Telling the World About Agriculture - Farm Futures

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This Business of Farming

This Business of Farming

A critical, oft-times irreverent look at cutting edge issues that impact U.S. farmers.

Telling the World About Agriculture

Posted on September 17, 2011

I'm winding down from a an exciting week in Canada where a group of 260 agricultural journalists in the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists have been holding our annual Congress. The mood here is upbeat and electric, in part because the IFAJ is doing more outreach to ag communicators in countries beyond its typical regions. When I got involved in IFAJ 15 years ago we mostly focused on networking among ourselves at annual meetings. The countries involved were mostly from North America and Europe. Today there is an increasing sense of urgency to reach out to areas that may not enjoy free press, or may be struggling economically. Today I get emails from journalists in nearly every country in the world wanting to know how they can link up with IFAJ. With 1 billion people going to bed hungry each day, there is no question that agriculture now plays THE pivotal role in the future of our planet. That fact alone elevates what's at stake for those of us involved in communicating with farmers. Our roles are taking on new meaning. This new sense of urgency is giving agricultural communicators a cause that goes beyond networking. It's about giving back and sharing our experience or skills with others. This week I had the good fortune to play a teaching role at the IFAJ's new Master Class program, sponsored by Pioneer. This program pays expenses to bring 10 agricultural journalists from developing countries to this congress. We held a two-day professional development workshop and shared ideas about how to develop articles, how to build credibility with an audience of readers or viewers, ethics, and the role of a free press in society. Truth be told, I learned more from these journalists from China, Uruguay, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Armenia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Guinea and India than they did from me. It wasn't so much about how to write a good story as it was just learning that we all face similar issues as communicators. Many of those folks face much tougher challenges living and working in countries where they can hardly afford a laptop, or where the government will throw you in jail if you write something they don't like. This is the new challenge for IFAJ: to network with journalists in these countries and see how we can help them to do their jobs more effectively. If, over time, we can help improve communication and journalistic skills, there is a good chance we can play a role in helping boost food productivity. These are very tiny threads in the bigger tapestry of solving world hunger. No one has all the answers, but everyone needs to find a way to become more engaged. IFAJ is taking on a new role, and it's one that I'm proud to play a small part in.



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Anonymous

I read with great interest your column in the September issue of Farm Futures titled High-moisture harvest captures more yield. Many farmers will read this article and because it is in your magazine believe it to be the truth. Since I have had a running argument with some local farmers and customers for many years I thought it best to do the math and see the actual results for myself. In the article Mr. Smith elaborates on a situation where he started combining corn at 27% moisture and then stops for two and a half weeks to combine beans. Upon returning to said field to finish, the moisture was now down to 20%.In the article he said that the 7% reduction in moisture cost him 10 bushels in yield loss as it went from 185 at 27% down to 175 at 20%. That was the end of the discussion and left readers to believe that the 10 bushel reduction in yield was the only consequence of the corn drying in the field. Mr. Smith lost 10 bushels of production but failed to mention that he would actually have more net bushels to sell and lesser drying costs that more than offset the loss in yield. A closer look at the numbers shows an actual increase in revenue by letting the corn dry in the field. 27% corn shrunk to 15% at 1.4% per point equals actual bushels to sell of 153.92. The drying charges on 185 bushel wet corn is about $72.00. If you sell the corn for $7.00 and deduct the drying costs you end up with net dollars of $1005.44 (153.92 bu. times $7.00-$72.00=$1005.44). 20% corn shrunk to 15% at 1.4% per point equals actual bushels to sell of 162.75. The drying charges on 175 bushel wet corn is about $33.00. If you sell the corn for $7.00 and deduct the drying costs you end with net dollars of $1106.25 (162.75 bu. times $7.00-$33.00=$1106.25). This results in a net gain of $100.81 per acre by by letting the corn dry in the field. The lost bushels are not phantom, they are real, but so is net revenue gained by letting the corn dry in the field. A ten bushel per acre loss 5.4%. Is this reasonable? I can't say for sure. I then thought that maybe the numbers represented dry bushels 185 vs. 175. I redid my calculations and if that is what they represent, then you actually net about $19.00 by doing the wet corn. But the bushel loss becomes 15.4% and I find this very hard to believe. I know a 6000 acre corn farmer can't wait for all his acres to get down to 20% to start harvesting but even if he only nets half of my expectation ($50) he still has $300,000 more. How much does a combine cost? Granted this is an example of corn delivered to an elevator, but even if you figure the costs are cheaper on the farm, I doubt they will make up the $600,000. Please help me to understand this article as many of my customers take your word as the gospel. Thank you ( Eric Rieger-grain merchandiser-Trainor Grain-Forrest Illinois)


Anonymous

“With 1 billion people going to bed hungry each day, there is no question that agriculture now plays THE pivotal role in the future of our planet.” This is very arguable, Mike. What can agriculture do? It can boost the production. This will only be a solution in a few places. The most important causes of hunger have nothing to do with food shortage. There is no food shortage worldwide. Hungers is caused due to poorness. In many cases, increasing the production goes together with higher prices. And that’s the problem. And there’s lots more reasons of hunger where agriculture can play no role at all. Like good governance. For example: countries like Somalia, Eritrea, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Iran. Another case: landgrab, like you see in sub-sahara Africa and even South American Countries. Countries like China and companies as Daewoo buy lots of farmland from poor countries who even cannot feed their own citizens. And then there is international politics that cause hunger, like sanctions on Madagascar, there’s independency from multinationals that cause problems even in Canada and the USA as you know, but kills farmers in India who summit suicide on a high scale. Yes, agriculture is very important. But a bit modesty suits the agricultural sector. And even more the journalist who needs t be independent and shouldn’t let himself pulled in some interest of the agribusiness. And then this Master Program about free press. Of course this sounds great. But you are talking about credibility while you mention that this program is sponsored by Pioneer. My question is: how can you keep up your credibility while you are talking about independency while you get sponsored by this company? This is not what you call an example. And then I don’t even talk about the huge amount of money that’s involved by sponsoring the congress and the IFAJ, while at the same time members have to pay more than was been discussed within the federation in the past. It was due to high costs and because of principle reasons that go along with this that I didn’t join the IFAJ-congress this year. Next year I will be in Kenya for halve a year, I hope to talk with colleagues and discus our profession, but I will not recommend the IFAJ as a federation of journalists. II will tell them it’s a very enjoyable organisation with lots of opportunities to meet interesting and nice people. But it is not the place to talk about things like a free press, independency or something like credibility or ethics. If the IFAJ really is serious about those kind of items, it should first reorganise its own policy. With a membership for journalists and opportunities for other media-professionals to join on different occasions. Or some other kind of system. I’m sorry, but as a journo I see it as my job to be critical.

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About The Writer
Mike Wilson has spent the last 25 years as a writer, photographer and editor for various U.S. agricultural magazines. He grew up on a grain and livestock farm in Ogle County, Ill., and earned a bachelor's degree in agricultural journalism from the University of Illinois in 1981. He served as editor of Prairie Farmer magazine from 1990 to 2001. He has been executive editor of Farm Futures since 2004.

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