UPfront

Here comes another one

Biomass progress You’ve heard a lot about stage two of the ethanol business. Here’s a place to see what it looks like. Project Liberty (www.projectliberty.com) is a Web site built by POET to show how their biomass harvesting experimentation is progressing. Stop by the site to see a video of corn cob harvest and more. At a recent international summit on biofuels in Brussels, POET CEO Jeff Broin said, “Our facility in Emmetsburg, IA, where Project LIBERTY will be implemented, is an example of what the future could look like. Today, it is a 50-million gallon per year corn-based ethanol plant powered by natural gas. In the not-too-distant future, this plant will be transformed to a 125-million gallon biorefinery producing ethanol not just from the corn kernel but additionally, also from a waste product, the corn cob. Not to mention the lignin, or waste product from the biomass, will then be used to power both the grain and biomass plants, further reducing fossil fuel consumption. It is my belief that a plant such as this will eventually be able to produce many other products in addition to ethanol and distillers grains. “Our research and development teams are working on many projects that have the potential to convert the grain and other parts of the crop into value-added biochemicals and biopolymers. “Friends, the renewable revolution is not far off,” said Broin.

Glyphosate resistant Johnsongrass confirmed

Looks like it’s time to add Johnsongrass to the list of weed species that have become resistant to glyphosate. Scientists from the University of Arkansas and Monsanto have confirmed glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass in a field in southeast Ark. And, in a separate finding, specialists at Mississippi State University confirmed a case of Johnsongrass resistance to glyphosate near Clarksdale, Miss.

The resistant plants in Arkansas were found in Crittenden County in a field that has been in continuous Roundup Ready soybeans.

“We’re looking at Johnsongrass populations in a field where there has been a history of control issues,” said Dr. Bob Scott, University of Arkansas Extension weed scientist.

“Our greenhouse trials show differing levels of response including some plants that survive following application above labeled rates of glyphosate. Additional populations suspected to be resistant were also tested but showed susceptible to Roundup in testing,” Scott said. “The resistant populations are being controlled well with selective chemistry. We will continue working with the grower on control methods and recommendations.”

Dr. Trey Koger and Dr. Dan Poston of MSU’s Delta Research and Extension Center are working on the Mississippi case.

“The farm where glyphosate-resistant Johnsongrass was found in the Delta has responded well to applications of graminicides,” Koger explained. “We are working with the grower to get control of this population before it spreads by combining various methods including chemistry and equipment inspection.”

Like Scott, Koger said other populations have been screened as well. “We have screened several populations of Johnsongrass in the mid-Delta for potential resistance to glyphosate. They all turned out to be susceptible to glyphosate in greenhouse trials. We determined low control levels in the field were attributed to extremely dry conditions at the time of glyphosate application.”

As always, the best way to avoid weed resistance in glyphosate-tolerant crops is largely common sense: Start with an effective burndown; use label rates of glyphosate; use a residual herbicide if weed pressure dictates; stay ahead of weeds to keep them from going to seed.


HappyTalk
Economist and speaker Jeff Thredgold has a different take on the drum beat of today’s news cycle. And while this was written, he was busy noting some serious warnings from economic statistics. But, Thredgold likes to spend a little time every now and then to report just the good news. Here’s a few of his data points. Find the rest at www.thredgold.com/html/leaf080305.html.

• Today’s moms and dads, whether working or at home, are spending 4 to 6 hours more per week with their kids than did the previous generation.

• The nation’s jobless rate averaged 4.6 percent in both 2006 and 2007, the lowest average in 6 years, and lower than average rates in the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

• U.S. corporations hold an estimated $611 billion in cash on their balance sheets, a “tool” to help lessen the chance or minimize the impact of a recession.

• Donations to charity set an all-time high in 2006, with a total of $295 billion donated by individuals, foundations and corporations. As a percentage of GDP, Americans gave twice as much as the next most charitable nation…England.

• Productivity of the average U.S. worker rose an average of 2.6 percent annually during the past 10 years, the largest gains in 40 years. Rising productivity is a long-term key to higher standards of living.

• Women earned nearly 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in recent years, versus 43 percent in 1970 and 24 percent in 1950. Women earned a similar share of master’s degrees.

• Median (half more, half less) family income now exceeds $54,000 annually.

• The United States still accounts for roughly 40 percent of global research and development spending.

• Flexible work schedules are now the norm for 43 percent of workers, up from 29 percent in 1992 and 13 percent in 1985. This allows greater flexibility for more people, especially those with children.

• In 1967, only one family in 25 earned $100,000 or more (inflation adjusted to 2005). Today, one in six families does. The share of families earning more than $75,000 annually in real dollars has tripled from nince percent to 27 percent, while the share of families earning between $5,000 and $50,000 in real dollars has fallen by 19 percent since 1967.

• Corporate profits now represent more than 12 percent of national income, up from seven percent in 2001, and the highest since record keeping began in 1947. Strong corporate earnings are the backbone of rising stock prices.


Another angle for hemp
Unless you travel the sustainability circuit, you probably haven’t heard much about hemp as a crop lately. But proponents of the crop are using energy prices as a green cudgel. Hemp, they claim, is a fiber for the high-priced-fuel future.

From a report by the libertarian Reason Foundation: “Not only has the government banned hemp production in the U.S., it is also directly subsidizing other crops that the study shows to be ‘environmentally inferior.’ Corn farmers received $51 billion in subsidies between 1995 and 2005; wheat farmers were given $21 billion; cotton farmers netted $15 billion; and tobacco farmers were handed $530 million in taxpayer-funded subsidies.”

Subsidy rates for mainline commodities have changed with higher commodity prices. Meanwhile, the claim about environmentally inferior crops is leveled because hemp proponents claim it wouldn’t require much weed control and lesser amounts of fertilizer. That’s something that could be attractive given current input prices. Still, we’d like to see hemp proponents’ agronomic claims stand up to a few years worth of production for top yield before we pin on the ‘legalize’ buttons. You can find the full report, Illegally Green: Environmental Costs of Hemp Prohibition, at: http://reason.org/ps367.pdf.


100 years of Today’s Farmer—when bulls flew
This magazine covered MFA’s unique dairy genetics program in 1950 under the headline Heavenly Calves. But what made it unique was the flying bull.

Looking through the archives of a farm magazine strikes the observer in conflicting ways. Some stories are clearly familiar. When you flip back 50 or 70 years, you see coverage of universal and timeless agricultural challenges. But the way the challenge is approached has usually changed. Take artificial insemination and envision that common liquid nitrogen tank full of semen straws. That’s an advance over what we reported decades ago when, instead of freezing semen, it was loaded on an airplane and delivered fresh—via airdrop.

Here’s the straight scoop from 1950 associate editor Glenn Hensley:

“Since the start of MFA’s artificial breeding service several years ago, the problem of getting fresh semen delivered throughout the territory has constantly faced those in charge. Many different means were tried. Last fall, serious tests were begun to see if aerial delivery might be an improvement.”

The tests proved to be more efficient than other ways of delivering semen at the time, which often took as much as 48 hours to go from stud farm to its destination. Air dropped semen could be delivered in 6 hours. Hensley continued:

“Two flights leave the farm each day, except Sunday. One goes northwest, then east through Sedalia, comes back south and east as far as Eldon, Buffalo and finally Bolivar before returning to the base. Western limits are Cassville and eastern flights go as far as Alton, West Plains and Salem. Each of the two ‘Flying Bulls’ cover about 380 miles per day. Ground mileage by highway would approximate 1,500 to do the same. Said Warren Nordyke, manager of the MFA Artificial Breeding Association, ‘This service is just another step which our organization is taking to do all possible to help make Missouri a great dairy state. The bulls at our farm are among the finest in the nation—much too expensive for each individual dairy farmer to hope to own or maintain. Yet their services are now as close as a telephone. We hope that by flying semen out into the territory that our efficiency will be increased and, as a result, the dairy herds of Missouri will continue to be improved.’” Of course, in subsequent years, artificial insemination technology made air delivery redundant. But for a few years, the hazy early morning of the MFA dairy breeding farm near Springfield, Mo., was split with the roar of a full-throttle flying bull lifting off for a day of delivering top genetics.

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