The House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and Risk Management met Thursday to review commodity programs for the next farm bill. National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson testified before the subcommittee and urged its members to include provisions to deal with a long-term collapse in commodity prices. Johnson says the Senate Ag Committee’s farm bill contained a number of positive aspects – but did not include a way to deal with a long-term commodity price collapse. He says the 2012 Farm Bill needs a program that helps to ensure prices don’t fall to a price where family farmers can no longer make a living – such as the Market-Driven Inventory System. Johnson also emphasized the need to look at long-term cost savings of farm bill programs rather than just short-term costs. He says lawmakers must be penny-wise – but not pound-foolish. While MDIS will have a cost – he notes a University of Tennessee study demonstrates it will save money in the long run.

Johnson says permanent disaster programs save money as well. As an example – he explained that the U.S. spent 30-billion dollars between 1996 and 2002 in emergency and ad hoc disaster programs to help farmers and ranchers when prices collapsed and the farm bill had no safety net for them. He says the cost to extend the SURE program and similar disaster assistance programs for five years – which could have replaced ad hoc disaster programs – is 8.9-billion dollars.

As the House Ag Committee works on its version of the next farm bill – National Association of Conservation Districts President Gene Schmidt is expressing the importance of the Conservation Title. He says producers want to do the right thing – but need the right tools and technical assistance to do it. He says farm bill conservation programs help producers implement conservation practices through voluntary, incentive-based methods and play a critical role in protecting air, land and water while supporting the nation’s long-term economic and food security. If the nation’s natural resources aren’t protected and preserved – Schmidt says we won’t have land for producing food, fuel and fiber. Because everyone eats and everyone needs clean air and water – Schmidt says the benefits of a strong Conservation Title provide value to everyone.

Schmidt says the Senate Ag Committee’s farm bill includes a strong Conservation Title that streamlines and consolidates programs for increased efficiency and ease-of-use for producers. It also maintains critical funding for all of the conservation purposes needed to implement conservation where it counts.

In response to significant feedback from the grain industry – CME Group Managing Director of Agricultural Commodities and Alternative Investments Tim Andriesen says CBOT grain and oilseed trading hours are being further amended to 5 p.m. to 2 p.m. Central time Sunday through Friday. He says it’s been communicated that these hours meet the risk management needs of this customer segment. An earlier proposal was for a 6 p.m. to 4 p.m. trading day. There was concern this would make it difficult and costly for grain companies to complete their end-of-day bookkeeping and back office functions. The revised hours are to go into effect no later than Sunday, June 3rd. It could be sooner if the CFTC grants a request for expedited approval. The Kansas City Boart of Trade has submitted a similar proposal that is set to become effective on May 31st.

Even with this change – National Farmers Union is asking CFTC to open a 30-day comment period. NFU President Roger Johnson says stakeholders in the grain and oilseeds markets need further opportunity to understand and provide input about the proposed changes. He says concerns have been voiced regarding the volatile price swings that occur when USDA reports are released. Johnson says NFU members are also uncertain about the availability of accurate and updated bids from grain purchasers after the open outcry trading day has closed with an established settlement price but electronic markets remain open. He says farmers need an explanation and answers to these reasonable questions.

The Senate has rejected five budget resolutions this week – including the President’s budget. The proposals were not able to muster the simple majority required to advance. In fact – the President’s budget didn’t receive a single vote. According to the Washington Post – President Obama has warned Congressional leaders that he won’t tolerate a replay of last summer’s debt-ceiling fight that nearly put the country in default and led to the nation’s first credit-rating downgrade. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says President Obama told top House and Senate leaders that he expects a serious bipartisan approach to tackling the budget and the federal deficit this year.

Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns says the President’s budget would add 6.4-trillion dollars to the national debt over the next 10 years and increase the nation’s publicly held debt to more than 76-percent of the entire economy by 2022.

Though still not enough to proceed to debate – two proposals garnered more than 40 votes in the Senate. The budget introduced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan – which passed the House of Representatives – spends 5.3-trillion dollars less than President Obama’s budget over 10 years. The other proposal was introduced by Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey and would have balanced the budget within eight years by bringing spending to 18.3-percent of the nation’s economy.

On the House side – Speaker John Boehner has threatened to block an increase in the federal debt ceiling if there aren’t significant cuts in spending. Boehner reportedly told the President he would not allow an increase if something serious isn’t done about the debt.

The CME Group and the Kansas City and Minneapolis boards of trade plan to expand daily electronic trading up to 22-hours beginning next Monday. Officials say the proposal will not affect day-time Open Outcry trading hours. The original 10-day comment period ended Wednesday. At that time commissioners of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission were split on whether or not to postpone the change by tacking on an additional 30-day comment period. Also, USDA is still considering how it will handle report releases.

As of late Wednesday, CFTC spokesperson David Gary said, if there is no extension of the comment period, – that would be, in effect, tantamount to an approval. Just go ahead and do your thing.

Only two groups, the National Grain and Feed Association and the North American Export Grain Association, have submitted comments to the CFTC. Both called for a longer window to work on the logistical issues, such as report releases, that a longer trading day raises.

DECORAH, Iowa (AP) — A surprisingly chilly April has had an adverse effect on crops in Iowa.

Officials say freezing temperatures last month has damaged crops throughout the state. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that horticulture and agronomy experts say up to 80 percent of the apple crop in eastern Iowa has been ruined.

Apple trees blossomed about a month early because of unseasonably warm temperatures in March. But temperatures dipped to the low 20s for several nights in early to mid-April, killing those blossoms.

Thousands of acres of corn may need to be replanted in the northern part of the state and Gail Nonnecke, a horticulture professor at Iowa State University, estimates Iowa strawberry production will be reduced by 20 percent.

According to new data presented by the Auto Alliance and Global Automakers, results from a two-year study on engine durability indicates that – E15 fuel can wreck your engine. The groups call a government study resulting in the approval of the use of a blend of 15 percent ethanol and 85 percent gasoline, – premature, because testing wasn’t finished. Also, groups representing small-engine manufacturers and power-equipment makers have said alcohol-blend fuels are bad for the engines in boats, chain saws, lawn mowers, generators and the like.

The U.S. Department of Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association say the report is fundamentally flawed. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Transportation says – we believe the choice of test engines, test cycle, limited fuel selection, and failure criteria of the CRC program resulted in unreliable and incomplete data, which severely limits the utility of the study.

Bob Dinneen President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, says – accepting the status quo in a fuel market monopolized by petroleum as the best this nation can do is unacceptable. Dinneen adds, funding research using questionable testing protocols and illegal fuels make the test – meaningless and only serve to further muddy the waters and shun the overwhelming desire of 75 percent of Americans for greater choice at the pump.