In Farm BureauGray wins Vines Scholarship

Japhanie Gray of Blytheville, a sophomore broadcast journalism

major at Arkansas State University, is the 2013 recipient of Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Marvin Vines Memorial Scholarship.

Gray, 20, is the daughter of Stephanie

and Leon Gray. She is on track to graduate in May 2015 and hopes to pursue a career in video production or graphic design. She has a 4.0 overall grade-point average.

Arkansas Farm Bureau endows the scholarship, which honors the memory of Marvin Vines, farm director for more than 25 years at Little Rock radio station KAAY. Since 1980, it’s been awarded annually to a broadcast major at Arkansas State.

Gray has gained valuable experience in television production, having the opportunity to work as a crew member and cable puller for several local sporting events broadcast by ESPN and a remote broadcast with Gary Jones Productions. She also has assisted with the annual United Cerebral Palsy Telethon.

“I hope to take the skills I’m able

to obtain here in college and chart a career path in video production and broadcasting,” Gray said. “I plan to pursue opportunities in television news to gain experience in reporting, then one day produce and host my own show focused on community service and health awareness. Long term, I may return to school to obtain a teaching degree so I can share the wisdom

May 10, 2013• Vol. 16, No. 9A

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At a May 6 event sponsored by Newton Co. FB, media representatives toured C&H Farms in Mt. Judea and heard owner Jason Henson (right) discuss technology and conservation practices on the new hog farm and his family’s history as environ-mental stewards. The intent of the tour was to counter inaccurate and incomplete information about the farm that has been disseminated by environmental groups op-posed to permits that allow the farm to operate safely and legally in the Buffalo National River watershed.

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On April 22 in Springdale, usdA secretary tom

vilsack met with a diverse group of farmers and

ranchers, including ArFB President Randy Veach

(facing camera, blue tie), Vice President Rich Hillman

(to Veach’s right) and several other state board

members and county Farm Bureau leaders.

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and knowledge I’ve gained with others.”

2014 YF&R ConferenceArkansas Farm Bureau’s Young

Farmers & Ranchers Committee has announced that its annual conference will be held Feb. 21-22, 2014 at the Embassy Suites hotel in Little Rock. Please share this date with YF&R members in your county and encourage them to begin making plans to attend.

In ArkansasTax cuts for ag

Arkansas farmers and ranchers received the largest tax reduction since the 2007 session when the sales tax on off-road diesel was converted to a per-gallon tax. Legislators slashed approximately $160 million in taxes on income taxes and capital gains, among a dozen other tax reductions. Agriculture captured about $16 million of those tax cuts. The largest will come on Jan. 1, 2014 when HB 1039 by Rep. Jeff Wardlaw and Sen. Larry Teague takes effect. The bill will save farmers $11 million annually on sales taxes on utilities (electricity, LPG and natural gas) purchased for poultry, livestock,

aquaculture, horticulture and swine operations.

The legislature also passed a sales-tax exemption on baling wrap and twine for forage and cotton, which will save farmers around $800,000 annually. That exemption takes effect Oct. 1. Approval of SB 299 sponsored by Sen. Teague and Rep. Ken Bragg will remove the sales tax on timber-harvesting equipment. And approval of SB 298 sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Dismang creates a sales-tax exemption for utilities

used by grain drying and storage facilities.

A summary will be released soon with details on many of the bills monitored by Arkansas Farm Bureau. ArFB also will release voting scorecards for individual legislators on the priority issues. Counties are encouraged to thank legislators for their favorable votes for agriculture and invite them to a county board meeting and county annual meeting.

Arkansas Water Plan meetingsThe Arkansas Natural Resources

Commission will hold seven public meetings on existing and future water use and needs forecasting during June. The schedule for the 6:30 p.m. public meetings on the Arkansas Water Plan is as follows:

• June 3, Arkadelphia: Henderson State University, Garrison Center Auditorium

• June 4, Fort Smith: Fort Smith Convention Center

• June 6, Stuttgart: Phillips Community College, Grand Prairie Center-Salon B

• June 6, Harrison: North Arkansas College, Durand Center-Durand B

• June 17, Jonesboro: Arkansas State University Convocation Center

• June 18, Forrest City: East Arkansas Community College, Fine Arts Center Banquet Hall

Farm Friends day on April 25 in Fayetteville provided a fun learn-ing environment for more than 2,500 students from 37 Wash-ington County schools. The event was sponsored by Washington Co. Farm Bureau and UofA’s Coopera-tive Extension Service.

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On April 24, Crawford Co. FB members helped the UofA Craw-ford Co. Extension Service with a full day of “Fun on the Farm” for 500 area school children who attended the event on county President Randy Arnold’s Farm.

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4-H members participated in a dairy foods contest sponsored by the Sharp Co. FB Women’s Commit-tee and the Cooperative Extension Service. The contest promotes the use of dairy ingredients in cooking and encourages the 4-H mission of “learn by doing.”

FFA member Sarah Lawrence, a senior at Imboden High School, washed and groomed her bull before showing it at the spring Livestock show. Arkansas Farm Bureau serves as the title sponsor for this event, which was held May 2-4 at the state fairgrounds in Little Rock.

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• June 20, Smackover: Arkansas Museum of Natural Resources

ElsewhereHelp for fruit, veggie farmers

Providing new Farm Bill programs for fruit and vegetable farmers would help ensure a strong agricultural economy and benefit the health of the entire nation, American Farm Bureau Federation Vice President Barry Bushue told Congress last month.

“The Farm Bill helps farmers and ranchers deal with the risks that threaten their ability to produce the food, fiber and fuel we all need,” Bushue testified to the House’s Subcommittee on Horticulture, Research, Biotechnology and Foreign Agriculture.

Farm Bureau urged lawmakers to extend some programs normally available only to growers of crops such as corn, soybeans and wheat to farmers who grow specialty crops such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, dried fruits, horticulture/nursery crops and floriculture.

The value of specialty crop production in the U.S. is significant, accounting for approximately 17 percent of the $391 billion in agriculture cash receipts collected in 2012, Bushue noted.

Starting with the next Farm Bill, Farm Bureau has proposed expansion of crop insurance products to include fruit and vegetable farms. This could include

field corn for livestock, soybeans and wheat, as well as apples, potatoes, tomatoes, grapes and sweet corn.

“The program would be administered by USDA’s Risk Management Agency in a manner consistent with the current crop insurance delivery system,” said Bushue. “It is designed to complement existing crop-insurance programs. It does not change any features of existing insurance policies.”

The specialty crops AFBF proposed for coverage each rank in the top 13 in value of production for the country, represent at least 2 percent of the nation’s value of production and are grown in at least 13 states. In addition, insurance is currently available for each of the crops. If the program is used to cover these specialty crops, fruit and vegetable farmers in 44 states would benefit.

USA Rice scholarshipThe USA Rice Federation is

conducting a National Rice Month scholarship contest, sponsored by Dow AgroSciences. High school seniors in the 2013-14 school year from rice-growing counties in

Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas are eligible to apply.

To qualify to win, students must conduct a promotion activity in their community during September, with U.S.-grown rice as the central theme. Entries must provide details of the promotion and should be submitted by Oct. 11. USA Rice encourages students to invest some of their summer vacation time in planning an innovative rice promotion campaign for a chance to win a scholarship.

Three scholarship prizes totaling $8,500 are available. The grand prize is a $4,000 scholarship and a trip to the 2013 USA Rice Outlook Conference in St. Louis, Mo., for the scholarship presentation. The second-place winner will receive $3,000 and third place, $1,500.

September is National Rice Month, a time for America to salute its rice farmers and everyone involved in the U.S. rice industry. National Rice Month was initiated by an act of Congress in 1991. For more information and a scholarship contest entry form, visit www.usarice.com.

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Donette Stump, promotion coordinator for the Ark. Beef Council, taught students about beef products at the Faulkner Co. Farm Round up on April 24 in Conway. Hundreds of youngsters from area schools learned about farm life as they visited stations manned by volunteers who taught about livestock, roping skills, crops and other topics.

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EditorKeith Suttonkeith.sutton@arfb.com

Sue Burkemeyer (left) and Ida Ruth Jones, members of Pope Co. FB’s Women’s Committee, had the dif-ficult but pleasant task of judging the county’s dairy recipe contest held April 6 in Russellville.

In the MarketAs of May 9, 2013

CoRn continues its yo-yo movement as dictated by weather or weather forecasts. Planting delays have pushed December as high as $5.70 in the last two weeks. Now, with indications planters are moving at high speed in some areas, the market is on a downward spiral with old support at $5.25 and the late April dip to $5.17 becoming a near-term target. Old crop July could never close the March stocks report gap that stretches to $6.76, reaching a peak of $6.69 before retracing to the downside toward recent support at$6.10. For now, recent highs and lows mark the trading range, but that could change with the weather. Sustained good conditions push the market lower, while delays give higher pricing opportunities.

SoYBEAnS remain a “tale of two markets.” Old crop is moving sideward in a dollar range, with bottom side support between $13.40 and $13.25 and resistance at the recent spike high of $14.25. That is likely to remain the pattern until this year’s U.S. crop is well established, as producers remain tight holders and reluctant sellers. However, the chance of importing South American beans increases every day, and that tips the scale lower. On the other hand, new crop November is on a long-term downtrend stretching from the early February high of $13.51 to the recent dip to $11.87. The longer the weather delays corn planting, the larger the soybean acreage will be and the greater the chance of challenging support at $11.40 or even lower. Trendline resistance is at $12.25 and sliding lower each day. Any rebound toward $12.50 should be viewed as a pricing opportunity.

WHEAT broke a long-term downtrend the last week of April. Typically, that would be followed by a significant rebound, but in this case, July futures have been stymied around $7.36 or just short of the

previous high of $7.40. Now the market appears to be range bound between $7.40 and the recent low of $6.65. A close above this range and old support at $7.52 would essentially signal additional upside opportunity. Improving export demand, if sustained, could tip this market that direction.

CoTTon planting continues to lag behind the five-year average. Just 17 percent of the crop was planted by May 5, compared to 27 percent normally. Texas, with most the acreage, is just 16 percent planted. Arkansas, at 5 percent, lags way behind the five-year average of 35 percent and a whopping 73 percent last year. All that said, corn planting delays in the Mid-South and Southeast likely pushed some acreage back to cotton. December futures broke a short-term downtrend this week with a move above 86 cents. Consecutive closes above the trendline are needed to suggest the market will retest resistance just above 89 cents.

RICE trading is a “mixed” bag. The U.S. market remains firm with good export business, including TRQ trade to Columbia, sales to Iran and continued steady movement to Haiti. South America is actively selling to Iraq and Iran. The other side of the globe is a different story. Thai intervention stocks appear to be swelling, and storage is being overextended with second crop harvest near. Quoted price levels are well above those of Vietnam, India and Pakistan. Supplies in that part of the world are extensive. U.S. stocks are dwindling, with mills in Texas and Louisiana looking elsewhere for supplies. Meantime, U.S. planting is behind normal with Arkansas at 48 percent planted on May 5 compared to 72 percent for the five-year average. Mississippi, at 14 percent compared to 80 percent, is even farther behind. Louisiana and Texas are near completion, while Missouri and California are ahead of their five-year average. Another interesting year, no doubt.

Live CATTLE futures charts have taken on a negative appearance over

the past week or so. Live cattle are under pressure from weak beef prices and large market-ready supplies. A huge gap was left on the monthly chart when June became the lead contract. On the daily chart, June could be headed for a retest of support below $119.50. Feeders have turned lower again on weak cash feeder prices and profit taking after recent gains. August feeders have support at the recent low of $144.50.

HoG futures have been supported this week by improving cash hog prices and higher cutout values. Tight hog supplies are also supportive, but futures’ premium to cash could limit the upside potential of the market. June futures are building support at $91.17 ½, and will have resistance at $92.37 ½.

DAIRY. Milk production in the Southeast increased this week as mild weather improved cow-comfort levels. Class I demand continues to decline as universities are completing their spring terms. Recent rains have improved some pastures and forage regrowth, but more is needed. Producers continue to be faced with high hay prices and fairly tight feed rations. Milk production increases combined with lower Class I demand caused 130 spot loads to be exported this week. Milk supplies are nearly in balance with demand in the Southeast region. Manufacturing milk supplies are approaching contract minimums. Class I demand showed some marginal increases this week as some plants added on a few loads. Demand for cream has fallen flat as ice cream production is yet to be in full swing. Demand from cream cheese remains steady at best. Current supplies quickly exceed demand with many loads having trouble finding a home, requiring out-of-region discount sales. Cream multiples for all classes moved lower and ranged $1.10-$1.28 with out-of-region shipments at the low end of the range.

ConTACT•Gene Martin (501) 228-1330,

gene.martin@arfb.com.