Agriculture News
Washington feedlots ask out of state air law
Capital Press | Posted on January 30, 2017The Washington beef industry wants lawmakers to exempt cattle feedlots from the state Clean Air Act, complaining the Department of Ecology has adopted a no-tolerance stance on dust rising from thousands of animals in dry conditions. “They have adopted what I would call a new no-tolerance interpretation as it relates to dust,” Agri Beef director of regulatory affairs Jayne Davis told the House Environment Committee on Monday. “We don’t think it can be achieved anywhere in the cattle industry.” Dust from agricultural operations are generally not regulated by the Clean Air Act, which carries fines of up to $10,000 per violation. The law, however, does apply to cattle feedlots with more 1,000 head during the dry summer months. House Bill 1299, introduced by Aberdeen Democrat Brian Blake, chairman of the agriculture committee, would add cattle feedlots to agricultural operations exempted from the act.
Maine Governor withdraws ‘provocative’ nomination to Land for Maine’s Future board
Portland Press Herald | Posted on January 30, 2017Gov. Paul LePage abruptly withdrew his nomination of a former state lawmaker to the Land for Maine’s Future board on Friday, giving no reason for his action on a nomination that had drawn fire from environmentalists. LePage, in a three-sentence letter to House Speaker Sara Gideon, wrote that he is no longer nominating former state Rep. Michael Timmons, R-Cumberland, to serve on the board.Timmons had been criticized by environmental groups for voting in 2015 to sustain LePage’s veto of a bill that would have required the governor to sell voter-approved bonds for the Land for Maine’s Future program.Timmons lost his re-election bid in November to Dale Denno, a Democrat from Cumberland, after angering environmental groups – and some constituents – with his vote to sustain LePage’s veto. Timmons’ district and hometown were banking on money from those bonds to complete a conservation deal to protect 215 acres around Knight’s Pond.
Dicamba Herbicide Lawsuit Cites Endangered Species Act Concerns
Bloomberg | Posted on January 27, 2017Environmental groups are challenging an Environmental Protection Agency decision to allow the sale of an herbicide marketed as a solution for farmers dealing with difficult weeds ( Nat’l Family Farm Coal. v. EPA , 9th Cir., No. 17-70196, 1/20/17 ). The challengers, which include the National Family Farm Coalition, Center for Food Safety, Center for Biological Diversity and Pesticide Action Network North America, filed a lawsuit Jan. 20 in the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against the EPA’s approval of Monsanto Co.'s XtendiMax, a combination of the herbicides dicamba and glyphosate. In a statement, the groups cited health concerns due to increased pesticide exposure and the evolution of more herbicide-resistant weeds as reasons to rescind the approval.
Montana-Measure would compensate ranchers for livestock killed by mountain lions
Independent Record | Posted on January 27, 2017Ranchers could receive compensation for livestock killed by mountain lions under a bill heard by a legislative committee. House Bill 286, introduced by Rep. Ray Shaw, and brought before the House Agriculture Committee, would add mountain lion predation to the purview of the Montana Livestock Loss Board. The board currently pays reimbursement to livestock producers for losses from grizzly bears and wolves, as well as provides tools to proactively prevent losses.In 2016, the board paid out nearly $165,000 on more than 200 predations statewide. Shaw introduced his bill saying it came directly from ranchers who lost livestock to mountain lions and would like to see those predations reimbursed.
Management crisis expected for Canada’s dairy, poultry, and egg farms
Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council | Posted on January 27, 2017The single biggest labour challenge for the dairy, poultry and egg commodities will be finding skilled and experienced farm managers, including owner-operators. For these commodities, management and ownership jobs account for almost two-thirds of the current workforce, and between now and 2025, they will account for the majority of the jobs going unfilled due to a lack of domestic workers. The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC) has completed a three-year study and released the Dairy: Labour Market Forecast to 2025 and Poultry and Egg: Labour Market Forecast to 2025. These studies examine two of Canada’s most significant agricultural industries, which together account for 55,500 jobs, or 15 per cent of the total agricultural workforce. Through consolidation, automation and other efficiencies, the dairy-cattle industry has shed more than a third of its workers since 2009, employing 39,900 as of 2014. However, despite this reduction in the size of the workforce, an additional 3,400 jobs went unfilled due to a lack of available domestic workers. This labour shortfall cost an estimated $71 million in lost sales.
Company pulls the plug on Illinois hog plant
Meatingplace (free registration required) | Posted on January 26, 2017A west-central Illinois company has withdrawn its notice of intent to build a 20,000-hog-capacity barn. Carthage, Ill.-based Professional Swine Management LLC withdrew its notice from the Illinois Department of Agriculture last week after meeting with the Fulton County Farm Bureau. Citing “sustained protests” from farmers complaining of potential river and stream pollution from waste at the site, the newspaper stated that Professional Swine Management, which provides comprehensive management to family-owned breed-to-wean and wean-to-finish pork facilities, withdrew its notice.
$2 Million Proposed in Funding for NH Dairy Relief Bill
Concord Monitor | Posted on January 26, 2017Dairy farmers are officially on the 2017 legislative docket. Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley presented a relief funding bill to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday. “It’s hard to imagine drought after all the moisture we’ve had over the last couple months,” Bradley said. But he added that after a lack of rain, a shortage in forage crops and a second year of dropping milk prices, “dairy farmers and their herds were totally adversely affected.” State dairy licensing and permitting data show that for more than 10 months in 2016, New Hampshire’s 123 farms shipping milk were reduced to 115. On Tuesday, Bradley brought with him an amendment to the bill, proposing to simplify the process and appropriate $2 million to be divided among licensed milk producers.
Our View: The Farmer Must Feed Them All
Farm Policy Facts | Posted on January 26, 2017It was written at a time when the United States was facing historic change and progress of every kind from industrial capacity to oil production to even major innovations in agricultural technology and production. Although the country was predominantly rural, it was rapidly growing its urban centers. One can imagine that Amelia E. Barr, the poem's author, observed this new trend with a bit of alarm. Despite listing a number of professions and describing their importance, Barr concludes we still need farmers – emphasizing their significance by ending each stanza with the repetitive verse. The writer thinks, the poet sings, The craftsmen fashion wondrous things, The doctor heals, the lawyer pleads, The miner follows the precious leads; But this or that, whate'er befall, The farmer he must feed them all.
Volume of New Ag Loans Drops
Kansas CIty Fed | Posted on January 26, 2017The volume of new farm loans dropped sharply in the fourth quarter of 2016, according to respondents to the Survey of Terms of Bank Lending to Farmers. The survey, which asks bankers about new loans to farmers, indicated the volume of non-real estate loans in the farm sector dropped 40 percent from a year ago. The 40-percent drop was the largest year-over-year decline in nearly 20 years. The sharp reduction in the volume of new farm loans at commercial banks occurred during a prolonged decline in farm revenue. In 2016, prices for most agricultural commodities continued to fall, building on the declines of previous years, with soybeans being a notable exception (Chart 2). A 30-percent year-over-year drop in the price of feeder cattle helped reduce the cost of purchasing the animals and likely contributed to the sharp reduction in loan volumes in the livestock sector. More generally, lower prices appeared to temper demand for new agricultural financing as producers tried to curtail expenditures. Some banks, recognizing greater risk in the farm sector, may have been more selective in financing new loan requests, and some financing decisions may have been delayed in the environment of heightened risk.
Missouri, Arkansas take steps to prevent misuse of controversial herbicide
St Louis Today | Posted on January 26, 2017Crop damage from the last growing season is done, but Missouri and Arkansas lawmakers are taking steps that aim to prevent future devastation from dicamba, the herbicide widely blamed for a rash of illegal spraying that sowed financial pain and discord in farming communities across the region. Arkansas set a bold example last week, when the state’s Plant Board passed restrictions that would only permit the use of certain types of dicamba and would only allow one variety to be applied from April 15 through Sept. 15 — when warm temperatures make the herbicide more susceptible to forming vapor and drifting to nearby fields, where it can damage any crops that aren’t genetically modified to tolerate it.