News Update

News Update
Oct. 10, 2008

Insurance Workshops Slated for Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska

Three universities are teaming up to help answer questions regarding crop and livestock insurance under the latest farm bill. Their insurance workshop, titled “Meeting the Risk Management Challenges of a New Farm Bill and New Price Relationships” will be Nov. 4 in Brush, Colo.; Nov. 5 in Grand Island, Neb.; and Nov. 6 in Salina, Kan.

“The program was designed for growers, ranchers, crop insurance agents, agricultural lenders, grain merchandisers, and commodity brokers — anyone who wants to enhance their knowledge of risk management and their ability to design an appropriate risk management plan for their farm or ranch … or provide risk management advice to clients,” said Art Barnaby, risk management specialist with Kansas State University Research and Extension.

Presenters will include William Murphy, deputy administrator for insurance services with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Risk Management Agency (RMA), and Rebecca Davis, director of the regional RMA office, as well as Extension specialists from all three universities. The workshops sponsors are K-State Research and Extension, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension and Colorado State University Extension. Presentation topics will include: The New Farm Bill: New Decisions for Producers; Grain Outlook — Can We Feed the World and Produce Bio-fuels; Using ACRE in a Risk Management Plan; Crop Insurance Program Update; Pasture, Range and Forage Policy Update; and Optimum Level of Crop Insurance Combined with the New SURE (Standing Disaster Aid) Program.

Continuing education credits are available for participants from Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas and South Dakota. Application has been made for Wyoming credits. More information, including registration instructions, is available online at http://cropinsure.unl.edu (click on Workshop Registration) or by phone at 1-800-535-3456.

— Release provided by K-State Research and Extension.

Oct. 31 is Deadline for K-State’s Online Ag Management Program

Time is growing short to enroll in Kansas State University’s (K-State’s) Management, Analysis and Strategic Thinking (MAST) Program, a four-month online program designed to help farmers and ranchers sharpen their business skills.

The deadline to enroll in the program is Oct. 31, said Alicia Goheen, MAST program coordinator. The program starts Nov. 11-12 with an orientation in Manhattan to introduce class members to each other and the instructors, as well as familiarize them with the online technology that will be used for the class.

After the orientation, the participants have about four months to work through modules online from their homes. Those modules will cover topics including Land Ownership and Leasing; Financial Analysis; Human Resources; Tax Management and Policy; Risk Management; and Marketing.

During the four months that class members are working on the modules at home, there are opportunities for them to interact via the web with the instructors, who are all K-State Department of Agricultural Economics faculty members, Goheen said.

The modules will be completed by Feb. 9-10, when participants gather once again in Manhattan for a wrap-up session and graduation. More details about the MAST program are available online at http://www.agmanager.info/MAST or by contacting Goheen at 785-532-4434 or agoheen@agecon.ksu.edu.

— Release provided by K-State Research & Extension.

OSU Cooperative Extension to Host Carcass Composting Field Day

For years, large animal carcass disposal has been a problem. Not only are livestock producers limited on options, it also can be costly.

The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service is hosting a Large Animal Carcass Composting Field Day on Oct.14 at the Haskell County Fair Barn in Stigler. Research funded by an Extension Team Initiative Program grant has provided Oklahoma livestock producers with a safe, economical alternative for livestock carcass disposal.

The field day, which is free and open to anyone interested in the environmentally friendly solution, will kick off at noon with lunch on Tuesday, Oct. 14. The barn is on the south side of the road after turning east off of Highway 9 onto Old Military Road.

The basics of carcass composting will be discussed, as well as various methodologies, Oklahoma State University mortality composting research data and a tour at 1:30 p.m. of field demonstration compost plots in Whitefield, Okla. The event will conclude at 3 p.m.

Those interested in attending the Large Animal Carcass Composting Field Day are asked to pre-register with the Haskell County Extension Office at 918-967-4330, by no later than Oct. 10.

— Provided by Oklahoma State University.

Lack of Funding Forces Closure of Food Supply Safety Program

Despite efforts by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) to convince the Congress, USDA, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to provide long-term funding, a critical food safety resource is permanently shutting down, leaving in the lurch information essential to protecting America’s food supply, AVMA reports.

The Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank (FARAD) — used by veterinarians, livestock producers, and state and federal regulatory and Extension specialists to ensure that drug, environmental and pesticide contaminants do not end up in meat, milk, and eggs — began shutting down Oct. 1. The program needed an immediate cash infusion to stay open, and, ultimately, long-term funding of $2.5 million per year.

AVMA has been leading efforts to fund FARAD, which is administered by the USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service and operates out of North Carolina State University, the University of Florida and the University of California-Davis.

Through lobbying and grassroots efforts, the AVMA worked with Congress to have language authorizing FARAD at $2.5 million inserted in this year's Farm Bill. The USDA, however, never incorporated the funding in its budget, and Congress has provided neither emergency funding nor appropriations.

— Release provided by AVMA.

— compiled by Crystal Albers, associate editor, Angus Productions Inc.