News Update
February 17, 2014
NFU Thankful for Farm Bill,
Livestock Disaster Programs
National Farmers Union (NFU) President Roger Johnson issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s announcement to expedite assistance to farmers and ranchers suffering through the California drought and other recent calamities:
“The purpose and benefits of the recently enacted Farm Bill are evident once again with the extreme drought in California. Farmers, ranchers and growers are suffering through very difficult conditions. Fortunately the 2014 Farm Bill includes permanently authorized disaster programs to help those most in need. President Obama has wisely expedited the implementation of these programs, which will be made available retroactive to losses suffered in 2012 and 2013.
“Sound agriculture policy, like the livestock disaster programs, are the among the reasons NFU supported the 2014 Farm Bill. I applaud the work of the president and USDA in getting the livestock disaster programs up and running in a time when they’re truly needed.”
Nitrogen Use Efficiency is the Stewardship Goal
for this Critical Soil Nutrient
Today’s modern agricultural practices are dependent on the use of commercial fertilizers to boost productivity levels to new heights. Some call nitrogen the transformational nutrient for its contribution to the dramatic increase in productivity that has occurred since the 1950s.
Nitrogen is essential for the growth of both crops and animals. Nitrogen in its stable form, N2, makes up the largest percentage of our atmosphere, but is unavailable for plant and animal growth. Once N2 is converted and available for living functions, it exists in many forms in soil and water systems and has unique and important chemical, biological and environmental properties. These forms of nitrogen are referred to as reactive nitrogen (Nr) and include: ammonia (NH3); ammonium (NH4); nitrite (NO2) and nitrate (NO3); nitric oxide (NO); and nitrous oxide (N2O). Although nitrogen is essential for living functions, in its reactive form it has the capacity to have adverse environmental consequences if it escapes into the groundwater, surface water or the atmosphere.
The primary route of Nr losses into ground and surface water systems are through leaching and runoff. Reactive nitrogen is lost to the atmosphere through nitrification/denitrification and volatilization.
For more detailed information about the fate and impacts of nitrogen in the environment, see the Michigan State University Extension article “What is reactive N and why should I care?” Managing nitrogen to minimize nitrogen losses and increase nitrogen use efficiency can be accomplished with known strategies.
For more information, please view the full release here.
Educator Scholarships Spur Educating about Agriculture
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture has recognized nine teachers and two volunteer educators for their exceptional efforts to encourage agricultural literacy. The educators will each receive $1,500 scholarships to attend the National Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) Conference in Hershey, Pa., in June. The Foundation, through the White-Reinhardt Fund for Education, sponsors the scholarships in cooperation with the American Farm Bureau’s Women’s Leadership Committee.
This year’s teacher recipients are Kevin Russell Atterberg, Culler Middle School, Lincoln, Neb.; Jeremy Bowman, Naomi Elementary School, Summerville, Ga.; Kelly Burgess, Maine School Administrative District 15, Windham, Maine; Denise Chybrzynski, South Butler Intermediate Elementary School, Butler, Pa.; Maureen Marino, John L. Golden Elementary School, Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.; Rachel Morris, Northside Elementary School, Savannah, Tenn.; Karrie Lynn Perrin, Toccoa Elementary School, Toccoa, Ga.; Debra Wagner, Saint Paul Lutheran School, Lakeland, Fla.; and Mary Zumwalt, Altamont Lutheran, Altamont, Ill.
This year’s volunteer recipients are Sheila Everhart of Janesville, Wis., and Ashley Prue of Green Bay, Wis.
Educators nationwide attend the conference to learn to incorporate real-life agricultural applications into science, social studies, language arts, math, and nutrition lessons. Scholarship recipients were judged on past use of innovative programs to educate students about agriculture, as well as future plans to implement information gained at the AITC conference in their own lesson plans and share the information with other teacher and volunteer educators.
For more information, please view the full release here.
Texas Livestock and Pasture
Management School Accepting Students
The longest continuously running livestock and pasture management school for novices is now accepting students, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist.
Set for March 25-27 at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton, the three-day Pasture and Livestock Management Workshop registration is $350, a price that most students consider well spent, said Gerald Smith, Texas A&M AgriLife Research plant breeder and one of the program instructors.
“Many times, we’ve heard students say that what they’ve learned in the first morning more than paid for the cost of the course,” Smith said.
Participants may reserve an opening by phone or email by contacting Jennifer Lloyd, senior secretary, at 903-834-6191 or jllloyd@ag.tamu.edu. Lloyd will have information on class openings, local accommodations and driving directions to the center.
One measure of the workshop’s value can be found in repeat attendance, said Monte Rouquette, AgriLife Research scientist who specializes in forage quality and pasture utilization, and another course instructor.
Though the grazing school was originally designed for local novices in 2001, attendance soon expanded beyond Texas, attracting students with varying levels of expertise nationwide and out-of-country, Rouquette said. Some graduates have found the intensive course so valuable, they have returned a second year to take it again. Some have returned a third year.
Registration includes meals, including lunches, barbecue, a steak dinner, continental-style breakfasts, break refreshments and educational materials.
Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service faculty at Overton conducted the first course in 2001 in response to a growing ranching and farming demographic. Urban residents, many of whom couldn’t wait to get off the farm when they were young, were inheriting family farms and moving back to live on them, Rouquette said.
For more information, please view the Angus Journal’s Virtual Library calendar of upcoming events here.
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