The fate of the '12 farm bill was discussed at a meeting hosted by USDA Secretary Vilsack that included leaders from the House and Senate agriculture committees.
After the meeting, Secretary Vilsack said, "we didn't get into specifics and I am not going to get into specifics today….it was about facilitating that conversation …there was a commitment on the part of all four of the folks in that room today to look at a five year farm bill…that's what to focus on, a five-year farm bill."
Following the meeting, Senate Agriculture, Nutrition & Forestry Committee Chairwoman Stabenow (D-MI) said, "We are looking forward to working together to get a five-year farm bill" while Ranking Member Roberts (R-KS) stated, "There is a concerted effort to get a five year farm bill."
In an interview with an Oklahoma radio station, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Lucas (R-OK) outlined two options for moving new farm legislation. One scenario involves adding new farm legislation to any package that is developed to address the so-called fiscal cliff as the House and Senate packages have been scored as saving $23 and $33 billion dollars, respectively, over 10 years.
The second option would involve an agreement on a deficit reduction package that establishes savings targets but does not include specific legislation. Then a budget reconciliation process would require the Committees to meet their spending reduction targets with expedited legislation developed early in '13. Under that scenario, the House Agriculture Committee also would have to request that the deficit reduction agreement adopted to avoid the fiscal cliff include an extension of current farm law to provide a transition period until the legislation written in '13 could be enacted and implemented.
The budget reconciliation process offers the added advantage of shielding farm legislation from crippling floor amendments.
"There is a way to work this process out without falling off the end of the cliff on dairy policy on Jan. 1 and still enable us to get our work done," Lucas, said. "But, this requires the speaker and the President to achieve some understandings that then everybody will show some willingness to support, and we're still days from working that out."
113th Congressional Leadership Taking Shape
House Republicans selected members to serve as 113th Congress committee chairmen. They previously selected their 113th Congress leaders on Nov. 14. While House Democrats have selected their leaders, they were scheduled to select members to serve as committee ranking members on Nov. 30.
A complete list of House leaders, chairmen and ranking members will be posted on the NCC's website,www.cotton.org, after Democrats announce their selections for ranking members.
Committee assignments for the 113th Congress will not be completed until early January.
Among key choices for 113th Congress committee chairs are: the re-election of Rep. Lucas (R-OK) (Agriculture Committee); Rep. Rogers (R-KY) (Appropriations) and Rep. Camp (R-MI) (Ways and Means). Rep. Ryan (R-WI) was granted a waiver of the Republican Caucus' term limit rule and will return as Budget Committee chair.
As previously reported, the House Republicans selected Reps. Boehner (R-OH), Cantor (R-VA) and McCarthy (R-CA) to continue to serve as Speaker, Majority Leader and Whip, respectively. Democrats selected Reps. Pelosi (D-CA), Hoyer (D-MD) and Clyburn (D-SC) to continue to serve as Minority Leader, Minority Whip and Assistant Minority Leader, respectively.
RMA Provides Insurance Update
USDA's Risk Management Agency (RMA) held a conference call with commodity groups to discuss '13 crop insurance premium rates. Nationally, average premium rates for upland cotton will not change. However, the average of individual states will see varying increases and decreases. Premium rates for extra-long staple cotton also will be affected but that data has yet to be generated by the RMA.
Last year, the RMA began using a new rating methodology for corn and soybean producers. For the '13 crop year, this new methodology will be expanded to include cotton.
While moving cotton and other commodities to the new methodology, the RMA also updated various rate factors that "individualize" the county base rate to a specific grower's situation as a normal course of business. The new rates will update the premium subsidy percentage at varying levels of coverage to reflect recently accumulated loss data. There will be an update of county reference yields (mid-point average of the county). If a producer is above the reference yield, then they have received a discount, and if they were below, they received a surcharge.
With this update, the RMA now is using data from the insurers and not National Agricultural Statistics Service data. The RMA also has considerably more prevented planting information and has updated the rate adjustments to reflect actual experience. In addition, producers will have the option of an APH yield trend adjustment for the '13 crop year. This initially will only be available in major growing counties. This adjustment was offered to corn and soybean producers last year and had a 55% participation rate.
After all of these adjustments, the RMA determines the target rates for commodity and county but this only reflects information through the '11 crop year. The RMA will phase in the new rates limiting year-to-year premium changes to limit potential increases due to significant '12 losses as a result of drought. This approach will help keep premiums stable and provide predictable rates.
For '13, the RMA will fully implement targets that result in 15% or less change (increase or decrease) in yield protection premium on average. The RMA will partially implement targets beyond 15%, not to exceed the maximum of 20% change on average. As more specifics become available from the RMA, the NCC will provide members with that information.
RMA Administrator Announces Retirement
USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) Administrator Bill Murphy announced his retirement at the end of this year. He will leave after more than 31 years of contributions to agriculture, including four years of leadership as the RMA administrator. Prior to that, he served RMA as the deputy administrator for Insurance Services; as director of the Regional Office in Davis, CA, overseeing crop insurance operations in California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii; and as director of the Western Region Compliance Office.
In the interim period, Brandon Willis has been named RMA acting administrator. He currently serves as senior advisor to Secretary Vilsack, and brings knowledge from his years as deputy administrator for Farm Programs at USDA’s Farm Service Agency and as an advisor to Sen. Baucus (D- MT) during the ’08 farm bill process. Willis grew up on a third generation sheep ranch in northern Utah and managed his family's raspberry farm.
Finalize Your Beltwide Cotton Conferences Plans
Monday, December 17, is the last day discounted room rates will be offered by the Marriott Rivercenter/Riverwalk hotels in San Antonio, TX. Those are the headquarter hotels for the '13 Beltwide Cotton Conferences, set for Jan. 7-10.
The NCC urges cotton industry members, university and USDA researchers, Extension personnel, consultants, equipment and service providers – anyone with a stake in a healthy US cotton production sector – to make housing reservations now for this world-class information forum. Housing and Conferences registration instructions, along with a schedule of events and general information are at www.cotton.org/beltwide.
The Conferences will open on the afternoon of Jan. 7 with the Consultants Conference in the Marriott Riverwalk Hotel. That session is open to everyone and includes a noon luncheon. The program begins at 1 pm, and attendees will get to hear such timely updates as: 1) Dr. Jim Bordovsky with Texas AgriLife in Plainview, TX, discussing many of the issues his group has been involved in for both drip and pivot irrigation, 2) Dr. Jeff Gore, Mississippi State U., Stoneville, MS, reporting on insecticide performance, and 3) weed scientists from the Mid-South and Southeast, who will elaborate on various practices that may be described as the "Second Generation of Weed Resistance Management" and that are an important part of an integrated pest management program.
The Production Conference General Session begins on Tuesday Jan. 8, in the Lila Cockrell Theatre of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. Three Texas A&M U. faculty members have been invited to address the general session, including Dr. John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas State Climatologist who will provide his thoughts related to past/current weather patterns and what to expect for the '13 season; Dr. Gaylon Morgan, state Extension cotton specialist who will provide a review of the '12 season for the entire Cotton Belt; and Dr. Paul Baumann, state leader for AgriLife Extension weed science activities who will provide an overview of herbicide resistance in Texas. In addition, John Maguire, NCC senior vice president, will provide a Washington update and Joe Nicosia, Allenberg Cotton Company, Cordova, TN, will end the general session with a '13 market outlook.
The Production Conference workshops will run from 10:30 am on Jan. 8 until noon on Jan. 9.
The Varieties workshops will include: new varieties discussed in the New Developments From Industry session; variety testing discussed in the Extension Cotton Specialist Workshop; and the Conventional Cotton: Back to the Future II Workshop that will have breeders, weed scientists, entomologists, agronomists and economists discussing the use of conventional cotton varieties.
Under New Technology – Weed Management, there will be a Future Technology and Tools workshop that will include industry updates on 2,4-D and dicamba technology and a session with Dr. Peter Dotray, weed scientist,Lubbock, TX, discussing past, present, and future weed management systems. Other topics covered in that arena include a look at the tolerance of varieties to dicamba and glufosinate during the Extension Cotton Specialists workshop.
Fertility workshop topics will include: 1) Cotton Soil Management and Plant Nutrition Special Session – Fertilizer Stabilizers; and2) sensor-based fertility discussed in the Precision Ag Workshop. There also will be a Practical and Profitable Practices for Precision Agriculture workshop and a workshop looking at ways to effectively use social media in your business.
Beltwide Cotton Conferences attendees also can take advantage of exclusive discounted seating (all seats less than $100) for a Jan. 9 Los Angeles Lakers/San Antonio Spurs NBA game at the AT&T Center near the Beltwide headquarter hotels. Details are at www.cotton.org/beltwide/.
Biotech Advisory Committee Completes Report
The USDA Advisory Committee on Biotechnology and 21st Century Agriculture (AC21) recently submitted to Secretary Vilsack their final recommendations on coexistence among organic, biotech and conventional farming operations. The organic community was demanding an indemnity fund supported by the technology providers to compensate for economic losses incurred by pollen drift of biotech crops.
In March '11, Secretary Vilsack revived the AC21 after it was idle for two years. The members represented the biotechnology industry, the organic food industry, farming communities, the seed industry, food manufacturers, state government, consumer/community development groups, the medical profession and academic researchers.
The major charge to the group was to examine "what types of compensation mechanisms, if any, would be appropriate to address economic losses to farmers caused by unintended presence of genetically engineered materials, as well as how such mechanisms might work." The committee has met five times since mid '11 and conducted multiple conference calls. The weakness of the organic community's claim was the lack of credible data to support their claims of economic losses.
The final report, endorsed by 22 of the 23 members, is on the NCC's website atwww.cotton.org/tech/biotech/ac21report.cfm. The report concluded that a compensation fund was not warranted at this time, but went on to say that if in the future, the Secretary obtains convincing data substantiating economic loss that he may initiate a pilot program based on the model of current crop insurance programs. The report also endorsed increased outreach and education regarding the principles of coexistence.
The NCC and other agricultural organizations support the discussions' outcome as a fair compromise of positions. Organic groups have come out against it claiming that an insurance program would put the economic burden solely on the organic grower.
Mississippi River Transportation Discussed
A coalition of agricultural groups, including the NCC, met to discuss the possible shutdown of barge traffic on a section of the Mississippi River. The shutdown would occur around Dec. 10, '12 between Cairo, IL, and Saint Louis, MO, due to reduced water flows. The group also met with the staffs of the House and Senate agriculture committees and USDA.
Currently, the Army Corps of Engineers is reducing flow from the Missouri River under their Annual Operating Plan (AOP). Agriculture groups have asked the Corps to increase flow of the Missouri River in order to retain water levels in the Mississippi River that support barge traffic. Unfortunately, the Corps does not believe it has the authority to deviate from its AOP.
The groups also asked the Corps to remove rock pinnacles further upstream of the Mississippi River to increase water levels. The Corps is proceeding with rock pinnacle demolition but not in a timeframe that would alleviate the immediate problem. It doesn't appear this should affect traffic on the lower Mississippi in the near future, but as the river is a system, there would be a trickle-down effect.
Recently, 62 House Members and 15 Senate Members sent joint letters to the Corps requesting they review their authority to deviate from their AOP and expedite the removal of rock pinnacles. In addition, agriculture groups are asking the President, through the Stafford Act, to declare an emergency and direct the Corps to immediately remove the rock pinnacles and release such water from the Missouri River reservoirs as necessary to preserve commercial navigation on the Mississippi River.
USDA Is Counting End-of-Year Inventories
USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is asking about 85,000 producers across the country to respond to important surveys involving cotton, corn, soybeans, sorghum, rice and hogs.
From Nov. 29 to Dec. 17, NASS will be gathering final information about the '12 US row crops focusing on harvested acreage as well as crops produced/stored. Many respondents already have received surveys for both row crops and hog information in the mail. Respondents can either fill out the questionnaire using NASS's online system or mail it back. NASS representatives also will contact producers who do not respond to help them complete the questionnaire over the telephone.
As with all NASS surveys, the information collected in the December surveys is kept strictly confidential, as required by federal law. Survey results are available in aggregate form only and are equally available to all parties. For more information about these surveys, visit www.nass.usda.gov/Surveys.
Sales Strong, Shipments Steady
Net export sales for the week ending Nov. 22 were 320,200 bales (480-lb). This brings total '12-13 sales to approximately 7.7 million bales. Total sales at the same point in the '11-12 marketing year were approximately 10.4 million bales. Total new crop ('13-14) sales are 498,400 bales.
Shipments for the week were 146,500 bales, bringing total exports to date to 2.5 million bales, compared with the 1.8 million bales at the comparable point in the '11-12 marketing year.
Effective Nov. 30-Dec. 6, ’12
Adjusted World Price, SLM 11/16
60.94 cents
*
Fine Count Adjustment ('11 Crop)
0.49 cents
Fine Count Adjustment ('12 Crop)
0.69 cents
Coarse Count Adjustment
0.00 cents
Marketing Loan Gain Value
0.00 cents
Import Quotas Open
13
Special Import Quota (480-lb bales)
838,851
ELS Payment Rate
0.00 cents
*No Adjustment Made Under Step I
Five-Day Average
Current 5 Lowest 3135 CFR Far East
81.19 cents
Forward 5 Lowest 3135 CFR Far East
NA
Coarse Count CFR Far East
NA
Current US CFR Far East
82.75 cents
Forward US CFR Far East
NA
'12-13 Weighted Marketing-Year Average Farm Price
Year-to-Date (Aug.-Oct.)
69.84 cents
**
**Aug.-July average price used in determination of counter-cyclical payment
