CURRENT ISSUE ARTICLES

Senators Call for Limits on Insurance Premium Subsidies

Water Quality Initiative Announced

USDA Sees 17 Million US Bales in '12-13

Anti-Biotech Groups Push for Labeling

Resistant Weed Recommendations Released

Bale Tie/Bag Performance Information Sought

Sales Rebound, Shipments Continue Strong

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Senators Call for Limits on Insurance Premium Subsidies

In a letter to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Stabenow (D-MI) and Ranking Member Roberts (R-KS), Sens. Coburn (R-OK) and Durbin (D-IL) have called for a $40,000 payment limit to be imposed on crop insurance premium subsidies.

The letter cites a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, which was originally requested by Sen. Coburn (see April 13, '12 Cotton's Week), that outlined possible savings of up to $1 billion a year on crop insurance if Congress capped the subsidies for the premiums paid by farmers and USDA took more aggressive steps to monitor for fraud and abuse in the program.

In support of their position, the senators noted the increase in crop insurance premium subsidies in recent years, due in part to higher insurance liabilities that have resulted from higher crop prices. The letter also raised the issue of an across-the-board reduction in premium subsidies by noting a recent analysis by the Congressional Budget Office.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition also weighed in with their analysis of the payment limit and eligibility changes in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee's farm bill package. While noting the changes in commodity payment limits, means tests and eligibility requirements, the Coalition's summary noted that the package contained no limits on insurance.

Despite the significant reforms included in the Senate Agriculture Committee's package, it is expected that some in Congress will advocate further restrictions as the farm bill process moves forward. The NCC will continue to be actively involved in the debate and voice opposition to any efforts to further restrict or deny program eligibility based on size or income.

Water Quality Initiative Announced

USDA Secretary Vilsack and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Chief White announced the National Water Quality Initiative, which will work in priority watersheds to help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners improve water quality and aquatic habitats in impaired streams.

NRCS will help producers implement conservation and management practices through a systems approach to control and trap nutrient/manure runoff. Qualified producers will receive assistance for implementing conservation practices such as cover crops, filter strips and terraces. Eligible watersheds are in all 50 states and noted in the map at www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1047764.pdf.

NRCS will provide technical assistance and planning tools to determine which conservation actions will provide the best results to improve water quality on an individual's land. Nutrient management systems, erosion control, conservation tillage, pest management and buffer systems are just some of the practices being offered as part of this initiative. To help implement these conservation practices, financial assistance to share in their cost is available through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

All applications for funding consideration during FY12 must be received by June 15, '12. Producers, whose operation is in a selected watershed and are interested in the program, should contact their local NRCS office.

USDA Sees 17 Million US Bales in '12-13

In its May report, USDA projects US '12-13 production to be 17.00 million bales. Mill use is projected at 3.50 million bales while exports are projected to climb to 12.00 million bales. The estimated total offtake stands at 15.50 million bales. With beginning stocks of 3.40 million bales, this would result in US ending stocks of 4.90 million bales on July 31, '13, and a stocks-to-use ratio of 31.6%.

For the '11-12 marketing year, USDA puts US cotton production at 15.57 million bales, up 10,000 bales from the previous month (see table below).

Final planted area for '11-12 was pegged at 14.74 million acres and final harvested area estimated at 9.46 million acres. The '11-12 national upland yield is an estimated 790 pounds per harvested acre, 32 pounds below the five-year average of 822 pounds. The estimated national average extra-long staple yield of 1,340 pounds per harvested acre represents a 75-pound increase in yield when compared to the five-year average. USDA's report has '11-12 mill use and exports both unchanged from last month at 3.40 million bales and 11.40 million bales, respectively. The estimated total offtake now stands at 14.80 million bales, generating ending stocks of 3.40 million bales and a stocks-to-use ratio of 23.0%.

The USDA report sees world production for the '12-13 marketing year of 116.69 million bales. Mill use is set at 109.96 million bales. With beginning stocks at 66.88 million bales, this would result in world ending stocks of 73.75 million bales on July 31, '13, and a stocks-to-use ratio of 67.1%.

For the '11-12 marketing year, world production was estimated to be 123.04 million bales, down 100,000 bales from the April report. World mill use was lowered 1.25 million bales to 106.49 million. Thus, world ending stocks are estimated to be 66.88 million bales with a stocks-to-use ratio of 62.8%.

US Cotton Crop, '11-12
	PLANTED ACRES Thou.	HARV. ACRES Thou.	YIELD PER HARV. ACRE Lb.	5-YEAR AVG. YIELD Lb.	480- POUND BALES Thou.
UPLAND
SOUTHEAST	3,406	3,272	739	788	5,040
Alabama	460	443	742	630	685
Florida	122	118	744	772	183
Georgia	1,600	1,495	791	833	2,465
North Carolina	805	800	616	807	1,026
South Carolina	303	301	828	754	519
Virginia	116	115	676	827	162
MID-SOUTH	2,475	2,412	904	924	4,542
Arkansas	680	660	929	1,014	1,277
Louisiana	295	290	846	865	511
Mississippi	630	605	952	878	1,200
Missouri	375	367	969	999	741
Tennessee	495	490	796	819	813
SOUTHWEST	8,045	2,985	588	711	3,656
Kansas	80	65	510	629	69
Oklahoma	415	70	597	740	87
Texas	7,550	2,850	589	711	3,500
WEST	502	487	1,463	1,427	1,484
Arizona	250	248	1,548	1,469	800
California	182	181	1,474	1,474	556
New Mexico	70	58	1,059	1,064	128
TOTAL UPLAND	14,428	9,156	772	811	14,722
TOTAL ELS	307	305	1,340	1,265	851
Arizona	10	10	960	903	20
California	274	273	1,380	1,329	785
New Mexico	3	3	875	782	6
Texas	20	19	1,038	822	40
ALL COTTON	14,735	9,461	790	822	15,573
Source: USDA-NASS May Crop Production Report.

Anti-Biotech Groups Push for Labeling

The California Right to Know campaign, which is pushing for mandatory biotech labeling within the state, has collected 971,126 signatures, nearly double the requirement, to qualify for a statewide referendum to be included in the Nov. 6 General Election.

If approved, the referendum would require all foods to be labeled by July 1, '14, if produced using genetically engineered (GE) crops. Also, GE foods would be prohibited from being advertised as "natural." Restaurants, direct public sales and dairies would be exempt from the requirement.

Such a labeling requirement would essentially ban the sale of tens of thousands of common grocery products in California unless they are specially repackaged and relabeled just for that state.

Meanwhile, the Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a legal petition last October with the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) demanding that the agency require the labeling of GE foods. CFS also spearheaded a drive with the Just Label It Campaign which resulted in more than one million comments to the FDA in support of the petition. Several states also have labeling bills before their legislatures.

Over the last few decades, the FDA has studied and carefully considered the scientific and legal issues associated with labeling foods derived from modern biotechnology. FDA's deliberations are reflected in its public documents and draft guidance on food labeling, which require labels to provide information that is "material" to the attributes of the food itself, rather than the process by which the food was made. According to its own finding, "FDA has no basis for concluding that bioengineered foods differ from other foods in any meaningful or uniform way, or that, as a class, foods developed by the new techniques present any or greater safety concern."

Resistant Weed Recommendations Released

The Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) has announced that its board endorsed a series of best management practices designed to reduce the incidence of herbicide-resistant weeds and the threat they pose to agricultural productivity. The major recommendation is that growers diversify their weed management practices and the types of herbicides used.

WSSA presented its recommendations during a scientific summit on herbicide resistance organized by the National Research Council, part of the National Academy of Sciences, at George Washington U. in Washington, DC.

WSSA scientists say the single most important factor contributing to resistance is overreliance on a single herbicide or group of herbicides with the same mechanism of action. Weeds most often develop resistance in response to such repeated and exclusive exposure, which renders the herbicide ineffective over time.

The best management practices recommended by WSSA to combat herbicide resistance include common-sense, diversified approaches to weed management — from proactive steps to reduce the number of weed seeds in the soil to the use of well-established cultural practices to suppress weeds through crop competition.

In addition to best practices for growers, the WSSA report also recommends important steps that other key stakeholders should take to address the increasingly urgent problem of herbicide resistance. Examples include: 1) requiring that product labels show each herbicide's mechanism of action – helping growers more readily identify suitable products for a diversified weed management program; 2) developing government and industry incentives to encourage adoption of best practices; 3) using federal, state and industry funding to support education programs and to pursue research that will help everyone learn more about resistance.

The WSSA's recommendations and full report, including supporting scientific references, are at:http://wssa.net/Weeds/Resistance/BMPExecutiveSummary.pdf.

Bale Tie/Bag Performance Information Sought

As part of an effort to document bale tie and bag performance, the NCC is strongly encouraging industry members to complete a recently-developed form, "Reporting Bale Packaging Performance." The industry groups with the most firsthand knowledge about bale packaging material incidents are warehousemen, textile mills and ginners.

The incident reporting form for the '11–12 marketing year can be accessed from the NCC website's Bale Packaging page, www.cotton.org/tech/bale/index.cfm, which contains additional information about the form. The incident reporting form for each marketing year will remain on the web until Sept. 30 to obtain as much feedback as possible for individual years.  Accumulated data from the forms will assist the Joint Cotton Industry Bale Packaging Committee (JCIBPC) with its evaluation of old and new bale packaging materials. 

This reporting tool endeavor is in response to NCC policy that directs it to provide "... support for the development and industry-wide use of a comprehensive reporting form that documents bale tie and bag performance." The feedback to the NCC and (JCIBPC) can be used to highlight good packaging material performance as well as incidents involving poor bale packaging performance.

Sales Rebound, Shipments Continue Strong

Net export sales for the week ending May 3 were 109,100 bales (480-lb). This brings total '11-12 sales to approximately 12.1 million bales. Total sales at the same point in the '10-11 marketing year were approximately 15.7 million bales. Total new crop ('12-13) sales are 1.2 million bales.

Shipments for the week were 355,600 bales, bringing total exports to date to 8.7 million bales, compared with the 11.9 million bales at the comparable point in the '10-11 marketing year.

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