By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — The Fort Wayne Farm Show’s educational seminars will include a Jan. 12 luncheon program on the impact of climate control regulations on agriculture.

Speakers for the program include U.S. Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.) and Otto Doering, an extension specialist with Purdue University.
As with all the seminars, the lunch program is free. The program begins at 11 a.m.

Organizers plan to provide meals for 200 people.

Topics will include cap-and-trade, carbon sequestration, bioenergy and renewable fuels. Each morning of the farm show, various speakers will discuss the grain and livestock outlook for the upcoming year. David Kohli, a market analyst with Allendale-Inc., has spoken at the farm show for several years. He and John Cavanaugh, marketing director of Central States Enterprises, Inc., will speak at 10 a.m. on Jan. 12.

“People always want to know where the prices are headed, and the supply and demand numbers give the best insight,” Kohli said.
“Bean prices are very good right now. Corn is harder to figure because so much of the crop is left in the field. There’s a very sizeable amount of the crop still out there.”

Farmers should watch for vomitoxin in their corn crop, Kohli said. “If you have corn without that, hold on to it,” he said. “It’ll be gold.”
Weather could be an issue for farmers again in 2010, he said. Spring will probably be cool and wet, but summer is expected to be a little warmer than it was in 2009.

“It will be a difficult planting period. The cool and wet weather shortens the growing season and causes a lack of maturity in corn,” he said.

Bruce Everhart, of Wells Fargo Bank, will lead the grain and livestock outlook discussion on Jan. 13, and Chris Hurt, an agricultural economist with Purdue, will speak on Jan. 14. On the afternoon of Jan. 12, speakers from Clinton County, Ind., and Purdue will discuss wind energy.

On Jan. 13, Julia Wickard, Indiana state executive director of FSA, will give a program update.

That afternoon, the director of Indiana’s department of agriculture, Joe Kelsay, will discuss the challenges facing the state’s farmers.
Later that afternoon, speakers will discuss agriculture and the popular media, growing for niche markets and recreational pond construction and management.

A complete list of speakers, topics and times will be available at the farm show. The seminars are sponsored by the Northeastern Indiana SWCDs and Purdue cooperative extension.