After a 15-day extension that ended Oct. 11, the window for public comment has closed surrounding a request for the EPA to waive the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The RFS was created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and required 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel to be blended into gasoline by 2012. In 2007, the standard was expanded to include diesel fuel and it increased the volume of renewable fuel required to be blended into transportation fuel from 9 billion gallons in 2008 to 36 billion gallons by 2022. Proponents of the waiver hope it would help dairy and livestock producers by lowering the cost and improving the availability of corn for feed.

Higher corn and grain costs have resulted in food producers, particularly in livestock and dairy, seeking bigger lines of credit and long loan terms. Rising prices for fuel, fertilizer and seeds are also contributing factors. According to The Wall Street Journal: Overall agriculture loans at banks, thrifts, and credit unions rose 11 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, according to SNL Financial. Bankers expect demand for agricultural loans to continue to increase.

The National Dairy Foods Research Center program, supported in part by the Dairy Research Institute, marks 25 years of providing dairy, food and beverage companies with research, education, pilot facilities and technical assistance to improve and develop new products and dairy ingredients. America’s dairy farmers established the program in 1987 through the dairy checkoff. Today, there are six-university affiliated centers available to the industry at strategic locations across the U.S.

On-farm monitoring of methane emissions with noninvasive infrared technology could provide a low-cost, reliable method to improve testing of mitigation strategies, guide breeding techniques and provide better inventory estimates for life cycle assessment studies. This is important because enteric methane is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions associated with milk production, according to research commissioned by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy.

In the most recent FG poll, we asked readers whether they would be investing in any new forage equipment in the coming year.

The Oregon Cover Crop and Forage Seed group presents this 10-minute video on profitable keys for a livestock forage program:    

There’s a great story told about Alan Shepard just before his historic Freedom 7 spaceflight in 1961, making him the first American in space with a 15-minute suborbital flight. After his successful return to Earth, reporters asked Shepard what he was thinking about while sitting in the Redstone rocket and waiting for the final countdown. “The fact that every part of this ship was built by the low bidder,” he said.

Beef exports from the European Union (EU) during the first seven months of 2012 fell by 41 percent year-on-year, totaling 113,856 metric tons (MT). EU beef exports spiked in 2011 as a weak euro and strong international demand, in particular from Turkey and Russia, drove exports higher. However, a reduced supply of EU beef so far in 2012, combined with reduced demand in several markets, has hit export volumes this year.