According to the latest Rabobank report, Beef Quarterly Q2 2014, the global beef market will regain its positive momentum in the third quarter, once the current, temporarily high supply has worked through the system. This will likely support further strengthening of prices, as supply of competing animal proteins tighten.

BushHog Inc. of Selma, AL, recently introduced a number of “Made in Selma” products. These include three new flex wing models,

The USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service last week released data on the number of crop acres planted in the U.S. in 2014. The report included the following data:

The Des Moines Register reported that Quad County Corn Processors beat out DuPont and Poet to produce the state’s first-ever gallon of commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol.

The northwest Iowa company produced a limited amount last week but plans to quickly scale up so that it produces about 2 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol a year.

Agriculture commissioners from eight states got a close look at the unique problems facing ag producers on the Texas-Mexico border during a special tour hosted recently by the Texas Department of Agriculture

Texas Agriculture Secretary Todd Staples told visiting commissioners he wanted them to discuss the border and the need to reform our failed worker program. “We need to totally revamp that system,” he added.

Germany-based Ekotechnika, one of the biggest John Deere dealers, blamed a weak ruble for doubling its first-half losses, also citing “more difficult financing conditions” for growers stemming from the fallout from the Ukraine crisis, reported Agrimoney.com.

As of mid-May, Russian farmers were able to borrow only 75 billion rubles ($2 billion) for spring sowing and spring field works, which is 11% less than last year, according to a USDA report. It also said that banks are worried by farmers’ high indebtedness and the growth of delinquent loans.

While you might not fault producers of reality TV for failing to read the utility task vehicle (UTV) operators manual, you may wonder how they missed the decals.

In the finale of TLC’s two-part special Kate Plus 8: The Sextuplets Turn 10, Kate Gosselin gave her six youngest children a John Deere Gator 4×2 during their carnival-themed birthday bash. The 10-year-olds and the 13-year-old twins are shown driving and riding around in the two-seat UTV, using the cargo box for extra passengers.

Art’s Way Manufacturing Co., Inc. announced that Art’s Way Scientific, Inc. was awarded a sole source contract for a “High Output Swine Behavioral Unit” for the University of Illinois Department of Agricultural Nutritional Sciences Division. The testing unit will support work to study the nutritional effects of infant formula in brain development.

This month we thank the following companies for their membership in the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association and their continued support. We look forward to having these companies, and yours, as members for many more years.

Ag-Power announced it will add 40 new jobs at its headquarters in McKinney, TX, bringing the total company employee count to more than 420.

Brandt Agricultural Products Ltd. announced that P&K Midwest opened three new locations as Brandt Authorized Dealers

“New York hog farmers are pleased the legislature realized there are far more critical issues to consider than attacking small family farms in rural New York,” said Ed Keller, president of the New York Pork Producers.

The legislation was pushed by well-funded animal-rights lobbying groups, which have dramatically increased their legislative efforts in the last few years, organizing in as many as six states at a time. While extreme animal-rights proponents have expended and wasted significant resources in many states, 41 states have refused to pass similar legislation into law. The victory in New York marks two years since a state legislature has passed similar legislation against family farmers.

Congress and The White House are looking for almost any option to replenish the depleted federal Highway Trust Fund without raising taxes on fuel prior to the November election. One proposal is to use the proceeds from a windfall of taxes on repatriated corporate profits. House Speaker John Boehner has suggested cutting Saturday mail delivery and putting the savings into the trust fund. Even if either of the proposals were workable, neither is likely to have the support needed to pass. Two senators are even willing to step on the third rail and have proposed a 12-cent-per-gallon federal tax increase over the next two years, indexed to inflation afterward.

The Missouri Cattlemen’s Association (MCA) and 11 other agricultural organizations penned a letter to Missouri Governor Jay Nixon in June, urging him to sign H.B. 1326 and S.B. 506 into law… The two omnibus bills, referred to as farm bills, passed the Missouri General Assembly with what agricultural organizations call “tremendous bipartisan support.”

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez announced a proposed rule extending the protections of the Family and Medical Leave Act to all eligible employees in legal same-sex marriages, regardless of where they live. A statement said the rule will help ensure that all families have the flexibility to deal with serious medical and family situations without fearing the threat of job loss.

Chipotle CEO Steve Ells claims his company is having trouble finding enough “responsibly raised” (without antibiotics and hormones) beef in the United States. According to Breitbart.com, Chipotle now imports beef from Australia. There, said Ells, “cattle spend their entire lives grazing on pastures or rangelands, eating only grass or forages.”



In a letter to Ells last week, Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples wrote that the company’s decision to import beef was “premature” and inconsistent with the environmental stance Ells and Chipotle have taken. He wrote that, unlike Australian beef, Texas products would not “leave a substantial carbon footprint before ending up in a Chipotle burrito.” Staples added he was dismayed by Ells’ implication that Australian meat is more “responsibly raised” than meat produced by Texas ranchers.

A Chipotle spokesman responded by saying that drought conditions have resulted in herds not being available in sufficient quantities to meet the company’s needs. S

Join a proven team as Production Manager for an ag component manufacturer. Manage all stages of steel component production, including planning, scheduling and staffing to meet production schedules and customer requirements.

Key responsibilities include implementing and leading 5S/Lean/Process Improvement for the organization and responsibility for overall quality of all completed materials.

Voters are more negative than ever about the state of the U.S. health care system, and once again a majority believes the new national health care law will make it worse.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 31% of likely U.S. voters rate the current health care system as good or excellent. Thirty-five percent (35%) describe the system as poor, up from 31% in May and the highest negative in regular tracking since November 2012.

U.S. biofuel plants produced an average of 972,000 barrels of ethanol a day during the second week of June, the highest figure in the four years that records have been kept. Some increase had been expected, given the weak corn markets and strength in gasoline prices. The 6% increase over previous weeks’ output was buoyed by the latest round of Middle East unrest that has underpinned energy market overall. However, the extent of the increase took many investors by surprise.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index®, which had decreased in April, improved moderately in May. The Index now stands at 83.0, up from 81.7 in April. The Present Situation Index increased to 80.4 from 78.5, while the Expectations Index edged up to 84.8 from 83.9 in April.

Positive income results for farms, combined with a tight land supply, buffered economists’ previously projected downturn of farmland values, according to Farmers National Company, a farm and ranch real estate company.

Farmers National recorded strong real estate sales for the first half of 2014, down somewhat from record sales experienced in 2013. It reported that aggressive marketing by the company’s agents and strong demand for land propelled this year’s sales.

Although such companies as Deere & Co. and Monsanto’s Climate Corp. insist they have a right to all data collected as combines, tractors and other equipment work fields across the country, CNH Industrial this month updated its user agreements to explicitly state that farmers own their agronomic data, Reuters reported.

Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased in 49 states in 2013, according to statistics released in June by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), but slowed to 1.8% overall. Nondurable-goods manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fishing, and hunting were among the leading contributors to real U.S. economic growth.

During the White House Summit on Working Families earlier this week, President Obama said the U.S. should join the rest of the industrialized world in offering paid leave for mothers of newborns, the Associated Press reported.

“Other countries know how to do this,” Obama said. “If France can figure this out, we can figure it out.” France provides some of the most far-reaching worker rights in the developed world, including a standard 35-hour work week and 16 weeks of fully paid maternity leave. France also has an unemployment rate that has hovered above 10% for more than two years.

The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) is revising a standard on manure spreaders, ASAE S324.1, Volumetric Capacity of Box Type Manure Spreaders – Dual Rating Method, and seeks comment on the proposed draft. The proposed revision will apply to vertical beater-type machines and add a box-width relation to heaped capacity for improved accuracy.

While porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) has had a significant impact on the U.S. market, the effects may be even more dramatic in Mexico, where the World Animal Health Organization reports Mexican officials have found the virus in 17 of the 19 states where testing has been conducted, according to National Hog Farmer.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. Export-Import Bank has suspended or removed four officials in recent months amid investigations into allegations of gifts and kickbacks, as well as attempts to steer federal contracts to favored companies.

Noteboom Implement extended its distribution of Brandt Agricultural Products to three new locations in Iowa, according to a Brandt Agricultural Products Ltd. news release.

Farmers should think carefully when deciding whether to invest in farm machinery, a Purdue Extension agricultural economist wrote in a recent Purdue Agricultural Economics Report article. “Crop Machinery Benchmark”

The U.S. soybean crop was rated 73% in good or excellent shape as of June 15, the best for the date since at least 1987, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. Farmers told the government in March that they intended to plant a record 81.5 million acres of soybeans.

The federal government is stepping up its scrutiny of how U.S. companies are valued for employee-stock-ownership plans (ESOPs), reported The Wall Street Journal.

The Labor Department is the plaintiff in 15 lawsuits related to employee-stock-ownership plans, with “virtually all” the cases alleging shoddy estimates of what a company’s shares are worth.

Under pressure from farm groups and rural property owners, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) altered plans to cut off public comment on its proposed definition for waters of the United States under the Clean Water Act, reported Southwest Farm Press.

EPA officials announced in early June that it will allow farmers, ranchers, rural property owners and other stakeholders additional time to comment on its proposed water rules. The deadline for comment, originally July 21, has been extended until Oct. 20, 2014.

Western Growers applauded the ascension of Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, to House Majority Leader and see it as a positive step for California agriculture, wrote Todd Fichette in his Farm Press Blog.

McCarthy’s district includes much of the city of Bakersfield and some vegetable and permanent crop ground at the extreme south end of the San Joaquin Valley, where it collides with the mountain range that separates the valley from the Los Angeles basin.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed America’s Small Business Tax Relief Act (H.R. 4457) to permanently increase Section 179 expensing levels.

H.R. 4457 would permanently increase the maximum amount and phase-out threshold to the levels in effect from 2010 through 2013 ($500,000 and $2 million respectively). Under current law, beginning in 2014, a taxpayer may immediately expense up to $25,000 of Sec. 179 property annually, with a dollar-for-dollar phase-out of the maximum deductible amount for purchases exceeding $200,000.

“Agriculture is a small part of the United States economy, but last year it was the best part,” wrote Floyd Norris in a June 20 New York Times article.

The agriculture sector’s output grew 16.4% after inflation last year, the fastest rise for the sector since at least 1998 and far faster than any other part of the economy. The nation’s gross domestic product grew just 1.8%, while the second-fastest growing sector, the information industry, rose 3.2%.

“A lot of the knowledge and skill sets are gone because the humans who used to do that work have either retired or died…” Companies have to grapple with such challenges as a shallow pool of component suppliers, an inexperienced workforce, and other shortcomings that developed during the country’s long industrial decline.

An Association member seeks a Senior Business Development Manager (SBDM) to build market position by locating, developing, defining, negotiating, and closing business relationships.

The SBDM will collaborate with the General Manager and Director of Business Development to execute and evolve the comprehensive strategic business plan and expand business development efforts by contributing to annual business plans, helping to implement and execute such plans, tracking initiatives and outcomes, identifying and recommending targets, and expanding existing client relationships.

The consultative sale requires advanced communication, sales management, and relationship-building skills.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) whereby employees who file untimely complaints against their employers alleging violations of the OSH Act will be told to contact the NLRB.

The statute of limitations to file a complaint with OSHA is just 30 days from the date of occurrence, but employees have 6 months from the date of occurrence to file unfair labor practice charges against their. . .

Deere has announced an alliance with Dawn Equipment Company, Inc., a Sycamore, IL-based manufacturer specializing in ground engaging tools and active control systems for planters. Their agreement allows Deere to sell and support Dawn’s hydraulic-controlled down-force systems, row cleaners and closing wheels for planters.

Equipment sales were $345.0 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to $334.7 million in the first quarter last year. Parts sales were $68.4 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to $62.8 million in the first quarter last year. Revenue generated from service was $37.1 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, compared to $32.0 million in the first quarter last year. R

Bigham Ag announced the appointment of Norm Burgeson to the position of vice president of Sales & Marketing. In this role, Burgeson will be responsible for developing, implementing and executing the company’s North American sales growth strategies. Burgeson will be based in Bloomington, Ill.

“I am pleased to welcome Norm to our leadership team,” said Lucas Sutterer, CEO at Bigham. “Norm is a strategic sales leader with a proven track record of successfully building strong sales teams and developing customer focused sales programs, services and processes. I am confident that his experience and track record will help move Bigham to the next level.”

Yasuo Masumoto, chairman and president of farm and industrial machinery maker Kubota Corp., died while staying in a Tokyo hotel. He was 67.

The executive failed to leave his room after breakfast and was found collapsed in the bathroom after the company raised concerns, a spokeswoman for the Osaka-based manufacturer said. At press time, the cause of death had not yet been determined.

Power plant regulations “could severely harm the international competitiveness of energy-intensive, trade-exposed U.S. industries like steel” and that “additional regulation of the electric utility sector will result in increased electricity costs for industrial consumers, who ultimately have the compliance costs and risks passed on to them.”

The Rasmussen Employment Index, which measures worker confidence, jumped five points in May to its highest level in over six years of monthly tracking. At 100.1, worker confidence is up from last month’s finding of 95.6. In March, the index had hit a previous six-year high of 96.2.

The California Chamber opposes SB 1188, identifying it as a “job killer,” given the significant expansion of frivolous litigation it likely will create regarding alleged product defects that arise after an express warranty has expired. SB 1188 further specifies that materiality is not just limited to health and safety issues, as courts currently require. This definition will significantly expand product defect litigation, especially class actions, as any alleged product defect deemed “material” once it has occurred, and the buyer will undoubtedly claim knowledge of this defect would have impacted the decision to purchase it.

This month we thank the following companies for their membership in the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association and their continued support. We look forward to having these companies, and yours, as members for many more years.

The Washington Grain Commission and Northwest Farm Credit sponsored the film, and several scenes in the film were shot in the beautiful Palause region of Eastern Washington. (Trailer Video)

A portion of the ticket proceeds from the film will help support “Feed My Starving Children,” a non-profit organization that provides food to nearly 70 countries around the world.

In an effort to help keep our members up-to-date on changes to these important standards, over the past decade we have provided copies of the standards to our regular members, free of charge. (The 2014 CD-Rom is a $499 value at the non-ASABE member price.) Once again this year our Board of Directors has decided to offer this standards information to regular members who do not already have access via ASABE membership. We can send one copy per company while supplies last.

While the company did not mention it, a Tax Foundation report revealed one reason jobs are fleeing Illinois is that it is getting more and more expensive for businesses to operate in the state.

The Tax Foundation’s 2014 State Business Tax Climate Index confirms the state’s worsening position. Illinois has dropped 15 spots, to 31st from 16th, since 2011, the year the state passed a record income tax hike. This lower ranking means it’s become even more difficult for businesses and entrepreneurs to compete in Illinois’ unfriendly tax environment.

A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) judge ruled that technicians conducting service calls at customers’ homes may wear buttons and display bumper stickers that read: “WTF, Where’s The Fairness,” “FTW Fight To Win,” and “CUT the CRAP! Not My Healthcare.” An employer sent home over 1,500 employees and asked others to remove the buttons, said lexology.com.

An agricultural equipment manufacturer is accepting applications for a Territory Sales Manager who will be based out of the territory he/she will serve. The Territory Sales Manger is responsible for planning and executing marketing and sales-related activities directly related to company products. The territory includes Oklahoma, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado and Kansas.