Adapting to a changing and more demanding world, agriculture continues to provide adequate amounts of food to our society.  Whether it’s an organic orange farmer in Florida or a small Berkshire hog farm in Nebraska, the world depends on United States agriculture every day.  In 1790 nearly 90% of the workforce had a job dependent on agriculture, today that number has shrunk to nearly 2%.  Today more than ever, our world is dependent on an efficient, highly productive agricultural industry.  With every new day, each one of us has a direct interaction with agriculture without even knowing it, whether it is getting dressed in the morning or ordering a burger at McDonalds.  From recently giving a presentation on the production process of hogs at Metro CC in Omaha where a small percentage of students have experiences production agriculture, my blog this week will be about “things you may not know.”  The students inquired things that for many of us who grew up experiencing some form of agriculture, would already know.  Overall, I was impressed to see that students asked questions and were interested to learn about the pork industry.

- Every crop is different, not all crops are planted in the spring and harvested in the fall.  Depending on your location and climate dictates what crops are suitable for your area.  As Nebraskans, we live in the Corn Belt where corn and soybeans are primary crops.  In western Nebraska though, wheat, sugar beets, and pinto beans can also be found due to the dynamic change in their land and climate.

- There are only 2.1 million farmers in the United States.  On a daily basis they feed 111 million households (that’s not even people) which means every day one farmer feeds 52.9 households!

- With increasing demand for pork worldwide, currently one in every four pigs produced in the United States is being used for exports.

- There has been a dramatic shift in agriculture throughout the years.  The Farm Bill (which may associate to dealing with primarily agriculture) now includes: Energy, conservation, trade, rural development, commodity futures, horticulture, livestock, nutrition, and much more.

- Much like any business in America, the farm is our business.  We are dependent on our animals and crops being profitable each year so we too can eat!

- Pigs, next to chickens, are one of the most efficient livestock animals.  It takes three pounds of feed (mixture of corn, soybeans, wheat, etc) for them to gain ONE POUND!

- You may not think so, but these items affect agriculture everyday: globalization, demand growth (increase in world population), increasing technology, politics, food safety, and the environment.

- Want to become a crop farmer in rural America?  First you’ll need land, averaging $4,000 an acre.  If you buy 500 acres of land (an average size farm) you’re talking about a $2 million dollar investment!  After that you’ll need equipment, a new combine today averages around $200,000 and a tractor to plant the crop, another $100,000.  It is easy to see why the numbers of farms are diminishing in American today.  The same is true about animal agriculture!

- WE CARE about our animals, land, and products!  It’s our way of life.

- Being a small sector in the economy while simultaneously fulfilling a large role has shaped the agricultural industry today.  We strive to make improvements everyday and are here to establish facts.  We enjoy answering questions and teaching the American public about our industry!

“This summer, we made amazing headway in bringing our messages about family farming and agriculture to our nation’s capital,” said National Corn Growers Association President Bart Schott. “By bringing our campaign back in September, we will be able to reinforce this excellent work just as our federal legislators return from recess to create policies that will impact corn growers across the country.”

Corn farmers from 14 states and NCGA support the Corn Farmers Coalition program to introduce a foundation of facts seen as essential to decision making, rather than directly influencing legislation and regulation. The positive fact-based messages are directed at legislators and staff, agency employees such as Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, think tanks and other non-government organizations who participate in the policy dialogue in Washington.

The Corn Farmers Coalition will re-launch its major advertising campaign with “station domination” at the Capitol South Metro Station, placing prominent messages in front of many legislative and regulatory staff that use the station in their daily commute. The program will begin September 1 after a month-long recess reflective of the legislative calendar. It is estimated that in the month of September alone, this campaign will reach 800,000 persons.

Source: NCGA news release

America’s family farmers are the best and this year puts an exclamation point on that statement, as Natalie Lehner, Communications Director for Ohio Corn Growers Association pointed out in a news release in the wake of the crop report. Growers are remarkably adept. This year’s effort demonstrates how good these family owned and operated business ventures have become at using modern farming practices to get crops planted and harvested in record time even while facing tremendous challenges.

Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association reports farmers were delayed in planting due to an extremely wet spring –  one of the wettest springs in history ­- and had the numbers of days they could plant compressed to a week in some cases.

Yet the USDA estimates family farmers across the nation planted MORE corn this year than last year, with figures showing farmers put 3.5 million acres of corn in the ground in 2011, up from last year’s 3.45 million planted corn acres.

The Corn Farmers Coalition project is about showcasing key facts from entities like the US Department of Agriculture and the US Environmental Protection Agency. The goal is to let these facts reflect the importance of having a crop production system that is constantly improving, focused on safety, growing more with less and doing so in an environmentally sustainable way. Facts aside, this spring provided a case study in how human grit and determination along with innovation have made us the most productive agricultural nation in history.

“Thirty years ago this would not have been an option,” said Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers (OCWGA) President and Henry County farmer Mark Wachtman. Technology such as using GPS to guide in planting, allows us to plant quickly and do it right the first time. Also, biotech seeds make it possible to have a shorter growing season under adverse weather conditions.”

But, OCWGA CEO Dwayne Siekman says keep in mind the figures are still estimates.

“These are rough estimates from the US Department of Agriculture,” said OCWGA CEO Dwayne Siekman. “But this year has shown the tenacity of Ohio farmers to work round the clock to get the job done to provide corn for food, feed and fuel.”

While more acres are estimated planted, Ohio farmers are counting on good Growing weather this summer to bring quality yields; Ohio yields are generally higher than the nation¹s overall average with 165 bushels per acre. Ideal growing weather this summer would be warm temperatures with an adequate amount of rain.

Through innovation, technology, ingenuity and hard work farmers are meeting our growing needs for food, fuel, feed and fiber. And they are doing so with a shared commitment to feeding our families the most healthful food possible while protecting the environment. 

Through technology and generations of accumulated experience today’s corn farmers have become the best in the world. Record crops are becoming common and family farmers are improving their environmental footprint by doing more with less. Even this year with challenging planting conditions our corn farmers are expected to grow more than 13 billion bushels of corn.

When I saw the article below in Agri-Pulse it made me remember how lucky we are in this nation to have such good and dependable farmers because as you can see, the challenges will not get any easier. Still, my money is on the American family farmers.

(Reprinted with Permission of Agri-Pulse. For a free 4-week trial go to www.agri-pulse.com)

 ‘Silo’ mentality a barrier to ending hunger, DuPont panel says

After more than a year of deliberation, an advisory committee appointed by DuPont to look at how to feed a fast-growing population delivered a report yesterday with the now-familiar narrative: food production needs to increase 70% by 2050 with little or no more land and water, and with more care for natural resources. But it also served up an often-overlooked admonition: it must be done without the ideological distractions that get in the way.

The committee, chaired by former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., concluded that increased production of and access to food “requires an unprecedented level of cooperation between and leadership from private companies, governments, research entities, educational institutions, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and farmers around the world.

Stakeholders can no longer work in what have become overly fragmented „silos‟,” members said. Those with a stake in the solution, the report concluded, have to “remain focused on the question of how to adequately raise productivity to meet the world’s food needs, rather than get distracted by historic disputes, such as biotechnology versus traditional crop breeding, organic farming versus conventional farming, or food versus fuel production.”

“We must focus on breaking down silos that have traditionally divided stakeholders,”

James Borel, DuPont executive VP agriculture and nutrition, said in a briefing at the National Geographic Society auditorium in downtown Washington. “We must come together with a common purpose in a goal of sustainable food security. The challenge “threatens the political and economic stability of the world,” he said “The problem is greater than one company can solve, greater than one country can solve.” Publication of the report was “the beginning of how we engage all stakeholders in closing the productivity gap,” Borel added.

“All of these issues are distractions,” Daschle said. “There is a growing realization that we’re going to need everybody – those who rely more on science and those who rely on organic.” He said that the committee focused on the need for farmers to produce food, feed, fiber and fuel, “we came to the realization that these are distractions but they are resolvable.”

Jo Luck, president of the Heifer International global development charity, appealed to NGOs leaders. “We’ve got to talk and move out of silos. We may disagree but we can work together.

Rather than get distracted by biotech, organic or food versus fuel, although they are central to how some people see the world food system, we have to learn how to manage these debates.”

Committee member J.B. Penn, chief economist of Deere & Co., said that the “enormity of the challenge” made clear that there was no single solution. “It can’t be only seeds or mechanization, but we have to look at the same time at policy and infrastructure and investment from farm to consumer across the entire food system,” he said.  

Developing countries require “enormous investment in infrastructure, farm-to-market roads, irrigation, storage facilities and soft infrastructure,” such as marketing information and policy and legal structures.

“Even in the 21st Century, corn farming remains a family operation,” said Kansas Corn Commission Chairman Mike Brzon, a farmer from Courtland, Kan. “In many cases, such as mine, this vocation goes back multiple generations. The family farmer growing corn for a hungry world isn’t a myth, but a critical economic engine for our country and it’s important that policy makers and influencers realize this.”

Corn farmers from 14 states and the National Corn Growers Association are supporting the Corn Farmers Coalition program to introduce a foundation of facts seen as essential to decision making, rather than directly influencing legislation and regulation.

“Once again, we’re putting a face on today’s family farmers to showcase the productivity and environmental advances being made in the industry and to provide factual information on how innovative and high-tech corn farmers have become,” said Brzon.

The Corn Farmers Coalition is launching its major advertising campaign today with “station saturation” at Union Station that will put prominent facts about family farmers in Capital Hill publications, radio, frequently used web sites, the Metro and Reagan National Airport. The program will continue until Congress recesses in August.

“Last year, we saw a good response to our positive and proactive efforts, and this year we have many new people inside the Beltway to educate,” said NCGA President Bart Schott, a grower in North Dakota. “As urban and suburban America gets further removed from the agricultural roots that made our nation strong, we’re saying it’s time again for everyone to come home to the farm.”

It’s not just about advertising, Schott noted. The coalition will meet with media, members of Congress, environmental groups and others to talk about farming’s bright future: how U.S. farmers, using the latest technologies, will continue to expand yields and how this productivity can be a bright spot in an otherwise struggling economy.

For more information or to view the CFC ads go: www.cornfarmerscoalition.org

Last week, FOX News ran a story on farm subsidies under the guise of being on the lookout for the taxpayer. 

The story predictably attacked the usual suspects: direct payments and conservation programs.  And while the reporter, William LaJeunesse, talked to someone from the American Farm Bureau Federation as well as a farmer from Illinois, the story didn’t exactly frame the discussion in a way that could lead a viewer to make up his or her own mind.  After all, it was titled “Subsidies Bloat Agriculture Budget.”

The story quotes Steve Ellis from Taxpayers for Common Sense, whose argument originates from the typical misunderstanding of the programs.  Mr. Ellis says, “We cannot afford to lavish these subsidies on corporate agribusiness.”

Mr. Ellis misleads when he calls farmers who receive support ‘corporate agribusiness.’  Technically, any farmer who sells more than $1,000 worth of products could be called ‘corporate agribusiness.’  But the more a farm produces, the more vulnerable it is to risk and wild income swings; it’s also more expensive to run.  Therefore it is vital these larger farms remain stable. Viewers also weren’t told that payments are based on how much is produced—farmers aren’t receiving disproportional payments hand over fist.  And in some years, based on crop yields, crop conditions and market prices, many farmers don’t receive any federal payments. 

Corn growing in Illinois, 2010

Mr. Ellis also falls back on the mischaracterization that farmers get paid not to farm.  Viewers weren’t told that ‘getting paid not to farm’ is part of being enrolled in land conservation programs.  These programs, which are subject to federal guidelines, help to: reduce soil erosion; restore wetlands and buffers; reduce carbon dioxide emissions; provide wildlife habitats and refuges; protect environmentally sensitive land; and safeguard ground water and surface water sources.

It’s important for taxpayers and the media to understand why this issue needs fair examination.  Farmers and farm organizations are aware of—and greatly concerned about—the federal deficit.  And they would prefer to rely on the marketplace for their income.  But while U.S. farm income was expected to be up 24% in 2010,  it was DOWN 38% in 2009.  Those are the kinds of wild market swings that can put a farmer out of business.

And as Illinois farmer Steve Pitstick said in the FOX piece, “It is kind of a national security thing.”  He’s absolutely right.  It is vital to our nation that farmers stay in business from one year to the next. History shows a hungry nation—or a nation dependent on others for food—is a vulnerable and unstable nation.

One last bit of information with regard to the title of the story—“Subsidies Bloat Agriculture Budget.”  Ag programs are expected to make up only 2% of total federal spending over the next ten years.  75% of total farm bill spending will go to nutritional programs—programs that have literally helped put food on people’s tables during these tough economic times.  9% of farm bill spending will go to crop insurance; 7% to conservation, and 7% to “subsidies.”  In other words, a miniscule .14% of all federal expenditures go to farm program payments. (Said another way, just over one tenth of one percent of the entire federal budget.)

Including ALL of that information would have been fair and balanced.

Originally published on Standing Out in the Field

There’s a guy in Illinois who’s a farmer.  He farms 5000 acres of corn and soybeans over several areas.  He is responsible for all of the business decisions for the operation, including which varieties to plant, when to sell what he harvests and for how much. His tractors and combines are huge machines. They are equipped with laptop computers and the latest GPS technology. As part of his income, he sells seed and cattle equipment to other farmers. He sits on the Board of Directors for a statewide farm organization, often traveling to meetings and conventions and providing input on the operation of county farm bureaus in his district. During busy times, he hires outside employees to help get the job done around the farm.

There’s another farmer, also from Illinois. A fifth-generation farmer, he takes environmental stewardship seriously, maintaining buffer strips next to water sources on his land. He uses contour planting and no-till farming. He and his kids drink water from the well on his farm.  He tends to his animals daily, taking special care when they’re sick. He’s up in the middle of the night – every night – during calving season to check on birthing cows and heifers and their newborns. Hundreds of school kids visit his farm each year for personal tours to understand how their food grows.  Three generations of his family work on the farm.

If you were forced to label one of these farmers as a “family farmer” and one as a “factory farmer,” which would be which?

Here’s the catch:  these two real-life farmers are brothers, in charge of different operations on the very same farm.

How can that be, when everything about the first farmer appears to describe a factory farm?  The answer is simple—the term ‘factory farm’ doesn’t mean anything. It’s a term used by activists to make people assume facts not in evidence. They know you’ll hear or read the term assume it means something bad.  But do you know what they mean?  Do they mean a farm over a certain size?  If so, what is that size?  A hundred acres?  Five hundred?  Is it a farm that raises animals for meat, instead of just milk, eggs and companionship?  A farm that plants biotech crops?  Is it a farm that makes a certain amount of money?  Does it have to be all of the above—or just any one of the above?

If you Google “factory farm” you get about 260,000 results.  The first entry, from dictionary.com, defines a factory farm as “a farm in which animals are bred and fattened using modern industrial methods.”  Conjures up the image of robots forcing animals to mate on a conveyor belt while they’re being stuffed full of food, doesn’t it?

Wikipedia’s definition is this: “a systematic effort to produce the highest output at the lowest cost by relying on economies of scale, modern machinery, biotechnology, and global trade.”  By this definition, a farmer trying to maximize efficiency to turn a profit – and using anything but horses and oxen to work the fields – is a factory farmer. As Russ Parsons of the Los Angeles Times wrote earlier this year, “farming without a financial motive is gardening.” 

We are blessed in this country to have plenty of food and many options … conventionally-produced food, organic, locally grown. The truth is that no matter the size of the producer or the type of food produced, a profit must be made so that money can be re-invested and the farmer can provide for his or her family.  Yet, the organic farmer with 20 acres or 20 animals is celebrated, but the conventional farmer with 500 acres or 500 animals is vilified.

Activists would have you believe that because someone farms a large number of acres or raises a lot of animals, he does a bad job; he endangers the environment and mistreats his animals. Not true. Quality assurance programs, regulations and inspection programs keep farmers accountable. And when someone tells you that America is being over-run by “factory farms,” know that 94% of the farms in Illinois are family farms. Beware of labels. They can be misleading, vague, and even meaningless.

Follow Illinois Farm Bureau – News & Issues on Facebook.

If you would like to know more about today’s farm families and how they have improved the efficiency and environmental impact of their business you can get a good sense by viewing this video or you can follow the Borg Family farm via Twitter @iamafarmer2!

The Sustaining Innovation campaign echoes a promotional campaign conducted in Washington, D.C., by the Corn Farmers Coalition, which is comprised of several state corn organizations, including those in Nebraska, and the National Corn Growers Association.

“We felt it is important to share positive messages about corn farming today to better help people understand just how far farmers have come in caring for the environment while producing a growing abundance of corn,” Curt Friesen, a farmer from Henderson who chairs the Nebraska Corn Board’s market development committee, said in a news release.

You can read more information on this remarkable story here.