In Farm BureauM*A*S*H signups underway

Applications are now available to high school students for the summer 2015 M*A*S*H camps. These camps will be located at 34 mostly rural medical facili-ties throughout Arkansas. Three new host facilities have been added this year: Dallas County Medical Center in Fordyce, Drew Memorial Hospital in Monticello and ASU Mountain Home.

The two-week M*A*S*H camps are de-signed to expose rising high-school juniors and seniors to healthcare-related voca-tions. Most of the camps are conducted at rural medical centers in hopes of attracting local students.

“The M*A*S*H program gives students an inside look at various medical profes-sions and is designed to spark students’ interest in the medical field,” said Jennifer Victory, rural health specialist for Arkan-sas Farm Bureau. “A large number of the camps are held at rural medical centers and attract campers from a rural back-ground. The idea is that future medical

students from a rural background are more likely to return to their roots.”

Applications are available through school guidance counselors or by contact-ing the M*A*S*H director in your area. For a complete list of camp locations and directors, visit www.arfb.com and refer to the M*A*S*H camps news release posted under “What’s New?”

County Farm Bureau organizations and the Arkansas Medical Mentor Partnership sponsor students so they may attend the

camps at no cost. The Partnership includes the University of Arkansas for Medical Science’s Regional Centers, Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Arkansas Farm Bureau, Baptist Health and the Arkansas Health Department’s Office of Oral Health. Additional information on this years M*A*S*H programs can be obtained by contacting Amber Marshall with UAMS, (501) 686-6188, or Jennifer Victory of Arkansas Farm Bureau, (501) 228-1269.

March 13, 2015 • Vol. 18, No. 5A

Pub

licat

ion

of

Ark

ansa

s F

arm

Bur

eau

Fed

erat

ion

www.arfb.com

LeighAnn Bullington (left), a family and con-sumer science specialist with the Cooperative Extension Service, and Girl Scout camp director Sheryl Roberts (right) presented a popular workshop on short cuts in preparing meals at Arkansas Farm Bureau’s Statewide Women’s Con-ference. More than 130 attended the conference in Little Rock March 6-7 despite severe winter weather that made travel difficult over much of the state.

POPE

CO

FB

pho

toK

EITH

SU

TTO

N p

hoto

On Feb. 12 in Russellville, Laura Clark (right), a member

of the Pope Co. FB Women’s Committee, presented a check

for $50 to Jannie Condley, executive director of the River

Valley Shelter for Battered Women and Children. The Women’s Committee made

the donation to help the shel-ter provide free emergency

shelter, food and clothing to victims of domestic violence.

Dairy Ambassador Program Arkansas is looking for a 2015 dairy

ambassador to represent the industry at events around the state throughout the coming year. Final judging for the Arkan-sas Dairy Ambassador Program will be June 12 in Bentonville. Students ages 14 to 19 who are enrolled in 4-H or FFA and living in Arkansas may enter. This includes homeschooled students.

For an entry application and program criteria, contact your local county Farm Bureau office or your local county Coop-erative Extension Service office. The forms can also be found on the Arkansas Farm Bureau website, www.arfb.com. Click on “Get Involved,” then “Contests & Promo-tions.” Entries must be received in the state Farm Bureau office by May 29.

FBs help feed AmericaThe farm and ranch families of Farm Bu-

reau raised more than $1.2 million and do-nated a record of nearly 42 million pounds of food to assist hungry Americans as part of Farm Bureau’s “Harvest for All” program in partnership with Feeding America. Com-bined, the monetary and food donations also reached a record level of the equivalent of more than 46 million meals.

Now in its 13th year, Harvest for All is

spearheaded by members of Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers & Ranchers program, but Farm Bureau members of all ages from across the nation contribute to the effort. In all, 23 state Farm Bureaus and the American Farm Bureau Federation heeded the call to action. The joint effort between Farm Bureau and Feeding America, the nation’s largest hunger relief organization, is a national community action program

through which farmers and ranchers can help ensure every American enjoys the bounty of food they produce.

In Arkansas$5 million for ag center

The Tyson Family and Tyson Foods, Inc. have made a substantial gift toward creating a first-of-its-kind agricultural research center in Arkansas – one of the most consequential gifts to advance water quality and sustainability research in the state’s history.

A $5 million gift from Tyson to the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture will significantly finance the new $16.3 million Don Tyson Center for Agricultural Sciences, with construction scheduled to begin later this year on the division’s property in northern Fayette-ville off of Highway 112 South (Garland Avenue). The 60,000 square-foot building will feature high-tech agriculture research laboratories that will advance plant and animal sustainability, along with water quality research.

“This gift and this facility will advance Arkansas Agriculture into the distant fu-ture and help our state compete in the very competitive global world of agriculture re-search for many generations to come,” said Mark Cochran, the division’s vice president for agriculture. “To have an iconic name like Don Tyson attached to it demonstrates

Justin Calhoun (left) of Star City took first place in the 2015 Collegiate Farm Bureau Discussion Meet held recently at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. The competition is modeled after the state Young Farm-ers & Ranchers contest sponsored by Arkansas Farm Bureau, with partici-pants discussing current ag issues in a committee meeting format.

UA

M p

hoto

KEI

TH S

UTT

ON

pho

to

STEV

E H

IGN

IGH

T ph

oto

CA

SSIE

DAV

IS p

hoto

“Profit Through Conservation” was the theme of the Arkansas Grazing Lands Conference held Feb. 27 at Lake Point Conference Center in Russellville. More than 100 ranchers from through-out the state attended the event, which featured several out-of-state ranchers as guest speakers. Topics covered in-clude grazing, soil health and monitor-ing animal performance.

As a participant in the first American Farm Bureau Advocacy Conference in Washington D.C. Feb. 22-26, Wash-ington Co. FB member Cassie Davis (left) of Prairie Grove had the oppor-tunity to meet Sen. Tom Cotton and other legislators on Capitol Hill. Davis recently was chosen to be a member of AFB’s national Grassroots Outreach Team, or Go Team.

At a special meeting held recently in Van Buren, Crawford County Judge John Hall (center) signed a proclama-tion declaring it Farm Bureau Week in the county. Crawford Co. FB President Tim Neidecker (left), membership chair-man Dr. David Ford (right) and other board members were on hand for the signing and to discuss membership promotion activities in the county.

what a significant facility this will become. It’s an outstanding legacy of an amazing family and company, and this is by far one of the most historic days in the state’s history of agriculture research.”

Water summit April 1The Water Summit, a conference on

managing drinking water for animal pro-duction, is set for 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April 1 at Northwest Arkansas Community Col-lege’s Shewmaker Business Development Center in Bentonville. The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and its Center of Excellence for Poultry Science are sponsoring the event.

“The goal of the summit is to help dispel the myths that exist about water quality and treatment options,” said Susan Watkins, a poultry extension specialist who will speak at the conference. Other speakers will include Daniel Venne, a vet-erinarian with Couvoir Scott Itée of Que-bec; Brad Dolphine of Beaver Lake Water Treatment, Mary Foy of Proxyclean, Stacy Cunningham of Aquatech, Dane Marsden of Blue Earth Labs, Steve Sullivan of Sten-ner Pump, Mueez Ahmad of Neogen; Ross Thoreson of BVS and Sonja Ingmanson of Silver Bullet.

Registration for the conference is $40 per person. Online registration is avail-able at http://forms.uaex.edu/registrations/watersummit.asp. For more information, contact Watkins at swatkin@uark.edu or 479-575-7118.

Elsewhere“Farmland” now at Walmart

Academy Award-winning filmmaker James Moll’s feature-length documentary, “Farmland” is now available on DVD at Walmart and Walmart.com. The availabil-ity of the documentary at retail locations across the country and online provides another opportunity for viewers to expe-rience the film, which offers a firsthand glimpse inside the world of farming by showcasing the lives of six young farmers and ranchers in their twenties.

The documentary is also now avail-able to rent on DVD from Netflix and to purchase on Amazon, with continued availability for rent and purchase via digital download on iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, Blockbuster On-Demand, Sony PlayStation, Vudu.com, Xbox and YouTube.

Proposed drone rulesThe Federal Aviation Administration’s

recent proposal on the commercial use of unmanned aircraft systems, commonly known as drones, are a good start to a long-overdue discussion on the use of the technology, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.

Farmers and ranchers are optimistic the final rules will allow them to use drones as part of the precision agriculture systems that have helped them grow more while protecting natural resources.

“Unmanned aircraft systems could be an incredible tool for farmers and ranchers, who can use them to scout their fields and ensure they’re using inputs like fertilizer and water only on the areas that need treatment,” explained AFBF technol-ogy specialist R.J. Karney. “Farmers will adopt this technology as yet another way to live up to their promise of continuous improvement in food production.”

The draft rules would require un-manned aircraft operators an unmanned aircraft system operator certificate, stay away from bystanders and fly only during the day. They limit flying speed to 100 miles per hour and the altitude to 500 feet above ground level. In addition, the air-craft can be no more than 55 pounds and it must remain within the visual line of sight

of the operator. Farm Bureau continues to review the

rule and will submit comments before the public comment period closes on April 24.

CSP deadline extendedNatural Resources Conservation

Service Chief Jason Weller says the U.S. Department of Agriculture is offering a renewal option through March 31 for eligible agricultural producers and forest landowners with expiring Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) contracts. These producers must be willing to adopt additional conservation activities aimed at helping them achieve higher levels of conservation on their farms, forests and ranches.

“CSP producers are established conser-vation leaders who work hard at enhancing natural resources on private lands,” Weller said. “By extending the deadline for gen-eral sign-up applications, we are ensuring that landowners will be able to take advan-tage of a program that will enroll up to 7.7 million acres this year.”

USDA announced last month that it will make available $100 million this year through the CSP in 2015. To learn more about CSP contract renewals, visit your local NRCS office.

On March 6, at its 27th annual induction luncheon in Little Rock, the Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame honored five individuals whose leadership and service have brought distinction to the state’s largest industry: (left to right) Jim Baker of Conway, James Bibler of Russellville, Alice Nix of Ash Flat (accepting for her late hus-band, Billie Nix), Dennis Oakley of El Paso (accepting for his late father Bruce Oakley of El Paso) and John Ed Regenold of Blytheville.

KEI

TH S

UTT

ON

pho

to

EditorKeith Suttonkeith.sutton@arfb.com

In the Marketas of March 11, 2015

Little market direction in U.S. Dept. of Agriculture report

The March 10 USDA report made few changes that surprised traders, and prices continued to move lower following the report. Below are a few highlights from the report:

Corn: Corn used for ethanol was reduced by 50 million bushels, while exports and feed demand increased by 50 million bushels for a net reduction of ending stocks by 50 million bushels to 1.777 billion bushels. Changes to the global balance sheet included a 1.5 MMT decline in production, and 4.36 MMT decline in stocks due to increas-es in global demand.

Soybeans: There were no changes to the U.S. balance sheet and only marginal changes in the global balance sheet. The USDA did not increase South America production, nor did they increase Chinese imports as some estimates had indicated.

Rice: The 2014-15 all rice export forecast was raised 1 million cwt to 104 million. Long-grain exports are forecast at 72 million, up 1 million from last month based on larger expected exports to markets in the Western Hemisphere. The combined medium-and short-grain export pro-jection is unchanged at 32 million. All rice ending stocks are projected at 40.9 million cwt, down 1 million from a month ago — all in long-grain rice.

Cotton: U.S. cotton supply-and-de-mand estimates are unchanged this month and, with only marginal reductions in world cotton produc-tion and consumption, global stocks are forecast to rise to more than 110 million bales.

Argentina could see more strikesThis week, Argentine farmers began

what is supposed to be a halt in sales of crops for three days. But if the govern-ment doesn’t respond to the action this week, one farm group leader signaled more actions are coming. “If we don’t get answers, bigger protests are very probably on the way. The nature of the actions we take will depend on what the government says in response to us,” Ruben Ferrero, president of the Rural Federations of Argentina told Reuters in an interview. The action this week is not expected to impact markets as export locations are said to have plenty of grains on hand. But, as was seen with the trucker strike in Brazil, if any action becomes protract-ed in Argentina, it could prompt a market response.

Record harvest forecast for BrazilBrazil will likely harvest a record

199.6 MMT of grains (including soybeans) this year, says the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics (IBGE). That’s 3.5 percent above last year but roughly 0.9 percent below its original forecast released last month. IBGE cited severe drought in south-eastern Brazil for the reduction in its crop estimate. Specifically, IBGE forecasts soybean production at 95.5 MMT (up 9.8 percent from last year). It says corn production will likely be down 4.2 percent from a year ago. While harvest is forecast to be another record, infrastructure continues to be an issue. Last week, the number of ships waiting to load soybeans in Brazilian ports rose to 82. The recent trucker strike slowed movement of beans. William Januzzi, a manager at a major shipping agency at the port of Santos, Brazil says there are not enough grains at the port to maintain a normal pace of loading. He also notes this is “normal for this time of the year.”

Debt limit timelineTreasury Secretary Jacob Lew urged

Congress last week to raise the debt limit as soon as possible, saying the de-partment would begin using extraor-

dinary measures on March 13 to stave off default. The debt limit will reset on March 16 after the current suspension ends. The Congressional Budget Office has said the Treasury Department would likely exhaust its “extraordinary measures” to stave off the need for new borrowing authority by October or November.

Ag attache forecasts record Chinese soybean imports

The USDA’s ag attaché in China estimates the country will import 73 MMT of soybeans in 2014-15 and 77.5 MMT of soybeans in 2015-16, both of which would be records. In the March 10 USDA report, the official forecast remained unchanged at 74 MMT. The post also forecasts China’s soybean production will likely decline to 11.7 MMT in 2015-16 because “soybeans are the only major agricultural crop in which China is dependent on imports for the lion’s share of its supply.”

FSIS considers new meat labelingUSDA’s Food Safety and Inspection

Service (FSIS) is considering using a single crucial endpoint temperature on safe-handling instructions for animal protein products. The current guide-lines, which have been in place since 1994, simply say “cook thoroughly.” FSIS would now recommend just three internal temperatures: 165 degrees F for poultry, 160 degrees F for ground red meat and 145 degrees F and hold for three minutes for whole-muscle red meat. FSIS is preparing to begin consumer testing changes to these labels.

CONTACT• Matt King 501-228-1297, matt.king@arfb.com.

Farm Bureau Press Insert — Vol. 18, No. 5

Above, Rep. Steve Womack (second from left) met with Farm Bureau leaders and staff in his office in the Longworth House Office Building. At top right, U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (right) and John Boozman addressed the delegation at a breakfast in the Holiday Inn Capitol Hotel.At right, Rep. Bruce Westerman (right) visited with Garland Co. FB President Tommy Sorrells and Women’s Committee chair Sara Loe during an evening reception.

Baxter Co. FB President Elliott Golmon and his wife Rober-ta enjoyed a view of the Space Shuttle Discovery during a tour of the National Air and Space Museum.

At right, Lesley Hill (cen-ter), legislative

aide to Rep. French Hill,

welcomed ArFB board members

Terry Dabbs, Jon Carroll,

Tom Jones and Mike Freeze to

D.C. Lesley is the daughter of

ArFB’s Stanley Hill.

Above, Winter weather delayed travel for many in the party, though it made for a beautiful shot of the Washington Monu-ment, viewed from the Capitol Mall.

More than 80 Arkansas Farm Bureau leaders from across the state visited the nation’s capital March 2-5 to meet with members of the state’s congressional delegation

and discuss issues of importance to Arkansas agriculture. While there, the group also met with representatives from the Dept. of Agriculture, American Farm Bureau Federation and various commodity organizations.• photos by Steve Eddington, Mollie Dykes, and Bryan Pistole •

2015County Presidents’

Tour

Farm Bureau Press Insert — Vol. 18, No. 5

Above, Arkansas Farm Bureau leaders made several stops at USDA, here visiting with Bob Macke, deputy administrator with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. At left, ArFB Vice President Rich Hillman (right) of Carlisle had the opportunity to talk with Rep. Rick Crawford during a reception with the House delegation.

At right, Dale Moore, executive director of public

policy for the Amer-ican Farm Bureau

Federation, updated members on issues

of importance to farmers and ranch-

ers being addressed by AFBF.

Above, Arkansas Farm Bureau President Randy Veach (right) of Manila discussed Farm Bureau priorities with Rep. French Hill during a Congressional reception Tuesday evening.

Above, The Lincoln Memorial was one of the stops on a “D.C. Monuments by Moon-light” tour enjoyed by many Farm Bureau members.

At left, Mark Rose, director of financial assistance in the Programs Division of the Natural Re-sources Conser-vation Service, addressed the group during a visit to the U.S. Dept. of Agricul-ture.

COUNTY PRESIDENTS’ TOUR TO D.C.