DEP Brings Together Watershed Partners, State And Federal Agencies HARRISBURG (Dauphin Co.) Department of Environ mental Protection (DEP) Deputy Secretary for Water Management Cathy Curran Myers today an nounced that the department convened a new steering commit tee of watershed partners and state and federal agencies to oversee the state’s efforts to re duce nutrient and sediment load ings to the Chesapeake Bay. “Pennsylvania is committed to doing its part to restore the Ches apeake Bay,” Deputy Secretary Myers said. “More than one-half of the Bay’s fresh water flows from the Susquehanna River. “By reducing the nutrients and sediments that flow into our local streams, we will provide even greater benefits to the crabs and oysters in the Chesapeake Bay and the region that enjoys the Bay’s bounty. Ultimately, this will benefit our Commonwealth as well. We will extend habitat for the American shad to return to the headwaters of the Susque hanna River, restoring this great fishery to Pennsylvania,” OARDC Researchers Lead Fight Against Chicken Virus WOOSTER, Ohio In the world of poultry diseases, viruses aren’t chicken. And among poul try viruses, not many are as prob lematic as the infectious bursal disease virus (IBDV), which has troubled egg and broiler opera tions in Ohio and the rest of the United States for decades and now threatens to hit the industry even harder. “Infectious bursal disease virus is a major concern,” said molecu lar biologist Daral Jackwood, a reseacher with the Food Animal Health Research Program (FAHRP) at the Ohio Agricultur al Research and Development Center (OARDC) in Wooster. “Layers are more susceptible to the virus than broilers, but they both get it.” The second-leading cause of viral disease in chickens, IBDV is an immuno-suppressive disease that attacks young birds, killing them or making them more sus ceptible to other infectious agents. Discovered in the Unites States in the late 19505, the virus favors chickens younger than 7 weeks old, which have immature immune cells. IBDV replicates in and destroys those cells. “This is a big economic prob lem,” said Jackwood, who has 20 years of experience studying the virus. “Immuno-suppressed birds Record Soybean Exports For Third Year In A Row ST. LOUIS, Mo. World de mand for soybeans remains strong. U.S. soybean exports reached record levels for the third year in a row, thanks in part to U.S. soybean farmer in vestments in checkoff-funded in ternational marketing activities. According to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. exported more than one billion bushels of soybeans this past marketing year. And in the cur rent marketing year, the record setting pace of U.S. soybean ex ports continues. “International marketing pro grams funded by the soybean checkoff played a crucial role in increasing U.S. soybean exports,” said United Soybean Board (USB) International Marketing Pennsylvania has embraced the Chesapeake Bay Program for 20 years and has made great strides toward reaching water quality and living resource goals. With the signing of the Chesa peake 2000 Agreement, Pennsyl vania committed to removing the Chesapeake Bay from the federal Clean Water Act’s list of im paired waters by 2010. Partners to this commitment include all the jurisdictions in the Chesapeake watershed Penn sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Virginia, West Vir ginia, District of Columbia. The agreement describes an ambitious process for achieving the task, the cornerstone of which is com pletion of basin-specific nutrient and sediment reduction tributary strategies by April 2004. Thirteen Watershed Teams within Pennsylvania’s Chesa peake basin will develop the com ponents of the Chesapeake Bay Tributary Strategy. DEP organ ized the Watershed Teams to fa cilitate local watershed manage ment planning efforts. have more respiratory and enter ic (intestinal) diseases, grow slow ly, and do not respond to vacci nations for other diseases. Infected flocks have a higher mortality rate.” Jackwood’s research focuses on the many new strains of the virus that have proliferated in the United States and pose the high est risk to the industry. He devel oped and patented two commer cially available tests for quick detection of these variant viruses and is now conducting an epide miology study to inventory IBDV strains present in the nation. “The vaccines developed for classic IBDV don’t protect chick ens from these new strains, which mutate rapidly,” Jackwood ex plained. “The technology we de veloped is allowing us to test nu merous virus samples in order to identify different variants of the virus based on their genetic se quences. Our tests allow us to identify viruses very quickly, within about an hour after we start the reaction. Traditional test took two days.” The inventory will let the U.S. poultry industry know which vi ruses are most prevalent, where in the country they are present, and how dangerous they are. It will also provide vital informa tion for the development of vac cines for use on a national or re Chair Criss Davis, a soybean farmer from Shullsburg, Wis. “The checkoff helped to develop an effective new strategic export plan to keep U.S. soybean ex ports growing despite dramatic increases in global soy produc tion.” Factors such as global compe tition and decreased U.S. soybean planting projections for the next several years led soybean check off farmer-leaders to develop strategies to increase the value of U.S. soy exports and U.S. soy bean farmer share of targeted ex port markets. According to Davis, the growth of U.S. soybean sales to China demonstrates how the new export strategy has been effective. China, the largest customer for The teams, with help from local governments and citizens, will develop Tributary Strategies from the “bottom up.” The strat egies will identify Best Manage ment Practices (BMPs) to address nonpoint source nutrient and sediment loadings and the most cost-effective approach to reduce point source nutrient loadings from wastewater treatment plants and industrial waste dis chargers. The Chesapeake Bay Tribu tary Strategy Steering Committee will support the Watershed Teams by identifying existing and needed resources to ensure implementation, and to assist with the tracking of actual nutri ent and sediment reductions. In addition to numerous state and federal agencies, key watershed partners on the committee in clude the Alliance for the Chesa peake Bay, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau and the Pennsylvania As sociation of Conservation Dis tricts. gional basis. Jackwood said companies are already consid ering some of the viruses he has found as possible vaccine candi dates. “Deciding whether or not to vaccinate is a question producers are wrestling with,” he added. “Many of them don’t bother (to vaccinate) because the old vac cines are not working for these new variants. FAHRP's leadership in IBDV research has made it the only fa cility in the nation authorized by the U.S. Department of Agricul ture to study an even more pow erful version of the disease: the very virulent infectious bursal disease virus (wIBDV). Reported first in Europe in 1989, this ag gressive virus has not reached the United States but it has made it as close as the Dominican Re public. “We’re concerned because this is a virus that can kill 7080 per cent of a flock,” said FAHRP chair Mo Saif, whose lab has re ceived wIBDV strains from Eu rope and Asia. “We analyzed these strains to see how they re late to classic and variant IBDV and developed a test to differenti ate them from other viruses. So if we get hit with the disease, we are now in the position to come up with a diagnosis within 24 hours.” U.S. soybeans, imported more than 282 million bushels. The European Union imported more than 209 million bushels of U.S. soybeans this past market ing year, making it the largest re gional customer of U.S. soy. Once again, Canada is the top customer of U.S. soybean meal, purchasing the equivalent of more than 48 million bushels. Mexico bought the most U.S. soy bean oil, importing the equivalent of more than 36 million bushels of U.S. soybeans, a 48 percent in crease over last year. “We export close to half of our entire soybean crop, so these soy bean checkoff-funded export ac tivities remain vital to keeping me and other U.S. soybean farm ers competitive,” said Davis. Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 6, 2003-D7 Upswing In Soybean Prices Benefits Growers COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio soybean growers who managed to weather the lashings Mother Na ture gave their crop in the form of rain and diseases are reaping the benefits of record yields and high harvest prices. Because of a national shortage of soybeans, due to a significant decline in production in western states such as Nebraska, Missouri and lowa coupled with continued consumer and export demands harvest prices have rallied over the past three months from $5.50 a bushel to nearly $B.OO a bushel. According to the National Ag ricultural Statistics Service, mar ket year average price is project ed between $6.05 and $6.95 per bushel, up from $5.53 in 2002. With such promising soybean prices, Ohio growers, who are seeing projected record yields of 42 bushels per acre, are poised for a stellar grand finale. “It’s really an interesting re versal from last year. There was a short crop in Ohio, while growing conditions were nearly perfect out West. So while prices did in crease, Ohio was not in a position to take advantage of that because we did not have large yields,” said Matt Roberts, an Ohio State University agricultural econo mist. “But this year, the advan tage of being in Ohio is not only do we have high prices, but we have pretty good yields unlike the western part of the country. So those farmers who could get their crops established and didn’t have disease issues are producing an incredible soybean product this year.” And the good news for growers who have not sold off their beans yet is that the prices may contin ue to rise. “Clearly we have fewer beans this year. We have a much higher price because of that which is meant to discourage the con sumption and export of beans. But we are not seeing demand slow down,” said Roberts. “That indicates that prices still do have room to move upwards. At the rate we are consuming and ex porting soybeans, we will run out of soybeans long before next year’s harvest. All of this, of course, is what is creating the confusion and uncertainty with the markets.” On the flipside, the issue with corn production is much less ex citing. Business Incubator To Boost Southern Ohio’s Economy PIKETON, Ohio Well over 100 business and academic pro fessionals, residents, county lead ers and commissioners and com mittee and organization members throughout southern Ohio gath ered at Ohio State University’s South Centers at Piketon on Oct. 31 to witness the groundbreaking of the Endeavor Center Business Incubator and Training Facility. The 27,000 square foot build ing, scheduled to be up and run ning in 18 months, is designed to increase jobs and enhance the economic development of the re gion through assistance, educa tion and training of entrepre neurs, small business owners, existing job employees and young people fresh out of school. The site will be made available to new and expanding businesses within Ross, Pike, Jackson, Scioto and adjacent counties. When completed, the facility will offer 26 spaces differing in size and use for entrepreneurs. The training wing of the new The weather conditions that devastated the soybean crop out West did little to impact the corn crop. And although Ohio corn growers may also see projected record yields of 145 bushels per acre, consistent national produc tion and average prices are generating a balanced market. “It looks like we will consume about as much corn as we pro duced,” said Roberts. “Corn prices have not moved signifi cantly over the past three or four months.” Com prices are sitting at $2.40 a bushel. Market year average price is projected be tween $1.90 and $2.30 per bushel compared to $2.32 for last year’s crop. Roberts said a few bright spots, however, exist with U.S. corn production. “So far corn exports have been solid. And the other big news is that ethanol demand continues to accelerate,” he said. “This year about 900 million bushels of corn or roughly 8 percent of the har vest will go into ethanol, and analysts think that projection is short by a few million bushels.” Ethanol demand may push corn average prices up by anoth er 10 cents or 15 cents, said Rob erts. And the question remains how the market will react as ethanol demand increases in the future. “In two years, we may be look ing at 1.2 billion bushels going into ethanol; in another four years, 1.5 billion to 2 billion bush els of corn,” said Roberts. Such continued profitability for com, even at $2.30 a bushel, is what continues to steer growers to wards corn and away from soy beans. “There’s less global competi tion in com, especially with South America continually ex panding soybean production. Looking at the current projec tions, Brazil will produce 15 per cent more soybeans this year than last year,” said Roberts. “Maybe with the exception of China, no one has really expand ed into corn production like that. For many American farmers, selling 200 bushels of corn at $2.20 a bushel sounds more at tractive than selling 80 bushels of soybeans at $5 a bushel. That’s where we are seeing U.S. crop production going.” building will also provide housing for Ohio State’s Learning Center South, which currently provides programs for the community in a small computer lab and auditori um. The new and expanded learning center facility will in clude two classrooms, a computer laboratory and conference areas to accommodate meetings for various sized training classes. The Endeavor Center con struction project is being funded by grants from the U. S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Admin istration, the Ohio Governor’s Office of Appalachia and U. S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development. Local matching funds for the grants are being provided by Ohio State University Extension, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative and Scioto County’s Office of Economic Development. 1
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