The application deadline is quickly approaching for the National Corn Growers Association’s Academic Excellence in Agriculture Scholarship Program.  Scholarship applications must be postmarked on or before December 9. Partly sponsored by BASF Corporation, five one-thousand dollar scholarships will be awarded to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a degree in an agriculture-related field during the 2012-13 school year. Applicants must be entering at least their second undergraduate year or any year of graduate study, and they, or a parent or legal guardian, must be an NCGA member.

NCGA’s Grower Services Action Team Chair Brandon Hunnicutt, believes – this program is important for candidates as it helps fund their ongoing education, but it is also important for the industry as a whole. By helping tomorrow’s leaders further their studies, we proactively create a generation ready to lead agriculture for decades to come.

Scholarship recipients will be selected in early 2012. Recipients and a parent or guardian will enjoy travel and lodging to attend a portion of the 2012 Commodity Classic in Nashville, Tennessee., to be recognized at the NCGA Awards Banquet and have the opportunity to learn more about modern agriculture.

Registration is now open for the U.S. Grains Council’s 9th International Marketing Conference and 52nd Annual Membership Meeting to be held February 13-15 in Panama City, Panama. Wendell Shauman, Chairman of the U.S. Grains Council, noters – what better place to review and discuss the dynamics of trade and chart a course for the Council than at the literal crossroads of world trade, the Panama Canal. The Meeting’s theme is “Your Highway to the World.”

Shauman says, – in Panama City, participants will get an insider’s look at the changing flow of world trade that will come with the renovation and expansion of the Panama Canal. Attendees will appreciate an up-close look at the canal and construction progress, as well as plans for the future presented by representatives from the Panama Canal Authority.

Online registration is available through February 3 and hotel reservation can also be made on line at www.grains.org. Organizers emphasize, a valid passport is required for entry into Panama.

The country’s inland navigation system moves more than a billion tons of domestic commerce valued at more than 300-billion dollars per year. This includes about 60 percent of all grain exports. To let candidates for political office know that farmers and their allies are paying attention to their positions on funding for essential lock and dam improvements along the Mississippi River, representatives from commodity organizations, shippers, barge operators and the Waterways Council have decided to move forward in the creation of a structured plan that places an emphasis on expressed goals.

After an organizational meeting, the Waterways Council was selected to lead this new effort. Now, WCI will begin to review an action proposal by former Illinois Congressman Jerry Weller, of the U.S. Strategies Corporation, and Phil Bradshaw, an Illinois farmer. NCGA President Garry Niemeyer believes, – acting together, we can magnify our voices, and thus our effectiveness, exponentially.  Achieving our goal is not only important for farmers and shippers, our nation as a whole will benefit from the job creation and shipping efficiencies this project would generate.

Investment in the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Waterways has not kept pace with the needs of the transportation sector.  The lock system is approaching 80 years old and cannot accommodate modern barging practices that use 1,100 foot barge-tows.  Many of the locks are only 600 feet long, forcing barges to use the time-consuming and dangerous double-locking procedure.

USDA’s Economic Research Service forecasts net farm income to be at 100.9-billion dollars for 2011, that’s up 21.8-billion or 28 percent from 2010. Net farm income reflects income from production in the current year, whether or not sold within the calendar year. The agency predicts net cash income to be 109.8-billion dollars, up 17.- billion or 18.9 percent from 2010, and 34.2-billion above its 10-year average.

According to ERS, net value added is expected to increase by almost 23.9-billion dollars in 2011 to 153.7-billion. Net farm income and net cash income are both projected to exceed 100 billion for the first time in 2011. However, the rates of increase in both income measures show slight decreases from the previous year. The 2011 inflation-adjusted forecasts of net value added of agriculture to the U.S. economy and net cash income are the highest values recorded since 1974.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was quick to point out that – today’s farm income forecast shows that the American brand of agriculture continues to be a bright spot in our nation’s economy. And this is making a real difference for America’s farm families, whose household income was up 3.1 percent in 2010 and is forecasted to increase 1.2 percent in 2011.

A combination of factors has made these numbers possible including growth in cash receipts, off-farm employment, and a record high of 137.4-billion dollars in FY 2011 farm exports.

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A Kansas-based company has bought the Beatrice Biodiesel plant in southeast Nebraska for $5 million.

Flint Hills Resources LLC submitted the only bid at the bankruptcy auction Tuesday in Lincoln. Flint Hills is a subsidiary of Koch (cohk) Industries Inc.

Construction of the $52.5 million plant began in August 2007, but it never started operations. Bankruptcy was declared in 2008. Among Flint Hills’ other operations, it has ethanol plants in four Iowa communities: Fairbank, Iowa Falls, Menlo and Shell Rock.

A Flint Hills spokesman declined to release other details of the acquisition or Flint Hills’ plans for the plant. Flint Hills is based in Wichita, Kan.

COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A $740,000 federal grant will enable University of Missouri researchers to study the relationship between organic farm crops and greenhouse gas emissions.

Missouri is one of 24 institutions to receive a total of nearly $19 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

Scientists at the university’s Bradford Research and Extension Center in Columbia will study carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide gas releases in organic crop soils. The university says more than 60 percent of nitrous oxide emissions are connected to soil management.

Missouri ranks 20th in the country in number of organic farms. But the university reports that those growers are embracing environmentally friendly farming techniques more slowly than their counterparts in other states.

Senator Debbie Stabenow, Chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is stepping up her committee’s investigation of the MF Global bankruptcy. Conducting separate investigations are the FBI and Department of Justice.  They want to know why approximately 1.2-billion dollars is unaccounted for. This Thursday the Senate Ag Committee will hear from top officials at the CFTC and the SEC concerning their oversight of MF Global. Then on December 13^th, the Senate Ag committee has called on former MF Global CEO Jon Corzine to testify.

Stabenow says – anyone engaged in wrongdoing in this matter must be swiftly held accountable. Since MF Global declared bankruptcy, huge amounts of the firm’s customers’ money has gone missing. The company’s customers consisted of many farmers, ranchers, small business owners and other middle class Americans.  Customer accounts have been frozen and many customers still cannot access their own money.

MF Global CEO Jon Corzine will have company when he testifies.  MF Global customers are also being invited to testify at the December 13 hearing.