The Environmental Protection Agency’s delay in allowing year-round use of E15 gasoline threatens to harm markets for family farmers. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson wrote a letter to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, urging the EPA to immediately institute a waiver for summertime sales of E15. Johnson says the year-round use of E15 would have significant benefits for farmers, the economy, energy independence, and the environment. Currently, an arbitrary restriction on the use of E15 in summer months limits the amount of ethanol that can be blended into the nation’s fuel supply. EPA has been actively working on allowing year-round use of E15 since October of 2017, plus, President Trump committed to allowing an E15 waiver earlier this year. However, EPA has yet to take any action or provide any timetable as to when a waiver can be expected. This delay in issuing the waiver is threatening to upend any potential benefits of a waiver in the upcoming summer months of 2018. “It’s now May, and the summer restrictions on E15 for this year are looming with no apparent movement from EPA on the matter,” Johnson says in his letter to Pruitt. “Year-round use of E15 is not a new issue for EPA.” The letter goes on to urge Pruitt to act in an expedited manner to allow the use of E15 this summer.

The House Farm Bill will get another vote on June 22 after a separate vote on a conservative immigration bill. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise announced the schedule on Monday. The conservative immigration bill is sponsored by House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte of Virginia and Homeland Security Chair Michael McCaul of Texas. Roll Call reports the bill contains border wall funding, security and enforcement provisions, cuts to legal immigration, and a process for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program recipients to obtain three-year renewals of their work permits. Scalise says, “We’re looking at moving the farm bill on June 22 and having the Goodlatte/McCaul bill come up during the third week of June.” The Freedom Caucus was part of the group helping to sink the farm bill last Friday over a desire to vote on immigration first. Caucus Chair Mark Meadows says the timeline announced by Scalise is fine with him as long as the Goodlatte/McCaul bill is brought to the floor under its own rule. As of right now, the McCaul/Goodlatte bill is expected to be short of the votes needed to pass, but Scalise says there’s an effort underway to come up with something that would pass.

While a trade war may be on hold between the U.S. and China, a Department of Agriculture official says the Trump administration remains ready to support farmers and ranchers, if needed. China and the U.S. put the trade war tariffs on hold, for now, as the two sides are negotiating. Speaking at the ONE18: The Alltech Ideas Conference, USDA Undersecretary Bill Northey told attendees “we’ll see how that all plays out.” Northey told attendees Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and President Trump are committed to “make sure that we have protection for agriculture,” through a trade war “if and when those things happen.” Further, Northey said he “hopes there is real opportunity to grow our exports to China” as China “needs the products we produce.” However, as for timing, Northey said with a chuckle from the audience “the next little while could be the next Tweet.” At nearly the same time, President Trump on Twitter said of the potential deal with China, that: “They will purchase from our great American farmers practically as much as our farmers can produce.”

House Republican leadership is currently struggling with immigration issues and it’s put the House farm bill that didn’t pass on Friday right on the back burner. The Hagstrom Report describes the bill as “dormant.” Speaker Paul Ryan called for reconsideration of the bill immediately after the vote on Friday. He declared that the “ayes” had won the voice vote but didn’t call for a roll call vote. The schedule of bills considered on Monday evening didn’t contain the farm bill. Under House rules, it has two legislative days to take a vote on reconsideration of a bill. The House is scheduled to leave on Thursday afternoon for a week-long Memorial Day break. Every House Democrat and 30 Republicans voted against the House farm bill. The Republicans were a mix of the Freedom Caucus members, as well as moderate Republicans, who consider the bill’s changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to be too restrictive. Members of the House Freedom Caucus want leadership to bring up a restrictive immigration bill. Moderate Republicans are attempting to force a vote on a proposal to protect the immigrant students without legal status, known as Dreamers.

(MODA) The Missouri Department of Agriculture announced the beginning of Pesticide Stewardship Awareness Week, May 21-25, 2018, by reminding pesticide applicators of Missouri’s Special Local Need (24c) label restrictions for ENGENIA, XTENDIMAX and FEXAPAN for the 2018 growing season. During Pesticide Stewardship Awareness Week, pesticide applicators will see an increased promotional effort by the Department to encourage pesticide stewardship practices and awareness. The Department’s Pesticide Control Bureau will license those who wish to apply restricted use pesticides as either a certified private applicator or certified commercial applicator. If you are a farmer or grower, you must obtain a certified private applicator license before applying any restricted use pesticides. If you are a pesticide applicator as part of a business or in exchange for a fee/other compensation, you must obtain a certified commercial applicator license before applying restricted use pesticides. More information on how to obtain a certified private or certified commercial applicator license and auxin-specific training provided by University of Missouri Extension, can be found online at Agriculture.Mo.Gov/dicamba.

Farm income and credit conditions continued to weaken in the first quarter of 2018, but at a slower pace than in previous quarters. According to the Tenth District Survey of Agricultural Credit Conditions, compiled by the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank, reduced farm income contributed to intensifying cash-flow concerns and tightening lending standards. Cash-flow shortages continued to limit the availability of working capital, and financing needs continued to rise. The report released last week says the decline in the first quarter makes 2018 the fifth consecutive year that bankers have reported lower farm income than the year before. The report says reduced farm income also restricted cash flow and contributed to more farm loan denials than in recent years. In the first quarter, more than eight percent of farm loan requests were denied because of customer cash-flow shortages. And, despite a recent uptick in commodity prices, cash-flow shortages have reinforced concerns about liquidity in agricultural lending.

The FSA offices are asking if producers have completed planting your 2018-spring crops, please come into your local FSA office to get your report filed. In order to comply with FSA program eligibility requirements, all producers are encouraged to visit their local office to file an accurate crop certification report of their 2018 soybeans (including double-crop), corn, grain sorghum, and cover crops by Monday, July 16th.
The following exceptions apply to the July 16 reporting date:
– If the crop has not been planted by the above acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 15 calendar days after planting is completed.
– If a producer acquires additional acreage after the above acreage reporting date, then the acreage must be reported no later than 30 calendar days after purchase or acquiring the lease. Appropriate documentation must be provided to the county office.
– Producers should report crop acreage they intended to plant, but due to natural disaster, were prevented from planting. Prevented planting acreage must be reported on form CCC-576, Notice of Loss, no later than 15 calendar days after the final planting date as established by FSA and Risk Management Agency (RMA). All prevented planting applications will be reviewed by the committee to determine approval/disapproval. The deadline to file a corn prevented planting is June 11 (due to the final date falling on a weekend day) and the deadline to file a grain sorghum and soybean prevented planting application is July 5th. If a producer is unable to report the prevented planting acreage within the 15 calendar days following the final planting date, a late-filed report can be submitted. Late-filed reports will only be accepted if FSA conducts a farm visit to assess the eligible disaster condition that prevented the crop from being planted. A measurement service fee will be charged.
– Producers with failed acres should also use form CCC-576, Notice of Loss, to report failed acres within 15 days of the failed acres becoming evident.