News from the Minnesota Association of Wheat
Growers for Friday, February 18,  2000

USDA ANNOUNCES DETAILS ON USE OF COMMODITY CERTIFICATES TO ACQUIRE COMMODITY LOAN COLLATERAL
WASHINGTON, February 17, 2000. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) today announced operating details concerning the resumption of the use of CCC commodity certificates, announced February 8, 2000 (FSA Release No. 1429.00).

Commodity certificates will be made available to producers or their agents to use in acquiring 1998- through 2002-crop collateral pledged to CCC for a commodity loan. The use of commodity certificates will encourage producers to repay their loans rather than forfeit the loan collateral to CCC at loan maturity. Commodity certificate exchanges will be available for sale at USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) offices to producers with outstanding nonrecourse marketing assistance loans made with respect to wheat, rice, feed grains, upland cotton, soybeans, and designated minor oilseeds.

"Only producers or their agents may purchase the commodity certificates, and they may be utilized only in connection with the repayment of marketing assistance loans when producers cannot exercise their full opportunity to repay their loans and may have to forfeit some or all of the collateral to CCC at loan maturity," said CCC's Executive Vice President Keith Kelly. "The primary purpose in making the commodity certificates available is to avoid Government takeover of commodity stocks."

Commodity certificates are also required to be made available to participants in CCC's "Step 2" cotton program. Certificates issued under that program also may only be used by producers or their agents to acquire commodities pledged as collateral for these same loans.

CCC intends to begin selling the commodity certificates and exchanging them for loan collateral at FSA offices on February 22, 2000. The exchange rate will be the effective adjusted world price for rice or upland cotton or the posted county or regional prices (PCP), as applicable, for other commodities on the date the commodity certificate is purchased. Commodity certificate exchanges will not be available when the exchange rate exceeds the applicable loan rate. Commodity certificate exchanges may only be processed by the FSA office that originated the loan.

For example, if a corn producer has pledged the farm's 1999 production as collateral for a marketing assistance loan and is now facing the likelihood of forfeiting to CCC the collateral under loan, the producer may purchase a commodity certificate valued up to that amount determined by multiplying the volume of corn still under loan, times the local PCP. The producer may then exchange the purchased commodity certificate for the loan collateral.

For more information about this program, contact your local USDA Service Center or FSA County Office. Your local office can be located in the telephone directory under the government listings.

NOTE: Farm Service Agency (FSA) news releases and media advisories are available on the World Wide Web at FSA's Home Page: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/news/releases/index.htm

WHAT FUTURE FOR BIOTECH WHEAT?
Biotech wheat, following in the footsteps of other genetically engineered grains and oilseeds, is headed into a challenging future, grain industry leaders said at the US Wheat Quality Council annual meeting this week in Kansas City. New GMO wheat products are likely to face the same issues of legal liability, identity preservation and consumer acceptance, wheat experts said. Herbicide-tolerant products are expected to be available to farmers in three to five years. "Roundup Ready wheat is probably going to be the first one to hit the market," said Monsanto consultant John Richardson. "In 2003 it will come out in Canada and in the US spring wheat. Winter wheat will be further behind."

NDSU RELEASES SOYBEAN VARIETY WITH PHYTOPHTHORA ROOT ROT RESISTANCE
The North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station at North Dakota State University is releasing a soybean variety containing genes that confer resistance to several races of Phytophthora root rot.

This new variety, Barnes, is named after the county in eastern North Dakota, and it will be subject to the 1994 amendments of the Plant Variety Protection Act with the Title V option.

Barnes was developed under the leadership of Ted Helms, NDSU's soybean breeder. Working with Helms on this effort were NDSU plant pathologist Berlin Nelson and Jay Goos, an NDSU soil scientist.  Read more at http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/

RECORDKEEPING, CROP ROTATION KEYS TO CONTROLLING WHITE MOLD DISEASE
Producers who had white mold problems in 1999 will need to be particularly diligent in key areas of their management practices this year--and for several years--because of the persistent nature of this disease, says a specialist with the North Dakota State University Extension Service. Sclerotinia (white mold) head rot was common on sunflower across a wide area of eastern North Dakota in 1999. Likewise, white mold on dry beans and Sclerotinia stem rot of canola were common.

"When planning rotations, keep in mind that sunflower may be infected through the roots any time it is planted in an infested field, so avoiding infested fields is essential for sunflower", says Art Lamey, extension plant pathologist at NDSU. Read more at http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/.

SHORT-, LONG TERM PLANNING GUIDE AVAILABLE FOR ND PRODUCERS
North Dakota producers can use this short, long term planning  guide which is now available from NSDU extension service.  The an annual publication contains agricultural price projections that North Dakota producers can use for planning. The publication lists year 2000 price projections for crops and livestock produced in the state as well as price projections for future years. 

"Price projections are given for the major crop commodities including wheat, durum, oats, feed barley, malting barley, oil sunflower, non-oil sunflower, corn, soybeans, canola, flax, dry beans, alfalfa hay, mixed hay, rye and potatoes," says Ron Haugen, extension farm economist at NDSU and one of the publication's authors.  Read more at http://www.ext.nodak.edu/extnews/