Scoops
| FIRST ANNUAL SOYBEAN YIELD CHALLENGE WINNERS ANNOUNCED | 01/05/09 |
| From a Release - Guelph, Ontario. Winners of the Ontario Soybean Growers’ (OSG) first annual Soybean Yield Challenge competition were announced today. Three finalists for each of three provincial soybean maturity zones received prizes, for a total of nine winners. They were chosen from among the forty growers across Ontario who entered the competition by the July 31st deadline. The finalists, who were recognized for their outstanding 2008 soybean yields, participated in a yield factors panel discussion at today’s OSG Committee Members’ meeting. “We established the Soybean Yield Challenge competition to help raise growers’ awareness of the factors affecting soybean yields”, reports OSG Chairman Leo Guilbeault. “The yield management observations shared by the competition winners at today’s meeting resulted in a very informative farmer-to-farmer exchange of ideas”. “We really appreciate all participants taking the time throughout the season, and particularly during harvest, to gather the necessary data for the competition”, added Crosby Devitt, OSG Research and Innovation Manager. “At the end of the day, this competition is about growers learning more about how to achieve great soybean yields”. The 2008 OSG Soybean Yield Challenge competition winners are: Zone 1 – 2700 CHU and under: Winner: Dan Shantz, Petersburg – 69.1 bushels per acre 1st Runner-up: John Nanne, Pakenham – 66.0 bushels per acre 2nd Runner-up: Wm. A. Miller, Milverton – 64.2 bushels per acre Zone 2 – 2725 CHU to 3000 CHU: Winner: John Denys, Parkhill – 70.22 bushels per acre 1st Runner-up: Tom Feeney, Dublin – 62.8 bushels per acre 2nd Runner-up: Brian & Elisabeth Vandenberg, Winchester – 61.5 bushels per acre Zone 3 – 3025 CHU & above Winner: Casey Klaver, Seaforth – 72.1 bushels per acre 1st Runner-up: Jay Futcher, St. Thomas – 60.3 bushels per acre 2nd Runner-up: Wayne & Shawn Paling, Dresden – 59.8 bushels per acre |
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| 'BLENDING WALL' STANDS IN THE WAY OF ETHANOL GROWTH | 01/05/09 |
From the Greencastle Banner (IN) The closing of the Cloverdale Altra Biofuels may be a sign of the times for the renewable fuels industry--at least for ethanol. In early December the company released official statements announcing layoffs in both Cloverdale and in Coshocton, Ohio. Regarding the Cloverdale closure, the release read, "Due to the poor margin environment, we have made the decision to stop producing ethanol at our Cloverdale facility. We have and will continue to monitor the margin environment on a daily basis and will assess a restart of the plant as soon as margins improve." The industry now must get past an imposing wall of federal regulations and market conditions if it hopes to grow, said a Purdue University agricultural economist. "The ethanol industry is now faced with what is called a 'blending wall,'" said Wally Tyner, an energy policy specialist. "The ethanol industry will not and cannot grow with the blending wall in place. That means we won't have cellulosic ethanol and the demand for corn for ethanol will be limited unless the blending wall is somehow changed or we find a way around it." Unless the barrier is removed, ethanol production could level off by 2010, Tyner said. The blending wall refers to the amount of ethanol gasoline companies are permitted to blend with petroleum-based fuel. Federal standards set the amount at 10 percent of gasoline consumption. |
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| COMMENTARY-FARMERS HAVE LONG KNOWN THE MEANING OF 'GREEN ACTIVISM' | 01/05/09 |
| Today's guest commentary is from Lilian Schaer, interim executive director of AGCare, the environmental voice of Ontario's 45,000 crop and horticulture farmers. She writes about the farming side of food at www.foodandfarmingcanada.com ------------------------------------------ As we approach the new year, resolutions and predictions are on everyone's mind. And although we live in volatile times and things seem to change almost daily, there are some fairly safe bets on what may lie ahead for farmers on the environmental front. There will be a growing emphasis on environmental consciousness and responsible farming practices. As the green evolution continues to gain in strength and popularity, consumers will demand more environmental responsibility from everyone, including the people who make their clothes, build their cars and grow their food. For farmers, this isn't much of a shift as the vast majority of them have been focused on environmental stewardship for a long time. Crop rotation, soil conservation and water management are only some of the things they've been doing for years, but what is new is the need to be able to prove it. Consumers are growing evermore skeptical of anyone making claims without backing them up, so it is important that farmers talk about what they do and why they do it. Climate change will influence all aspects of our lives for many decades to come and there will be both opportunities and challenges. Even a slight warming of the average temperature may allow new crops to be grown in Ontario that haven't been grown here before or to grow existing crops in new areas. But climate change also means more extreme weather patterns -- wild temperature fluctuations, sudden shifts in wind strength, or perhaps more frequent and more severe storms bringing hail, rain or snow. The roller coaster of a wild weather season can take an emotional toll on farmers, so they'll need to be increasingly resilient to deal with bad weather that will affect the quality and quantity of their crops. Technology will continue to play a leading role but farmers will increasingly have to defend their use of it in agriculture. Already, the use of pesticides is being targeted by bans and restrictions in several Canadian provinces, including Ontario. Here, recent legislative changes governing pesticide use focused on cosmetic -- not agricultural -- uses, but questions from consumers and pressure from activists to tighten the laws will continue. And yet in Canada, where we struggle to keep good farmland from disappearing into subdivisions and have fewer and fewer farmers every year, we are faced with the daunting task of doing more and more with less and less when it comes to feeding the global population. This means we need every technological tool at our disposal to ensure we can continue to meet this challenge -- but safely and in an environmentally responsible way. One thing we've never had to worry about in Canada is water. But it's unlikely to stay that way. Rapidly growing cities and increasing water exports are straining our natural water resources, making all of us vulnerable to water shortages, especially in years with little rainfall. Tough decisions lay ahead, ones we've never had to tackle before. In times of shortage, who will continue to have access to water? Will it be municipalities to keep households going? Will it be industry who sustains jobs? Or will it be farmers who are growing food? And if our government goes down the road of implementing a fee-for-use system for water taking, who will have to pay how much? Farmers have long been staunch environmentalists -- probably even more so than most "green" activists. As food producers, farmers depend on the soil, the air and the water for their crops, their farms and their way of life. Along with everyone else, they'll need to continue to adapt to changes in our environment, but an equally big challenge will be the need to tell people what they do, why they do it and what their world would be like if they didn't. |
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