report...i'm john phipps. >>> good morning. welcome to "u.s. farm report." i'm john phipps. notice the interaction between our top two news stories this morning. first, the crop tour news verifies what we all thought as we drove past corn fields this summer. it's not a bad crop. then, listen to the struggles of pork producers as they bleed red ink due to a plunk in exports and high feed costs. the link is when hog producers look at possible lower corn prices some hope appears. corn farmers aren't so thrilled. i think some short term pain for my crop prices may prevent longer term agony caused bye roads in food demand. regardless, i'm ready to let the market work to sort out the price. >>> with al on assignment i'll be doing the news today. >>> the u.s. pork producers is asking the usda for help in a quarter billion dollars in aid. they are asking them to purchase $50 million of pork for a variety of programs. the council would like to see that purchase made from the fiscal 2009 budget which ends september 0th. in addition they want the usda to make a separate $50 million pur

i'm john phipps. more so than any year i can remember, more legislative action is occurring at every level of government that will impact farmers and rural america. while most eyes are on washington, and rightly so as efforts on health care, economic recovery and climate change are fast and furious, there are also huge changes coming from state and local governments. thanks to the recession, the changes are not going to be pleasant either. an ag state researcher outlined how budget cuts will decrease personnel and be even worse next year. unfortunately, iowa is in relatively good shape compared to states like california and illinois levels get started with the news and al pell. >> thanks, john. good morning, everybody. for generations, corncobs in stover simply blew out of the combine to get pild tild into the soil. now the federal government may pay you to collect it for renewable energy. biomass like corncobs is part of the next wave of biofuel production. some companies are already using plant mate