Feed&Grain.com |

In February, state regulators suspended the license and froze assets of T.J. Gieseker Farms and Trucking of Martinsburg, MO, after a routine audit revealed that it owed more than $1.3 million in unpaid grain royalties. The Missouri attorney general has launched a criminal investigation into the missing money.

According to a story in the Hannibal Courier-Post on Feb. 26, the company’s owner and only employee, allegedly quoted farmers a price for their grain and promised to pay them once it was sold. The company then transported the grain to terminals in Mexico, Louisiana, St. Louis and Illinois. When the grain was sold, Gieseker paid farmers little or none of what they were owed and kept the money. Most of the deals were made over the telephone or with a handshake, not a written contract.

The proposed legislation would increase the bonding requirements for licensed grain dealers and set criminal penalties for unlicensed grain dealers. The Missouri speaker of the house also announced creation of an agricultural task force to address the problem and to determine whether Missouri needs an indemnity fund for farmers who might lose money in speculative commodity markets.

» MONSANTO COMPLETES REGULATORY SUBMISSIONS FOR DROUGHT-TOLERANT CORN PRODUCT

Monsanto Co. announced it has completed regulatory submissions in the United States and Canada for the world’s first biotech drought-tolerant corn product developed together with German-based BASF. The company applied for U.S. Department of Agriculture approval of its drought-tolerant corn product following its submission to the Food and Drug Administration last December. It also has completed submissions to the relevant Canadian agencies. Regulatory submissions in key import markets such as Japan, Mexico and Korea will be made in the next several months.

Drought-tolerant corn is designed to provide farmers yield stability during periods when water supply is scarce by mitigating its effects on a corn plant. Field trials for drought-tolerant corn conducted last year in the Western Great Plains met or exceeded the 6% to 10% target yield enhancement — about 7 to 10 bushels/acre — over the average yield of 70 to 130 bushels/acre in some of the key drought-prone areas in the United States .

In any given year, 10 million to 13 million acres of farmland planted to corn in the United States may be affected by at least moderate drought. This first biotech drought-tolerant corn is part of a family of drought-tolerant products Monsanto plans to bring to the market over the next several years.

» OBAMA CONSIDERS RAISING ETHANOL BLEND LEVEL