Texas Board Members on Seed Tour at Chromatin
TGSP Board Members Tour Seed Industry – Last week, several members from the TGSB and TGSA Board of Director’s toured the seed industry in the High Plains to learn more about advancements and research happening in the sorghum industry. The two-day event began with a tour of the Richardson Seed facility in Vega, Texas, where they viewed seed production, bagging and treatment. The group then traveled to NexSteppe in Hereford to view biomass sorghum production, and then continued onto Advanta to look at their grain and forage research plots. The first day came to an end in Plainview at Pioneer where they toured their retail nursery, research plots and seed processing plant. The next day the group began at USDA-ARS in Lubbock to view their advancements and finally ended the day at Chromatin’s Idalou nursery to view their research plots. Pictured above are the Texas members at Chromatin who attended the seed tour. (L-R: Jason Frantz, Texas Farms & TGSA board member; Wayne Cleveland, TGSP Executive Director; Greg Good, Texas Farms; Charles Ray Huddleston, grower and TGSA board member; Jim Massey IV, grower and TGSA & TGSB board member; Chuck McDonald, grower and TGSB Chairman; Blake Tregellas, grower and TGSB board member; Daniel Krienke, grower and TGSA board member; and James Born, grower and TGSB Vice-Chairman. USCP has provided more photos from the seed tour, just search #USCPSeedTour on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to view them.
HPWD Names New General Manager – The High Plains Underground Water Conservation District (HPWD) announces Jason Coleman as their new general manager. Coleman served as general manager of the South Plains Underground Water Conservation District in Brownfield since 2000, where his district covered 1,200 acres in Hockley and all of Terry County. He grew up on a cotton farm new Meadow, Texas and is a registered Professional Engineer in Texas. Coleman takes over the position of Jim Conkwright who retired from the position on June 30th. Brad Heffington of Littlefield and a current HPWD Board Member said, “Jason shares our West Texas values. He understands that the High Plains Water District is here to protect landowners’ rights-while at the same time-developing policy to help landowners conserve groundwater and use it as efficiently as possible for generations to come.”
On The Hill – The House and Senate are back in session after the August recess and the Southwest Council for Agribusiness (SWCA) has provided a glimpse into what is expected to happen on the hill this month. They suspect the debate over Syria to stall other issues. The issue is expected to scramble the legislative calendars and could stall the consideration of the SNAP vote expected to occur the first week of this session. With the House expected to cut $40 billion from the SNAP program, the new annual report on food insecurity showed 14.5% of American households were listed as “food insecure”, and this is sure to come up in the debate. Also on the hill, the U.S. is expected to reach their borrowing limit by mid-October and President Obama said he will not negotiate over raising the debt ceiling as he did in 2011. This year, sugar prices are down and USDA announced that approximately 85,000 tons of sugar that was pledged as collateral for the marketing loan program as forested to the government. This has caused the sugar price to drop approximately 50% in one year leaving many producers with the only option but to forfeit their crop. Finally, EPA announced that 16.55 billion gallons of renewable fuels must be blended into the U.S. fuel supply in 2013,which calculates to a 9.74% blend. Specifically, 1.28 billion gallons of biomass-based diesel, 2.75 billion gallons of advanced biofuels (sorghum qualifies), and 6 million gallons of cellulosic biofuels are required this year.
NSP Announces Upcoming Contests
Yield & Management Contest – Winners will be recognized at the annual Commodity Classic held in San Antonio, Texas of February 2014. Entry forms must be filled out completely and postmarked at least 30 days before harvest for “Regular Entry” or at least 10 days before harvest for “Express Entry” of the contest field. Please click here for more information and to download the entry form.
Super Sorghum – You can win a “#SuperSorghum” t-shirt by using Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to post or tweet using the hashtag “#supersorghum” and let them know how your crop is doing this season. The more you use the hashtag, the greater your chances are to win. NSP will pick a winner at the end of the months of September, October and November.
Sorghum Grower Kids Cover Contest – Your farm kids could be on the cover of the Sorghum Grower magazine. During this growing season, photograph your kids as they participate in sorghum farming activities. The winning phograph will appear on the winter 2014 issue. Photographs receiving second and third place will receive honorable mention on NSP’s website. For more information, click here.
