2012 Spring Farm

STATE COLLEGE, PA —AccuWeather.com reported,on Feb. 21, following a near-record number of tornadoesin 2011, an active severeweather season with above-normal tornadoes is expectedin 2012.

As if to emphasize its pre-diction, the nation’s midsec-tion sustained 80 tornadoeson March 2, matching in oneday, what normally is talliedduring March across the U.S.

There were 1,709 torna-does in 2011, falling short ofthe record 1,817 tornadoesset in 2004. In comparison,the average number of torna-does over the past decade isaround 1,300.

Last year ranks as thefourth most deadly tornadoyear ever recorded in theUnited States.

In 2011, there was a very

strong La Nina, a phenome-non where the sea surface

temperatures in the centraland eastern Pacific around

the equator are below nor-mal. As a result, there was avery strong jet stream, whichis a key ingredient for severe

weather.Often, in a La Nina year,

the tornado alley shifts to theeast, spanning the Gulf

States, including Mississippiand Alabama, and the Ohioand Tennessee valleys.

During the extremely activesevere weather season of2011, many tornadoestouched down east of the typ-ical tornado alley, whichstretches from Texas toKansas.

Warmer-than-normal Gulfof Mexico water is a keycomponent to the active se-vere weather season antici-pated in 2012.

There will be a sufficientsupply of warm and humidair to fuel supercell thunder-storms, the type of systemsthat spawn strong tornadoes,because of the warm Gulfwater.

“Areas that seemed to missout on frequent severeweather last year may see anuptick this year,” said DanKottlowski,

frIDay, March 16, 2012 www.farm-news.com farM News / fOrT DODGe, IOwa 1c

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By LARRY KERSHNERFarm News news editorFORT DODGE — If his-

toric weather patterns holdtrue, farmers should pre-pare for a drier-than-nor-mal and possibly awarmer-than-normal sum-mer.

Craig Solberg, a senioranalyst for Freese-Notis,told an audience in FortDodge last month that win-ters such as the Midwesthas experienced in thepast, dating back to 1900,resulted in the same weath-er pattern the next summer“without one exception.”

But that was last month.According to Bryce An-

derson, senior meteorolo-gist for DTN, the La Ninapattern is showing signs ofbreaking up, with a quicktransfer into El Nino byMemorial Day.

If that happens, the grow-ing season could be milderin temperatures, Andersonsaid, although it may con-tinue to be dry.

Anderson cited researchconducted by KlausWolter, a climatologistwith the National Oceanicand Atmospheric Adminis-tration, among the past 10La Nina events that en-dured for two years, six ofthose resulted in a quickmove to El Nino. The oth-er four reverted to La Ninaconditions.

“There is a switch goingon,” Anderson said.

That’s comforting on thetemperature side, but formoisture, things may notchange much.

“The research shows thatduring an El Nino summer,the Corn Belt is dryer, es-pecially in northwest andnorth central Iowa.”

These areas, especiallythe northwest, are alreadyshort of topsoil moisture.

This sets the table for ear-ly planting, Anderson said,“but the crops will be in

timely need of showers.”Anderson said the farther

east one travels in Iowa,the better the topsoil mois-ture content is, settingthose farmers up for possi-ble quick crop emergence.

East central Iowa, hesaid, is at 75 percent ade-quate topsoil moisture.

“They are in better shapegoing into planting,” hesaid. “We definitely see‘have and have not’ situa-tion in the state.”

Good news/bad news

Solberg offered goodnews and not-so-good newsin his weather outlook.

Describing the current LaNina weather pattern thatformed in 2010 and hasbeen the cause for above-average temperatures andbelow-average rainfallthroughout the westernCorn Belt, he said there areindications the La Nina con-ditions are weakening.

However, that happened

last August and the patternreformed, causing the un-usually warm and dry Mid-west winter.

He said his research ofother top-10 years withwarm winters, dating backto 1900, all resulted inwarm and dry summers.

"We may not see muchimprovement in soil mois-ture levels as we are seeingnow," Solberg said.

However, he said yieldstudies in those same years

indicate that the 2012 har-vest "may not be a bin-buster, but it won't be a dis-aster, either."

If his outlook is accurate,watch for summer overnighttemperatures to be above-normal as in 2011, whichwill pull the top off cornyields, Solberg said.

Corn and weather

Solberg said since 1970,in every summer that aver-aged one degree or more

above average, only 1987produced a bin-busting cornyield and only two years —1973 and 1987 — pro-duced above-trend yields.

Conversely, he said, since1970, every summer thataveraged one degree ormore below-average, onlytwo years (1993 and 1996)failed to produce a new na-tional record yield.

Contact Larry Kershner at(515) 573-2141, ext. 453 [email protected].

Northwest, north central Iowa in dire need of rain

-Contributed photo

a forecasT map from Telvent/DTN shows most of Iowa can expect mild temperatures, but little or no relief from the current droughtconditions.

Nation braces for above-normal tornadoes in 2012

-Contributed graphics

waTer TemperaTures are running above-nor-mal in the Gulf of Mexico, leading climatologists topredict volatile weather patterns this spring and sum-mer as the moisture mixes with dryer air patterns inthe north.

This weaTher paTTern was the run-up to theMarch 2 tornado outbreaks that centered in the Ohioand Tennessee river valleys. More of the same is ex-pected as the spring extends into summer.

La Nina or no, dry year looms

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2012 Spring Farm Edition

COON RAPIDS (ISU) –Managers at WhiterockConservancy are learninghow native grasslands canprovide both environmentalbenefits and nutritional cat-tle grazing.

The project received acompetitive grant in 2009from the Leopold Center forSustainable Agriculture’sEcology Initiative, and isfeatured in a new video,“Grazing Native Grasslandsat Whiterock.”

The project team will pro-vide landowners and cattleproducers with informationabout the ebb and flow ofnutrient availability inprairies, savannahs andwarm-season grasslands bycreating a grazing nativegrasslands calendar.

The calendar will alignnutritional data with thegrazing needs of cattle herdsand effects on the environ-ment.

Tolif Hunt, executive di-rector of Whiterock Conser-vancy, leads the project.

Hunt hopes for develop-ment a management plan forgrazing restored nativegrasslands that will help cre-ate viable options for ruralIowa.

He said the work helpsforge partnerships betweenconservation organizations,cattle producers and govern-ment agencies.

“This project already hashad that impact,” he said.“We’re collectively lookingat grasslands as an endan-gered resource that we allhave a stake in.”

In the Midwest, vastgrasslands developed withthe help of fires and grazingby buffalo and elk.

Today, the few remaining

protected or restored grass-lands in Iowa often lack thedisturbances that once keptthem healthy.

Managed properly, cattlecan help return beneficialdisturbance to a landscape.

In one example, thelandowner might managecattle so they selectivelygraze for cool-season grass-es, creating more room forwildflowers to flourish.

“We understand that graz-ing is a really important partof the historic disturbanceregime of these restored

grasslands,” said ElizabethHill, a former WhiterockConservancy ecologist whois now pursuing her master’sdegree at the University ofSouth Dakota.

“We want to be able to in-tegrate the grazing compo-nent into our prairie landspurely for the function ofit.”

To gather data about thenutritional quality and bulkquantity of forage, re-searchers collect biweeklysamples from three types ofgrassland — reconstructed

prairie, restored oak savan-na and grassland dominatedby warm-season grasses.

They sort the vegetationinto various types, such aswarm-season grasses, cool-season grasses, sedges andlegumes, to calculate nutri-ent availability at differenttimes of year.

Preliminary results sug-gest that native grasslandsoffer good grazing opportu-nities.

That might make grass-lands an economically vi-able option for landowners,

providing a financial returnwhile protecting environ-mental benefits such as im-proved soil health andwildlife habitat.

“We’re all going to lose ifwe lose out to $8 corn,”Hunt said.

In the final stage of theproject, researchers will de-velop a Prescribed GrazingPlan and put it into practiceat Whiterock Conservancy.

A 5,400-acre nonprofitland trust in west centralIowa, Whiterock Conser-vancy is sponsored by the

Iowa Department of NaturalResources, Iowa NaturalHeritage Foundation,Leopold Center, PracticalFarmers of Iowa, Iowa Cat-tlemen’s Association,SOAR, Creating GreatPlaces, and Iowa Environ-mental Council.

Partners on this researchinclude Mary Wiedenhoeft,associate professor in agron-omy at Iowa State Universi-ty; Joe Sellers, ISU Exten-sion, Pat Corey, tenant andcattle producer; and RachaelOdhe, ISU graduate student.

Grazing native grassland project under way

-Farm News file photo

A nAtive grAsslAnd grazing project at Whiterock Conservancy in Coon Rapids, is attempting to forge partnerships with cattlemen,conservation organizations and government entites. The project is also expected to lead to development of a grazing calendar.

By DarCYDoughErtY

MauLSBYFarm News staff writer

Years of research haveproven that good weedcontrol within the first fourto six weeks after plantingis critical to avoid lossesfrom yield-robbing weeds.

Since the effectivenessof any weed control pro-gram depends on timeli-ness, more agronomists arerecommending the use ofpre-emerge products, com-bined with a season-longstrategy, for best results.

“Now’s the time to thinkabout how you can diversi-fy your weed managementprogram,” said Bob Hart-zler, a professor of agrono-my at Iowa State Universi-ty. “We need to use herbi-cides more wisely than wehave in the past to be surewe have valuable weedcontrol tools available tous in the years to come.”

Waterhemp, marestailand lambsquarters have be-come more challenging tocontrol in west centralIowa, said Mark Licht, anISU Extension field agron-omist, based in Carroll.“While I’m not ready tosay we have widespreadglyphosate resistance, I an-ticipate that the sameweeds are going to beproblematic into the fu-ture.”

Licht added that thereare isolated cases of burcu-cumber, sedge and shatter-cane problems in the re-gion.

Similar weed challengesoccurred in northwest Iowain 2010, said Joel DeJong,an ISU field agronomist,

based in Le Mars. “We sawsome escapes with water-hemp, lambsquarters andmarestail, and I suspectthese same ones will createthe most challenges in2011.

“It seems that they arethe ones that might beshowing some glyphosateresistance or tolerance.”

Get off to a good startWhile the timing of her-

bicide applications some-times allows for less weedcontrol than farmers would

like, weather stress toplants during herbicide ap-plications can also allowfor escapes, DeJong said.

“Although it’s best tocontrol weeds when theyare small, sometimes this isnot possible when theweather remains wet,” hesaid.

Starting with a founda-tion product that providesadequate residual controlcan help address these is-sues, said Licht, who en-courages growers to

choose products that willtarget the weed species thatare problematic in specificfields.

“There is likely not asingle herbicide for allfields,” he added. “Youdon’t use the same hybridon all your acres, so whyuse the same herbicide?”

For pre-emergence her-bicides on soybeans, manyfarmers are using triflu-ralin or Valor- or Authori-ty-based products, saidPaul Kassel, an ISU Exten-sion field agronomist,based in Spencer.

Waterhemp and lamb-squarters, which wereproblematic in the area in2010, are very difficult tocontrol with post-emergeherbicides, however, if theglyphosate does not work,he added.

Not only do pre-emergeproducts help control earlyweed growth, they reduce

the number of weeds thatmust be controlled after thecrop emerges, DeJong said.

“When we have fewerweeds to control, we typi-cally do a better job,” hesaid. “I recommend match-ing your herbicide selec-tions to the weed issuesyou have on your field, andrealize that this might notmatch others in your neigh-borhood.”

Not just one approachDeJong also recom-

mends using multiplemodes of action at multipleapplication times to reducerisks of resistance.

This is a much better op-tion than relying 100 per-cent on post-emergence ap-plications or relying 100

percent on glyphosate.Mick Thon, agronomy

department manager atFarmers Cooperative Com-pany in Hinton, is helpingfarmers in his area selectfrom a range of options todevelop an effective weedcontrol strategy to fit theiracres.

This is especially impor-tant as resistance issues be-gin to emerge in the area,he said.

“Last year we have somefarmers using two timesthe rate of Roundup and itstill didn’t take the weedsout.

“While resistance issuesmove slowly at first,lulling you into the belief

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2012’s weed watch—

Watchfulness will be key in fieldsA little weed can do all that?Big trouble can come in small packages when it

comes to weed control in crop production, said KendallTurner, marketing head of the Prairie and Mountain re-gion of Syngenta Crop Protection.

This trouble can include:∫ When a grower delays weed control until weeds

are 2 inches tall, yield reductions of 7 percent—ormore than 12 bushels per acre—can occur.

∫ Weeds consume nutrients (including nitrogen,phosphorous and water) faster than corn. Studies showthat corn plants in weedy fields accumulate only halfthe nitrogen of crops in clean cornfields at the V2stage.

∫ The “3:3:1” rule means in three days 3-inchweeds can remove up to 1 inch of water from the field.

While this fact is easily understood in irrigated cornwhere water is an annual expense, it’s just as importantin non-irrigated corn.

However, since competition for soil moisture and ni-trogen can result in reduced grain fill, which leads toyield loss.

-Contributed photo

VeLVetLeaf in soyBeans. ISU researchers have documented that thisweed has a greater tendency to resistance to Roundup than any other weed.

JoelDeJong

BobHartzler

MarkLicht

See YIELDS, Page 4C


URBANA (Univ/Ill)—Waterhemp has done itagain. University of Illinoisresearchers just publishedan article in Pest Manage-ment Science confirmingthat waterhemp is the firstweed to evolve resistance toHPPD-inhibiting herbi-cides.

“A fifth example of re-sistance in one weed speciesis overwhelming evidencethat resistance to virtuallyany herbicide used exten-sively on this species is pos-sible,” said Aaron Hager,

University of Illinois Exten-sion weed specialist.

Waterhemp is not a weedspecies that can be ade-quately managed with oneor two different herbicides,Hager said. This trouble-some weed requires a muchmore integrated approach.

“Large-scale agronomiccrop production systemscurrently depend on herbi-cides for weed manage-ment,” Hager said. “Aweakness in this approachlies in its strength; becauseherbicides are so effective,

they exert tremendous se-lection pressures that, overtime, result in resistantweed populations as naturaloutcomes of the evolution-ary process.”

In an article in the Jour-nal of Agricultural andFood Chemistry, Hager andPat Tranel, a U of I profes-sor of molecular weed sci-ence in the Department ofCrop Sciences, shared theresults of a survey of multi-ple-herbicide resistance inwaterhemp.

The results showed thatall populations resistant toglyphosate were also resist-ant to ALS inhibitors and40 percent contained resist-ance to PPO inhibitors.

Adding HPPD resistanceto the mix complicatesproblems for growers andscientists. When weedsstack several forms of re-sistance, it greatly reducesthe number of viable herbi-cide options.

“We are running out ofoptions,” Hager said. “Thismultiple-herbicide resist-ance in waterhemp has thepotential to become an un-manageable problem withcurrently available poste-mergence herbicides used inconventional or glyphosate-resistant soybean.”

Hager said they’ve al-ready discovered one water-hemp biotype that’s resist-ant to four different herbi-

cide families. He said grow-ers may see five-way resist-ance in the future.

Fortunately, there arevery few annual weedspecies in the United Statesthat have shown this levelof multiple resistance.

Waterhemp is a dioe-cious species and ideallysuited for evolving herbi-cide resistance by sharingresistance genes among

populations and biotypes.“For example, you can

have HPPD resistanceevolving in field A, and inadjacent field B you canhave selection forglyphosate resistance,”Tranel said. “Pollen is al-ways moving in the air, al-lowing pollen from field Ato mix with resistant plantsfrom field B resulting inHPPD and glyphosate re-

sistance in the same proge-ny. That’s how easy it is tostack resistance.”

The pressure is on for in-dustry to develop new op-tions and for growers tochange their practices ofhow they use products tocontrol the weed spectrum,he added.

Hager, Tranel and Dean

that you can get by onemore year, they complete-ly take over when they hit.

“If you’re only usingone mode of action forweed control in 2011, itwill come back to hauntyou.”In 2011, MaxYieldCooperative’s agronomyteam members are also fo-cusing on customized weedcontrol solutions for eachclient that go far beyond theproper rates for Roundup.

“Being proactive is criti-cal,” said Tim Bruns, aMaxYield agronomy spe-cialist.

“Waterhemp, for exam-ple, can grow 3 inches aday and you don’t wantweeds robbing yield, espe-

cially at today’s grainprices.”

Finally, it’s important touse the right herbicide ap-plication rates at the rightweed height, Licht said.

“Don’t think that just be-cause you have a burndown herbicide you canwait until the weeds aretaller for more efficientcontrol,” he said. “Cuttingrates and prolonging appli-cations simple won’t work.

“Also, don’t try to trimyour herbicide costs by cut-ting the rate since this maycome at the expense ofproduct effectiveness.”

You can contact Darcy

Dougherty Maulsby by e-mail at

[email protected].

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Yields Continued from Page 3C

Adaptive weed can resist four herbicides

Expect waterhemp to be recurring issue

-Contributed photo

Waterhemp in soybeans. Iowa State University researchers have testedwaterhemp plants from a number of locations around the state. Individual se-lected plants survived an average of 2.6 times the labeled rate of glyphosate,with some plants able to shrug off even higher rates.

See WATERHEMP, Page 5C

Riechers, a U of I associ-ate professor of herbicidephysiology, were recentlyawarded a grant from Syn-genta to study how water-

hemp populations evolveresistance.

They will collaboratewith Syngenta’s scientiststo find answers regarding

the genetics, inheritance,and mechanisms of resist-ance to HPPD inhibitors.

“We are excited forthe opportunity to col-

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Waterhemp Continued from Page 4C

By DARCYDOUGHERTY

MAULSBYFarm News staff writerDES MOINES — The

days of simple weed controlare over, and it’s time tochange the game plan, espe-cially as more weeds figureout how to beat the systemand develop resistance to her-bicides.

“Resistance is here to stay,and I think it might startspreading fairly quickly,” saidBob Hartzler, an Extensionweed specialist and professorof agronomy at Iowa StateUniversity.

In years past, the weedsthat farmers battled hadevolved in the tillage era andcould be managed effectivelywith herbicides. Today, farm-ers are fighting weeds thathave evolved in the chemicalera, Hartzler noted, and theseweeds have gained a levelplaying field by developingresistance to some of the mosteffective herbicides available.

Why are weeds like water-hemp are especially adept atherbicide resistance? It comesdown to seed production,Hartzler said. “Resistance is anumbers game. Under idealconditions, one waterhemp

plant can produce five millionseeds. All that seed increasesthe probability that resistance

will show up,” he said.That doesn’t explain why

giant ragweed is developing

resistance, however, since itproduces far fewer seeds thatother agronomically-impor-

tant weeds. “Ragweed has acompletely different resist-ance strategy than water-

hemp,” Hartzler said. “Ourbest guess is that ragweedgrows so rapidly that the rateof herbicide we’re using is toolow. This allows individualweeds to survive with lowlevels of resistance.”

Take action

To fight resistance, it willnot be enough to follow thebasics of starting with cleanfields, using weed-free seed,scouting fields and control-ling weed escapes, said Hart-zler, who acknowledged thatnot all growers respect andfollow these fundamentalagronomic practices. Reduc-ing the evolution of herbicideresistance will also requiremore sophisticated herbicidemanagement. Hartzler en-courages growers to use fullrates of herbicides, includemultiple herbicides in a weedcontrol system and rotatecrops to allow alternate herbi-cides to work.

In addition, he advisesgrowers to:

∫ Pay attention to the newherbicide labels. The key tomanaging resistance is to relyon multiple mechanisms ofaction.

Saving glyphosateIt’s time to get serious about managing herbicide resistance

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

BoB Hartzler, an ISU Extension weed specialist and professor of agronomy, stressed the urgency ofherbicide resistance management with agronomists who attended a recent Agribusiness Association of Iowameeting in Des Moines.

See HARTZLER, Page 6C

Herbicide labels includea standardized system to ex-plain each product’s MOA,which eliminates the needfor farmers, crop consult-ants and ag suppliers tolearn the MOA of all the ac-tive ingredients used inagriculture today.

Herbicide labels includea box labeled “herbicidegroup” near the top of thelabel. The number in thebox represents MOA of theactive ingredient, based on asystem developed by theWeed Science Society ofAmerica.

Pre-mixes containingmore than one mode of ac-tion will have multiplenumbers listed.

“To use the informationproperly, you must stillknow the activity of the in-dividual herbicides on theweeds present in the field toensure that the target weedsare being affected by multi-ple MOAs,” Hartzler said.

• Use a pre-emerge oncorn and soybeans.

Pre-emerge herbicidesshould be viewed as foun-dation products in a weedcontrol program for soy-beans, because 80 to 90 per-cent of the time a growerwill need to use a post-emerge product to achieveseason-long weed control.

When selecting any pre-emerge product, select aproduct that’s active on the

weeds in your fields. Alsoconsider any existing resist-ance problems, crop safety,carryover risk and cost.

“Since this isn’t a one-pass weed control system,you may not need to use a‘Cadillac’ pre-emerge prod-uct,” Hartzler said.

• Select the right herbi-cides to control specificweeds.

Generally, the greaternumber of MOAs used, theless selection pressure isplaced on weeds, Hartzlersaid.

However, designing anintegrated program is not assimple as randomly addingMOAs, said Hartzler, whorecommends hitting weedswith a variety of MOAs

over a three- to four-yearperiod.

The different MOAs usedin the program must havegood activity on the impor-tant weeds in the field tosuccessfully reduce selec-tion pressure.

“You have to know whatweeds individual herbicidescontrol,” Hartzler said.

Above all, avoid theworst-case scenario ofplanting Roundup Readycorn, Roundup Ready soy-beans and only usingglyphosate to controlweeds.

Winning the weed warUnfortunately, all these

practices probably won’t begood enough to control her-

bicide resistance issues, saidHartzler, who offers addi-tional keys to success in thewar against herbicide-resist-ant weeds:

• Know the enemy.In the days before

glyphosate, farmers had topay close attention to theweeds they were fightingand understand the weeds’biology. In the era of herbi-cide resistance, this knowl-edge has become vital onceagain.

• Optimize herbicide ef-fectiveness.

Knowledge is power,Hartzler said. “By under-standing a weed’s biology,you know its weak points,and you’ll know when youcan use a herbicide in the

most effective manner.“Timely application will

be important in this new eraof weed control.”

• Look at cultural prac-tices. Hartzler said croppingconditions can be manipu-lated to reduce the densityand competitiveness ofweeds through culturalpractices ranging from rowspacing to planting rates.

By themselves, culturalpractices may only provide25 percent to 30 percent of afarmer’s total weed control,but they can be part of thesolution by enhancing thecompetitiveness of the crop.

“Now’s the time to get onthe bandwagon and startthinking about how you candiversify your weed man-agement program,” Hartzlersaid. “We need to use herbi-cides more wisely than wehave in the past to be surewe have valuable weed con-trol tools available to us inthe years to come.”

You can contact Darcy

Dougherty Maulsby by e-mail

at [email protected].

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Hartzler Continued from Page 5C

“Now’s the time to get on the bandwagon andstart thinking about how you can

diversify your weed management program.”—Shane Hartzler

ISU ag economist

AMES (ISA) — The CropScouting Competition forIowa Youth 2012 will be heldJuly 31 at the Iowa StateUniversity Extension Farm,near Boone.

High school students,those completing grades 9through 12, may competeand showcase their scoutingabilities in corn and soy-

beans during this one-dayevent.

The competition is beingconducted by the ISU Inte-grated Pest ManagementProgram with support fromthe Iowa Soybean Associa-tion and Pioneer Hi-Bred In-ternational Inc.

“The crop scouting com-petition is an opportunity for

high school students to learncrop scouting and principlesof integrated pest manage-ment,” said Daren Mueller,ISU Extension IPM special-ist. “In preparation for theday of the competition,teams are provided IPMstudy materials.

On July 31, they will com-plete a knowledge test aswell as a crop scouting fieldexercise.”

Schools, clubs or other or-ganizations may enter a teamcomposed of three or four

participants.Each team of students

must be accompanied by anadult team leader. RandallKuhlmann, Denison FFA ad-viser, was the team leader forhis school’s team in 2011 –the first year of the competi-tion.

“The materials were wellorganized and the sponsorswere outstanding,” saidKuhlmann. “The competi-tion creates curiosity outsideof the classroom and was anexcellent opportunity for our

students.”Teams have the opportuni-

ty to gather information,solve problems and make de-cisions related to crops andtheir pests with considerationfor the environment andeconomy.

“Iowa’s FFA and 4-Hchapters are filled with in-credibly talented individu-als,” said ISA President DeanColeman.

“This crop scouting com-petition is an opportunity forthem to showcase those tal-

ents and mingle with cropprofessionals and industryrepresentatives.”

More information aboutthe crop scouting competi-tion is available online atwww.ipm.iastate.edu/ipm/cropscouting.

Teams must be registeredby July 1. Registration is $50per team. The fee will be re-funded when the team at-tends the competition.

Payment by check is duealong with the registrationform by July 1.

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AMES (ISU) — Garden-ers and researchers have anew, updated plant hardinesszone map to consider as theymake plant selection deci-sions this year.

The U.S. Department ofAgriculture released the newversion of the map, the firstupdate since 1990, withmuch of Iowa now consid-ered Zone 5.

Plant hardiness zone des-ignations represent the aver-age annual minimum temper-atures at a given location.

The new version has 13zones, two more than the pre-vious map, which were deter-mined by data measured atweather stations during the30-year period from 1976 to2005.

Each zone is a 10-degreeband, further divided into Aand B 5-degree zones.

Zone 5 has a -10 to -20 de-gree annual minimum aver-age. Compared to the 1990version, zone boundaries inthe new edition of the maphave shifted in many areas.

“The zones have shiftednorthward pretty muchacross the map,” said Jen-nifer Bousselot, Iowa StateUniversity Extension horti-

culturist and Iowa MasterGardener coordinator.

“Locations on the newmap are generally five de-grees warmer than the previ-

ous map. This half-zone dif-ference doesn’t change muchfor Iowa gardeners.”

According to USDA, someof the changes in the zones

are a result of new, more so-phisticated methods for map-ping zones between weatherstations.

These include algorithms

that considered, for the firsttime, such factors as changesin elevation, nearness to largebodies of water, and positionon the terrain, such as valleybottoms and ridge tops.

Richard Jauron, ISU Ex-tension horticulturist forHortline, encourages garden-ers to consider the zone mapas a guide and remember tofactor in location detailswhen making plant selec-tions.

“It isn’t as simple as con-cluding that the same plantscan be grown in Mason Cityand Ames just because bothcities are located in Zone 5a,”Jauron said. “Mason City isoften several degrees colderthan Ames in winter.

“For example, Mason Cityhas had below-zero tempera-tures several times this win-ter, including -17 on Jan. 2,while the minimum tempera-ture in Ames this winter hasbeen -4 degrees.”

Jauron said growers alsoneed to consider the differ-ences between rural and ur-ban areas, low-lying areasnear streams and hilltops, andother local factors that affecttemperatures when makingtheir plant selections.

Jauron said he would notencourage gardeners livingnorth of U.S. Highway 20 toimmediately plant large num-bers of Zone 5 plants.

“Over the next few years,gardeners in the northernone-third of the state mayexperiment with a fewplants labeled as hardy inZone 5a, but the most reli-able choices for that part ofthe state are still Zone 4plants,” he said.

The USDA map is ad-dressing some of the issuespointed out by Jauron, byproviding a Geographic In-formation System-based in-teractive format of the map.Specifically designed to beInternet-friendly, the mapwebsite incorporates a "findyour zone by ZIP code" func-tion.

The intent is to increaseaccuracy and detail. The newmap, jointly developed byUSDA's Agricultural Re-search Service and OregonState University's PRISMClimate Group, is availableonline at www.planthardi-ness.ars.usda.gov.

ARS is the chief intramu-ral scientific research agencyof USDA.

Iowa now in Zone 5 for plant hardinessHorticulturists consider map as a guide, but former zone 4 plants should still be considered

-Contributed graphic

The new planT hardiness zone map, the first since 1990, shows much ofIowa in the new Zone 5. Horticulturists advise experimenting with Zone 5 plants,but expect the former Zone 4 plants will still flourish in most of Iowa.

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By LARRY KERSHNERFarm News news editorFORT DODGE — Iowa

soils are essentially depletedin micronutrients, whichtranslates into deficienciesin grain and fodderupwardthroughthe foodchain tohumans.

This all-encompass-ing state-ment was de-livered by in-dependentcrop adviserBob Streit to an80-person audi-ence in Februaryduring a crop clinic at IowaCentral Community Collegein Fort Dodge.

“Diet quality has an inter-generational affect on hu-man health,” Streit said.“That’s where we have togo” in improving soil health,to produce more nutritiousfood.

Streitsaid re-searchon mi-cronutri-ents wasfirst pub-lished in theearly-to-mid-1960’s.He said thestudies con-cluded that mi-cronutrientswere not a prob-lem then, butthere was about a 40-year

supply in Iowa’s soils.“That ended in 2005,”

Streit said.Referring to the corn in-

dustry’sbuzzing aboutreaching the300 bushel-per-acrebenchmark,Streit said,“(Farm-ers) haveto firstget backto 150to170.”He

said prior to2005, yields of 200

bushels and higher were rel-atively common. Today, thevast majority of farmers aregetting well below that markand he places at least part ofthe blame on depleted mi-cronutrients in Iowa’s fields.

Soil testing is showing se-vere lowamounts oftrace ele-ments andfriendlybacteria, allneeded topromoteplanthealth,thatbuilds aplant’simmu-nity to

dis-eases, and makes

for better stands againstweather and pests.

“You have to have the soil

and the bugs working to-gether,” Streit said. “In thesoil are a lot of small crittersbeing consumed by largerones continuously,” Streitsaid.

The whole system isworking to build sugar andnutrients that are captured byplants. If trace elements arelow, not only does the plantlose its resilience, but thegrain it produces is also low,which is replicated in thelivestock that are fed thegrain and the humans whoconsume the livestock.

“Everything has to worktogether,” Streit said.

Goss’ wilt, the bacteriathat decimated large regionsof Iowa cornfields in 2011,is a disease problem that re-sulted from a lack of propernutrients to corn plants, Stre-it said.

The availability of essen-tial trace elements — man-ganese, copper, boron, zincand eight other minerals —will give any plant a resist-ance, or even immunity tobacteria like Goss.’

Micro rolesThe importance of trace

elements, called micronutri-ents, in plants include:

Boron: Transporting sugarand developing cell division,and essential for fruit andseed development.

Copper: Promotes photo-synthesis, disease resistance,root metabolism and utiliza-tion of proteins.

Iron: Essential for chloro-phyll synthesis.

Zinc: Needed for planthormone production andauxin activity. (Auxins coor-dinate all levels and stagesof plantgrowth.)

Molybde-num: Affectplant me-tabolismand nitro-gen fixa-tion.

Soiland tis-suetestsareshowingthat plants have a de-ficiency in all trace ele-ments, producing less nutri-tious food, and unable tofight off bacteria and insects.Of the list, Streit said, zincand boron are the two mostessential for developing leafcell that can ward off fungus

spores like gray spot andfrog eye.

“Even small amounts (ofmicronutrients) make a bigdifference,” Streit said, “be-cause they bol-ster plant im-mune sys-tems.

“Every-thing playsa part forstructur-ing planthealth.”

Streitsaidthattwocom-mon errors infield management areshowing themselves in pro-moting the loss of micronu-trients.

The first is an over em-phasis of macronutrients-on-ly applications. These in-clude nitrogen, phosphorus

and potassium.The

second isherbicideapplica-tions thatappear to beinhibitingmicros.Glyphosate,he said, isknown to in-hibit copper —a disease resist-ance enhancer— which can ac-

tually keep thistles undercontrol in a field for twoyears.

Yellowed corn is often di-agnosed as nitrogen lost infields, Streit said. However,micronutrient depletion can

be just as suspect because ithas similar symptoms.

Streit said farmers cansave money if they run tissuetests on yellowed plants,rather than automatically ap-plying nitrogen. He said if

the problem is alack of mi-

cros,the so-

lution ismuch

cheaperthan fertil-

izer.

Goss’ wiltStreit said

he’s concernedthat the bacte-

ria causingGoss’ wilt could

be a huge prob-lem for farmers’ corn in2012 as it was in 2011.

The bacteria can over-winter for 18 months in cornresidue, Streit said, meaningthat it’s more than livelyenough in fields with contin-uous corn.

Streit described severalways to better manage plantsagainst Goss’ wilt. These in-clude planting tolerant or re-sistant corn varieties; applya seed treatment to encour-age molybdenum uptake;scout and test and, if neces-sary, apply two or more mi-cronutrient mixes at V4-5and another near V7-9.

Streit said Goss’ wilt isnot a super-fungus, butrather is triggered through anutritional deficiency, and assuch, is treatable and avoid-able to a certain extent.

Contact Larry Kershner at

(515) 573-2141, ext. 453 or

[email protected].

Time to maximize on micros?Adviser: Iowa soils depleted of essential trace nutrients

26

FeIron

55.845

28

142

12

MgMagnesium

24.3050

282

25

MnMaganese54.938045

28

132

30

ZnZinc

65.38

28

182

“That’s where we have to goin improving soil health, to

produce more nutritiousfood.”

—Bob StreitIndependent crop adviser

Reminder Classified Deadline is NOON on Friday before publication (Published every Friday) Fax: 515-574-4448 • Phone: 800-622-6613 ext. 451

GREENFIELD — Organ-ic crop systems can providesimilar yields and muchhigher economic returns thana conventional corn-soybeanrotation, according to thir-teen years of data from aside-by-side comparison atIowa State University’sNeely-Kinyon Research andDemonstration Farm.

The Long-Term Agroeco-logical Research experimentbegan in 1998 with supportfrom the Leopold Center forSustainable Agriculture.

The LTAR is one of the

longest running replicatedcomparisons in the country.Kathleen Delate, professor inISU agronomy and horticul-ture, leads the project.

“The transitioning years arethe hardest years,” Delatesaid, explaining that “the proj-ect was originally designed tohelp farmers make the shiftinto an organic system.”

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shows that organic crops canremain competitive withconventional crops even dur-ing the three-year transition.

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alfalfa and an eight-year av-erage for winter wheat alsoshow no significant differ-ence between organic yieldsand the Adair County aver-age.

Organic crops fetch a pre-mium price on the marketand eliminate the need forexpensive inputs like herbi-cides and synthetic fertiliz-

ers. As a result, they are farmore profitable than conven-tional crops.

Craig Chase, interimleader of the Leopold Cen-ter’s Marketing and FoodSystems Initiative, and anExtension farm managementspecialist, calculated the re-turns to management as themoney left over for familyliving after deducting labor,land and production costs forboth systems.

He based his calculationson actual LTAR data from1998 to 2004, as well as sce-narios modeled with enter-prise budgets.

Both methods gave thesame result: On average, or-ganic systems return roughly

$200 per acre more than con-ventional crops.

In addition to its prof-itability, organic agriculturehelps build healthy soils.While conventional LTARplots receive synthetic herbi-cides, pesticides and fertiliz-er, organic plots receive onlylocal, manure-based amend-ments.

Total nitrogen increasedby 33 percent in the organicplots, and researchers meas-ured higher concentrations ofcarbon, potassium, phospho-rous, magnesium and calci-um.

The results suggest thatorganic farming can foster

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SPENCER (NRCS) — Inearly June 2011, JohnKlein, of the Carroll NaturalResource ConservationService office, conducted asurvey in a serpentine routethrough Carroll County tomeasure the crop residue re-maining after plantingspring crops.

This was part of a nation-wide survey managed by theU.S. Department of Agricul-ture to monitor soil conserva-tion efforts in farm country.

The last survey of thistype was conducted in 2008.

The results showed thatcorn remained the same inoverall percentage of crop-land, 62 percent, to soybeansat 38 percent. This was iden-tical to the 2008 results.

No-till farming practicesshowed a threefold increaseon corn ground, but that in-crease was only from 3 per-cent to 9 percent.

No-till management con-

tinues to grow, but slowerthan conservation needs,Klein said.

In soybeans, the no-tillmanagement was 23 percent,which was nearly identical tothe 22 percent in 2008.

While the no-till rate wentup in 2011, Klein said, “itwas discouraging (to see the)number of fields with re-duced tillage and conven-tional tillage.

These are the management

practices that bury much ofthe residue.

Reduced tillage practiceshave between 15 percent and30 percent of residue cover-ing the ground surface.

Conventional tillage has

less than 15 percent residuecover and may have zero ifcompletely plowed.

“75 percent of 2011’scorn and 41 percent of 2011‘s soybean fields had thesetwo low-management levels

of crop residue,” Klein said.Recent media reports have

claimed some farmers areover-tilling their ground,Klein said, with excessivetrips over their fields, addingadditional input costs as wellas soil compaction issues.

“The idea of clean blackfields that were the ideal inhorse-drawn cultivator dayscan still be seen today,” hesaid.

“But on side-hills, the soilis not black anymore regard-less of how much tillage isdone.

“That black top soil is dis-appearing.The sloping landis now gray or brown as thetop soil has eroded down-hill.”

Leaving crop residue onthe surface will not bring thattopsoil back, Klein said, butit will greatly slow the rate oftopsoil decline so it can beproductive for future genera-tions.

Carroll County soil residue survey mixed

-Farm News photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby

Tillage pracTices leaving plant residue on the surface is growing, but there are still plenty of fieldswhere too much residue is plowed under, which won’t slow the rate of erosion, said John Klein, of the Car-roll Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Growers get premium retail

prices; have fewer input costs“The project was originally designedto help farmers make the shift into

an organic system.”—Kathleen Delate

ISU professor of agronomy

ISU: Organic farming can profit producers

See ORGANIC, Page 11C

+ +


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By KRISS NELSONFarm News staff writer

Due to the mild winter, in-sect mortality rate was mostlikely lower than in yearspast, especially among thebean leaf beetle, said MarkLicht, an ISU Extensionagronomist.

“The bean leaf beetle win-ter mortality rate has onlybeen about 40 to 50 percent,”Licht said. “That is the lowestI can remember in five years.

“Last year’s was 90 to 95percent and years before thatwere probably closer to a 98percent.”

With a low winter mortali-ty rate, Licht said, the beanleaf beetle numbers could beworse than normal. However,with low populations the lastfew years, there might nothave been many beetles try-ing to over-winter to beginwith, so the threat is still un-known.

The corn flea beetle createsa moderate to high risk factorfor Stewart’s wilt, Licht said,so growers should start scout-

ing corn when at the V4 to V7leaf stage.

Scouting at this stage ofgrowth matches well forblack cut worm scouting, too,he said.

If soils continue to stay dry,Licht said, it will be impor-tant to protect corn and soy-bean root systems from soy-bean cyst nematodes andcorn nematodes, so strongroots can take up as much wa-ter as possible.

“Look at resistant varietiesfor the soybean cyst nema-

tode and soil insecticides tocombat the corn rootwormand other pests that combatthe root — keep those rootshealthy,” Licht said.

If there is an attack fromsoybean aphids and theweather continues to remaindry, Licht said, the effectscould be more detrimental asaphids suck moisture fromthe plant leaves.

When scouting for the soy-bean aphids, Licht said to re-member there is a 250-bug-per-plant threshold and to be

sure to “pay a little bit moreattention and scout more of-ten this year.”

When scouting for aphidsin corn, Licht said the treat-ment threshold is 1,500-bugs-per-plant.

However, he said, if thethreshold number is reachedat dent stage or later, it’s toolate to control.

The Japanese beetle is an-other pest to scout during the2012 growing season.

Licht said these metallic-colored beetles seem to be

spreading more to the westand feed on soybean leavesand the silks on corn plants.

Contact Kriss Nelson at

[email protected].

Mild winters = more insectsScout early,

scout often

-Contributed photo

Japanese Beetles pose a threat to corn polli-nations if extensive silk clipping occurs prior to orduring pollination. Corn leaf feeding is minimal, butfeeding on soybean leaves can be quite aggressive.

Bird cherry oat aphids gather on a corn leaf inmid-August. Aphids in corn can be quite extensive onthe stalk, leaves and ear in August. Dry conditionscoinciding with high aphid populations have the po-tential to reduce yield, because of the increase de-mand for moisture.

“The bean leafbeetle winter

mortality rate hasonly been about 40

to 50 percent.”—Mark Licht

ISU agronomist

MAXWELL — At theChichaqua Bottoms Green-belt in Polk County, re-searchers have developed anovel tool for restoring bio-diversity to a landscapechoked by invasive species— set loose a herd of hun-gry goats.

The project began in2008 when the LeopoldCenter for Sustainable Agri-culture awarded a competi-tive grant to Iowa HeartlandResource Conservation andDevelopment to study thebenefits of incorporatinglivestock onto conservationlands.

By dining on unwantedbuckthorn, goats helped re-store a rare swamp whiteoak savannah and createdhabitat for a wide array ofnative species, includingBlanding’s turtles, listed asthreatened in Iowa.

Loren Lown, natural re-source specialist for thePolk County ConservationBoard, leads the project.

Lown asked Deb and EricFinch, State Center, to lettheir herd of 30-plus goatsbrowse at Chichaqua Bot-toms, a 7,300-acre greenbeltalong the Skunk River.

The partnership allowedthe Finches to raise healthygoats and rest their homepastures while Lown’s ani-mals cleaned up the ecosys-tem.

The goats, rotatedthrough a 10-acre area di-vided into three paddocks,munched on invasive buck-thorn and other unwantedplants.

Goats prefer to eat twigs,leaves and woody speciesfirst, leaving the herbaceouslayer alone. Lown describedthem as “little buckthorn

bombs.”With the buckthorn gone,

native plants begin to flour-ish again.

Sedges and wildflowersappeared in formerly barestretches of soil. The newlyrestored landscape supportsa rare population of Bland-ing’s turtles, indicating thepresence of diverse wetlandhabitat.

Recently a healthy, six-year-old turtle was foundnear the area where thegoats browsed. Lown alsonoted other uncommonspecies in the area, such asthe Graham’s crayfish snakeand Henslow’s sparrow.

“We’re getting a lot ofuse by animals that like themore open woodland,”Lown said. “The diversityof the vegetation at theground level has definitelyincreased.

Prior to having the goatsin there, the mid-story inva-sive species had shaded outalmost everything on theground floor.

“The bird life is phenom-enal,” he added. “We haveover 200 species of birdsrecorded at Chichaqua.We’re doing somethingright for these species.”

People have used

Chichaqua Bottoms for along time, not always forthe best, Lown said.

Historic logging for rail-road timber left only a fewold oaks, and farm fields re-placed the prairies.

But human land use canalso provide disturbancesthat aid restoration efforts,as the project demonstrated.

“Grazing and browsingwere part of our naturalecosystem, so you wouldexpect the ecosystem to re-spond in a positive way,”Lown explained.

While goat browsing hashelped restore the oak sa-vannah, it’s not a cure-all.

Lown emphasized theneed to manage the land-scape with multiple kinds ofdisturbances — browsing,grazing, mowing and fire —to give the native species afighting chance.

For example, some areaswhere goats knocked backbuckthorn are now dominat-ed by another exoticspecies, reed canary grass.

Carefully timed con-trolled burns can help keepreed canary grass at bay,Lown said.

“We used to just talkabout prescribed fire,”Lown said. “Now we speakabout prescribed distur-bance.

“If you have a diversedisturbance regiment, thenyou get diverse plants andwildlife.”

This project also studiedthe effects of cattle grazingon reconstructed prairie.

Two scientists fromDrake University, KeithSummerville and Tom Ros-berg, are currently collect-ing and analyzing data fromthe project.

Browsing goats improve habitat for rare native species

More than “200species of birds

recorded atChichaqua. We’redoing somethingright for these

species.”—Loren Lown

Polk County NRCS

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greater efficiency in nutrientuse and higher potential forsequestrating carbon.

Delate said they use “awhole suite of practices tomanage weeds” in the organ-ic plots, including timelytillage and longer crop rota-tions. Allelopathic chemicals

from rye and alfalfa helpkeep weed populations undercontrol, as does growing analfalfa cover crop in winter,which provided cover forbeneficial insects and ani-mals.

“I think there’s a strong fu-ture for organic agriculture,”

Delate said. “My phone isringing off the hook. The in-terest hasn’t waned.”

When Delate becameISU’s first specialist in or-ganic agriculture in 1997, theLeopold Center providedstart-up funds to develop aprogram and set up LTAR re-

search plots. The Center hasprovided annual operatingfunds for LTAR and, in 2010,the work was moved to acompetitive grant in theLeopold Center’s Cross-Cut-ting Initiative.

LTAR’s findings concurwith recently published re-

sults from the Rodale Insti-tute’s 30-year Farming Sys-tems Trial in Pennsylvania.

The Rodale Institute alsoconcluded that organic sys-tems can provide similaryields and greater profits.In addition, they calculatedthat organic crops required

45 percent less energy, andcontributed significantlyless to greenhouse gasemissions. Organic cornproved especially prof-itable during drought years,when its yields jumped upto 31 percent higher thanconventional.

Organic Continued from Page 9C

By KRISS NELSONFarm News staff writerWith the mild winter and

dry conditions, it’s anyone’sguess as to how the 2012growing season will go.

Roger Elmore, Iowa StateUniversity professor and Ex-tension corn agronomist,said forecasters are predict-ing a 50-50 chance that theLa Nina weather pattern, thathas been affecting weathersince 2010, will continue, es-sentially calling for more dryconditions.

Although continued dryweather threatens producerswith significant loss inyields, Elmore said, it is bet-ter to plant in dry soils andhope for rain later on in theseason.

Some of the positive as-pects of a dry spring are pos-sibilities of planting earlier,Elmore said, plus less com-paction and less leaching ofnitrogen.

On the downside of a dryspring, Elmore said, there isa chance pre-emergent andpost-emergent herbicide ap-plications may not work dueto the lack of moisture.

Herbicides work as weedsdraw the fatal chemical fromthe soil through roots sys-tems.

He also advises to watchspring tillage passes, as over-tilling of the soil will resultin a significant loss in mois-

ture.“There are many things

that go with dry conditions,”said Elmore. “Lower yieldsif we start with dry soils andit continues to stay dry.”

But does this mean pro-ducers should change theirhybrids to more drought-re-sistant varieties? Or even re-duce plant populations?

Not necessarily, Elmoresaid.

“Plant a diverse, full spec-

trum of hybrids,” he said.As far as cutting back on

population numbers, he saidthere are certain areas in Ne-braska that have cut back inthat area when expecting dryweather, but Elmore said heis seeing no reason for Iowaproducers to do so.

“If it’s dry at planting, justkeep doing what you alwayshave. Just be aware of thepossibility of lower yields ifthe dry weather continues,”

said Elmore.As far as soil conditions

go, Elmore said, there is adisadvantage of the mildwinter we have had.

“There was not a lot ofdeep freezing/thawing cyclesso compaction from last yearcould be an issue,” said El-more.

However, on the plus side,there was plenty of time fornitrogen and manure applica-tions to be made through the

autumn, as well as part of thewinter.

Goss’ wilt is something,Elmore said, that growersmust keep an eye out for.

“Goss’ increased acrossthe state last year,” he said.“It will help by rotating awayfrom corn-on-corn and usinghybrid-resistant varieties, aswell as incorporating residueand keep less residue on thesurface.”

SoybeansAndrew Lenssen, ISU

soybean systems agronomist,said there is a high probabil-ity soybean acres will beshortened this year.

“Acreage predictions willbe down for soybeans ascorn acres will be up, basedon profit potential, at thispoint,” said Lenssen.

In agreeing with Elmore,Lenssen said sub-soil mois-ture is below-normal through-out Iowa, but “the real con-cern is later in the summerwhen rainfall deficit becomes

a greater issue,” he said.Although a lot of tillage

was performed last fall,Lenssen said minimum-tilland or zero-till practices willhelp capture moisture.

“Reduced tillage systemshelp to conserve more waterand, during a drought period,it can really make a differ-ence,” he said. “It’s some-thing to think about in the fu-ture.”

However, dry times canhold some positives.

“Foliar diseases are less ofan issue with low relative hu-midity,” said Lenssen.“Without much rain, thosediseases won’t be an issue.”

Lenssen urged growers totake the needed precautionswhen it comes to controllingweeds in soybeans, especial-ly waterhemp and marestailthat are showing increasingresistance to herbicides.

Contact Kriss Nelson at jknel-

[email protected].

Cropping during a dry spring“If it’s dry at planting, justkeep doing what you alwayshave. Just be aware of thepossibility of lower yields ifthe dry weather continues.”

—Roger ElmoreISU Extension corn agronomist


RepoRts indicate that an early planting season is in store to the relative-ly dry winter conditions. Whether the current La Nina continues, or is replaced byan El Nino pattern, meteorologists expect a relatively dry growing season.

+ +

12C Farm News / Fort DoDge, Iowa www.farm-news.com FrIDaY, marCh 16, 2012

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By LARRYKERSHNER

Farm News news editorWEBSTER CITY — For

three years, cousins Markand Jeff Nelson, of ruralWebster City, looked for away to turn three empty con-finement buildings into rev-enue-generating facilities.

“We looked at every-thing,” Mark Nelson said,“even cattle.” But what theysettled on was fish — hybridstriped bass, to be specific.

After gutting one of thebuildings, the cousins wereliterally hours away onMarch 1 from throwing theswitch on their 12-tank aqua-culture operation they chris-tened Iowa First.

It’s the first commercial-scale aquaculture business inIowa, Mark said.

It’ll take two weeks togrow the needed bacteriacultures before the fish areintroduced to the 12 tankswaiting for them, said RickSheriff, of Parchman, Miss.“Most people think we raisefish here,” Sheriff said. “Butwe’re growing bacteria, andthe bacteria take care of thefish.”

The microscopic “bugs”consume the nitrites the fishput into the water, convertingthem to nitrates which arenot bothersome to the fish.

Sheriff is the inventor andpatent holder of the tank, fil-ter and cleaning system theNelsons have purchased. Hewas on hand to assist theNelsons’ work crew in as-sembling the system.

Sheriff said the dozen10,000-gallon fish tanks in-stalled is an “entry-level”size. The Nelsons were start-ing small to get acquaintedwith the process and deter-mine if the operation wouldpay. However, they haveplenty of space for expan-sion.

“But I’d be surprised thata year from now, theyhaven’t expanded,” Sheriffsaid.

“The market for this is sobig,” he said, “you can havedozens and dozens of (Iowa)operations on family farms,”without saturating the mar-ket.

Nevertheless, Sheriff said,this is a niche market, butthere are so many varieties offish that can be cultured,both for food, recreation oreven bait for game fish.

Nelson said the aquacul-ture market is “highly com-

petitive,” hesitating beforeagreeing being interviewed.

He declined to name hismarket, because of the cut-throat nature of the industry.

The bass are being grownfor food, Nelson said, “butwe’ll always have fish for

sale.” He said rural families

with ponds to stock, wouldlikely get some of his bass.

But be ready to pay for

them. This species is in great

demand in the food industry.Nelson said the bass will

arrive from a source in

Arkansas at 5-inches long.

They’ll be grown to about20-ounce size, netted fromthe tank and shipped either-

live or on ice to a distributor. Nelson will stagger his in-

coming fish, so that he canhave a ready supply of mar-ket-weight bass on a regularbasis.

Nelson said he initiallyhad problems with the IowaDepartment of Natural Re-sources in getting a permitfor field-applying the fishmanure.

The problem was that, un-til recently, fish were notclassified as an Iowa live-stock industry. So the DNR’sonly classification for thefish manure was industrialwaste.

But after clearing that hur-dle, he has the permits topump waste into a slurrypond and apply over hisfields.

When asked how manyacres he’ll need to distributethe fish manure, Nelsonchuckled. A year’s worth ofhog manure required 200acres to land-apply, he said,while a year’s worth of fishmanure will need roughlyfive acres. “There’s just notthat much to it.

On the facility’s exteriorare the usual biosecuritywarnings from when this wasa hog building.

Nelson said there are someconcerns and policies to befollowed as a fish culture,“but there’s no showerin/shower out, like hogs. On-ly if someone touches thewater with their hands —and no one will touch thewater.”

Contact Larry Kershner at

(515) 573-2141, ext. 453 or

[email protected].

Farmer starting state’s only commercial fish business

-Farm News photos by Larry Kershner

Mark NelsoN, co-owner of Iowa First, shows an unidentified visitor the oxygen diffuser line that feeds airto one of his 12 10,000-gallon aquaculture tanks.

NelsoN explaiNs

how one of his two blow-er units work. If one goesout, the other will kick inwithin seconds.

NelsoN staNds beside one of the filter units. His hand is resting on thou-sands of plastic bits that contain fish-friendly bacteria. The culture grows in thistank and is fed to the fish side. The bacteria consumes nitrite in the water, con-verting it to nitrate, which is not harmful to the fish.

“Most people thinkwe raise fish here.But we’re growingbacteria and the

bacteria take careof the fish.”

—Rick Sheriff

Patent holder, installer of

fish tanks

URBANA (Univ.Ill) – Thepractice of deep banding fer-tilizer is growing in popular-ity as more growers turn tostrip-tilling fields.

However, this methodmay be costing growersmore than it is worth.

A new University of Illi-nois study revealed thatstrip-till was superior to no-till and increased yield insoybean.

However, the resultsshowed no difference inyield between fertilizer ap-plication methods.

“Strip-till is usually talkedabout in corn, not soybean,”said Fabian Fernandez, a

University of Illinois assis-tant professor of crop sci-ences. “But the results arguestrip-till for soybean wouldbe a benefit, but placementof fertilizer offers no differ-ence for yield.”

Researchers compareddifferent combinations ofphosphorus and potassiumrates applied in no-till by ei-ther broadcasting or deep-banding six inches below thesurface and in strip-till bydeep banding six inches be-low the surface.

“Strip-till allows growersto apply fertilizer in a bandin the subsurface — it has al-most become the norm these

days,” Fernandez said.“Most growers are deep

banding fertilizer if theystrip-till, when in realitythere is no need to do this, atleast for soybeans.

“Our research shows whenfertility levels are adequate,there is no advantage and

you can broadcast phospho-rus and potassium to achievethe same results.”

Fernandez said deep bandplacement normally requiresmore equipment, expenseand time.

“Phosphorus doesn’tmove far in the soil. With

broadcast application, ittends to accumulate at thesoil surface,” Fernandezsaid. “With subsurface appli-cation, we saw phosphoruslevels decrease on the soilsurface.

“Although subsurfaceband applications may notincrease yield, they could de-crease phosphorus levels onthe surface which could bean environmental benefit toreduce the potential of phos-phorus runoff.”

Subsurface banding of fer-tilizers is sometimes promot-ed as a more efficient place-ment method, and some be-lieve the same yield level can

be attained with lower fertil-izer rates, Fernandez said.

“We observed no evidenceto suggest a fertilizer rate re-duction can be accomplishedwith subsurface bandingwithout similar yield de-clines as observed for broad-cast applications,” he said.

This research, “No-Tilland Strip-Till Soybean Pro-duction with Surface andSubsurface Phosphorus andPotassium Fertilization” waspublished in Agronomy Jour-nal.

Researchers include Fer-nandez, Bhupinder Farmahaand Emerson Nafziger of theUniversity of Illinois.

“Most growers are deep banding fertilizerif they strip-till, when in reality there is

no need to do this, at least for soybeans.”—Fabian Fernandez

University of Illinois crop scientist

Strip-till improves nutrient uptake and yield

Iowa’s first bass farm

AMES — The most recentannual results from a four-year Iowa State Universitystudy on using cover cropsbetween rows of corn revealsthat higher yields — by asmuch as 10 percent — arepossible using the soil-sav-ing approach to farming.

The results are the best yetin the ongoing research, ac-cording to Ken Moore, a pro-fessor of agronomy and pri-mary investigator on theproject, who plans to carryon the trials for at least onemore growing season.

Planting living mulch —or ground cover — betweenrows of corn is intended toperform several functions in-cluding maintaining soilmoisture, slow soil erosion,and sequester carbon.

There were factors in lastyear’s weather that made thehigher yields possible,Moore said.

“This is really promising,”said Moore of the results.“Last summer was hot, andthe cover crop systems per-formed better because livingmulch held the water in thesoil better.

“It was the first year thoseground covers went com-pletely dormant. Theyweren’t transpiring any wa-ter at all and they were serv-ing as a barrier to moisturemoving out of the soil andthat’s good.”

The study began with the2008 growing seasonthrough support from a SunGrant designed to look at theeffect on the soil of removingcorn stalks, cobs and leaves— called stover — to use asbiomass for producing cellu-losic-based ethanol.

After the 2010 plantingseason, funding for the proj-ect was exhausted, butMoore was able to carry onthe tests on a limited basis,

focusing only on those sys-tems that showed the mostpromise.

Moore is working withKendall Lamkey, chair of theDepartment of Agronomyand Pioneer maize breedingchairman, and JeremySinger, collaborator and as-sistant professor at the Na-tional Laboratory for Agri-culture and the Environmenton the study.

Removing the stover tomake biofuel, it is feared,

will reduce carbon in the soiland also speed erosion.

Moore said that the covercrop system helps solve bothproblems.

Moore and his group of re-searchers tested several dif-ferent agronomic systemsand cover crops to findwhich ones produce the bestresults.

In 2011, the three crop-ping systems tested includedone that employed normalfarming practices, a second

system that used bluegrass asa cover crop and strip-tillpractices, and a third thatused red fescue as the covercrop with strip-tilling.

When the results were tal-lied, Moore found the controlplots averaged 220 bushelsper acre, the bluegrass plotsnetted 230 bushels and thefescue plots yielded 240bushels.

In 2010 and 2009, thebluegrass and fescue plotsaveraged about the sameyield as the control plot.

The rainy spring of 2008caused yields for the controlto be much better, as the no-till plots were planted late inthe year.

“This experiment wasn’t

designed to develop manage-ment practices for the farm,it was designed to test thefeasibility of using theseperennial ground covers forproducing corn,” saidMoore.

“We would conclude thesesystems are feasible, but werecognize that it could be asomewhat brittle system,”Moore said. “We’ve onlytried it in one location, withone corn hybrid for fouryears.

“We don’t know how it isgoing to perform in the entirestate with different soils anddifferent growing condi-tions.”

Moore said that one goalof the study is to get corn

breeders involved in a covercrop system, so hybrids canbe developed to work in con-cert with cover crops. Thecover crops themselves canalso be improved for betterresults.

Moore said that this crop-ping system might be appeal-ing for farmers in the longterm.

“Farmers make tough eco-nomic choices every yearwhen they plant and harvesttheir crops,” said Moore. “Ifchanges need to be made toensure future generationshave the same great farmland and life that we do, weneed to offer farmers choicesthat are not just to our bene-fit, but to their benefit aswell.

“Growing corn with aperennial cover crop promis-es to address many of the en-vironmental concerns beingexpressed about corn pro-duction and will enablefarmers to harvest stover forbioenergy as that market de-velops.

“It appears to be a win-win opportunity. These covercrop systems may eventuallyoffer the farmer a profitablealternative that can ensurelong term success, at leastthat’s my hope.”

ISU study determines 5-10 percent yield boost, erosion slowed, as well

+ +


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Cover crops between corn rows?

-Contributed photo

Ken Moore, right, an Iowa State University agronomist, looks over a corn plot with perennial cover cropsbetween the rows. Although there appeared to be a yield boost for corn, Moore said because the four-yeartest was conducted in only one location, he’s not sure how these results would replicate in other soil types.

“We wouldconclude these

systems are feasible,but we recognizethat it could be asomewhat brittle

system.”—Ken Moore

ISU agronomist

URBANA (Univ.Ill) —Sweet corn growers fightingtroublesome weeds have anew reason for hope, a recentUniversity of Illinois studyconcluded.

Growers have few optionsto control several importantweeds, but research showsthat the environment inwhich the weed grows holdsimportant clues to futuremanagement tactics.

“Most weed managementstrategies focus on killing theweed plant after it emergeswithin the crop — few focuson killing the weed before,”said Marty Williams, anecologist for U.S.Depart-ment of Agriculture-Agricul-tural Research Service.

“Our research shows theenvironment in which theseweed plants grow has a last-ing effect on the seed it pro-duces, and to some degree,the fate of that seed.”

In a previous study,Williams’ graduate student,Yim So, evaluated how 25commercial hybrids per-formed in the presence ofweeds.

From this large study, Socharacterized 18 crop traits,then developed a way to boildown these various traits to

three factors describing thecrop’s ability to suppressweeds.

“In a recent analysis, wediscovered the first factorfrom that work accounted for84 percent of the variationseen in a new experimentwith wild-proso millet, oneof the most troublesomeweeds in sweet corn,”Williams said. “Rather thanlooking at all 18 crop traitsindividually, we could lookat a single factor that de-scribed the maternal corn en-vironment — the environ-

ment in which escaped wildproso-millet plants are pro-ducing seeds.”

This allowed the scientiststo more accurately relatewild-proso millet responses,such as seed germinability, tocrop performance.

“We found that the mater-nal corn environment influ-ences the development ofwild-proso millet seeds.

For example, earlier-ma-turing, shorter corn plantswith less leaf area index, notonly enabled more weedseed production, but they al-

so produced lighter-coloredseed,” Williams said.

The maternal corn envi-ronment also affects how theweed seed behaves after it isshed from the plant.

“When you have maternalcorn environments that allowa lot of wild-proso milletseed to be produced, thoseseeds are also more likely togerminate soon after disper-sal,” he said.

So how can this informa-tion benefit growers?

Because almost every va-riety of sweet corn fits a spe-

cific niche, poorly competi-tive varieties are still com-monly grown.

Some of these varieties aremore tolerant to diseases,produce a product with goodeating quality, or emergewell under poor conditions,Williams said.

“Economically, growerscan only do so much to killweed plants in the crop,” hesaid. “So it would be helpfulif they had additional tools totarget other stages of theplant’s life cycle.

“Results from this work

suggest there may be newways to reduce the seedbankof wild-proso millet,”Williams said.

For instance, the moregerminable seed produced inpoorly competitive crop en-vironments could be stimu-lated to emerge soon aftercrop harvest, so wild-prosomillet could be eradicatedpost-harvest rather than re-maining dormant in the seed-bank and causing problemsin the future.

Williams said more re-search is needed to developand test specific strategies.

“Generally speaking, weneed more diversity in howweeds are managed,” hesaid. “Few new herbicidesare entering the market, andherbicide resistance contin-ues to erode the effectivenessof current products.

“Weed management is be-coming more complex out ofnecessity, so folks are think-ing broadly about their op-tions.”

This study, “Maternal cornenvironment influenceswild-proso millet seed char-acteristics,” was published inWeed Biology and Ecology.

The researchers includeMarty Williams, BrianSchutte and Yim So, all ofthe University of Illinois.

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A seedy solution to controlling weeds?

-Contributed photo

ReseaRcheRs aRe thinking that studying the sweet corn environment where wild proso-millet weedsthrive will be key to eradicating the weed that is a bane for sweet corn growers.

Study focusing

on eradicating

weed seeds

from seedbank

after harvest

By CLAYTON RYEFarm News staff writerTHORNTON — Having

been a grain manager since1995, Craig Backhaus hasseen a wide range in grainprices from the lows of 15years ago to the highs of thepast year.

Backhaus is the grainmanager for North Iowa Co-operative, in Cerro GordoCounty, which has elevatorsat Thornton, Portland, Ply-mouth and Clear Lake.

Working out of the Thorn-ton office, Backhaus’ jobgives him a front row seat inthe volatility world of thegrain market and a keenawareness of the marketforces at work everyday.

Backhaus identified threeitems he watches everydaythat affect the direction themarkets take — value of thedollar, the price of crude andthe stock market.

He named these factors asoutside markets and thesemarket movers can be friend-ly or unfriendly to farmers,he said.

There are other marketmovers, he said, including apair of upcoming U.S. De-partment of Agriculture re-ports that are taking on im-portance as their release dateapproaches.

On March 9, the USDAwas to release its Supply and

Demand report. Backhaus iswatching the number of theSouth American crop size inthis report that will have thegreatest affect in the direc-tion of grain prices.

The March 31 Planting In-tentions and Stocks On Handpaper will be another majorreport, Backhaus said.

The key piece of informa-tion in the plantings inten-tions reports will be the acresplanted to corn, he said. Thepre-report anticipation ofcorn acres is 94 million acres

according to Backhaus,“which is huge,” he said.

Traders are preparingthemselves for a large num-ber of corn acres and have

are wondering just how bigis big.

However, Backhaus doesnot rule out the outsidechance of a lower number of

corn acres than 94 million.Soybeans have rallied

$1.70 a bushel from theirJanuary lows, Backhaus said,resulting in a corn-to-soy-

bean price ratio of 2.28, clos-er to the normal 2.4 — a bigchange from less than 2.0 ra-tios of recent months.

Backhaus has heard cus-tomers of North Iowa Co-optalk about changing some oftheir fields to soybeans totake advantage of the im-proved bean price.

“This could be just talk,”Backhaus said. “Farmershave their seed purchased,fall-applied fertilizer on their

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-Farm News photo by Clayton Rye

Craig BaCkhaus, grain manager for the North Iowa Cooperative, at Thornton, keeps a chart for corn and one for soybeans on hisoffice wall showing the range of prices over the last 10 years.

Short term

corn looks

good; long

term looks

not-so-good

Monitoring the markets

“Farmers have their seed purchased, fall-applied fertilizer on theirfields, and once they are planting, especially under favorableweather, are not willing to make any changes in their plans.”

—Craig BackhausNorth Iowa Cooperative grain manager

See MARKETS, Page 5D

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IOwa

Corn stored in all positionson Dec. 1, 2011 totaled 1.95billion bushels, up 3 percentfrom Dec. 1, 2010, according tothe USDA National Agricultur-al Statistics Service’s GrainStocks report released Jan. 12.Sixty-four percent of the totalstocks were stored on-farm.

The September to November2011 indicated disappearancetotaled 671 million bushels, 2percent above the 659 millionbushels used during the samequarter last year.

Soybeans stored in all posi-tions on Dec. 1. 2011 totaled422 million bushels, up 9 per-cent from the 387 millionbushels on hand Dec. 1, 2010.Forty-four percent of the totalstocks were stored on-farm. In-dicated disappearance for Sep-tember to December 2011 is 91million bushels, 38 percent lessthan the 147 million bushelsused during the same quarterlast year.

United States

Corn stored in all positionson Dec. 1, 2011 totaled 9.64billion bushels, down 4 percentfrom Dec. 1, 2010. Of the totalstocks, 6.18 billion bushels arestored on farms, down 2 percentfrom a year earlier.

Off-farm stocks, at 3.47 bil-lion bushels, are down 8 percentfrom a year ago. The Septemberto November 2011 indicateddisappearance is 3.84 billion

bushels, compared with 4.10billion bushels during the sameperiod last year.

Soybeans stored in all posi-tions on Dec. 1, 2011 totaled2.37 billion bushels, up 4 per-cent from Dec. 1, 2010. Soy-bean stocks stored on farms to-taled 1.14 billion bushels, up 4

percent from a year ago.Off-farm stocks, at 1.23 bil-

lion bushels, are up 3 percentfrom last December.

Indicated disappearance forSeptember to November 2011totaled 905 million bushels,down 25 percent from the sameperiod a year earlier.

ending stocks tighteriOwa stOCks

Position Jan. 1, 2011 Jan. 1, 2012 2012 percentand grain 1,000 BU 1,000 BU of 2011

On-Farm Stocks

Corn 1,200,000 1,250,000 104Soybeans 160,000 185,000 116

Off-Farm Stocks*

Corn 705,956 703,966 80Soybeans 227,386 237,437 104

Total Stocks

Corn 1,905,956 1,953,966 103Soybeans 387,386 422,437 109

*Includes stocks at mills, elevators, warehouses, terminals and processors.-Source: USDA

uniteD states stOCksPosition Jan. 1, 2011 Jan. 1, 2012 2012 percentand grain 1,000 BU 1,000 BU of 2011

On-Farm Stocks

Corn 6,302,000 6,175,000 98Soybeans 1,091,500 1,389,000 104

Off-Farm Stocks*

Corn 3,754,789 3,466,903 92Soybeans 1,187,084 1,227,284 103

Total Stocks

Corn 10,056,769 9,641,903 96Soybeans 2,278,084 2,365,423 86

*Includes stocks at mills, elevators, warehouses, terminals and processors.-Source: USDA

fields, and once they are planting,especially under favorable weath-er, are not willing to make anychanges in their plans.”

Backhaus attributed the widespread between cash corn at morethan $6.31 and new crop at $5.17 atthe Thornton elevator on March 1to the tightness of the supply of oldcrop corn still in the hands of farm-ers and the possibility of a largecorn crop available in 2012.

Backhaus said of the 2012 cropyear, “under normal weather, end-ing stocks of corn will be 1.6 bil-lion bushels, double what they arenow of 800 million bushels.”

The tone of the grain market willbe set with the March 31 USDA re-port. If intended corn acres arenumber more than 94 million cornacres, corn price will drop evenfurther.

Other market moversBesides the USDA report, Back-

haus sees other factors at work tolower grain prices.

Farmers worldwide are respond-ing to these high prices and willplant everything they can to takeadvantage of them.

If the weather cooperated world-wide, grain supplies would in-crease dramatically affectingprices greatly for a long time assupplies would be more than ade-quate for all needs.

Having sold too many bushelstoo early last year and the year be-fore, farmers were not able to takeadvantage of those summer rallies.

Backhaus said that farmers aresitting on a good cash flow and re-main bullish at these prices, notwanting to miss a summer rally thisyear.

Backhaus cautioned farmerssaying, “corn can go below the costof production.”

Besides bigger supplies of corn,corn prices will be under addition-al pressure as ethanol margins aresqueezed from increasing suppliesof ethanol as the blending wall isreached and the loss of theblender’s credit.

Backhaus is encouraging cropsales at these prices. Corn had beenin a trading range for over a monthand broke out of that range on Feb.28, he said.

DTN takes into account variousfactors in making its prediction offuture prices, rather than focus onprices or timing. DTN describes itsmethod as pragmatic.

The factors include markets’trend or direction, positions and ac-tivities of non-commercial traders,and the positions and activities ofcommercial traders.

The last three are the seasonaltendencies of the market, priceprobability and volatility.

DTN uses these factors in mak-ing predictions as it covers mostof the influences on the day to daymarket activities without beingtoo heavily weighted in any onearea.

DTN sees a similar future withtrends on corn and soybean pricestelling subscribers on the DTNwebsite, “The short-term trend re-mains up, while the long-termtrend remains down.”

Backhaus said weather will con-tinue to be a dominant factor inprices.

“Weather will make or breakprices,” he said. Any problems dur-ing planting, growing or pollina-tion will be reflected in prices.

“To get high prices, somebodyhas to suffer,” Backhaus said.

Exports continue to be strong,Backhaus said, with China andMexico making large purchases.The shrinking corn crop in Argenti-na has brought customers to theU.S. market.

Backhaus believes the USDAmay have to raise its export num-bers from previous predictions.

When asked to predict the pricerange for the 2012 crop, Backhausbelieved corn will be in a range be-tween $4.50 to $5.50 per busheland soybeans will trade between$11.50 and $12.50 per bushel.

Contact Clayton Rye at crye@wcta-

tel.net.

Markets Continued from Page 4D

By LinDSeyMUTchLer

For Farm newsFutures markets indicate a

profitable year for mostswine and cattle producersthis year, according to mar-ket analysts.

cattleRecord high calf prices are

“lining up to make this a fan-tastic year” for cow/calf op-erations,said ShaneEllis, anIowa StateUniversityag econo-mist.

“Ofcourse thecalves arejust barelystarting tobe born that will be sold thisfall,” Ellis said, “A lot couldchange, but if everythingholds together … there’s apotential to make $150 profitper calf sold.”

Kevin Good, a senior mar-ket analyst with Cattlefax,said he saw the same trend ofa good year for cow/calf op-erators. He added there’s apossibility for mild expan-sion, as well.

While the high prices aregood for the cow/calf seg-ment, they’re squeezing theprofit margins for end pro-ducers, such as feedlot oper-ators and packers.

Good said feedlot opera-tions should expect marginalprofits with high input costsand historically high grain.

“Even if suggested cattleprices trend higher than aver-age this year, the profitabilityof these (feedlots) operationswill be marginal,” Goodsaid.

Ellis said he thinks thefirst half of the year will begood for feedlot operators.

“The feedlot sector shouldmake some good money nowthrough May or first part of

June,” Ellis said. “After that,into the summer season,there’s not a lot of promises.

“Future prices are a prettytight equation because feedercalf prices are so high, and ashort supply is really closingthe profit margin in the cattlefinishing sector.

“Overall, I think it’ll be aprofitable year for feedlots.”

Those livestock producersin the stocker business willbe profitable, but less so thanin the past, Good said, due torecord high calf prices andhigh land/lease rates.

While profitability looksgenerally bright in the indus-try, there are challengesahead for producers, such ashigh input costs and moreprice volatility.

So, what can feedlot andstock producers do to im-prove their chances of turn-ing a profit in 2012?

Good recommends forthose in marginal business –feedlots and stocker back-ground – recognize thegreater need for risk manage-ment.

“Be more willing and

open to use risk managementto protect your equity,” Goodsaid.

Ellis recommends opera-tors watch the timing of theirforward pricing.

“I think revenue is thenumber one thing to protectthis year,” Ellis said. “Thereis instability with somethings in economy, includingfuel prices.”

SwineOverall swine operation

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ThiS anciEnT brEEd of cattle is called British white in a feedlot east of Polk City. Analysts said all cattle producers stand to earnprofits during 2012, especially during the first six months.

See OUTLOOK, Page 7D

Shane Ellis

DES MOINES (Titan) —In farming, productivitymeans profitability, andwhen your tractor isn’t per-forming like it should, itcould mean lost dollars.One factor that can severelyinhibit productivity is pow-er hop — a bouncing effecta tractor sometimes experi-ences when pulling a highdraw-bar load.

By understanding whatcauses power hop, however,farmers can better diagnosethe problem and make mi-nor adjustments to correctit.

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profitability is trending to-ward “reasonable” in 2012,according to Steve Meyer,president of Paragon Eco-nomics, in Adel.

“Look at future marketsand the average for the yearso far is as low as $4 or ashigh as $18,” Meyer said. “Ithink we’re looking at a rea-sonable year of profits forpork producers.”

Ellis said the market isprojected to become morebearish in the fourth quarterof 2012 as more hogs enterthe market.

“There’s some concernover whether packers havethe capacity to handle an-other record supply of hogsin the fourth quarter,” Ellissaid.

The industry experiencedsteady 2 percent growth inpast years, with threestraight years of profitabili-ty.

Meyer cautioned produc-

ers not to get carried awaywith expansion.

“Slaughter capacity willbe tight this fall and will bevery tight in 2013,” Meyersaid. “You can’t buildslaughter houses as quicklyas you can put sows into op-erations.”

Despite controlledgrowth and three straightyears of profits, swine pro-ducers do face challenges in2012, such as porcine repro-ductive and respiratory syn-drome, or PRRS, and poten-tial for high grain costs.

Meyer also said it will bedifficult for producers to

match last year’s export per-formance.

“Matching that won’t bea cut and dry deal,” Meyersaid, “but we can get there.”

To manage challenges,Meyer suggests producerspay attention to the grossmargin value above cost ofcorn/soybean meal, andlock in at least a portion oftheir sales.

“There’s still a lot of riskout there,” he said. “That’sone thing they can do.”

Contact Lindsey Mutchler at

(515) 573-2141 or lmutch-

[email protected].

Outlook Continued from Page 6D


A sow nurses 14 piglets near Statford. Analysts think there is reasonable op-timism for a profitable year for pork producers, even though the market will like-ly be more bearish in the fourth quarter.

“There’s some concern over whetherpackers have the capacity to handleanother record supply of hogs in the

fourth quarter.”—Shane Ellis

ISU ag economist

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8D Farm News / Fort DoDge, Iowa www.farm-news.com FrIDaY, marCH 12, 2012

2012 Spring Farm

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