COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio
farmers said in a government sur
vey they’d plant more soybeans
and less com this year, but what
they will really do depends upon a
great unknown this spring’s
weather, said ‘Luther Tweeten, an
agricultural economist at Ohio
State University.
A U.S. Department of Agricul
ture report released at the end of
March said Ohio fanners will
plant 2 percent more soybeans, or
100,000 more acres than last year.
Farmers intend to plant 6 percent
less com, or 200,000 fewer acres.
Winter wheat acreage is expected
to remain the same.
Tweeten said fanners may
change their minds, though. If
spring is warm and dry, they may
plant more com, which has a
slightly longer growing season
than soybeans. If the weather turns
cold and wet, farmers will have to
plant later and switch more acre
age into soybeans, he said.
“It’s a weather phenomenon at
this stage,” Tweeten said.
The report left fanners’ inten
tions for 100,000 acres undeter
mined, which could reflect their
indecision at the time of the sur
vey said agricultural statistician
Charles Mayzlik, Ohio Agricul
tural Statistics Service. Small
amounts of that acreage may go
into hay or be lost to non-farm de
velopment, he said.
Twecnten said farmers have
more flexibility to change their in
Cochran Fund Accepts
Proposals Forestry Projects
YOUNGSVILLE (Warren Co.)
The Sandy Cochran Memorail
Fund is seeking applications
through June 1,1998 for the fund
ing of educational projects that
will support good forest manage
ment and the forest industry in
northwestern Pennsylvania and
southwestern New York.
The Cochran Fund was estab
lished in the memory of Roe
“Sandy” Cochran, a former Penn
State forestry extension agent
According to Ken Kane, past
committee chair and a consulting
forester from Kane, “Cochran was
widely known and respected. He
stressed the importance of con
tinuing education and research
based knowledge. Cochran work
ed with everyone in the forest in
dustry, from independent loggers
and mill operators to those in
volved in forestry education at the
local, state, and national levels.”
Susan Stout, project forester
with the U.S. Forest Service and
Cochran Fund Committee mem
ber, said “Cochran’s vision for the
forestry community included safe
work procedures, the application
of best management practices in
Less Com, More Beans In Ohio
tendons because the government
ended production controls under
the Freedom-to-Farm legislation
passed two years ago. Prior farm
programs required farmers to
plant a certain amount of com or
wheat in order to receive crop sup
port benefits. Now farmers can
base planting intentions on per
ceived marketing opportunities or
weather problems.
“Farmers like that flexibility,”
Tweetnen said. “It’s nice for them
to switch from com to soybeans or
from soybeans to com depending
on the weather conditions.” -
Another Ohio State agricultural
economist, Carl Zulauf, agreed
that farm policy gives producers
more flexibility. He thinks another
factor affecting planting inten
tions is that fanners have less cash
costs with soybeans, which don’t
use as much fertilizers as com, he
said.
However. Zulauf is concerned
about a long-term com trend indi
cating that Ohio farmers are losing
a yield advantage compared to
other corn-producing states.
Ohio’s com yields were 34 per
cent higher than the national aver
age from 1948 through 1952, and
only 1 percent higher during
1993-97, he said.
Ohio soybean yields, however,
were 7 percent above the national
average for 1993-97 compared to
only 1 percent higher in 1948-52,
he sai(L
The contrasting changes, in
the forests, the cultivation of pro
mising markets for local forest
products, the application of new
technologies, and the creation of a
policy environment created by in
formed political leaders. The
Cochran Memorial Fund is in
tended to support projects that fur
ther these ends.”
High priority will be given by
the fund to projects directly affect
ing a 17-county area in the North
on Allegheny Region. A variety
of projects have been funded in
the past including support for the
Allegheny National Forest “For
um,” materials support to the 1995
Warren County Youth Conserva
tion Camp, and funding for the de
velopment of several forestry
photo displays. Requests for aca
demic scholarship will also be en
tertained by the fund.
Applications for funding and
further information can be ob
tained from The Sandy Cochran
Memorial Fund in care of Hie
Forest Sciences Laboratory. P.O.
Box 267. Irvine, PA 16329-0267.
Deadline for submission of all
project applications and support
ing information is June 1, 1998.
EXTENDED PARTS DEPT.
STORE HOURS
EFFECTIVE MONDAY, APRIL 6, 1998
To Better Serve You During
The Busy Planting Season
APRIL - MAY - JUNE
MON. THRU FRI.
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Tweeten said farmers are also
losing a competitive edge in win
ter wheat production because
profitability per acre is less than
for soybeans and com.
“The U.S. seems to be losing a
comparative advantage in wheat
not just in Ohio, but across the
board in the Great Plains,” Tweet
en said. “We have not improved
wheat yields at the pace of com
yields.”
In all, Ohio farmers said they
would plant 3.4 million acres of
com, compared to 3.6 million
acres last year. The national com
acreage is expected to be 80.8 mil
lion acres the highest in 13
years or 1 percent above last
NOTICE
yield ratios between Ohio and the
United States may be one reason
why Ohio plants more soybeans
than com, and the reverse is true
for the United States, Zulauf said.
Zulauf hasn’t figured out the
reason for the comparative decline
in com yields. In general, regions
can lose competitiveness because
of technological lags, differential
changes in localized hybrids, geo
climatic changes, managerial
capabilities, or off-farm jobs com
peting for time.
A LESSON
WELL
LEARNED...
LANCASTER
FARMING'S
CLASSIFIED
ADS
GFT RESULTS!
year’s.
The USDA reports that Ohio
farmers intend to plant 4.6 million
soybean acres, compared to 4.5
million last year. Nationally,
farmers said they will plant the
highest acreage ever—72 million
acres of soybeans or 2 percent
more than last year.
Ohio’s winter wheat plantings
are expected to stay firm at 1.2
million acres. Nationally, winter
wheat acreage is expected to be
46.6 million acres, or a decline of
4 percent from last year.
The potential for a big U.S. soy
bean crop plus an outstanding
South American crop currently
being harvested have sobered re
cent prices, Zulauf said. Add to
that the lackluster export demand
because of die Asian economic
crisis and a slackening of domes
tic demand.
"There’s a lot of soybeans out
there,” Zulauf said
The supply-demand situation is
tighter for com. even though
growth in domestic feed usage is
slowing, Zulauf said. Further
more, intended plantings for sor
ghum, a competing feedgrain. are
lower.
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“The bottom line is we have a
long way to go with this crop,”
Zulauf said. “If you want me to
tell you the price of com for this
fall, we’ll have to wait to see the
production this summer.
If crap weather is excellent and
demand growth remains slow,
farmers can use the government’s
marketing loan program to limit
the damage of plunging markets,
provided farmers are enrolled in
production flexibility contracts,
Zulauf said.
Marketing loans are available
for com, soybeans and wheat, Zu
lauf said. Marketing loans cannot
be forfeited to the government, as
they could in traditional programs.
If the market place falls below the
loan rate, the farmer can pay off
the loan at the tower market price.
This assures farmers of the loan
rate as a minimum price, even
though market prices might be
lower.
The government will announce
loan rates for 1998-plan ted crops
in the coming months. Rates vary
by county, but the national
1997-planted crop loan rates, per
bushel, were $1.89 for com; $5.26
for soybeans, and $2.58 for wheat
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