Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 173, Greencastle, Putnam County, 27 March 1991 — Page 6

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THE BANNERGRAPHIC March 27,1991

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With curious onlookers watching his every move, David Greenburg shears an amazingly cooperative sheep during the recent Putnam County Ag Days Mini-Farm Fest event at the Community Building on the local

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fairgrounds. More than 1,000 local youngsters visited the Mini-Farm Fest, while an Ag Day breakfast drew in excess of 200 people as the opening event of the successful 1991 celebration. (Banner-Graphic photo by Eric Bernsee).

Use of synthetic fertilizers seen undiminished, analysts predict

By DON KENDALL AP Farm Writer WASHINGTON (AP) Farmers have used synthetic fertilizers for many years to boost crop yields, and an Agriculture Department analyst says the practice will continue, even if it means boosting imports of the chemicals. Gary Vocke of the department’s Economic Research Service said that while some advocates of organic farming would like to see manure and other natural waste replace the chemicals, the idea is off base. “FERTILIZERS WILL continue to be important to maintain soil fertility for cash grain farming,” Vocke said. “That grain is critical to feed the world’s expanding production of pigs and poultry, and to supply foodstuffs to the world’s growing urban population.” Vocke said the recycling of nutrients back to the soil where crops are grown “is prohibitively expensive because transporting bulky, organic waste materials back to the farm requires too much energy.” Environmentalists criticize the practice of using commercially produced fertilizers on crops for contributing to ground water pollution and chemical runoff into streams and lakes. Except for a small minority of farmers who do not use chemicals at all in the production of organically grown food, fertilizers figure in just about every other kind of

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farming operation. AN EXAMPLE IS the “low input, sustainable agriculture,” or LISA, concept in which farmers do as much as they can to protect and enhance natural resources through a variety of measures such as crop rotation, proper tillage and selective use of pesticides. As Assistant Agriculture Secretary Charles E. Hess put it last year at a National Academy of Sciences conference on sustainable agriculture: “Let me stress again that we are not seeking to eliminate the use of important chemicals and fertilizers. We are, however, seeking ways to reduce their usage and increase their effectiveness in order to improve and maintain environmental and economic sustainability.” USE OF FERTILIZERS and other chemicals is so widespread in U.S. agriculture that only a small acreage of some crops is produced without them. USDA reported last week on results of the first comprehensive survey of fertilizer and pesticide use by farmers on some major < :rops. The report include figures for the three basic components of commercial fertilizers nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Com, the largest and most valuable U.S. farm crop, is a huge user of fertilizers, the report showed. Last year, it said, nitrogen was used on 96.1 percent of the total acreage, phosphorous on 83.3 percent and

Report calls for separation of payments, commodity programs

WASHINGTON (AP) Farmers, consumers and the environment would benefit if major countries would separate government payments to farmers from specific commodity production programs, a research report said today. The World Resources Institute study said “multilateral decoupling” of commodity programs from government payments should be a primary goal in the current Uruguay Round of negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. THIS APPROACH “approximates the goals of the U.S. government in the current round of GATT talks,” the report said. “Such a shift in agricultural policy would encourage low-input farming methods, raise soil productivity and greatly reduce chemical and sediment runoff from agricul-

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potassium on 74.1 percent. VOCKE, WHOSE comments were reported in a recent issue of Farmline magazine, noted how world populations upgrade diets as incomes rise, consuming more meat, usually pork and poultry. That means expanded livestock output and more demand for feed grains. “These trends will continue, and these animals will increasingly be raised in specialized confinement operations separate from where their feed is grown,” Vocke said. “U.S. competitiveness in grain export markets has been spurred with a little help from Canadian potash ore and Soviet ammonia,” Vocke said. That’s because that by using lowcost fertilizer sources potash ore for potassium and ammonia for nitrogen American farmers have been able to maintain high productivity and thus be in a position to export. OF THE THREE major basic nutrients, only phosphate as a source of phosphorous is provided exclusively by domestic suppliers. And even phosphate will probably be imported in another decade. “The United States became a net importer of potash in the 1960 s and now imports 80 percent to 85 percent of the potash used for fertilizer,” Vocke said. “For ammonia, the shift occurred in the 1980 s, with imports now comprising about 10 percent of nitrogen fertilizer use.”

tural land,” it said. Case studies in Pennsylvania and Nebraska showed that multilateral decoupling would “provide the greatest economic value to society and benefit farmers financially while drastically reducing environmental damage.” THE REPORT, AS others have noted, said U.S. farm programs have cost taxpayers dearly for decades, recently averaging about sl2 billion a year to provide support for major farm commodities. Most of this money, or income transfers, has not gone to small low-income farmers but to the largest producers. “Moreover, many farm policies are inconsistent,” the report said. “To boost production, for example, government subsidizes irrigation, extension services, research and infrastructure but simultaneously restricts cultivated acreage and pur-

Market reports INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Estimated prices Tuesday at Indianapolis area elevators: Corn No. 2 yellow: $2.332.49; new $2.25-2.41. Soybeans No. 1 yellow:ss.sl-5.67; new $5.655.85. Wheat No. 2 soft red: $2.52-2.65; July 1991 $2.622.73. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) Indiana direct hog market at 70 yards and markets Tuesday. Bar rows and gilts: 75 cents to 1.00 lower. Demand moderate. US 1-2 220-260 lbs country 48.00-49.50, plants 48.50-50.00; 210-220 lbs 46.00-47.50. US 1-3 220-260 lbs 47.00-48.50. Sows: Under 500 lbs steady to instances 1.00 lower; over 500 lbs steady. US 1-3 300-500 lbs 38.00-43.00, few to 44.00; 500-650 lbs 42.00-46.00, few to 47.00. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) —- Hogs 600. Barrows and gilts 1.50 lower. US 1-3 225-265 lbs 49.00-49.50. US 2-3 225-250 lbs 48.75-49.00. Sows: 2.00 lower. US 1-3 350-500 lbs 42.00-48.00; 500 lbs and above 48.00-50.00. Boars: Over 350 lbs 1.00 lower at 37.00. Cattle: 750. Bulk of supply slaughter steers and heifers. Compared with last week’s trade, steers and heifers 2.003.00 lower. Holstein steers 3.00 lower. Slaughter supply 35 percent heifers, 15 percent cows. Holsteins: Yield grade 2-4 1250-1450 lbs 70.00-73.00. Mixed select and choice 12001350 lbs 66.00-68.50. Slaughter cows: Utility and commercial 50.00-56.00. High dressing 58.00. Cutter 1-2 44.00-50.00.

sues other policies to cut overproduction.” FARM COMMODITY pro grams also “carry with them serious unintended environmental costs,” it said. “Farm supports contribute to soil erosion, the overuse of agricultural chemicals and the loss of wildlife habitat,” the report said. The report said the 1990 farm law “went further in establishing environmental provisions than any previous act” but “still maintains the distorting effect of commodity programs on most farmland.” BY WORKING through GATT, the United States and its trading partners could redesign agricultural policies to lower costs and remove this distortion, the report said. Gradually, farmers could shift from conventional to “alternative” or “low-input” practices that would require little or no chemicals.