News Update
October 16, 2017
Corn Supply Projections for 2017-2018
Corn futures have been drifting lower since August and the latest USDA production estimates did little to change price outlook. The latest USDA World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report now projects corn yields for the 2017-2018 market year to be 171.8 bushels (bu.) per acre, 1.1% higher than the September estimate and above the analyst estimate of 170.1. On page two of the full report (click link), we have included a USDA map that shows the forecasted yield revisions by state. Higher yields were noted in almost all large corn-producing states but the 4-bu. increase in Iowa yields likely had the most significant impact. Iowa yields were revised up by 4 bu. per acre (+2%) and higher yields are now also expected in Indiana and Illinois. The revision in yields did not result in a significant increase in production because USDA lowered the number of planted/harvested acres by 0.5 and 0.4 million acres, respectively.
Consequently, total corn production for 2017-2018 is now projected at 14.280 billion bu., 0.7% higher than the forecast presented in September but 5.7% lower than a year ago.
Read the full report online at www.dailylivestockreport.com.
Operating Committee Approves FY 2018 Plan of Work
The Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board (CBB) will invest about $38 million into programs of beef promotion, research, consumer information, industry information, foreign marketing and producer communications during fiscal year (FY) 2018, subject to USDA approval.
In action at the end of its Sept. 12-13 meeting in Denver, Colo., the Operating Committee approved checkoff funding for a total of 14 “authorization requests” — or proposals — brought by seven contractors for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2017. The committee, which includes 10 producers from the CBB and 10 members from the Federation of State Beef Councils, also recommended full CBB approval of a budget amendment to reflect the split of funding between budget categories affected by their decisions.
The seven contractors brought a total of $45 million worth of funding requests to the Operating Committee, $7 million more than what was available from the CBB budget.
“We showed up Tuesday morning ready to roll our sleeves up and get to work. We knew that we were going to have to make cuts of about $7 million,” said CBB Chairman Brett Morris, a cattle producer from Oklahoma.
Continue reading this Angus Beef Bulletin EXTRA article online.
Handy Tips for Building Fence
Most permanent pasture fences for cattle use barbed wire, net wire or multiple strands of high-tensile electric wire, stretched tightly and secured to well-set posts. Most portable fences utilize electrified wire that’s easy to roll up and unroll, with step-in or easily driven small posts that can be pulled up and moved. There are a number of tricks that make fence building/maintenance easier for permanent fences, and ways to speed up the moving of portable fences.
When building barbed-wire fence, a person needs an easy way to unroll the wire. Many methods are used, such as putting the roll on a stationary bar and pulling the wire out along the fenceline.
A simpler method was devised by 74-yearold Idaho rancher Lynn Thomas six years ago when he needed to build several miles of fence with limited help and waning strength. He says necessity was the mother of his invention.
His innovation was inspired by looking at a homemade unroller a neighbor gave him — a device that attached to the rear bumper of a pickup.
Read the full Angus Journal article online.
Steady. Constant. Reliable.
‘The old Cain place.” Years after John and Julie Riley moved to their Volborg, Mont., ranch — even after raising their three kids there — neighbors still might refer to it by the original owners’ surname.
The place has a history, as Horace and Bessy Cain homesteaded it and raised 15 kids in a one-and-a-half-story clapboard house.
“You have an appreciation for the kind of people who made a living and got it done in this part of the world,” Riley says. “For us, without them coming ahead of us, we probably aren’t here. Somebody had to do it.”
Somebody had to be the first to fight drought, hard winters, wildfire threats and all the other challenges a cattle producer faces when he’s in the middle of the open expanse of grassland that is eastern Montana.
“An old-timer once said, ‘It’s really good country when it rains and it ain’t worth a damn when it don’t,’ ” the cattleman recalls.
Yet amid all of that uncertainty, Riley remains steady.
In a world where change seems hard to predict, where prices are volatile and weather is, too, it’s nice to have something constant to rely on.
Read more of this Angus Journal article online.
Water Rights Seminar to Address
Who Gets Dwindling Reserves
A powerhouse speaker’s panel highlights the 2017 Seminar on Water Rights and Public Policy — The Waters of the Rio Grande to be hosted from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Oct. 25 at the McAllen Convention Center, 700 Convention Center Boulevard in McAllen, Texas.
Concerns about how dwindling water supplies are distributed once reservoirs start running dry will be one of the topics covered in the upcoming seminar, according to Guy Fipps, a Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service irrigation engineer and professor in the biological and agricultural engineering department at Texas A&M University in College Station.
Management of the Rio Grande River is complex and includes both state and federal agencies as water inflows from both sides of the border are combined and divided between Texas and Mexico, Fipps said.
“There are few concerns when water is plentiful,” he said. “But when supplies tighten, as they periodically do, it becomes apparent there is insufficient supply to meet agricultural, municipal and industrial water demand.”
The panel includes the chairman of the two Texas state agencies with primary responsibilities for regulation and managing the Rio Grande.
Learn more about this seminar in the full posting online.
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