Brownfield

Best office memo of the year

We have a really great Director of Human Resources at Learfield Communications.  Jeff Martin is a great guy with a big heart who manages to keep the "human" in human resources.  He sent this email message this morning to all of us who work in the Jefferon City, Missouri building. 

Jessica Machetta (Missourinet reporter) did a story on the statewide tornado drill scheduled for tomorrow at 1:30.  While I don’t think it’s necessary to all file downstairs and crouch against the wall, I do think it warrants mention of what we should do in a tornado.  Basically, we should do the OPPOSITE of what we did last year during the tornado warning, which was stand in front of the plate-glass window in the reception area upstairs gazing outside for a funnel cloud.  Instead, go downstairs and find a place near the front of the building.

-Jeff Martin

Brownfield, Ag News for Brasil

It never ceases to amaze me the vast world geography that we reach with the Brownfield website.  It is humbling to know that the work we do reaches so many people, hungry for information.  As an example, last week I received an email message from an agronomist/farmer in the south.  WAY south:

My name is Marcelo Favarão. I am an agronomist and a farmer in western Paraná, a southern state in Brazil. I wonder if Chicago is aware of the calamity that we are living here. The losses due the historical drought we are suffering are huge.

We had a meeting on friday, with agents from the farm bank, Banco do Brasil, to discuss the next corn crop. Before the meeting, the bank showed some data about the losses. Corn losses are around 45% of the initial numbers, and soybean is around 40% below.

That is in the state of Paraná, that produces 12 million tons of soybeans. But you can use the same percentage to Rio Grande do Sul, that produces 8 million tons of soybeans, Santa Catarina and Mato Grosso do Sul. Agronomists that are coming from Argentina and Paraguay says the situation there is even worse. If can be worse.

Although we have covered this topic, the urging from Marcelo gave me motivation to ask one of our Brownfield reporters to contact someone in the U.S. who could speak to this email and enlighten our listeners.  Dave Russell suggested an expert and John Perkins conducted the interview. 

Dr. Michael Cordonnier, President of Corn and Soybean Advisor Inc., recently returned from more than two weeks in Brazil, touring Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul and Parana.

Marcelo emailed me to let me know he appreciated reading the story on our website:

Dear Cyndi,
 
Thank you very much.

It is raining now, but it is too late. A friend comined some soybeans last week. He got 32 sacks per hectare. Last season, the same variety on the same field produced 60 sacks per hectare. That made all the farmers scared, because we would bet that his beans would make 40 sacks per hectare. Smaller grains and less weight.
 
Marcelo

No escape from frigid temps

No place we know in the Midwest where we can escape the frigid cold.  Brownfield team members are working hard to stay warm, as I heard from some of them this morning:

It’s -6 here this morning, but the wind is calm, thank goodness.  I’m in the office today.
-Ken Anderson, Lincoln, Nebraska

It’s a beautiful morning, sunshine blue skies and 5 BELOW zero.
-Dave Russell, Indianapolis, Indiana

Where is Al Gore I want to talk to him about Global warming.  Currently -28 at the airport, wind chill at 6 AM was -50. Temp at my house is minus 22. Streets are snow packed and salt won’t work at these temperatures. 
-Jerry Passer, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

2008 Year in Review

Once again, Tom Steever did a great job of producing the year in review program for Brownfield Ag News.  It is no small task to whittle a year's worth of ag highlights into a 54-minute program. 

Brownfield's 2008 Year in Review program is available in 3 segments on the Brownfield website.  WIth Tom serving as program host, the program features segments from the entire Brownfield team.  It is definitely worth your time to listen to the program.

Here's the program description:

The past year brought change.  The 2007 farm bill became the 2008 farm bill because of the extended and contentious debate that led to frequent extensions of existing farm policy.  Finalization of the farm bill was done in the shadow of the presidential election campaign, made all the more interesting because of the candidates' differing views on farm policy and on renewable fuels.  The election also resulted in a strengthening of the Democratic Party in Congress.

Agriculture production in the Corn Belt was delayed and impeded this year by widespread flooding. That disaster was revisited when the effects of gulf storms caused more rising water late in the growing season. Markets responded to the weather, but to a greater extent to the forces exerted by high global demand for grains and oilseeds.  Record farm income was offset by the highest production costs in history, primarily from record crude oil prices in the summer and also by the steep costs of feeding livestock.  The economic downturn later in the year exerted opposite market force.

The public's confidence was shaken by incriminating video tapes documenting animal abuse at a meat packer and at livestock markets.  The images, gathered by animal activists, led to the biggest meat recall in history and greater self-scrutiny of markets.  The same activists were successful at passage of a ballot initiative requiring California swine and poultry growers to change their methods.

These stories and many more were covered by reporters on the nation's largest agricultural radio network.  They're part of Agriculture in 2008 on Brownfield Ag News for America.

You want change? How about a weather change?

Here in the Midwest, we've enjoyed what is often called an "Indian summer."  Interviewing Pioneer Account Manager Matt Scuffham for Brownfield Network affiliate radio station KLGA in Algona, Iowa, just now, he said growers have made a lot of progress in short order as a weather change is definitely in the air.  A couple of nights ago they were taking out a big Pioneer plot and he was in a short-sleeved shirt.  The weather man is calling for snow in his area for the next several days.

Tom Steever has been on the phone with a friend in South Dakota and shared this bit of information:

A blizzard at Rapid City in the far western end of the state has closed schools and parts of I-90.  A patrolman called it the worst in 15 years.  Eastern SD growers are scrambling to get as much harvest done as possible before the remnants get to them (Western SD blizzards sometimes lose steam as they move eastward).  No precipitation in eastern SD so far, so farmers are BUSY in the fields

And from Jerry Passer, Brownfield Livestock Market Reporter:

Must be a dandy just noticed on AMS the sheep auction at St. Onge Newall was cancelled due to winter storm.

We are expecting a change in temperatures here in mid-Missouri as a cold front moves in.  We all stay tuned in to what our ag meteorologist Greg Soulje has to say about the changes coming on the weather front.

Weird cloud

We should probably ask Brownfield Ag Meteorologist Greg Soulje if, in addition to cumulus, stratus, nimbus and cirrus clouds, there are "sub-categories" for each.  This, I believe, would be qualified as a cirrus cloud, but sure looks like a DNA strand to me. 

Tom Steever took this photo a couple of evenings ago.

Message from Pike County, Illinois

Our good friend Blake Roderick, Executive Director of Pike and Scott County Farm Bureaus and Two Rivers Farm Bureau Foundation sent an update that we were all very pleased to receive.  The news was good this time for the region Blake represents in fighting the 2008 floods.  Julie Harker and Tom Steever spent some time a couple of weeks ago with Blake - on the levees - in west central Illinois.  Blake continued to keep us abreast of the situation as river levels fell. 

Update from Pike County
Wednesday, July 2, 2008:

Monitoring the 54-miles of main-stem Mississippi River levees in the Sny Island Drainage District of Pike County will continue for several more days. River levels crested three times at near record levels during the 2008 flood.

The Mississippi River will be under major flood stage in the next couple of days—points south of US 54 are at or below major flood stage today. All the points along the Sny will be at or below flood stage within a week.

Yellow River flooding

Thanks to Charlie McConnell at FCS Financial for sharing some pictures Jim Maag shot of flooding from Yellow Creek at the east edge of Brookfield, Missouri.  These tractors are in the same field.  One got out.  The other did not.

Unfortunately, sites like this one are not uncommon in many areas of the Midwest this year.  We have a whole slew of flood pictures on the Brownfield website Fighting the 2008 Flood page.

 

Straight line winds

More deadly weather moved across the Midwest over the week-end.  Brownfield's Pete Shinn, headquartered in downtown Omaha, Nebraska was smack dab in the middle of a dangerous storm late Friday afternoon.  From Pete:

Here are a handful of pics taken right after Friday's storm in Omaha. It knocked out power to around 130,000 customers, myself included, and killed two teenagers in Council Bluffs when a tree fell on their car. It's the only time in my life I've been scared of a weather event. Straight-line winds of up to 115 mph knocked over lots of trees and snapped power poles like twigs. The whole thing blew up and was over in 10 minutes. Wild! Crews finally got power restored to our building last night at about 8:30 p.m.

Levee terminology

The terminology used by those fighting the Midwestern floods, although quite familiar to someone who lives or grew up near a river, can sound like a different language to those unfamiliar with levee terms and definitions.  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers website features some key levee terms and definitions:

Levee: an earthen embankment, floodwall, or structure along a water course whose purpose is flood risk reduction or water conveyance.

Federal responsibility: there is no single agency with responsibility for levee oversight nationwide. The Corps has specific and limited responsibilities for approximately 2,000 levees nationwide.

Local responsibility: the responsibilities of local levee owner or sponsor are broad and may include levee safety; land use planning and development; building codes; and operations, maintenance, repair, rehabilitation and replacement of the levee.

Levee certification: the certification of levees for FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program is the responsibility of the local levee owner or sponsor.

Federally authorized levee: typically designed and built by the Corps in cooperation with a local sponsor then turned over to a local sponsor to operate and maintain.

Non-federal levee: designed, built, and managed by a non-federal entity.

Corps funding eligibility: federally authorized and some non-federal levees may be eligible for Corps rehabilitation assistance funding.

Overtopping: water levels exceed the crest elevation of a levee and flow into protected areas. Levee may be damaged but not compromised. Flooding occurs from overflow/overwash (waves) and other sources. The levee must be inspected.

Overtopping breach: a breach whose cause is known to be a result of overtopping (system exceeded). The levee has been compromised after overtopping and must be repaired to function prior to the next event.

Breach: a rupture, break or gap whose cause has not been determined.

Failure breach: a breach for which a cause of failure is known based on an investigation to determine the cause.