Agmoment, sadly, is no more, I let the site lapse and it is now taken over by a malaysian cybersquatter. Maybe I'll try to bring something up around here sometime. But for now, try my new site focused on plant-derived proteins - Made In Plants

Out with the old, in with the new!

Things have went better than expected and I can now say that Ag Moment is officially moving! Please visit the new site at www.agmoment.com Please update your links and I'll see you at the new site. I will not be updating this site anymore, the new site contains all the information contained here and more. A few comments about the new site and the move: A new web address - I have changed web-server providers, blogging programs, and web addresses. The new address is: www.agmoment.com Please update any links you may have to this address. Feeds - If you are pulling my feed to read this site (through bloglines, google, etc. . .), you don’t have to do a thing, just sit back and keep enjoying Ag Moment. This is just a start - I have been working long and hard on the new site and decided that since it contained as much information as my old site, I would go ahead and start the transfer process. I have a few ideas floating around in my head about what I want to do. Needless to say, you will be seeing a great deal of new things in the following weeks.

A major Ag Moment expansion?

Due to circumstances that were within my control that I chose not to control (i.e. I didn't backup when I should have) I lost my current blog template for Ag Moment. Thanks to Google Desktop I was able to find a cached version to work from (thank you Google). The template is a few months old so I lost alot of links. If I lost a link to your favorite site, sorry, I'll get them back up as soon as I can. Rumor has it this site crash was due to a major expansion/overhaul currently going on behind the scenes at Ag Moment. Stay tuned for more details as they become known. 1/11/06 update - template back up to date. I think everything is functioning properly.

Ag Moment focus: recent sugar beet news

I thought I'd try something new so here goes. Here is a compilation of a few stories (not necessarily recent) dealing with one subject. The first subject up to bat is Sugar Beets.

From the Business - Sugar beet farmers 'get too much cash'

Sugar farmers in Europe are getting far too generous compensation payments at the expense of Third World growers, according to a new report. Some of the poorest countries in the world will get a fraction of the £5bn payments paid to EU sugar beet growers over the next five years, said Lord Renton of Mount Harry, chairman of the Lords' environment and agriculture sub-committee. In today's 57-page report, Too Much or Too Little? Changes to the EU Sugar Regime, he said that the reform was “welcome and necessary”.

From Mlive.com - Can't beet it - Sugar-beet byproduct mixes with salt to keep icy roads clear and safe

Sugar is good on cereal, so why not snow? There's something called De-Ice 55, a liquid made from sugar beets, that's being used in parts of Michigan and throughout the country. It sticks to roads and helps salt do its job. The stuff isn't being used anywhere locally. Bay City uses a similar corn byproduct on its four bridges and around town.

From BBC.com - Sugar beet threat to biofuel unit

Farmers across East Anglia are likely to refuse to grow extra sugar beet for a new bioethanol fuel plant. The NFU claims farmers are enthusiastic about such uses for their crop but a price of £10 a tonne was well below production costs. British Sugar insist the price is the best for many years for the "C" grade beet they are targeting. Cole Carter from British Sugar said this grade was grown as a quota backup in case crops were hit by bad weather.

From the IdahoStateJournal.com - Soggy weather causes woes for area sugar beet growers

AMERICAN FALLS - Driving a Caterpillar tractor, Tony Baca escorted a green truck hauling two empty hoppers toward an immense pile of sugar beets. As Baca predicted, the truck sank into the mud and got stuck en route to pick up its sweet cargo. Mainly due to a wet spring, sugar beet growers statewide reported having their third best crop ever for total yield and second best crop for sugar content.

Ag Moment site of the moment (12)

The Ag Moment site of the moment is: GreenCrazy.com If you can slap a John Deere logo on it and sell it, they have it.

South Korea, U.S. disagree over U.S. beef import details

From the Korea Times - Korea, US Hit Snag in Beef Talks

SEOUL (Yonhap) _ South Korea and the United States failed to reach an agreement to allow the importation of beef products containing bone, the government said Tuesday. The two sides agreed to extend the talks to Friday, some South Korean officials said. South Korea banned U.S. beef imports in December 2003 after it was revealed a cow there had been affected with mad cow disease. The disease has been cited for causing the fatal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

Greece must lift ban on Monsanto's GM Seed Corn

From Marketwatch.com - E.U. orders Greece to lift ban on Monsanto corn seed

BRUSSELS (MarketWatch) -- The European Commission Monday ordered Greece to lift its ban on one type of U.S. biotech giant Monsanto Co.'s (MON) genetically modified corn seeds, according to a document obtained by Dow Jones Newswires. No health or safety grounds justify the ban, the document said. The decision underlines splits in the European Union over biotech food. The Brussels-based Commission wants to allow them in order to defuse trade tensions with the U.S. and to keep European agriculture competitive. But European consumers - and their governments - are resisting. In September 2004, the Commission authorized 17 different strains of Monsanto maize for planting and sale within the 25 E.U. countries. But the Greek government banned the seeds in April 2005, saying it believed the products presented a health danger.

Immigration proposals will hit ag industry especially hard

From the Farm Bureau newsroom - AFBF: Immigration Proposals Could Cause Ag Losses

NASHVILLE, Tenn., January 8, 2006 – The American Farm Bureau Federation today said current legislative efforts to amend existing immigration law could cause up to $9 billion annually in overall losses to the U.S. agriculture industry and losses of up to $5 billion annually in net farm income.

Traditional regional methods of growing tobacco going away with buyout

From the MiamiHearald.com - N.C. tobacco farmers trying new variety in buyout market

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina's shrinking ranks of tobacco farmers are placing their hopes on new competitiveness from a drop in the price of U.S. flu-cured tobacco and the state's status as a the top producer. Max Denning, 47, a fourth-generation farmer from Benson who grows flue-cured tobacco in five counties including Johnston, Wake, and Harnett, has some advice as tobacco farmers prepare to sign contracts for this year's growing season. For growers bold enough to keep planting leaf in the uncertain world of free-market tobacco farming, he says to get bigger, get better or get out.

Another Kentucky city bans smoking, campaign off to good start

From Kentucky.com (Lexington Herald Leader) - Smoking ban has smooth start in Owensboro

OWENSBORO, Ky. - Many Daviess County businesses started out the new year smoke-free. But it's more than a resolution - it's the law. A county ordinance that bans smoking in any public establishment that is open to people under 18 took effect Jan. 1. Police say the start of the ban went smoothly. Both the Owensboro Police Department and Daviess County Sheriff's Department said they had had no calls to enforce it.

An alternate view: Corn stoves not so good

From PES Network - Corn Stoves: an Interim Technology on a Crumbling Foundation?

Though cleaner burning that wood, and currently using a lower-cost fuel, the corn stove should not be regarded as a permanent solution to dependence on foreign oil. Do short term savings on the heating bill entail increasing famine risk in the long term?

More herbicide-resistant weeds to come?

From Delta Farm Press - What will be the next herbicide-resistant weed?

For a long time weed scientists thought herbicide resistant weeds would never emerge as a problem. They were wrong. “We sat back and watched entomologists struggle with insects resistant (to insecticides) and thought nothing similar would happen on the weed side,” said Bob Scott, Arkansas Extension weed specialist at the annual Arkansas Soybean Research Conference in Brinkley, Ark., on Dec. 15. “We thought there weren’t enough generations in a year, there were too many different herbicides and different biological systems that would prevent weed resistance.”

Pork industry stable, profitable for anther year

From CattleNetwork.com - Pork Industry Looks For Third Profitable Year

Pork producers are going for a threepeat in 2006. That means a third consecutive year of profits for an industry that could hardly find a positive tilt from 1998 through 2003. The financial tide finally turned to black in the spring of 2004 and has been on a winning streak ever since. Profits in 2004 averaged about $9 per live hundredweight for farrow-to-finish production. That number was near $10 in 2005 and the forecast for 2006 is for profits to be around $6.

Is all this concern about Soybean rust necessary?

From MSN Money - Experts Weigh Soybean Rust Warnings

URBANA, Ill. (AP) - Government and industry spent millions of dollars last winter to prepare farmers for soybean rust, a fungus that could cost them thousands of dollars to control. But while the disease was found in southern states for a second straight year, it never reached the Midwest. Soybean experts say all the Web sites, brochures and seminars weren't a waste of time and money because farmers need to be wary again this summer.

Ag Moment site of the moment (11)

The Ag Moment site of the moment is: Iron Search Find used tractors for sale, cheap ATVs and more with our online search.

John Deere makes lineup change at the top

From Chicagobusiness.com - Deere names new CFO; makes other executive changes

Reuters) — Farm equipment maker Deere & Co. said on Thursday it appointed Michael Mack as chief financial officer and James Israel as president, John Deere Credit. Mack most recently served as treasurer and has been with Deere since 1986. Israel has been vice president for marketing and product support for John Deere agricultural equipment in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and has been at Deere since 1979.

But, will American's continue to pig out?

From AgWeb.com - Economist: Pork Demand the Big Unknown

Iowa State University ag economist John Lawrence says the big unknown in the lean hog price outlook is pork demand. He notes demand for pork was very strong in late 2003 and 2004, with some quarters posting an increase in supply and an increase in price at the same time. "For the year of 2004, per capita pork consumption decreased 1% and Iowa farm level prices increased 33%, an approximately ten times bigger impact than was expected," he notes.

American's are pigging out

From Philly.com - On the Side | It's been hog heaven for pork producers

Harry Ochs leans into his long butcher saw, slicing through the fly bone and then the flat back bone of the pork loin I'm buying to go with (this being the day before New Year's Eve) the sauerkraut I'll cook from White Oak Nursery in Strasburg and a handful of Dwain Livengood's defending-state-champion Yukon Gold potatoes. Yes, he says, he too has noticed an uptick in the fortunes and certainly the flavor of pork. He slides his hand over the white collar of fat covering the loin. "Things go full circle." Ochs is 77 now, presiding at his stand in the Reading Terminal Market in his signature flat, plaid cap and white apron, an observer for more than 60 of those years of the fads of food - no-fat, low-carb, whole-grain, some-more-fat.

Ag Moment picture of the moment (1)

A new feature for Ag Moment. Here is your Ag Moment picture of the moment(1): It looks like this Massey Ferguson has seen its better days Image taken by liampatrickquigley, more photos from this person can be found at Flickr

Massey Ferguson announces line of "clean cab" tractors

Another from AgNewsWire - Massey Ferguson Announces New Specialty Tractor Line

DULUTH, GA – December 5, 2005 (AgNewsWire) - Massey Ferguson has introduced three new specialty tractors equipped with pressurized cabs and air filtration systems designed to supply clean cab air for the operator. The system seals out pesticide particles and other contaminants to protect operators during specialty applications such as orchard spraying.

Farm Bureau purchases Crop1

From AgNewsWire.com - Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company Announces Plan To Acquire Crop1 Insurance

West Des Moines, Iowa – (AgNewsWire) Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company announced today that it has signed a letter of intent to purchase Des Moines-based Crop1 Insurance in early 2006. Crop1 Insurance will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company, one of three property-casualty insurance companies managed by FBL Financial Group, Inc. (NYSE: FFG), an insurance and financial services holding company based in West Des Moines.

Ag Moment site of the moment (10)

The Ag Moment site of the moment is the: Milk is Milk blog The Center for Global Food Issues (CGFI) Director of Research and Education Alex Avery provides commentary and analysis on issues impacting the dairy industry.

Monsanto sales rise 31%

From Marketwatch.com - Monsanto tops profit forecast

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Monsanto Co. reported a first-quarter profit Wednesday that topped its own raised forecasts from a month ago, citing stronger seeds and herbicide sales. Shares of St. Louis-based Monsanto sold off early after it said its 2006 earnings would be at the high end of its previous outlook but below the Wall Street consensus. The stock then bounced back to close with a 25-cent gain at $80.07. It rallied more than 3% Tuesday. First-quarter net income at the seed and agricultural chemical company rose to $59 million, or 22 cents a share, reversing a $40 million, or 15 cents a share, loss, from a year ago.

Onatario farmers will have to comply with Health and Safety Standards

From the Fort Frances Times Online - Farming operations soon to fall under OHSA

When Ontario’s Health and Safety Act (OHSA) was established in October, 1979, farming operations were exempt. But as of June 30, 2006, a regulation passed by Queen’s Park earlier this year will come into effect, extending the OHSA to include farming operations with paid workers.

Soybean prices up, time to sell?

From Agriculture Online - Opportunity for soybean sales, analysts say

As soybean futures prices rally on the Chicago Board of Trade and local cash basis levels drop, farmers are being presented with a marketing opportunity, analysts say . On Tuesday, CBOT March soybean prices finished 15 cents higher at $6.28 1/2 per bushel, a new high for the current rally.