News Update
May 3, 2011

Livestock Producers Cope with Intense Weekend Storm

Mother Nature reared her ugly head again over the weekend, in some parts of the northwest dumping more than a foot of snow over an already saturated landscape and leaving at least 29 communities without power.

North Dakota beef producers were in the heart of the storm, working to protect their herds and, especially, the many newborn calves that are on the ground and that are still making their debut. Challenges came in the form of wind, rain and snow and from disoriented animals drifting with the storms.

“This has been a tremendously stressful winter — both for people and their livestock,” said North Dakota Stockmen’s Association (NDSA) President Jason Schmidt, a rancher from Medina, N.D. “Our hearts go out to all those who suffered losses over the weekend and who are scrambling to find some semblance of normal this week.”

While the weather has improved since the windy, rainy, blizzardy Saturday, cattle producers are still busy taking inventory of their herds, pairing up cows and calves, treating those that are sick, and burying those that perished. Ranchers’ workload will be intense in the days ahead, as well, as they continue to treat and care for their animals.

Schmidt reminds producers who have lost cattle as a result of this or another adverse weather event that the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP) is available to those who have experienced above-normal mortality rates. LIP provides some compensation for weather-related death losses. Livestock losses from some diseases may also be eligible if the disease was accelerated or intensified by an eligible adverse weather event.

LIP is administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). The program covers livestock, such as cattle, sheep, swine, poultry and goats, as well as other animals that were being used for commercial purposes as part of a farming operation.

Producers must file a notice of loss to their local FSA office within 30 days of the loss being apparent. The notice of loss may be completed by telephone, in person or by e-mail or fax.

In application for the LIP, producers will be required to provide documentation about their losses. FSA officials suggest that producers use a camera with an imprinted date feature to document their losses. Other verifiable documentation includes things such as veterinary records, bank or other loan documents, production records or calving books. If these types of records are not available, a certificate from a third party may be accepted if the third party is not affiliated with the producer’s operation, but has specific knowledge of the deaths. In those cases, inventory records will also be required. For more information about LIP, contact your local FSA office.

“The determination our ranchers have — even with the extra circumstances the weather poses on our livelihood and our sanity — never ceases to amaze me. That grit, that dedication, that passion, is something to be admired,” said Schmidt. “I’m hopeful that producers will remain positive as they work through the conditions at hand. The North Dakota Stockmen’s Association stands ready to assist them in any way it can.”

— Release by North Dakota Stockmen’s Association.

O.D. Butler Field Day to Feature Bus Tour of Circle X Land and Cattle Co.

The 25th O.D. Butler Field Day scheduled May 20 at Circle X Land and Cattle Co. will provide participants with plenty of take-home ideas for forage and beef production, even during times of drought.

“The event is designed to provide beef and forage producers throughout the Brazos Valley with current information relative to the production, management and selection of high-quality forage,” said Eric Zimmerman, Texas AgriLife Extension Service agent for Brazos County. “Some of the techniques that will be demonstrated can be adapted to accommodate any type of weather pattern.”

This year’s field day will feature a bus tour of operations at Circle X, Zimmerman said. Participants will get a firsthand look at many different types of forages grown at the ranch, hay barn design, as well as feral hog management practices.

The field day will begin at 8 a.m. and conclude at 3:15 p.m. Concurrent sessions will be from 10:30 a.m. to noon featuring topics of small sprayer calibration, weed product updates, aquatic weed identification, feral hog management, ag transportation law, and pasture and range insects.

Michael Goudeau, owner of Goudeau Farms, will be the keynote speaker at 12:45 p.m. and will discuss hay production and management practices.

From 2-3 p.m., Don Renchie, AgriLife Extension ag and environmental safety program leader, will give a pesticide laws and regulation program. Five hours of continuing education units will be given to licensed private, commercial and non-commercial applicators. One hour laws and regulations, one hour integrated pest management, 2.5 hours general and a half hour drift minimization will be offered.

Registration is $30 before May 13; $35 after. If producers want to join the Brazos Area Hay Producers Association, the cost is $50, which includes registration, a hay sampling test, hay directory listing and a laminated membership card.

For more information contact the AgriLife Extension office for Brazos County at 979-823-0129. An agenda is available at http://brazos-tx.tamu.edu.

— Adapted from release by Texas A&M AgriLife Communications.

Saturated Soils Could Pose Risk to Well Water

Heavy rains mean more than an increased risk of flooding. They also can pose a threat to drinking water, said Ohio State University (OSU) Extension’s water quality specialist.

Many residents in rural areas get their drinking water from wells rather than municipal systems, and have septic systems rather than sewers for household wastewater.

“Normally, soil does a fantastic job of removing pathogens and other pollutants from wastewater,” said Karen Mancl, who also is a scientist with the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) and a professor in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering.

“But when it’s saturated, soil loses its ability to remove pollutants. If your well or your neighbor’s well is near your septic system, drinking water could be unsafe.”

Properly constructed and grouted wells protect drinking water against this type of problem, Mancl said. But it’s estimated 40% of the nation’s well water is contaminated. Code specifies that septic systems need to be at least 50 feet from wells, but research indicates that pathogens can move hundreds of feet through saturated soil, she said.

“With so much rain, this is when your well is most at risk,” Mancl said. “It’s the ideal time to get your well water tested.”

OSU Extension offers detailed information to help Ohioans know how to test and protect their well water. It is available on Mancl’s Soil Environment Technology Learning Lab website, http://setll.osu.edu/publications.html and on Extension’s website, http://ohioline.osu.edu. It includes:

• An OSU Extension fact sheet, “Where to Have Your Water Tested” (AEX-315), which lists labs throughout the state where homeowners can have their well water tested. Mancl recommends that well water regularly be tested for total coliform bacteria, nitrates, pH and total dissolved solids.
• “Water Testing” (AEX-314-93), which offers details about different water tests for different situations.
• “Emergency Disinfection of Water Supplies” (AEX-317), which includes detailed information on what homeowners should do immediately, such as vigorously boiling water for one minute or using a small amount of chlorine bleach, if they find their drinking water is contaminated. Long-term solutions are available in the OSU Extension bulletin “Bacteria in Drinking Water” (Bulletin 795), which also is available for sale in printed form through OSU Extension offices or on Extension’s eStore, http://estore.osu-extension.org.

“Homeowners who use wells for drinking water need to realize that routine water tests are not a waste of money,” Mancl said. “Even if there’s no problem, water tests will give you peace of mind. And, you’ll have records about the safety of your water supply, which you’ll want to have on hand if you ever want to sell your house.”

OSU Extension and OARDC are the outreach and research arms, respectively, of Ohio State’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

— Release by OSU’s College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.

UK Wheat Field Day is May 17

The annual field day of the University of Kentucky (UK) Wheat Science Group is May 17 at the UK Research and Education Center in Princeton. Registration starts at 8:30 a.m. CDT, and tours begin at 9 a.m.

Information will be available on the following topics: wheat variety trials, micronutrient availability from new fertilizers, wheat row spacing, optical wheat sensing, wheat’s impact on the control of giant ragweed and marestail, best management practices for controlling head scab, fungicide updates and economic insect control and returns to grain storage.

Presenters are members of the UK Wheat Science Group, which is comprised of researchers and extension specialists from many different departments in the UK College of Agriculture.

Certified crop advisor credits are available in the following categories: 0.5 in nutrient management, 1.5 in pest management, and 1 in crop management. Pesticide applicator credits include 2 general and 1 specific hours in categories 1A, 10 and 12.

The free event concludes at noon with lunch provided by the Kentucky Small Grain Growers Association.

For more information, contact Dottie Call, UK Wheat Science Group coordinator, at 270-365-7541, ext. 234 or dcall@uky.edu.

— Release by Katie Pratt for UK College of Agriculture.

Seat Belts Saved More Than 2,800 Texans in Decade-long Campaign

Officials are pointing to a 10-year-old campaign which urges seat belt use — Click It or Ticket — as the reason for fewer traffic fatalities and injuries in the state since the program began. The program has saved more than 2,800 lives and led to 48,000 fewer serious injuries while lowering related costs by $10 billion, according to the  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Prior to the campaign, only about 76% of the people on Texas roads reported using seat belts in vehicles. Last year, the Texas Transportation Institute reported, the usage rate reached almost 94%.

This  year’s campaign will be May 23-June 5, as thousands of  Texas law enforcement officers will work additional hours to check for seat belt use.

“The  officers’ real mission is to save lives,” said Bev Kellner, Texas AgriLife Extension Service passenger safety program manager. “For every percentage point our usage rate goes up, many lives are saved and many serious injuries are prevented.

“We’ve  come a long way, but there’s still more work to be done,” Kellner said. “Though traffic fatalities are down, motor vehicle crashes are still the leading cause of death for Texans aged 44 and under.” Kellner said that in 2009, more than 3,000 Texans died in vehicle crashes and nearly half of those killed were unbuckled.

“Unfortunately, there are some groups that are still resistant to wearing their seat  belt — young drivers, especially young men, as well as pickup truck drivers and their passengers have a lower usage rate,” she said.

“Getting pickup truck drivers and passengers to buckle up is especially important because pickup trucks are twice as likely to roll as passenger vehicles. In fact, wearing your seat belt reduces the risk of fatal  injury by 45%, and in pickups, that number increases to 60%.”

According  to the Texas Department of Transportation, in 2010 half of pickup truck drivers killed in traffic crashes were not buckled up. Kellner said the Click It or Ticket campaign combines education and enforcement to achieve compliance with seat belt use.

She noted that buckling up is not just for passengers in the front seat. Since 2009 the seat belt law in Texas requires all passengers both front and back to buckle up in every position where there is a seat belt. The law also includes 12- and 15-passenger vans.

For  children, the law states that all children under age 8, unless taller than 4 feet (ft.)-9 inches (in.), need to be in a child safety seat system. For best practice, experts recommend, keep children under 4 ft.-9 in. tall in a booster seat until the vehicle seat belt fits them properly.

“Our goal this year is to get every Texan to always buckle up, on every trip, every time so we can celebrate more lives saved next year,”  Kellner said.

For more information, see www.texasclickitorticket.com/.

— Release by Texas AgriLife Extension.

New Initiative To Provide Path Forward For Transforming Food and Ag Policy

Today eight of the world’s leading foundations launched AGree, a new initiative that will tackle long-term food and agriculture policy issues confronting the nation and the world as the population continues to grow and resources become ever-more constrained.

AGree is launching at a pivotal moment for food and agriculture policy. Over the next four decades there will be an additional 2.6 billion people on Earth to feed — a 38 percent population increase from today — in addition to the 925 million people who currently suffer under-nutrition or hunger.

Simultaneously, the world faces a limited amount of easily accessible arable land, increasing pressures on freshwater quality and availability and accelerating environmental degradation.

Solutions to these challenges will require best-in-class research, comprehensive analysis and cross-sector dialogue — resources productively brought together for the first time under the AGree initiative. AGree will fill a crucial void in current agriculture research and discussions that frequently do not consider solutions across multiple sectors such as environment, energy, rural economies and health.

AGree’s mission to nurture dialogue among diverse opinions on agriculture issues is embodied by the leaders of the initiative: Dan Glickman, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President Bill Clinton and a former congressman from Kansas for 18 years; Gary Hirshberg, chairman, president and “CE-Yo” of Stonyfield Farm; Jim Moseley, former deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture under President George W. Bush and Indiana farmer for more than 40 years; and, Emmy Simmons, former assistant administrator for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade at the U.S. Agency for International Development and a board member for several organizations engaged in international agriculture and global development.

“Agriculture issues need to be at the top of the United States’ and world’s agenda, alongside energy, healthcare and national security,” Glickman said. “AGree will elevate the agriculture and food policy conversation. We will make it clear to leaders and policymakers that, while difficult, solving food and agriculture issues is of utmost importance and can help solve other pressing problems including public health and the need for economic growth,” he said.

“Our current food system is broken for farmers, consumers and the environment,” Hirshberg said. “We must move beyond the political knee-jerk defense of traditional agriculture and face the need for change armed with real-world, scientific facts and analysis that AGree can provide,” Hirshberg said.

“Agriculture has evolved from simply producing food to feed people and now has numerous demands placed on it. As a result the current discussion on agriculture and food policy is having problems focusing on what is really important; stakeholders talk past one another and often fail to comprehend policy implications beyond a specific sector,” Moseley said. “The key to solving these diverse policy questions is through dialogue across sectors. AGree will promote these conversations and help us find the right balance on these conflicts to meet the broader public demands we are experiencing,” he said.

“We face a world where nearly a billion people already go hungry everyday; those numbers will continue to rise if we do not address underlying issues of quantity and quality of the world’s food systems,” Simmons said. “AGree can help align our domestic policies with the growing needs in developing countries for food security, nutrition and equitable development.”

The past 20 years have created competition and division among stakeholders on priorities such as environment, production, economy and nutrition — creating an impasse as lawmakers try to develop food and agriculture policies here in the United States and abroad.

But the world can no longer afford to stay disjointed and uncompromising, shying away from the hard decisions necessary to address these problems. AGree is uniquely qualified to foster these necessary answers by starting with an open mind to new solutions and by convening a diverse set of stakeholders including conventional and organic farmers, ranchers, nutritionists, energy experts, environmentalists, financiers, international aid veterans and public health specialists.

AGree will provide the first steps of genuine dialogue and insightful data that will enable effective and meaningful decisions about food and agriculture policy. The group will lay a path forward through sound solutions generated by careful research and analysis that can guide policymakers and stakeholders as they undertake this critical endeavor.

AGree is funded by Ford Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The McKnight Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation and The Walton Family Foundation.

— Release by AGree.

— Compiled by Shauna Rose Hermel, editor, Angus Productions Inc.