Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 313, Greencastle, Putnam County, 13 August 1986 — Page 8

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC. August 13,1986

Reagan trips heavy with symbolism

Real concerns about political fallout

WASHINGTON (AP) Twice in the past three weeks, President Reagan has taken trips designed to demonstrate his concern for farmers, a group largely missing out on economic recovery and viewed as pivotal in this fall’s elections. The trips have been heavy with symbolism: awarding ribbons to junior livestock award winners in Illinois on Tuesday while talking in glowing terms of the bright future ahead for agriculture, and watching bales of donated hay unloaded for farmers in parched South Carolina last month. Along with the gestures have come kind words, praising farmers’ contributions to the U.S. economy and promising “unshakable” government support to ease them through the hardest times since the Depression. But the concrete steps announced to help farmers during the period

Purdue predicts 132-bushel com yield Record crops— mass storage problem

By The Associated Press The average acre of Indiana farmland might produce a record corn yield this fall, but storing the bounty may prove to be a serious problem, farm experts say. “We’ll not only have to find room for much of the 1986 crop, we’ll have to continue storing the crops of earlier years,” retired Purdue University agriculture economist Donald Paarlberg said Tuesday. Purdue predicts a record yield of 132 bushels per acre, eclipsing the 126-bushel record average set in 1982, said Michael A. Hunst of Purdue’s agriculture statistics office. The predicted state corn harvest of 772 million bushels is 2 percent above last year’s figure, but below the record 790 million bushels of 1982, when more acres were planted. But farmers who can’t find increasingly scarce storage space may be forced to sell at low harvest time prices. Most commercial storage space has already been contracted, said Robert F. Jones, a colleague of Paarlberg at Purdue. Farmers with surplus grain, or those who haven’t made storage plans yet, may be out of luck, he said. “If they can’t store it, they have to sell it,” Jones said. In Washington, the Agriculture Department announced Tuesday the second largest estimated com crop on record. Despite the drought in the Southeast and reduced planting nationwide, including Indiana, officials predicted a yield of 8.32 billion bushels. The record 1985 harvest totaled 8.87 billion bushels. The soybean harvest nationally was estimated at 1.98 billion bushels,

Food packaging Cost may exceed net farm income for only the third time

WASHINGTON (AP) - The cost of putting food in packages in 1986 could exceed net farm income for only the third time on record, according to tentative projections by the Agriculture Department. If current forecasts hold, net farm income this year may be in the range of $26 billion to S3O billion. That would be down from preliminary readings of $29 billion to $32 billion in 1985. Food packaging last year cost an estimated $27.1 billion, up about 3

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have been less clear in their real impact on financially ailing producers. The most dramatic move, Reagan’s approval on Aug. 1 of subsidized wheat sales to the Soviet Union, demonstrated if nothing else the depth of the president’s concern about potential farm-state political problems. It was extraordinary because Reagan had long resisted any gesture that could appear to be aiding an adversary he has long condemned. In Chicago on Tuesday, the president defended the move by saying, “We didn’t do it for the Soviet Union. We did it for our farmers.” While it has provoked loud protests from grain-exporting U.S. allies, subsidizing the 4 million tons of grain will have little effect on American surpluses, however. That amount represents less than half the

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A worker at a grain elevator in Edwardsville, 111., inspects a load of corn recently delivered. Throughout Illinois, Indiana and most of the Midwest, the down 6 percent from last year’s 2.1 billion bushels. The Indiana soybean crop was estimated at 170 million

percent from $26.3 billion in 1984. If there is another 3 percent increase, the 1986 packaging bill would be around $27.9 billion, in the ballpark of USDA’s farm income forecast. Relating packaging to farm income has no particular significance, except that agricultural economists and politicians sometimes do it to illustrate how food starts out as an agricultural product but winds up on grocery store shelves as a transported, processed, packaged product of an industrial society.

estimated production of Kansas this year. The subsidies needed to sell it have been estimated at $52 million. The driving force behind the Soviet sale was Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan., who sees a danger that the GOP could lose its slim 53-47 margin in the Senate this fall. Several of the most endangered Republicans up for re-election this year are from grain-belt states. Reagan also has tried to appear generous to farmers in the droughtplagued Southeast. After a campaign foray into South Carolina on July 24, Agriculture Secretary Richard Lyng announced the administration would set up a hot line to give farmers in the region information about available help. Following criticism that the administration wasn’t doing enough to help, another drought aid package was announced. But congressional

situation this year is the same a serious shortage of storage space for crops that will be harvested this fall. (N.Y. Times photo) bushels, down 8 percent from last year, Hunst said. The economists say soybeans present a less serious

Only twice before have food packaging costs exceeded net farm income. That was in 1980 when packaging costs totaled s2l billion and farm income was $20.2 billion. It happened again in 1983 when food packaging rose to $24.3 billion and farm income plummeted to sls billion. A new Food Cost Review report, published annually by the department’s Economic Research Service, says Americans spent $343.6 billion on U.S. farm-produced food last

Low soil moisture hurts

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) - Low soil moisture has hurt the condition of most growing crops in the

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Democrats complained that the biggest item in the package wasn’t drought aid at all, and would go mostly to non-drought states. Tuesday’s announcement at the state fair in Springfield, 111., was an attempt to demonstrate concern about a third problem facing farmers: the lack of storage space to house a bumper grain crop. The coming corn harvest was estimated Tuesday at 8.32 billion bushels, the second largest on record. Reagan said farmers would be offered regular price-support loans for their crops to prevent them from selling at distress prices at harvest time. The White House, in an apparent effort to highlight the offer, said the gesture was being done “for the first time ever.” But department officials said similar loans have been made in the past during times of bumper harvests and tight storage.

storage problem. The bountiful corn harvest only multiplies the problems of farmers who participate in the federal commodity loan program, the economists say. In order to benefit from the program’s price support of about $3 a bushel, farmers must store their harvested grain, they said. If adequate storage can’t be found, the farmer faces the prospect of selling corn on the market for less than $2. “That’s why people in the program are really concerned about having enough storage space,” Jones said. Consumers may benefit from the grain surplus as meat producers take advantage of cheap feed to produce more beef and pork, said Paarlberg, who is also a former high-ranking Agriculture Department official. Lower supermarket prices may not come for a year, though, and then only at the expense of producers, he said. “There’s likely to be low prices and depressed income for livestock farmers,” he said. There’s little reason to hope that grain farmers’ productivity will win new domestic or foreign markets, Jones and Paarlberg said. Prices are already so low, and competition from foreign producers so tough, that increased production is not likely to stimulate demand in the short run, the economists said. The declining value of the dollar, which makes American grain cheaper abroad, is the only positive indication for farmers, Jones said. “But the positive tends to be swamped in some cases by these negatives,” he said.

year. About $219.4 billion of last year’s total expenditure was for food bought at grocery stores. About $124.2 billion was eaten in restaurants and other places away from home. Of the total spent for food in 1985, the farm value or the equivalent received by farmers for raw products wheat, cattle, milk and other items was $86.4 billion. That included $69 billion for groceries and $17.4 billion for food eaten away from home.

state, according to the weekly crop report from the Midwest Agricultural Weather Service Center. The report said corn condition was rated 17 percent fair, 66 percent good and 17 percent excellent. The 83 percent good or better rating compared with 92 percent the previous week and 59 percent a year ago. Soybean condition was rated 32 percent fair, 62 percent good and 6 percent excellent. The 68 percent good or better rating compared with 79 percent a week earlier and 69 percent in 1985.

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farm

Knowing objectives the first key step in planting trees

Publisher’s note: The following article by Allen Royer, District Forester, Indiana Department of Natural Resources, is one in a revolving series that appear regularly on farm-related subjects. Other writers in the series are Mark Legan, Putnam County Agricultural Extension Agent; Roger Bailey, County Director, U.S. Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service, and Mark Biggs, District Conservationist, U.S. Soil Conservation Service. By ALLEN ROYER District Forester, DNR One of the comments I often hear when working with land owners is, “Why should I plant trees? It takes so long for them to grow and I will never benefit from it.” The key debatable phrase in the above statement is: What are the potential benefits one can obtain by tree planting? We have all heard of some of the benefits of tree planting. Most people who think about planting usually are thinking in terms of one or two trees that are placed in the front or back yard. The expected benefits of this type of planting are shade, to provide landscape beauty, and to increase the property value of one’s home. Stop and think how much trees add to the value of a home that is selling or price a cleared homesite lot versus the price of one with several trees. You will be amazed at the differences. WHAT ABOUT those plantings that are larger? Sometimes I recommend two to ten acres or even more to a landowner. What possible benefits could a landowner obtain from a large planting? The first thing the owner who plants trees needs to know is exactly what his objectives are. He needs to know the projected timing needed to meet these objectives. Large tree plantings usually result in several benefits whether the owner intends for them to or not. Generally an increase in wildlife production, a decrease in soil erosion, and a potential for long-term income can result by carrying the planting to maturity. The landowner who sees benefits only in the objective of harvesting

Indianapolis livestock

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Hogs 600. Barrows and gilts slow, opening 1.00-1.25 lower. Receipts ran 200 over estimate. US 1-3 230265 lbs 63.25-63.75, bulk 63.50 ; 210 lbs 60.00. US 2-4 220-270 lbs 62.5063.50. Sows: Active, mostly 1.00 higher. US 1-3 430-570 lbs 51.0053.00. US 2-3 620-740 lbs 58.0059.00. Cattle: 825. Slaughter steers and heifers 1.00-2.00 higher under very good demand. Slaughter cows steady to weak, instances 1.00-2.00 lower on high dressing. Slaughter bulls steady to weak. Supply good to mostly choice slaughter steers; 20 percent heifers, 15 percent cows.

Chicago Board of Trade

CHICAGO (AP) Most grain and soybean futures prices moved lower Tuesday on the Chicago Board of Trade. The market had hardly anything positive going for it that might lift prices, said Dale Gustafson, an analyst with Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. “The fact that the president had nothing substantial to say (in a speech in Springfield) was a little disappointing to the trade,” he said. Reagan said farmers will be able to get price-support loans for grain stored on the ground, but this had been announced in Washington last month. There had been some speculation that he would offer something more to help over-

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Allen Royer

timber from a planting usually questions the decision to plant since it takes so long to grow timber to a sawlog size. When other benefits are included in the owner’s objectives then tree planting takes on a new meaning. I HAVE ALWAYS admired those people who have the willingness to plant trees and see beyond the one objective of planting only for sawlogs. They derive joy and other benefits en route to a harvest of the planting many years down the road. Often those who plant trees are doing it for their children or grandchildren, others do it as part of being good stewards of the land, still others have multiple objectives which include wildlife habitat, timber production, and stewardship. One landowner I once worked with planted five acres of black walnuts when he was in his sixties. I liked this man the moment I met him. He told me that he knew he would never live to see those trees mature but he guaranteed me one thing. His promise was that when he died he would be under there pushing those trees toward the sky. He knew that someone in the future would benefit from his work. I never will forget the wonderful attitude of the man I knew for too brief a time, Mr. Paul Wagoner. That tree planting is even more special to me because last year my wife and I were able to purchase that property and the tree plantation. That tree plantation will continue to provide benefits to us and our friends for a long time. Yes, tree planting is worth it to you and others who will follow.

Slaughter steers: Choice 2-4 940-1350 lbs 59.25-61.75. Mixed good and choice 2-3 965-1200 lbs 58.50-60.50. Few good 1-3 960-1220 lbs 56.50-59.00. Holsteins: Good to mostly choice 2-3 1350 lbs 53.00. Good 2 1200 lbs 50.50. Slaughter heifers: Choice 2-4 900-1120 lbs 58.50-60.00. Mixed good and choice 2-3 1040 lbs 58.00. Good 2-3 950-1070 lbs 55.75-57.25. Slaughter cows: Breaking utility and commercial 2-4 36.0040.00, few head 40.00. Boning utility 2-3 36.00-40.00. Low dressing utility 2-4 32.75-35.25. Cutter 1-2 33.50-37.75. Slaughter bulls: Yield grade 1-2 1060-1850 lbs 43.00-48.50.

come the problems posed by the oversupply of farm products. In addition, Gustafson said, the market is expecting Agriculture Department reports late Tuesday to forecast near-record corn and soybean crops as well as decreased expectations for farm exports. On the close, wheat was 2V « cents lower to V 4 cent higher with the contract for delivery in September at $2,543/4 a bushel; corn was unchanged to 2V 4 cents lower with September at sl.64Vfe a bushel; oats were 3 / 4 cent lower to 2 cents higher with September at $l.O5 3 /4 a bushel; and soybeans were 3 cents lower to Vfe cent higher with August at $5.02V 4 a bushel.