Agricultural and political leaders are concerned about the potential economic impact the Gulf oil spill could have on barge traffic along the Mississippi River. Congressmen are urging President Obama and the Coast Guard to fully evaluate the impact of the BP Oil Spill on Mississippi River shipping lanes, according to an article posted Friday on the Wallaces Farmer website.

More than half of the nation’s soybeans were exported from the Mississippi Gulf region in 2009. Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition headquartered at the offices of the Iowa Soybean Association near Des Moines says the United States’ ability to meet customer demand would be compromised. Farmer incomes would be reduced due to a likely widening basis.  A disruption of shipping from the Mississippi Gulf region would have a detrimental impact on agriculture, in general, and the soybean industry, in particular. Click here to read the full article.

In true agriculture fashion, an innovative idea has been brought to the table as a possible solution to the Gulf oil spill to safeguard the Midwest’s ag economy. Check out this video:

http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/.

Two weeks ago we wrote about our upcoming participation in Alexander, Iowa’s Quasquicentennial parade. John’s uncle Jim videotaped the parade for us (you can see the Latham trucks come in at about 6 minutes and 45 seconds), and we thought it was such a great representation of Iowa’s communities we wanted to share it with you.

We were proud to be a part of the celebration!

In support of June Dairy Month, today’s blog post will feature an Iowa family whose entrepreneurial spirit allows seven families to be supported by a 150 milk cows.

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of touring Hansen’s Dairy Farm near Hudson, Iowa, as part of the Ag-Urban Leadership Initiative. I’ve shared some photos below, so you can take your own “virtual tour” of their operation.  (Note the calf with a perfect heart-shape on her forehead… How could you help but love her?  There’s also a photo of Hansen’s milk truck and even a wallaby!) The Hansen logo (at right) is of a wallaby with a Holstein calf in her pouch. The Hansen’s have several New Zealand wallabies that help attract people to the farm.

The Ag-Urban Leadership Initiative, sponsored by the Iowa Soybean Association, fosters collaboration between ag and urban leaders to provide sustainable solutions for the state and her communities.  A large part of the program involves educational tours and discussions with Iowa business owners such as Jay and Jeanne Hansen.

The Hansen farm has been in the family since Jay’s ancestors emigrated from Germany in 1861, and J&J’s dairy herd originated in 1953.  When all four of their sons desired to return to home and farm, the family needed to find a way to produce more revenue without a large expansion.  After extensive research, they decided to process their own milk.  A creamery was constructed in November 2002, and in February 2004, their first gallon of non-homogenized whole milk was produced.

Today the Hansens run a farm-fresh milk route and have expanded their product offering to include:  whole milk, 1% milk, Skim milk, Chocolate 1% milk, butter, heavy cream, cheese curds, hard ice cream, soft-serve ice cream, ice cream pies, ice cream cakes, egg nog (seasonal) and ground beef.

Hansen’s Dairy Outlet in Cedar Falls sells butter, cottage cheese, sour cream, European-style yogurt, cheese baskets plus Holstein beef, cheese curds and soft serve ice cream.  The family also operates Moo Roo retail store in Waterloo. The name combines their cows with their logo.  (Wallabies, or miniature kangaroos, came to live on their farm after son Blake Hansen traveled to New Zealand.)

“Farm Fresh Dairy” has become a point of differentiation for the Hansen family. Their mission is “to deliver the best quality farm-fresh dairy products from our family to yours.”

Those of us who operate family-owned businesses can certainly appreciate the time, energy and passion that goes into producing products that we’re proud put our name on.  In honor of the Hansens – and all of the Midwest’s hardworking dairy families – I’m posting one of my favorite cheesecake recipes today.

Laura Larson, marketing coordinator for Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds, recently returned from Greece where she toured through Iowa State University’s Ag Study Abroad program. The trip’s focus was Agricultural Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which was a great match for Laura’s educational pursuits, as she was very involved in studying entrepreneurship and business development throughout college.

Laura said she was intrigued by the program because Greece’s agricultural industry is facing some of the same issues we are realizing in American agriculture: industry consolidation, increased regulation and the need to grow more food on fewer acres. Due to Greece’s diverse and small-scale ag production, producers in the region have to become entrepreneurial to remain viable in tough economic times. Laura said the constant innovation and niche marketing that is driving agriculture in Greece can be applied to help American farmers remain competitive in the global agricultural market.

The 26 ISU students who participated in the trip toured one of the top 100 wineries in the world, Domaine Gerovassiliou (acres of vines at Gerovasiliou below). They also toured Kri Kri dairy processing plant, a dairy operation focusing on Feta cheese production (pictured above), and a pistachio farm on the island of Agina (pistachio trees at right). (Greece is the largest producer of pistachios in Europe and the sixth largest exporter in the world). Other stops included a water buffalo feedlot, Barbastathis frozen vegetable production plant, a winery focused on producing canned grape leaves for the food market instead of wine, Agriplant high tech nursery and Spirulina algae production plant.

One big highlight of the trip was the opportunity to interact with the American Farm School, what Laura called the “ISU College of Ag of Greece.” The school was founded by a missionary, who traveled to Greece from America, with the goal of preaching about religion.  Upon arriving, however, he found a country suffering from famine and drought, so he decided it would be much more important to teach them about agriculture. This school is the only one of its kind teaching agriculture in Greece.

Laura’s greatest learning experience came from talking with Greek producers about the use and acceptance of biotech ag products. She was surprised to find that many of them were very open to the biotech industry but, admittedly, were not well educated on all the industry had to offer.  They told her the main reason European producers are reluctant to approve biotech is for simple economic reasons; they don’t want the United States controlling genetics for products they produce.  Hopefully, increased pressure from a growing population will help these producers overcome economic opposition and accept the benefits these products can bring to their fields.

U.S. farmers can choose an additional risk management tool with Biotech Yield Assurance(SM) for the 2011 growing season. The crop insurance program links an insurance policy to the yield benefits of Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® Soybeans and Genuity SmartStax™ corn.

For an incremental premium, Biotech Yield Assurance will enable eligible farmers to increase coverage by 10 percent of the existing yield guarantee for each insured unit that is 100 percent planted to Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® Soybeans in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota, and each insured unit that is 95 percent planted to Genuity SmartStax™ corn in the states of Iowa and Minnesota.

“Biotech Yield Assurance(SM) policy can help address the risk gap between new high-yielding genetics and actual production history (APH) used for insurance purposes,” said Ted Etheredge, President of ARMtech. “For example, a grower with an APH of 50 bushels and a Biotech Yield Assurance(SM) policy for Genuity® Roundup Ready 2 Yield® soybeans can bring his total unit coverage to 93.5 percent and insure an additional 4.25 bushels. That’s compared to a Multi-Peril Crop Insurance policy covering 85 percent of APH – the highest coverage possible under federal crop insurance policies today.”

Click here to read the full press release.

Source: Monsanto press release

At Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds, we talk a lot about hometown service. One of the reasons we do is because we’re lucky enough to be based in Alexander, Iowa – a community where neighbors helping neighbors isn’t old-fashioned, it’s a daily occurrence.

Alexander is celebrating its Quasquicentennial this weekend, and we’re proud to be a part of it.  Latham Hi‑Tech Seeds will have an entry in Saturday’s parade, which begins at 10 a.m.  To see the weekends’ events, click here and select “Schedule of Events” along the left hand side. You can download the schedule for all of the weekends’ activities including the car/motorcycle show and fireworks.

We truly believe that the people are what make Alexander a lasting success, and we believe part of Latham’s success is due to the fact we’re based here. As we travel the world to bring the best in agricultural technology to our customers, we do so as a proud member of the Alexander community.

Click here to listen to our Alexander Quasquicentennial celebration announcement.

Alexander Quasquicentennial

May is National Egg Month, and Iowa is the number one egg-producing state in the nation. Egg  production, grading and packing facilities also contribute largely to the economy here in Franklin County, so I’m paying homage to “the perfect food” by sharing a few stats and one of my favorite recipes.

Did you know that eggs are an excellent source of choline? According to the Iowa Egg Council’s Website, choline is an essential nutrient for brain development in a fetus and newborn. It may also play a role in memory function throughout our lives. Oh, how I could use help with expanding memory! With this new found knowledge, I’m seriously considering making an “egg a day” part of my new daily routine.

Eating an egg a day is healthy, according to the American Heart Association. Eggs contain such a high quality protein that it has become the standard by which other proteins are measured. Eggs also contain carotenoids, lutein and zeaxanthin that have been round to decrease the risk of age-related macular degeneration.

With so much nutrition packed into such an inexpensive food, why not add more eggs to one’s diet? Following is a recipe to help you do just that! Like all of my favorite recipes, this one is easy to make. I especially like making it for overnight guests because it can be mixed up ahead of time.

Feel free to send me your favorite egg recipes, as well. I’m especially interested in recipes that showcase eggs for lunch or dinner. Eggs… they’re not just for breakfast anymore!

The first Earth day was celebrated 40 years ago, and since that date, a tremendous shift in favor of preserving our environment has taken place. Since much of the credit goes to our nation’s farmers, the National Corn Growers Association wrote in a recent article, we should acknowledge their contributions and increase grower awareness of the sustainability of their own operations.

“It only makes sense that growers would work to preserve land, water and air,” said NCGA President Darrin Ihnen, a family farmer in Hurley, S.D. “We need to conserve these resources for the survival of our farmers, which most of us have passed from generation to generation.”

According to USDA, today’s farmers produce 70 percent more corn per pound of nutrients than they did in the 1970s. Farmers are able to use less fertilizer because new high-tech equipment puts fertilizer directly over the plants’ roots instead of spreading it on the whole field, and in-seed technologies are constantly improving corn’s fertilizer-use efficiency.

Production agriculture has become increasing more efficient and environmentally friendly.  A study released last year from Field to Market shows that producing a bushel of corn has seen a 69 percent decrease in soil loss, 37 percent decrease in land and energy use, 30 percent decrease in greenhouse-gas emissions and 27 percent decrease in water application from 1987 to 2007. And each year, reduced tillage methods save 3.5 gallons of fuel per acre of cropland.

This Earth Day, April 22, farmers have a good tool to help them discover even more environmental efficiencies. Developed by Field to Market, the Fieldprint Calculator helps farmers assess the efficiency of their operations and improve their management of natural resources. You can check that out here.

Source: NCGA

Iowa Farmer Today recently posted the article “Loss or reduction of Bt could harm farmers,” written by Roger Elmore, with the Iowa State University Department of Agronomy, and Aaron Gassman and Erin Hodson, Department of Entomology. Below is an excerpt from the article.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) recently released a report, stating a trend of decreasing compliance with corn refuge across the United States. In total, the report found that 13.2 million acres — an area equal to the size of Iowa’s corn crop — are not in compliance.

Why does refuge compliance matter?

Many scientists agree at refuges delay or prevent pests from developing Bt resistance because susceptible pests emerging from the refuge mate with resistant pests from the Bt field.  This dilutes the resistance genes and maintains susceptibility of pest populations to Bt corn. If refuges are too small or too far from Bt fields, a shortage of refuge insects to mate with insects from Bt fields will occur.

What’s at stake?

At least three issues come to mind:

1. If compliance rates do not quickly improve, expect more demands for compliance, insistence to change the regulatory process, and/or steep penalties for noncompliance.
2. Refuge requirements from an integral part of insect resistance management programs. If some producers continue to ignore these requirements, insects may develop resistance to Bt corn sooner.
3. Third, every business enterprise — including corn production — bears a social role and responsibility.

Thanks to the 3 of every 4 corn growers who follow the refuge requirements.  For more information on refuge compliance, click here to read the full Iowa Farmer Today article, or click here to read our recent post, “Remember to Plant the Refuge.”

As you head into your fields this spring, be mindful of refuge requirements for all corn hybrids with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) technology.

Refuge is calculated based upon your state and county, as well as the trait(s) you are planting. Click here to download an easy-to-use IRM corn calculator. This calculator will help you determine the number of refuge acres required and planting configurations.

To help simplify the list of requirements for hybrids with Agrisure, YieldGard, Herculex and Genuity^TM SmartStax^TM – all of which appear in our current lineup of Latham® Hi‑Tech Hybrids – the University of Nebraska Extension recently published, “Bt Corn, Refuges and Insect Resistance Management for 2010.” NOTE: new Genuity SmartStax hybrids have been approved for reduced refuge in the Corn Belt of 5% for both above-and below-ground pests.

Refuges are required to help preserve Bt corn as an effective pest management tool well into the future. For more information about Insect Resistance Management, click here.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mandates that a refuge be planted for every B.t. corn field. Respect the Refuge and Corn Design® is a registered trademark of National Corn Growers Association.