3. TAKE PRECAUTIONS WHEN HANDLING
DRY PODS TO REDUCE SOYBEAN HARVEST LOSSES
From MSU ANR 10/01/07
“Dry
pods are often brittle and that increases the potential for shatter losses at
the header,” says Mike Staton, Michigan State University (MSU) Extension
educator and Soybean 2010 coordinator. “Shattering accounts for most of
the losses that occur during harvest operations and make up as much as 75
percent of total harvest losses.”
Harvest
losses of 10 percent of the total yield can easily occur and can reach 15
percent if combine operators don’t pay close attention to equipment
adjustments and operation. With careful management, harvest losses can be held
to 3 percent or less.
“The
best way to prevent shatter losses is to harvest as much of your crop as
possible before the moisture level in the beans falls below 13 percent,”
Staton says. “When soybeans undergo repeated wetting and drying cycles
after initially drying below 13 percent moisture, the pods become more brittle
and shatter easily.”
Mechanical
damage and split beans are also more likely this year due to the low moisture
levels in the beans. Check the clean grain hopper on the combine frequently,
and make adjustments as necessary to reduce splits. The following
recommendations will help you harvest and market more of your 2007 soybean
crop.
For
more information about improving
Adverse weather conditions ranging from floods to droughts are forcing
5. Incompatible Standards
May Keep African Organics Out of Europe. By Sue Scott, Inter Press Service, September 21,2007.
http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/blog/ Climate Crisis
Coalition News Archive.
“The newly launched East Africa Organic Standards designed to boost exports to
Europe, could fall at the first hurdle if the largest licensing body in the
6. Jane Goodall Says Biofuel
Crops Hurt Rain Forests. By Timothy
Gardner, Reuters, September 26, 2007. From:
http://www.climatecrisiscoalition.org/blog/ Climate Crisis Coalition News
Archive.
“Primate
scientist Jane Goodall said on Wednesday the race to grow crops for vehicle
fuels is damaging rain forests in Asia, Africa and South America and adding to
the emissions blamed for global warming. ‘We’re cutting down
forests now to grow sugarcane and palm oil for biofuels and our forests are
being hacked into by so many interests that it makes them more and more
important to save now,’ Goodall said on the sidelines of the Clinton Global Initiative, former U.S. President Bill
Clinton’s annual philanthropic meeting… Goodall said the problem is
especially bad in the Indonesian rain forest where large amounts of palm nut
oil is being made. Growers in Uganda — where her nonprofit group works to
conserve Great Apes — are also looking to buy large parcels of rain
forest and cut them down to grow sugar cane, while in Brazil, forest is cleared
to grow sugar cane. The Goodall
Institute is working with a recently formed group of eight
rain forest nations called the Forest Eight, or F8, led by
Sep 28, 2007 9:43 AM, By Elton Robinson
Farm Press Editorial Staff
http://deltafarmpress.com/news/070928-lift-prices/
Deteriorating crop conditions in
When asked how big of an acreage response to prices might be
expected for next season, market analyst Jonah Ford, speaking at the
Minneapolis Grain Exchange September press briefing said, “A whole bunch.
I can’t give you a hard number this early in the season. But with the
profits farmers can expect to see at these prices, you’re going to see a
pretty big shift. The shift has already been priced in, if you look at July
2008 futures.”
At one point in mid-September, December wheat futures at the
Chicago Board of Trade were around $8.50 a bushel, with July 2008 coming in
around $5.87.
One surprise in USDA’s Sept. 12 world supply and demand
estimates was the agency’s projection for Australian wheat production of
21 million metric tons. Most in the trade believe production is actually closer
to 15 million metric tons to 19 million metric tons, due to dry weather.
“Most of the Australians are fairly pessimistic on
their production, thinking it’s closer to 14 million metric tons to 16
million metric tons,” said Ford, who is senior analyst for Great Pacific
Trading Company.
According to a CBOT report,
The upshot is that there is growing end user concern with the
price of wheat, according to Ford. “Obviously those who did not get
hedged earlier this year are paying a pretty severe price.
“Without fundamental shifts — whether taking
millions of acres out of conservation or just having prices so high that it
stimulates global production — trendline yields and world production are
not keeping up with the expansion of the global economy.”
The situation should carry over to other crops, too, noted
Ford. “Those in the soybean business are going to be looking around for
acreage next year, and it would probably be a good idea for them to lock in
prices on oil and meal.”
Ford did add that if land is taken out of the Conservation
Reserve Program and committed to wheat production, “you’ll probably
see a knee-jerk reaction initially. Looking at the global supply situation, it
may shave 10 percent or 15 percent off respective prices. World demand is still
strong and understated by the market.”
The impact of wheat prices on consumer food prices could
become a big story next year, too.
Corn prices, while weaker by comparison, will most likely
start to improve by March, according to Ford, a situation which should benefit
producers with storage capacity. “The demand in corn is still there.
Worse case scenario, we’re down to $3.15 to $3.25 on December
futures.”
Short-term for corn, “we could be in a sideways trading
range for the next few months,” Ford said. “Nonetheless, if we do
get upwards of $10 wheat and $10 beans, there will be as much substitution as
the world will allow. And that’s going to keep corn prices above $3 and
perhaps stimulate a rally going into next year as well.”
While USDA lowered its estimate of
ethanol use in the