NEWS UPDATE
July 29, 2009

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Announces $1.7 Billion 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is now accepting applications for up to $1.7 billion to fund projects that help spur business activity and economic growth in rural communities. This infusion of money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into rural business is designed to create and save jobs and help rural communities grow and prosper.

“The Recovery Act funds announced today will help businesses get access to the capital they need to launch and expand their businesses and help bring additional jobs to America’s small cities and towns,” Vilsack said. “President Obama and I are committed to building strong rural communities by helping businesses grow so we can put people back to work.”

The funding announced today will be made available through USDA Rural Development’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan program, which supports the development of private businesses. Eligible applicants include cooperative organizations, corporations, partnerships, nonprofit groups; federally recognized Indian tribes, public bodies and individuals. The funds will be targeted to creating and retaining quality jobs and serving difficult to reach populations, and areas hardest hit by the current economic downturn.

USDA will accept applications for this Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan program until Sept. 15, 2010, or until all funds are expended. Recovery Act funding will be available through Sept. 30, 2010. For information on eligibility criteria and for application assistance, please contact your state Rural Development office, or visit www.rurdev.usda.gov for a listing of all state offices.

More information about USDA’s Recovery Act efforts is available at www.usda.gov/recovery. More information about the Federal government’s efforts on the Recovery Act is available at www.recovery.gov.

— Release provided by USDA.

Blame Cool July on El Niño

With less than one week left in July, no hurricane has formed in the Atlantic Ocean. Meteorologists at the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Agriculture largely attribute this anomaly to El Niño, which also may be the reason July 2009 will be one of the coolest Julys in the past 100 years.

“The Climate Prediction Center defines El Niño as a period of exceptionally warm sea-surface temperatures across the eastern tropical Pacific, where the one-month mean temperature anomaly in that area warms above 0.5° C and persists for three months,” said Keys Arnold, UK agricultural meteorologist. “El Niño patterns typically develop every three to seven years during the period of June to August and reach peak strength during the subsequent winter months.”

Typical impacts of El Niño in the Bluegrass State during the winter months include mild and dry conditions.

UK Agricultural Meteorologist Tom Priddy said one of the primary impacts of El Niño during the warm season is a suppression of hurricane formation in the Atlantic Ocean.

“When El Niño conditions are present, an unusually high amount of wind shear is present over the Atlantic Ocean,” he said. “Wind shear, the changing of wind speed and direction with height, is a major deterrent of hurricane formation, as it hinders the development and strengthening of tropical storm systems.”

Arnold said the last time the first hurricane developed this late in the season was 2004, when El Niño conditions also were present.

“Since El Niño began to develop in the late spring and continued to strengthen during the early summer, Kentucky has not needed the additional rainfall from tropical remnants, as an active weather pattern has been in place across the eastern United States,” Priddy said.  “Drought conditions have not been a concern here this growing season, which has seen above-normal rainfall during 10 of the past 13 weeks.”

As El Niño conditions began to develop, a change in the temperature pattern also took place.

“While the Commonwealth experienced above-normal temperatures during the past five months, significantly below-normal values have been reported every week thus far in July,” Arnold said. “In fact, when it’s all said and done, Kentucky may experience one of the coolest Julys in the past 100 years.”

— Adapted from release by Aimee Nielson, UK College of Agriculture.

NCA Beef-Cattle Conference slated

The North Central Arkansas (NCA) Beef-Cattle Conference, one of the top beef-cattle meetings in the area, is scheduled Monday at North Arkansas Livestock Auction in Green Forest. A registration fee of $20 will be collected at the door. Conference registration and dinner begin at 5:30 p.m.

The program starts at 6:10 p.m. and will conclude about 8:30 p.m.

The North Central Arkansas Beef-Cattle Conference is a joint educational effort by Division of Agriculture and Farm Credit Services of Western Arkansas.

It’s designed to provide beef-cattle producers with the latest information on beef-cattle management. The beef-cattle conference will feature many nationally recognized experts in several areas. It’s a program that cattle producers in Arkansas and surrounding states shouldn’t miss.

The program will focus on selecting quality replacement heifers, reducing production costs and what the future might bring for beef-cattle markets.

Jerry Crownover will share factors one should look for in a replacement heifer.
Heifers of different weights and types will be evaluated for their maternal traits. Crownover operates a 200-head commercial cow-calf operation in Lawrence County, Mo.

Don Hubbell, resident director at University of Arkansas (UA) Livestock & Forestry Branch Station at Batesville, will discuss ways to reduce production costs.

Hubbell manages the station’s 325-cow-calf operation and incorporates many cost saving practices on his own cow-calf operation.

After a break, Tom Troxel, UA Animal Science professor and associate department head, will talk about many different government programs related to animal identification, reviewing differences in the country of origin labeling (COOL), quality systems assessments (QSA) and National Animal Identification Systems (NAIS) programs.

There will be a beef-cattle situation and outlook by Troy Applehans, a market analyst for Cattle-Fax responsible for feeder-cattle and cow-calf industries of the southern Plains, as well as southeastern states of the United States.

Mark Keaton is staff chair for Baxter County at UA Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. For more information, call him at 425-2335.

— Release provided by UA Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service.

— Compiled by Mathew Elliott, assistant editor, Angus Productions Inc.