Here are some signs of stress to look out for: n Physical: Headaches, backaches, exhaustion, frequent sickness, upset stomach, ulcers and trouble sleeping. n Emotional: Irritability, depression, anger, anxiety, lack of confidence, sadness, bitterness and feeling discouraged, or hopeless.
n Mental: Memory loss, lack of concentration and difficulty making decisions. n Behavioral: Substance abuse, violence, decline in the care of livestock or domestic animals, increase in farm accidents and overeating, or loss of appetite. n Relationships: Loss of humor, withdrawal, decreased interest in family activities or community events, verbal outbursts and difficulty communicating. See STRESS, Page A4