SAM_02-23-2015

AG Mag

Northern Illinois

High Stakes

The new farm bill provides two new options for revenue safety nets.

Which is better for you?

BULL MARKET: Cattle farming surges as meat prices climb GREAT DEBATE: Have corn yields reached a plateau?

POWER STRUGGLE: Energy project meeting opposition A Publication of Shaw Media

Spring 2015 Spring AG 2014 Mag 1

PRSRT STD U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 440 STERLING, IL 61081 P.O. Box 498 Sterling, IL 61081 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

Index

AG Mag Northern Illinois

Publisher Sam R Fisher Advertising Director Jennifer Baratta Editor Larry Lough Magazine Editors Larry Lough, Jeff Rogers

20

Page Design Jeff Rogers Reporters & Photographers Sarah Brown, Goldie Currie, Pam Eggemeier, Dave Fox, Michael Krabbenhoeft, Philip Marruffo, Matt Mencarini, Mike Mendenhall, Jermaine Pigee, Ken Schroeder, Kathleen Schultz Angel Sierra, Terri Simon, and Christi Warren Published by Sauk Valley Media 3200 E. Lincolnway Sterling, IL 61081 815-625-3600

COVER STORY

Decision to make Northern Illinois farmers weigh their options for revenue safety nets in the 2014 farm bill.

Beefing up

Articles and advertisements are the property of Sauk Valley Media. No portion of the Northern Illinois Ag Mag may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Ad content is not the responsibility of Sauk Valley Media. The information in this magazine is believed to be accurate; however, Sauk Valley Media cannot and does not guarantee its accuracy. Sauk Valley Media cannot and will not be held liable for the quality or performance of goods and services provided by advertisers listed in any portion of this magazine.

Farmers in the cow-calf business have seen a dramatic increase in prices. Will the good times continue?

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Index Fresh start at college

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SPRINGFIELD SPOTLIGHT

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Dan Dykstra walks his show cattle out of the show barn on his farm northwest of Morrison. He has 50 head of cattle, and said he will keep back more heifers than he usually would.

(Philip Marruffo/ Northern Illinois Ag Mag)

PERFECT STORM FOR MIDWEST CATTLE FARMERS Prices hit historic highs – but costs up, too

T

BY MATT MENCARINI For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

he economic conditions for the cow-calf industry in the Midwest can be chalked up to simple supply and demand, the cyclical nature of all commodities, or the perfect storm of conditions that started in 2011. Or all three.

But the end result is the same: Historic profits.

In 2013, the average hundredweight price for cattle in the U.S. was $126.83, up from $97.18 in 2010. But the highest month in 2013 –

8 Spring 2015

$132 – is dwarfed by the prices once the calender turned over into 2014.

By March 2014, the average hundredweight price for cattle in the U.S. was $150. It kept climbing, reaching $159 in August and $169 in November.

W. Travis Meteer. beef extension educator with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, said the cow-calf business is traditionally a break-even business. But that changed last year.

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“We’ve seen it increase dramatically,” he said. “It depends on what economist you use, but profits have been at high as $700 a cow. That’s a huge, huge increase from what cow-calf producers are used to seeing.”

Drought induced

And it all started with a drought-stricken southern U.S. in 2011.

Once cattle producers in the South lose water, they can’t maintain the animals, Meteer said. They can bring in hay, but water is the issue. A huge liquidation of cow herd occurred in 2011 in the southwest, he said.

The drought returned in 2012, again during the grazing season, but this time it affected a larger portion of the country, including much of the Midwest.

When cattle operations don’t have water, cows get sold, Meteer said, and the industry went through 2 years of massive liquidation.

That’s where the simple law of supply and demand comes into play, said Phil Reemtsma, president of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association. And that was helped,

he said, by some misfortune in the pork industry with the spread of the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus, or PEDV, which killed off much of the pig supply.

“We had sort of perfect storm there of a shortage of animal protein,” he said.

That perfect storm resulted to record beef profits. And what cattlemen are doing with those profits can set them up for future success.

Mike Thacker of Walnut in Bureau County, who is president of the Bureau County Cattlemen’s Association, agreed that the most relevant factor is likely the drought.

Feeder cattle farmers who bought cattle in 2013 and sold them off in 2014 made a lot of money, Thacker said.

“I’ve heard of some pretty high numbers – hundreds of dollars a head,” he said.

“But you have to remember, those guys lost hundreds of dollars before. So everyone thinks they’re getting gravy right now; but the guys that feed the cattle are having to pay a fortune, and that’s really risky.”

Ups and downs

Some operators are building new facilities. In Iowa, many are building indoor

facilities that will not only reduce costs, but reduce the chance of run-off making its way into rivers or streams.

“From a big picture standpoint, it’s great time to be in the cattle business,” Reemtsma said “There is going to be some up and down. But people investing in those operations, … I think it’s going to be a good investment long term.”

But Bureau County cattleman Thacker, whose operation has about 80 head of cattle, has no plans to expand.

“The problem in this area is we don’t have an abundance of pasture, and you can’t really expand unless you take crop ground out and put it into pasture,” he said. “And it doesn’t usually make sense to do that.”

Others, like Dan Dykstra, vice president of Whiteside County Cattlemen’s Association who has 50 head of cattle about 5 miles northwest of Morrison, will keep back more heifers than he usually would.

While a heifer usually pays for itself in about 7 years, Dykstra said, he thinks he will cut that time in half with the animals he’s keeping.

CONTINUED ON 10

Philip Marruffo/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Cattle eat at the winter feeding station on Dan Dykstra’s farm northwest of Morrison. Dykstra thinks the recent spike in cattle prices will continue. “I just talked to a fellow in South Dakota,” Dykstra said. “They’re tickled to death with how things look this winter. If they have a normal year, a normal couple of years, I say 2 to 3 years [of more high prices].”

AG Mag

9

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Cattlemen looking to reinvest their profits from 2014 should consider all their options and evaluate whether they’re already maxed out, in which case the reinvestment might be best used to secure wealth against future loses or to make small changes to improve efficiency.

While starting up livestock operations on a farm that doesn’t already have them might be too expensive to take advantage of the current conditions, Meteer said, diversified farms with livestock and row crop may have an advantage to straight row crop.

“It just needs to be approached with common sense and awareness,” he said.

“It is a little bit of an unforgiving business.”

Costs up, too

Buying feeder cattle is a necessity of for Darren Walter in LaSalle County, where he raises about 350 head of cattle a year with his father and uncle. The Grand Ridge farmer said the bad part of high demand for beef is tighter margins caused by higher costs.

“While feed might have been cheaper, feeder costs were higher,” Walter said.

“Feeder prices are up about 50 percent higher this year than they were before.

“In 1994 when I got out of college and started farming, you could get a

‘‘

We’ve seen [the cow-calf business] increase dramatically. It depends on what economist you use, but profits have been as high as $700 a cow. That’s a huge, huge increase from what cow-calf producers are used to seeing.

W. Travis Meeter, beef extension educator

500-pound steer for around a dollar a pound. Today, that same steer is around $3 a pound.”

Walter compared the situation with the corn boom of a couple of seasons ago.

“When corn was $7, it was hard to find outside markets for grain, and that lower demand brought prices back down,” he said. “Today, that housewife on a budget has to think about it; chicken and pork start to look pretty good.

“Fortunately, I don’t think Americans will ever turn their back on steak. The people that go to a white tablecloth restaurant and pay $45 for a steak dinner, they’ll pay $52. It’s the housewives on a budget that have the problem.”

Lee Schulz, assistant professor of economics at Iowa State University who specializes in livestock, said production agriculture, and livestock in general, is notoriously cyclical. There was already tight a supply in the cattle industry before the liquidation happened, he explained, and that’s what triggered the high prices.

’’

“If we look at the markets, the fundamentals of both supply and demand are really supporting record profits in the livestock industry,” he said.

And 2015, Schulz said, looks like it could be on par with 2014.

But just as the weather in other parts of the country contributed to the rise in prices for cattle in the Midwest, it can also contribute to its fall.

“I just talked to a fellow in South Dakota,” Dykstra said. “They’re tickled to death with how things look this winter. If they have a normal year, a normal couple years, I say 2 to 3 years [of more high prices].

“If they experience another drought, it’ll extend it even more.”

What might seem like uncertainty to some, Meteer said, is just another year in the cow-cattle business.

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New teacher, updated program Highland prepares agriculture students for workforce

BY JERMAINE PIGEE For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Photo submitted to Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Students in the Introduction to Animal Science class at Highland Community College visited Holland Dairy Farm in Apple River to learn about dairy reproduction technologies. Patrick Holland, a student at the college in Freeport, led the tour.

Justin Ebert wants to do what he can to get agriculture students at Highland Community College a job once they leave the school.

Ebert, who spent the past eight years teaching agriculture at Oregon High School, was recently hired to bring his agriculture expertise to the college in Freeport.

He also helped to create a student agriculture club, which allows students to come together and promote agriculture.

CONTINUED ON 14

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“I was looking for a different challenge,” Ebert said.

“This program at Highland has been around for years, and it was in need of some updating, changing and revitalizing.”

Highland offers an agriculture transfer program where students come to the college for two years before going on to a university to finish their degree.

“We also offer two-year programs where you can study agriculture management,” Ebert said, “and I’ve also added some new courses in crop science.”

Scott Anderson, dean of business and technology at Highland, said having a new teacher gives the college a chance to update its program.

“The industry is changing, and we need to look at the industry and research topics that are happening in the region,” Anderson said.

Ebert, 37, said he wants to help students make connections with people who are

Photo submitted to Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Students taking the Introduction to Soils class perform nutrient tests on various soil types in lab class. Pictured (from left) are Ben Patterson, of Lanark; Morgan Patterson, of Polo; Jeremiah Ludewig, of Polo; Karissa Corbin, of Oregon; and Adam Bettner, of Oregon. working in agriculture.

“If a student comes here and just wants a two-year degree, I feel we have to try and help that student find a job,” Ebert said. “I’ve been out trying to make intern-

ship opportunities for students.”

Ebert has been around agriculture his whole life. He grew up on a farm in Ashton, which has cattle, corn and soybeans.

“I help on the farm when I

can,” Ebert said. “I was born into it, and I really enjoy it.”

Highland’s offerings include agriculture management courses, such as farm management, record keeping, and marketing.

The college also focuses on pest management, soils and other crop production areas.

Jalen Holman, a first-year student in the agriculture program, said she enjoys Ebert’s classes.

“Things have gone really well,” said Holman, 18. “He teaches the class really well, and there is a lot of class participation.”

The participation activities include field trips for students.

“We have gone to different farms, vet clinics and things like that,” Holman said minutes before starting an animal nutrition class.

About 40 students are in the agriculture classes, and 25 of them participate in the agriculture club, which gets students into the community.

CONTINUED ON 18

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AG Mag

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“The purpose of the ag club is to promote the college and the program,” Ebert said, “and it gets students out in the community where they can talk about what we have to offer.”

While they are in the agriculture club, students visit various companies and farms.

Students are also part of a dairy-judging team with which they judge dairy cattle at different competitions.

Anderson also said the student agriculture group can help to build camaraderie among the students.

“They are building interest in the program,” Anderson said. “It’s great exposure, and it’s an opportunity to show what we have learned. It also helps the program shine.”

Holman is also treasurer of the college’s agriculture club. She said the group will go to different Future Farmers of America events and do fundraisers.

Like Ebert, Holman said she grew up around animals. To this day, Holman raises and shows dairy goats in Freeport.

“I’ve been showing them for 11 years now,” Ebert said. “We have about 25 of them, and we get up to 50 in the spring.”

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Photo submitted to Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Highland Agriculture Club students help recruit prospective students at the Section 1 FFA Leadership Training School held Sept. 10, 2014, at the Highland Community College campus in Freeport. Pictured (from left) are Michelle Spittler, of Forreston; Karissa Corbin, of Oregon; Dylan Williams, of Thomson; Stephen Korte of Scales Mound; Chris Cummins, of Freeport; Justin Lott, of Pearl City; Tyler Thomas, of Pearl City; Ben Patterson, of Lanark; Chase Stoddard, of Byron; and Jordie Hale, of Winslow.

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‘Complex and difficult’ Michael Krabbenhoeft/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

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Direct payments disappeared in the new farm bill, and farmers have until March 31 to choose between two new safety net programs.

One of the programs modifies the previous farm bill’s target price program. The Agricultural Act of 2014 replaced the Counter-Cyclical Payment program with the Price Loss Coverage program.

The other option, with two variations, changes the revenue safety nets. Agricultural Risk Coverage replaces Average Crop Revenue Election with ARC County and ARC Individual Farm.

Farmers who don’t make a decision will automatically be enrolled in PLC; they will be paid for 2015, but not

2014 because CCP payments were based on the previous marketing year averages.

But before farmers make that choice, a more pressing information-gathering deadline is coming. Farmers have until Feb. 27 to update their base acreage reallocation and yield history information.

Jerry Quinton, executive director of Lee County Farm Service Agency, said farmers and landowners need to take care of the revisions before choosing a safety net option.

FSA needs the yield data as bushels per acre between 2008 and 2012.

“We take 90 percent of that and it becomes the new yield,” Quinton said. “That can then be used for the new PLC program.”

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AG Mag

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Even if they choose ARC County, FSA still needs producers to certify their yields.

To reallocate the base acres on a farm, FSA will use the average of the reported acreage from 2009 through 2012.

“I would urge farmers to take advantage of the yield and reallocation opportunities,” Quinton said, “because it’s the first time they could do it since 2002-2003.”

If no action is taken before the deadline, the current base and yield will be used.

Given the delay in crafting a new farm bill, the FSA offices are under the gun with the deadlines. Quinton said farmers should make an appointment with his office as soon as possible.

“We didn’t get the green light to start this until after October 1,” Quinton said in January. “Given the current situation, we’d need to average 46 farms a day now to finish on time.”

Several educational meetings were held throughout the area in recent months.

Decisions, decisions Feb. 27 – Deadline for farm owners to make base allocation and yield updates March 31 – Deadline for choosing between ARC and PLC safety net options for 2014 through 2018 crop years Summer 2015 – Producers sign contracts for 2014 and 2015 crop years October 2015 – Payments issued for 2014 crop year, if warranted

Michael Krabbenhoeft/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Julie Skiles, acting director of the Carroll County Farm Service Agency, speaks with farmers about the farm bill and explains the different plans that farmers have to choose from. The meeting, which was held at the Carroll County Farm Bureau, gave farmers information from the different plans offered under the new farm bill, passed in 2014.

While ARC County seems to be the popular choice in northern Illinois, many farmers are still weighing the risk in their decisions.

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CONTINUED FROM 22

ARC Individual doesn’t receive much attention in Illinois because it is believed to be a better choice for farmers who have smaller farms where climate, soil types, and yield can vary greatly throughout a county.

The only part of the safety net process that crop insurers are directly dealing with is the Supplemental Crop Option, which is available only as an add-on with PLC. “It’s a gamble, and I’m betting on prices holding up,” said Don Meyer, who raises corn and soybeans just outside Amboy.

“I’d probably use ARC County, but no one knows for sure how it’s all going to shake out.”

Meyer said ARC County is more straightforward and offers more protection in the first few years, while PLC might be better over time if commodity prices were to fall drastically over the 5-year life of the plan.

The PLC option would seem to be better suited for

farmers in the southern states, where crops like cotton and rice are king.

Because PLC offers a deeper Gary net, it might Schnitkey also be a better choice for new farmers who are just getting established.

It’s important to note that neither program is intended to replace crop insurance.

“You could have losses far exceeding what these programs offer, but this enhances regular crop insurance,” Meyer said. “Neither is a complete safety net, but if prices or yields fall, it will soften the blow.”

Gary Schnitkey, an agriculture economist at the University of Illinois, breaks down the decision process into three parts: Which has the highest expected payments? How concerned are you about low prices? What is the availability of the supplemental coverage?

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“ARC County probably has the highest expected payments for corn,” Schnitkey said. “This is best if you believe prices will be above $3.30 over 5 years, but you’d better be in PLC if you’re concerned corn will come in below $3.30.”

Recent corn prices have been in the $4 range.

Schnitkey said the availability of SCO isn’t likely to be a big factor because it adds only about 1 percent to the mix.

Deadline stress

In Iowa, Dave Miller is a go-to guy on the safety net options. He is the director of research for commodity services at Iowa Farm Bureau. Because of the complexity of the programs, even an expert like Miller has changed his mind on some of the finer points.

“A few months ago, I said ARC County is probably best for most people in Iowa,” Miller said. “But now I believe PLC competes pretty well in southern Iowa.”

Miller believes efforts to educate farmers are starting to cut through the initial confusion. The hesitancy has backed up the process, adding to deadline stress at the FSA offices.

“We had very good attendance at our state meetings,” Miller said, “and many people had gone to several meetings

before they said they were finally getting it because it’s complex and difficult.”

Miller still believes ARC County is best for soybeans in Illinois and Iowa, based on his calculations showing there is only about a 5 percent to 10 percent chance of getting PLC payments for soybeans in any of the 5 years.

For corn, the decision is not so simple.

Farmers are urged to remember that the safety net options will cover 5 crop years – a period from 2014 through 2018.

ARC County is likely to provide a bigger payout in the first 2 years, but not much protection on the back end of the contract.

With PLC, if corn hangs around $4.25, farmers might get only one payment, but it would provide much deeper protection if prices were to drop off the table into the $3 range. PLC also seems to be a better choice in areas where yields are steadier.

Assess debt, risk

Miller said much of the decision should be about assessing debt load and risk tolerance.

“If $3 corn could put you out of business, you should look at PLC,” he advised, “but others should get the max now with less protection in the back end. It’s kind of like sitting down at a poker game, and with ARC, you’re assured of winning your first two hands.”

Some global issues at play are cause for concern when betting on corn prices. Weather is always the biggest wild card, and farmers have been blessed with a longer up cycle with prices than usual in such a cyclical business.

Another record production year in 2014, nationally and in Illinois, could stoke worries about oversupply.

“It’s not a big concern at the moment – we went from $3 corn in August to near $4 now,” Schnitkey said. “But if we have another good year in 2015, it could get back to $3 in a hurry.”

Ethanol is another piece of the supply puzzle. Plunging oil prices and a trend toward reduced gas consumption present a potentially dangerous mix for the ethanol industry.

“Oil’s effect on the markets will definitely be something to watch moving forward,” Miller said. “It could put a great deal of pressure on the ethanol industry.”

Larry Hummel, a Lee County farmer and Farm Bureau crop watcher, said area farmers are concerned about the effect of low gasoline prices on alternative fuels.

“It doesn’t seem to be having too much of an impact here yet, but it’s a big question mark right now,” Hummel said. “The uncertainty about revising fuel standards makes it an even bigger concern.”

Ethanol producers use about 10 percent of the corn produced nationally, with a similar mix reported in Illinois.

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Here’s what five farmers had to say.

Ed Habben

ED HABBEN, farms corn and soybeans near Emerson “Mostly on the Internet at intellicast.com, or I use Accuweather on my phone. I do also still use the DPN transmissions.”

REID JOHNSON, farms corn and soybeans east of Prophetstown “I use the NOAA weather app on my cellphone. I can easily get what I want really quick off that

Reid Johnson

WITH CHRISTI WARREN/ NORTHERN ILLINOIS AG MAG

Don Temple

app, and I don’t know if it’s just my imagination, but it seems like it might be a little more accurate than others I’ve used.”

DON TEMPLE, farms corn and soybeans south of Fulton “Basically, I get my weather information from the Internet and TV. I check the Farm Bureau website, and DPN publishes it there.”

Doug Kuehl

Brian Duncan

DOUG KUEHL, farms corn and soybeans north of Morrison “I usually watch the weather man on TV, and I like Weather Underground. I just find it easy to use.”

BRIAN DUNCAN, farms grain, swine, and cattle in Polo “Usually on my computer or on my DPN screen.” www.fsbshannon-polo.com Shannon • 1 S. Linn St. • Ph. (815) 864-2111 Polo • 1 S. Linn St. • Ph. (815) 946-2777

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‘‘ S

YIELDS ’’ UP

Many different factors will impact the corn prices. Ethanol production, demand in China, and world weather patterns all have an impact. Corn and beans are really a global market.

Ted Koster, with Tettens Grain based in Galt

BY DAVE FOX For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

ometimes, the only certainty in farming is uncertainty.

Take corn, for instance.

Both yields and prices in corn markets have seen record highs in recent years. Yields continue to fluctuate, ever upward, while prices seem to have corrected themselves – downward – after the golden grain hit an all-time high in recent years.

Many different factors can impact yields of corn – and other grain – from one year to the next, and yields have a definite impact on prices.

Gilbert Hostetler, president of Deer Grove-based Prairie Hybrids, said that good quality seed, good genetics, a good fertility program, and a good supply of organic matter in the soil are all vital to getting the highest possible yields.

Even under ideal conditions in those four factors, Mother Nature has a lot of say in the end product.

Ted Koster, with Tettens Grain based in Galt, is a firm believer in good weather producing good crops.

“A lot of what happens in the end depends on the weather during the growing season, for sure,” Koster said.

“Last year was a fairly good year in northern Illinois for corn,” he said, “because of the good summer growing season. A lot of it depends on heat days, rainfall and so forth.”

26 Spring 2015

ACREAGE DOWN

Record corn production prompts market correction Market corrections

Corn is moved from one step to the next in the seed corn processing plant at Prairie Hybrids in Deer Grove.

(Dave Fox/Northern Illinois Ag Mag)

Actual corn yields have more than doubled since 1975, according to the USDA, and an estimated 21 states – including Illinois and Nebraska – had record yields in 2014. The 2.35 billion bushels harvested in Illinois was 3 percent higher than the previous record in 2007.

After record yields and high prices, the market has worked to correct itself.

There is somewhat of a downward trend on the number of corn acres being planted, according to USDA’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report, which was released on Jan. 12.

According to that report, an estimated 97.3 million acres of corn were planted in the U.S. in 2012-13, with that number dropping to 95.4 million acres the next season. The agency estimates a drastically lower 90.6 million acres of corn being planted in the U.S. in the coming growing season, with prices half of what they were less than 3 years ago.

Of course, the actual yield per acre will largely depend on the type of seed planted, according to Prairie Hybrid’s Hostetler.

“GMO [genetically modified seed] tends to produce slightly lower yields per acre than non-GMO,” he said.

“Non-GMO corn generally produces about 15 bushels more per acre than GMO varieties,” he said. “Some of our non-GMO seed averages 200 to 225 bushels per acre, and we have had some go as high as 300.”

Hostetler attributes much of that to the fact that non-GMO plants break down into organic matter in the soil much more effectively after the harvest. That, in turn, leads to higher plant productivity.

CONTINUED ON 28 AG Mag

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CONTINUED FROM 27

Another impact on yield increases, particularly with GMO corn, is insufficient levels of oxygen in the soil, he noted.

Farmers who use no-till or low-till methods “just aren’t getting enough oxygen back into the soil,” he said, “and that has slowed the per-acre yields of GMO corn somewhat. One of our customers said he gained 20 bushels per acre simply by cultivating.”

Supply and demand obviously play a huge part in prices at the end of the season.

Koster, with Tettens Grain, noted high spikes in pricing recently, but said that the market always corrects itself.

“During the past five years, corn hit a high of $8.30 per bushel,” Koster said.

“That was in 2012,” he noted. “This year, there was such a high yield that the price hit a low of $3.30, but the market is coming back up off the bottom side, and we’re at about $4 now,” he said in early January.

“Prices are generally lower due to an excess supply of corn,” he explained, “and they were at record highs before because we’d had two bad years in a row.”

World events, governmental policies,

Dave Fox/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Cleaning chaff from seed corn is one of many steps in the overall process of getting corn ready for sales and planting in the spring. and other global factors impact grain prices here and abroad as well.

“Many different factors will impact the corn prices,” Koster said. “Ethanol production, demand in China, and world weather patterns all have an impact.

Corn and beans are really a global market.”

Abundance of corn Overall, supply and demand tend to have the biggest impact on how much is planted and what will go to the bank at harvest time.

CONTINUED ON 29

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and Ted’s father, agrees that there will likely be less corn production this year.

“The trend for this year is more bean acres and less corn acres,” the elder Koster said. “I think that’s economically driven.

“On the corn side of it, people worldwide started planting more corn, so the prices dropped a lot because the supply was higher than the demand.”

CONTINUED FROM 28

Pioneer Seed’s Steven Long, based in Sterling, said there will likely be more beans and less corn planted this coming season, at least in the Midwest, as a step toward correcting the market.

“There will probably be a little bit of a trend toward more beans and less corn this year,” he predicted. “It’s a little more economical to put out beans. It’s a crop that costs less to produce than corn.”

Once existing corn supplies begin to shrink, it’s possible prices could go back up somewhat and more could be planted.

Not so this year, in all likelihood.

“We’ve got enough supply of corn on hand right now,” Long said, “Planting more beans probably won’t drive corn prices back up, but it will give existing supplies of corn a chance to be used.

“Farmers have a lot of corn just lying around in storage bins right now. We need to use some of it up, to create more of a demand for corn again before the prices will go back up,” he said.

“As there’s an abundant supply of corn, and less demand, the price will always go down,” he said. “Low prices cure low prices.”

And while GMO corn may not be keeping up with non-GMO in yields, it does lend itself to other advantages.

Production caps?

Dave Fox/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Kevin Larkey, who farms in the Walnut area in Bureau County, said that even though the weather is in control of the crops ultimately, “we do the best we can with technology, so I personally don’t see any plateau in production.”

“There tend to be less insects and other things,” Koster said, “because GMO corn has traits built in that make it insect and fungus-resistant.

Dan Koster, president of Tettens Grain,

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Will corn yields ever reach a plateau?

“I don’t think that will ever happen,” Dan Koster said. “We keep trying to do better and do more.”

Pioneer’s Long agreed.

“Yields will likely keep going higher in the years to come. We’ve got the technology now to get higher yields, and we’ll keep seeing improvements.”

Kevin Larkey, lifelong grain farmer in the Walnut area, feels per-acre yields will continue to increase.

“Yields will continue to get slightly higher each year,” he said. “Mother Nature is in control of the crops ultimately, but we do the best we can with technology, so I personally don’t see any plateau in production.”

But Hostetler, with Prairie Hybrids, believes farmers will have fewer acres in corn again this season.

CONTINUED ON 38

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Mobilizing ag resources On smartphones and tablets, farming apps a ‘game-changer’

BY ANGEL SIERRA For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Submitted to Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Emerging applications for smartphones and tablets don’t just make a farmer’s field work a little easier.

They also enhance the producer’s ability to track and adjust to problems, and make sense of critical farm data on-thefly, area experts say.

Adam Henkle, 35, is a seventh-generation Lee County farmer who helps on 1,600 acres of a homestead near Sublette that dates back to 1843.

And as an independent contractor for DuPont Pioneer, Henkle specializes in transitioning farmers to equipment and software that can seamlessly integrate and they measure, monitor, and extract vital information.

In this screen shot from a promotional video online, a farming app is displayed that shows a few of the options available to farmers and service providers.

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The technology is a welcome, helping hand, Henkle said, because a lot of the work that once required manual adjustments, such as variable-rate changes on the field, have become automated, and guidance systems and monitors, which previously were only available on combines, now are connected to almost every machine.

Today’s farmers are highly educated and apt to using the technology on the market, said Danelle Burrs, 29, manager of the Lee County Farm Bureau. Tablets such as iPads have made their way into the cabs of tractors working rows on the ground.

A NorthCentral Illinois Ag Mag online search for farming apps listed several top-tier agriculture companies that produce companion programs for mobile and tablet use. While most of those share similarities in function and goal, the wide spectrum available spans simple calculators to feature-rich suites.

Encirca, a division of DuPont Pioneer, pushed last year to bring field and crop scouting information to the hands of farmers and service providers, an indicator by the Des Moines, Iowa-based leader that shows real-time management of field data is a positive trend.

Under the Encirca umbrella are two

powerful apps: Encirca View, which provides market data, crop conditions and weather forecasts, and Encirca Yield, which analyses seed irrigation and Nitrogen levels, according to its website.

“It’s an amazing tool, [and] I’ve had a very positive reception,” Henkle said, adding that mobile apps like Encirca have become the go-to for farm management, increasing efficiency. “We’re only using what we need, when we need it.”

Farmers now can precisely record downforce or diseased crop locations with pinpoint accuracy, all with the help global positioning. Some apps are even cloud-based, and can securely back up data off-site for ease of mind.

“Field360 Tools” by Pioneer offers precipitation and growth stage estimators, and “Field360 Plantability” is a seed/ planting calculator.

Precision Planting, a company purchased by Monsanto in 2012 and one of Encirca’s primary competitors, produces a tablet-only service called “FieldView” and “FieldView Plus.”

The apps are similar to other high-end programs in that they provide detailed scouting reports and highlight deficiencies, but also display color-coded terrain in high-definition, and offer remote management and collaboration, a popular add-on with the premium service.

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another that sprouted in 2012. The app is free to download from the App Store, but appears to have weaker support as a stand-alone program and requires an activation code and sync from Deere’s proprietary software that the customer might have installed on his home computer.

A subscription might be required to use the variety of apps available, but some have free or basic versions after an account is established.

Burrs has seen a transition in her seven years with Farm Bureau, to a point where farmers now have mountains of information and data about their fields, and some businesses exist simply to make sense of it all, helping growers identify deficient or underperforming crops.

“GPS allows them to be more precise, [and] through soil sampling and tests on their fields, they can apply fertilizer to just that specific part of the field,” Burrs said. Targeting swaths or sections never was an option before the technology came along; it certainly involved approximation, and not accuracy, as is now available on the market, she said.

Mobile farming apps for smartphones and tablets “are a game-changer,” Burrs said, because the more information a farmer has about his farm, the better he can grow his crop and become a better steward of the land.

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31

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Mike Mendenhall/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

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Rock Island Clean Line, Block RICL still in dispute

BY TERRI SIMON AND KATHLEEN SCHULTZ For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

It could be the Hatfields and the McCoys of Illinois.

While the Hatfield and McCoy folklore was in West Virginia, the legendary feud between the two families is synonymous with justice, the honor of one’s family, and in some cases ... a bit of revenge.

Enter Rock Island Clean Line – an energy transmission project that conceptually begins in North Central O’Brien County in Iowa, and ends at a ComEd substation in Grundy County, Illinois. In Illinois, the projected path of the line begins in Rock Island County at the Mississippi River south of Cordova, and then runs through Whiteside, Henry, Bureau and LaSalle counties before ending in Grundy County.

But not so fast, RICL. Enter Block RICL – a grassroots organization growing in numbers, which doesn’t want any part of RICL. It’s more than just a “not in my backyard” type of group, rather one of people who are eager to preserve the generations of farmland they own, while bitterly refusing any suggestion of eminent domain.

They are also a group of people who

are not afraid to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to legal recourse; many have joined efforts to prevent the transmission project. To date, Block RICL spokespersons said, tens of thousands of people have joined similar efforts in Illinois and across the country, including Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, South Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas, Tennessee and more.

Illinois approval In late November 2014 the Illinois Commerce Commission granted RICL a certificate of public convenience and necessity, which allows it to build and operate the 121-mile Illinois portion of the new 500-mile direct current electric power line. RICL, a subsidiary of Clean Line Energy of Houston, Texas, had submitted its application to the ICC in October 2012.

The application proposed two routes, a preferred and alternative route; the preferred route was approved by the ICC. On Jan. 14, the ICC denied a request for a new hearing that was filed by entities: ComEd, the Illinois Agriculture Association (aka Illinois Farm Bureau), and the Illinois Landowners Alliance.

Members of Block RICL say they will continue to oppose the project, despite ICC’s decision not to rehear the case.

RICL recently filed for the same permission in Iowa as it did in Illinois and must go through a similar regulatory process, which took two years in Illinois.

Officials hope to have that Iowa approval yet this year; begin construction as early as 2016; and begin transmission as early as 2018. That time line could change based on regulatory approvals.

The Iowa portion of the project is also being met with many opponents and landowner opposition.

If the line is approved, it will deliver a projected 3,500 megawatts of wind power from the greater northwest Iowa area to Illinois. The lines could carry electricity produced from wind farms in South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa though Illinois and eastward, though the majority would be from Iowa.

“The ICC approval is a great step forward for the Rock Island Clean Line project and brings Illinois one step closer to creating a cleaner energy future,” Michael Skelly, president of Clean Line Energy, said in the release in late 2014.

CONTINUED ON 34

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Preferred route for Rock Island Clean Line project

“We are grateful to the commission for their careful consideration of our application and proposed route.

By approving game-changing projects like the Rock Island Clean Line, Illinois will benefit from access to low-cost clean energy and job creation in the construction and manufacturing sectors.”

Jobs ... and objections According to the company, RICL would decrease the annual cost of wholesale electricity used to serve Illinois customers by an estimated $320 million in its first year of operation alone.

In addition, it would bring a direct investment of about $600 million in the state, and create hundreds of construction jobs and job support in the manufacturing sector for the wind turbines that will provide power for the line.

CONTINUED ON 35

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Artwork contributed by RICL

This is a close-up map of the proposed RICL transmission line across Illinois, which begins in Rock Island County and travels through Whiteside, Henry, Bureau and LaSalle counties before ending at the Commonwealth Edison plant in Grundy County. The proposed line is 121 miles long.

CONTINUED FROM 34

RICL has said it will use local vendors, such as construction materials suppliers, and will buy its wire from Southwire Inc.’s Flora factory in Illinois. The project is expected to generate millions of dollars in local government revenues each year for counties, schools, fire districts, and other community services where the line and converter station are located.

But Block RICL has many, many objections to the project, debunking

many of RICL’s claims and promises.

Perhaps the most pressing issue, according to spokespersons for the organization, is that RICL is a private company seeking authority of eminent domain without proving a need for such a project. The group takes exception with RICL telling the ICC the company needed eminent domain to attract investors for a private, speculative project.

Another huge issue for Block RICL is the concept that this ruling will set a precedent for case law.

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And Block RICL has considerable concerns on the environmental impact of the project, as well as medical studies that could prove to be a concern.

A Block RICL spokesperson, Mary Mauch, originally from Meriden in LaSalle County, said the average age of landowners along the proposed RICL line are well into their 70s. She urges people not to sign any documents without legal counsel.

“It is about protecting our private property rights, first and foremost,” Mauch said, “and second, about protecting our income and investments, and the health concerns of families living close and working around the massive structures in the fields. ...

“People on the outside, who don’t know the value of farmland, think it’s a big sum of money [that RICL will pay for putting towers on the land]. They don’t understand,” Mauch said. “Right now, things are really going in our favor, but it just takes a lot of time. This is our family legacy – four and five generations – and we’re just trying to protect it for the next generation.”

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AG Mag

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Comfort food Sterling church group cooks with a cause

BY CHRISTI WARREN Northern Illinois Ag Mag

A group of about 10 women at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Sterling just love to cook.

They cook for each other, with each other, for others, for fun. They just love it.

And together, as the Women of St. Paul’s, they work to feed the sick, the mourning, and those who come to worship.

They’ve written several cookbooks – unfortunately, none are available for purchase any longer – and do it all out of the goodness of their own hearts.

When friends of the church are in need, the Women of St. Paul’s come through, indeed, with delicious food. (From left) Nancy Eilers, Judy Bartel and Carolyn Duncan hold onto a popular Orange Jello Salad they prepare for meals at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Sterling.

(Philip Marruffo/Northern Illinois Ag Mag)

CONTINUED ON 37

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Orange Jello Salad

Judy Bartel and Nancy Eilers helm the group.

“It’s a great time,” Eilers said. “Just people getting together and knowing that you’re helping a family. ....”

Bartel is in charge of planning food for the funerals.

“Besides making the people that are having the funerals feel good and comfortable and happy about a nice meal, we have fun doing it as a group,” she said. “It’s kind of a fellowship for us.”

Meals range from the classic, with potatoes and baked beans, to the sweet.

“We always have lots of desserts,” Bartel said.

“I love to make pies,” Eilers added. “I love to make everything, but it’s always fun to get a new recipe and make something.”

‘‘

1 package tapioca pudding (not instant) 1 package vanilla pudding (not instant) 1 package orange jello 1 container Cool Whip (medium) 2 cans Mandarin oranges Mix puddings and jello together with 3 cups water (use orange juice from the drained mandarin oranges as part of your liquid). Bring to a boil and then remove from burner and cool. When completely cool, add Cool Whip and Mandarin oranges (drained). Refrigerate overnight or until set.

Besides making the people that are having the funerals feel good and comfortable and happy about a nice meal, we have fun doing it as a group. It’s kind of a fellowship for us.

Judy Bartel

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“There will be definitely less corn in 2015,” he said.

“Farmers are scared stiff they’ll be making a lot less money. The market is correcting itself.”

Once corn production reaches certain levels, or continues to hit record highs in both yields and prices, what are the chances that the government will impose caps on either area or both?

“I don’t think the government would ever be able to pull it off,” Hostetler said.

“They’re just too big and clumsy to do something like that.”

Dan Koster tends to agree.

“I don’t think the government would cap production,” Koster said. “We have had that in the past, but I don’t see that as an underlying issue in the foreseeable future.”

Pioneer’s Steven Long also agreed.

“I don’t think they will [impose caps],” Long said.

“It’s not really an issue. The market tends to correct itself.”

Production caps aren’t really needed because the market always corrects itself, according to Ted Koster.

“I would obviously think there would be less corn planted after these past few years,” he said, “because demand isn’t keeping up with supply. It will balance out after a while, though.

“There’s no need for government caps because of that,” Koster added. “Agriculture tends to be a self-regulating kind of thing in that regard.”

Larkey doubts farmers will see any such limitations.

“We like cheap food, and the government does too,” he said. “The best way to ensure cheap food is to produce lots of it, and we can’t do that if the government puts limits on how much is produced.”

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‘The crazy ones don’t last long in this business’

Aerial spraying (don’t call it cropdusting) ‘not as easy as it looks,’ pilot says

BY DAVE FOX For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

In the midst of endless field crops, a yellow plane appears from nowhere and seems to nosedive over a road toward a cornfield as it speeds along, releasing a steady spray in its wake before it angles sharply upward and turns at the end of the field, repeating its daredevil acro-

batics until its work is finished.

Les Cady, 43, is the third generation of his family to serve the Sauk Valley as an aerial sprayer – or crop-duster, as such people are more commonly known.

During a recent interview at his main hangar south of Rock Falls, Cady was a study in contrasts. An easy smile

and a ready laugh gave way to a deep knowledge of his profession, including enough technical talk about both flying and spraying to make your head spin.

“It’s not as easy as it looks,” he said with a smile. “It really takes total concentration while you’re up there.

CONTINUED ON 40

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“You’re not just flying, but you’re running the spray system and running the GPS and constantly looking for obstacles, and that’s all going on while you’re moving across the ground at 140 mph.”

He is the third in his family to take on this type of aviation. His grandfather, Joe Cady, actually started the business in the early ’60s, and his dad, Neil, ran things for a number of years, taking over when Joe retired. “And I just took over last year from my dad,” Les said.

“He [Neil] still comes around from time to time,” Cady said, “and he’ll help out with some things, but I’ve pretty much run things since last year.”

A licensed pilot, Les attended Parks College, an aviation school in St. Louis, where he graduated in 1991 after becoming accredited as an aviation mechanic.

“It’s really beneficial being a mechanic as well as a pilot,” he said, “because it really decreases our down time when there are mechanical issues. It makes it easier to take better care of the customers.

“We do all our own maintenance here,” he continued. “I know the planes inside and out, and that cuts down on breakdowns quite a bit. We spend the winter going over the planes and fixing them before there are any problems. That way we can be more on-target for our customers.”

When asked to explain crop-dusting, he laughed again.

“Those of us in the business tried for a long time to get away from that label,” Les said. “We were really pushing ‘aerial sprayers’ as a job title.

“Then, when the 9/11 attacks happened, the media kept talking about how these terrorists were learning to fly and had plans to pose as crop-dusters,” he said. “The news was full of that term for the longest time, so we just threw up our hands and said, OK, we’re crop-dusters.”

The business basically uses small aircraft to spread chemicals on crops.

Three of the main applications deal with insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.

CONTINUED ON 41

BOGOTT

Photos by Dave Fox/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

At his shop near Rock Falls, Les Cady talks about how spray nozzles can be adjusted up or down so that wind shear can assist with determining droplet size.

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When he got into the business, Les said, he sprayed mainly insecticides to help control crop-destroying insects.

Now, with genetically modified seeds, insecticides aren’t as necessary as they were 20 years ago because that type of plant, especially corn, has anti-insect safeguards built in.

“It’s not always effective,” he said, “so sometimes we still spray for insects, but there has been more of a swing to spraying fungicides the last 20 years.”

Cady recently upgraded his planes and now has two Air Tractor Model 502 planes, made especially for crop dusting. Each plane features a 750-horsepower turbo-prop motor by Pratt and Whitney.

“Turbine engines are a much bigger advantage over older piston engines,” Cady said, “because they have more power and better performance, plus they’re quieter and require less maintenance.”

Each plane burns around 50 gallons per hour of K-1 kerosene.

“That’s actually what jet fuel is,” Cady said with a smile, “just glorified kerosene.”

Each plane has a top speed of up to 160 mph, but working speed is typically 140 mph, according to Cady.

“The faster you go, the more the drag increases, and the more horsepower you use,” he explained. “We already use a lot of horsepower just to carry the spray, and 140 mph is just a more manageable speed.”

About Cady Aerial Spraying • Les Cady, owner • 5305 Hoover Road, Rock Falls IL 61071 (located near Deer Grove, southeast of Tampico) • Cropdusting, featuring insecticide and fungicide treatments • Aerial cover crop planting applications • Phone: 815-438-3591 • Fleet includes two Air Tractor Model 502 planes, each with 500-gallon spray tanks and 750-hp turbo prop engines by Pratt and Whitney.

Dave Fox/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

A hose is attached to a tank full of chemical to be sprayed, with the other end being attached to this filler valve on the plane so the plane’s 500-gallon tank can be filled safely.

At 140 mph, the work goes fairly fast, he said.

“Sizes of the fields we do varies quite a bit,” he said, “but generally goes anywhere from 40 to a couple of hundred acres.”

A 200-acre field takes 30 to 40 minutes to spray on average, “but that can vary quite a bit,” he said.

“Sometimes you get a field

with a lot of obstructions and turns, and that takes a lot more time,” he said.

Average productivity is 220 to 230 acres an hour.

“I spend around 300 hours in the air during a given season,” he said.

Accuracy is always a concern, and Cady remarked several times how safe aerial spraying generally is as far

as the chemicals and where they go.

“We have our planes pattern-tested every year,” he said.

Both planes are equipped with GPS systems that keep track of spray swaths and patterns, and “can also control the flow control across the field because your speed can vary going up-field as opposed to down-field,” Cady noted.

“It takes a certain kind of person to do this kind of work,” he said. “People tell me I’m crazy, but the crazy ones don’t last long in this business.

“Getting to fly bigger more advanced aircraft makes it exciting. and I get a lot of pride in knowing I’ve done a good job for the farmer, and that I’ve helped in one link in the chain of agriculture.

“When I first started flying small aircraft,” he said, “I had no idea I’d end up doing something like this. It’s pretty awesome.”

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AG Mag

41

Bringing the past into the present

BY GOLDIE CURRIE For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Dave Kepner of Walnut stands near his latest mechanics project.

Kepner found a way to put an electronic fuel injection system on his 1965 John Deere 4020 gas-powered engine. The new system now allows his old tractor to start just like a brand new pickup truck.

(Goldie Currie/Northern Illinois Ag Mag)

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Dave Kepner of Walnut in Bureau County has always had a knack for all things mechanical.

He admits to being called a “gear head” when he was in school.

“I was that kid who would rather tear his bike apart than ride the dang thing,” he said.

Kepner started his career in mechanics in 1959, right after high school, when he went to work at the John Deere Dealership in Walnut.

CONTINUED ON 43

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With 56 years of experience under his belt, he’s developed a reputation as being a “go-to” guy when a piece of equipment isn’t running properly.

Often times, Kepner can be found in his machine shed tinkering around with tools and old tractors, but lately that time spent tinkering has produced a unique project that’s completely modernized his 1965 John Deere 4020 tractor.

Kepner has transformed his tractor’s gas-powered engine into an electronic fuel injection system that runs on modern unleaded gasoline.

The modern technology touch to his vintage tractor allows it to run pretty much like “a new pickup truck,” he said.

It’s an idea that has yet to really make it into the agricultural scene, according to Kepner.

“I’ve never heard of anyone who has done this yet,” he said. “But the need is out there to use these old tractors.”

With this conversion, he added, farmers can transform their old gas-powered tractors into a better product.

With a mechanical background, Kepner had the idea for the conversion.

He said the automobile industry had found a way to convert old vehicles to EFI systems, and he wanted to incorporate the same idea for his tractor.

Goldie Currie/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Kepner explains his work and technique in hooking up an electronic fuel injection system on his old gas-powered engine tractor. According to Kepner, this is an idea that has yet to make it into the agricultural scene, but the demand is out there, as many farmers have kept their old gas-powered engine tractors but have yet to find use for them.

His first step in coming up with the method was calling a company in Memphis, Tennessee., who works on conversions for old vehicles. Kepner was able to get in touch with a company engineer who was willing to give direction, via the phone, with the EFI retrofit system hookup. The engineer happened to be a farmer from Mississippi and had a good idea of what Kepner was trying to accomplish.

Kepner said once he was able to get direction from the engineer, the project

didn’t take much time to complete. A tad bit of remodeling to parts on the tractor had to be done to incorporate the new system, but the modern touch has barely touched the vintage look of the John Deere 4020 model.

“It’s just awesome what it does [to the tractor],” Kepner said, referring to the conversion. “It doesn’t smoke. It starts easily, and it’s really like driving a new pickup truck.”

Kepner said the new twist gives his tractor 10 percent more horsepower than when it left the dealership, while using 20 percent less fuel.

“It’s just correcting a lot of mistakes made when they were first built,” he said.

When Kepner took his project to a corn pickers show this past fall, he received a lot attention from fellow farmers interested in his conversion.

Today, he keeps busy doing the same conversion to four tractors people have asked him to complete.

Kepner said he is more than willing to share his idea. He said he doesn’t care who does it; he just thinks it needs to be known that it can be done so farmers can utilize the late model gas-powered tractors.

“The country is just full of them, and they’re just sitting around not being used,” he said, adding there is still a good market for the small tractor that’s capable of doing those little projects around the farm.

AG Mag

43

‘More than corn and beans’ Sterling High School starts Ag Club

BY JERMAINE PIGEE For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Michael Krabbenhoeft/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

A group of students started an agriculture club at Sterling High School last fall, with hopes of starting a Future Farmers of America program. “Most kids don’t know what a tractor is, and I’d like to inform people about it,” said senior James Rahn, one of about 20 students in the club.

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Students at Sterling High School want to bring more of an agriculture presence to the area.

“We are in an ag community without an ag presence in the school,” said Broc Colville, a junior.

Because of that, a group of students has come together to help create a new agriculture club at the school. The program was started last fall with about 20 students.

James Rahn, a senior at SHS, said he wanted to get the program started mainly because he wants to help educate his classmates about the world of agriculture.

“Most kids don’t know what a tractor is, and I’d like to inform people about it,” Rahn said. “I want to figure out ways to educate our fellow students on ag because the kids are interested.”

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Joie Roddy, the club’s adviser, said the ag program is still getting off the ground, so activities have been limited.

“Right now, we don’t have a set purpose and a set thing we come to meetings for,” Roddy said. “A lot of the kids in the school don’t understand there is so much more to agriculture than just corn and beans.”

Another goal of the group is to get enough presence to form a Future Farmers of America program, a student-led leadership development organization for agricultural students.

Tad Everett, superintendent of the Sterling School District, said the discussion about an FFA program has taken place for years.

“With our new online curriculum that we have been looking at, it has the potential of offering some ag courses for the students,” Everett said.

“Based on that, it provides a possibility of revisiting this conversation once again.”

Students also Tad want to build Everett a hydroponics display in the school. Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions, in water, without soil.

“They want to build a hydroponic set-up so we can have something tangible in the school so students can see there is more than just corn and beans in agriculture,” Roddy said.

“We are just now getting to the point where we want to put this up and get it going.”

Members of the group are also preparing a list of places to visit.

“We want to go to someone’s farm, or we may go to a daily farm or hog farm,” Roddy said. “We are just a young group that is just starting.”

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GMO label debate likely to resume in 2015 Two bills failed in last General Assembly

BY MATT MENCARINI For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

Sarah Brown/Northern Illinois Ag Mag

In response to consumer demand, General Mills announced its original Cheerios cereal is now made without the use of genetically modified ingredients. While there are no GMO oats, which is the primary ingredient in Cheerios, General Mills now uses only corn starch derived from non-GMO corn and non-GMO pure cane sugar.

46 Spring 2015

When the state’s 98th General Assembly came to a close in December, it left two bills unresolved.

Those pieces of legislation, one in the House and one in the Senate, call for mandatory labeling of food products containing genetically modified organisms – GMOs. GMO in relation to food is also referred to as biotechnology – or genetic engineering. Proponents of the bills say the labeling provides consumers with information about the foods they’re eating – information they have a right to know.

The critics say it puts GMO in a negative light and adds an economic burden to businesses in Illinois.

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State Sen. David Koehler, D-Peoria, who represents the 46th District, which includes parts of Peoria, Fulton, and Tazewell counties, introduced his bill in February 2013. That year he held three public hearings on the issue – in Chicago, State Sen. Bloomington David and CarbonKoehler Said legislation dale.

The House he introduced in Senate is all bill was introabout “giving duced by Rep. consumers a Deborah Mell, choice.”

D-Chicago, who is no longer a member of General Assembly.

In a video from the June 2013 hearing, Koehler said there’s some thought that GMO labeling law should come down from the federal level, which is something he can’t control. But as a member of the Illinois General Assembly, he said, he and state government can do what they think is best for their constituents.

“I think the strongest case is that, as a consumer, let me decide,” he said in 2013. “And that’s really what this legislation is all about – is giving consumers a choice.”

Mandatory vs. voluntary The Illinois Farm Bureau supports voluntary labeling of GMO or non-GMO

‘‘

When you talk about pennies, and you look at a box of mac and cheese, that’s a big deal. Pennies is the margin of error to the food industry. It’s just another burden on the food industry.

Kevin Semlow, Illinois Farm Bureau

food products. It also supports the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s policy of “science-based” labeling.

The organization is opposed to mandatory labeling, which the Illinois bills called for.

Those bills would put GMO, or biotechnology, in a negative light, said Kevin Semlow, director of state legislation for the Illinois Farm Bureau.

The Farm Bureau isn’t against consumers knowing what’s in the food products they buy, he said, but the GMO labels are biased to portray them as negative Scientific research, he said, has proved GMO’s to be safe.

Semlow also said the labeling would create an unfair business environment in the state, where food producers would need to make sure all products going to Illinois for sale have labels.

Movement spreads According to the Center for Food Safety, a national non-profit public interest and environmental advocacy organization, three states have passed labeling legislation. In 2013 and

2014, 26 states, including all that boarder Illinois, had labeling laws introduced in their state governments.

A September 2014 report by the Oregon-based consulting company ECONorthwest for Consumer Union, the policy and action division of Consumer Reports, found “the median cost of labeling in the studies that provided relevant models was $2.30 per person per year.”

The cost estimates in the studies reviewed ranged from 32 cents to $15.01 a year for each person.

But Semlow said even pennies can make a difference.

“When you talk about pennies, and you look at a box

’’

of mac and cheese, that’s a big deal,” he said. “Pennies is the margin of error to the food industry. It’s just another burden on the food industry.”

Consumer Union favors the labels. A survey the group conducted found that 92 percent of Americans want genetically modified foods to be labeled. Consumer Union takes the stance that labels should also say whether food is genetically engineered.

While neither of the bills in Illinois was brought to a vote during the 98th General Assembly, Semlow said he expects them to be revisited in the 99th General Assembly, which convened in January.

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48 Spring 2015

Willard Mott teaches agriculture classes and is the FFA sponsor at Bureau Valley High School. “I think every student needs a basic understanding of where their food and fuel come from,” Mott said.

(Goldie Currie/ Northern Illinois Ag Mag)

Instilling ag knowledge into young lives Nearly all students have ag class at Bureau Valley

BY GOLDIE CURRIE For Northern Illinois Ag Mag

In his 10 years of teaching at Bureau Valley High School, Willard Mott has worked hard to provide the best agricultural educational experience for his students.

He’s watched his classes and FFA program expand as he has encouraged students from all backgrounds to study at least one aspect of agriculture.

With agriculture being the No. 1 industry in this area and U.S., Mott feels the education is important for all students.

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“I think every student needs a basic understanding of where their food and fuel come from,” he said. “Ultimately, everyone is a consumer, and consumers need to know where their products are coming from and what goes into their production.”

Mott counts himself among those students who didn’t come from an agricultural background but learned to respect everything it had to offer.

It wasn’t until he took a summer job on a small farm as a child in Lake City, Minnesota, that he was introduced to the lifestyle. That job eventually led him to milking cows on a nearby dairy farm.

From there, he decided to take an ag class at school and joined the local FFA chapter.

Mott said his first trip to the Minnesota State FFA Convention really opened his eyes to what the ag industry had to offer.

“That really got me interested in ag, and it really encouraged me to be more involved in FFA,” he said.

After high school, Mott was set on furthering his studies at the University of Illinois but didn’t have a plan for the rest of his life. With so much diversity in the ag industry, he found it difficult to

50 Spring 2015

‘‘

You have to keep up with the industry, because you cannot teach students outdated information and release them into the industry and have them be off-pace or whatever you told them not be true.

Willard Mott, teacher at Bureau Valley High School

pinpoint one subject to stick with for an entire career.

“Through all my experiences, I decided teaching was probably the best fit for me,” Mott said. “Agricultural education was broad enough where I could do a lot of things in really any aspect of agriculture.”

Today, Mott has his hands in many different ag subjects. He teaches a wide array of ag courses, including animal science, welding, horticulture, ag business, and ag science.

He believes the constant changing and evolution of the industry, due to technology, presents the greatest challenge of teaching agriculture.

“You have to keep up with the industry,” he said, “because you cannot teach students outdated information and release them into the industry and have them be off-pace or whatever you told them not be true.”

At Bureau Valley High School, which

’’

includes the towns of Walnut, Manlius, Wyanet, Buda and Sheffield in Bureau County as well as some students from Bradford in Stark County, about 90 to 100 students are taking at least one ag class each year. The FFA enrollment is around 75 to 80 students.

“We almost have 100 percent of students in an ag class here at Bureau Valley,” he said. “Every year we try to recruit more students. I’d love to see it expand and grow.”

Mott said the more students who come from non-ag backgrounds, the more important ag education will be in schools.

“It’s a historical fact that there are fewer and fewer farmers every year,” he said. “So with fewer farmers, there are fewer students who come from an ag background. And that just means we need to educate more people.”

Index of Advertisers 1st Farm Credit Services ............ 35

Farmers National Bank................. 4

Northern Grain Marketing, LLC .. 38

Ag View FS, Inc .......................... 45

First National Bank in Amboy....... 11

Peabudy’s, Inc .............................. 5

AgriEnergy Resources................ 43

First National Bank of Rochelle.... 33

Peoples National Bank/Kewanee . 50

Apple River Well & Pump ........... 36

First State Bank of Shannon....... 25

Peru Waltham................................ 44

BC Tech Group ........................... 42

Forreston Mutual Insurance Co.. 41

Pioneer Utica ................................. 45

Beck Hybrids .............................. 46

Gold Star FS, Inc........................ 23

PLN Mutual Insurance Company.... 7

Birkey’s Farm Store ...................... 2

Good Samaritan ......................... 12

Ray Farm Management Serv ..... 48

Bocker Excavating...................... 40

Harry’s Farm Tires ...................... 38

Rediger, Rick R.E ....................... 37

Bogott Plumbing, Inc.................... 40

Hotsy Equipment Co................... 47

Rosengren, John ........................ 32

Bos Farm Repair.......................... 38

Ideal Seed Treatment ................. 22

Rotary Airlock, LLC..................... 19

Bradford Victor-Adams Mutual Ins.. 52

Illinois Bank & Trust .................... 21

Sawicki Motor Company............. 10

Burkardt’s LP Gas ...................... 24

Index........................................... 51

Schmitt Plumbing & Heating....... 38

Bushman’s Service..................... 28

Jo Carroll Energy, Inc ................. 39

Schoff Farm Service ................... 48

Carroll Service Company............ 25

Johnson Precision ...................... 32

SI Distributing, Inc ...................... 23

Central Bank Illinois.................... 42

KSB Hospital .............................. 18

Snetcher Custom Farming.......... 36

CGH Medical Center .................. 15

Leffelman & Assoc, Inc ............... 20

Sterling Futures .......................... 31

Community State Bank................. 3

M&M Aviation.............................. 38

Sublette Mechanical ................... 44

Cornerstone Agency, Inc ............ 16

Michlig Energy, LTD.................... 45

V&C Construction Co., Inc.......... 49

Countryside Marketing................ 45

Midwest Bio-Tech Inc.................. 34

Vaessen Brothers Chevrolet....... 21

Diversified Services .................... 34

Milledgeville Farmers Elevator ... 29

Vern’s Farm Supply, Inc.............. 35

Eastland Fabrication, LLC .......... 37

Milledgeville State Bank ............. 29

Whiteside Co. Farm Bureau ......... 6

Ehrmann, Gelbach, Badger, Lee

Milledgeville Vet Clinic ................ 28

Wick Buildings ............................ 13

& Considine, LLC.................... 33

Moore Tires, Inc.......................... 41

Wilcox Construction.................... 14

Elmore Electric, Inc..................... 49

Morrison Auto Supply ................. 30

Witmer Precision Services.......... 17

Farmers Mutual Insurance Co.... 30

Napa Auto Parts ......................... 24

Zoeller Ag Services..................... 31 AG Mag

51

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Mel Saad Agency 928 8th Avenue, Erie 309-659-2470 saad@mchsi.com

VanderVinne Agency 127 E. Main St., Morrison 815-772-8900 angievandervinne@yahoo.com

First State Insurance 385 Chicago Rd, Paw Paw 815-627-8552 gsaf74@yahoo.com

Kirchhofer Insurance Store

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Miller Insurance Group 427 N. Main Street, Rochelle 815-561-9911

Query Insurance Agency, Inc. 330 May Mart Drive, Rochelle 815-562-4152 mail@queryinsurance.com

Adami Insurance Agency 712 First Avenue, Rock Falls 815-625-6220 meagan@wmccinc.com

Hugh F. Miller Insurance Agency, Inc.

Cornerstone Insurance Agency

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