Agriculture News
In the Midwest, injured agriculture workers are telling their stories to help others avoid the same fate.
US News | Posted on November 1, 2018It's been eight years since Jason Fevold almost died while working on a farm. Fevold had been spending long hours in October 2010 pumping liquid manure out of the pit in a swine building and spreading it onto a nearby field. It was dangerous work that included the risk of exposure to hydrogen sulfide gas, but Fevold was confident and committed: He'd been working on farms since doing chores for his grandparents as a kid. During one of the trips back to the hog confinement building, Jason went inside to use the restroom, but didn't come back out. When Roxanne saw manure splashing out of a tank, she knew something was wrong.She ran inside and found Jason passed out, foam coming from his mouth. She flagged down his co-worker, and the two of them pulled her 200-pound husband away from the pit opening.If Roxanne had not been close by, Jason might not have been found until later. That would have been enough time for the gas he'd inhaled to kill him, rather than send him to the cardiac intensive care unit at a hospital in Des Moines.The experience, although frightening, was not enough to get Fevold to consider leaving farming.After receiving funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the project began focusing on collecting stories like Fevold's, told using the voice of the farmer and packaged for use in media articles as well as curricula for colleges, 4-H programs or the National FFA Organization, formerly the Future Farmers of America. The Fevolds' story is one of eight now featured on the project website.
Pennsylvania Governor Wolf vetoes bills on debt, price gouging, ag education
Penn Live | Posted on November 1, 2018Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf is vetoing bills that recently passed the Legislature dealing with public debt, price gouging during emergencies and agricultural education.The third veto was of a bill addressing federally funded agricultural education programs.
E Coli in Utah raises concerns about petting zoos and corn mazes
St George News | Posted on November 1, 2018Utah public health officials are investigating an increase in Shiga toxin-producing E. coli infections across the state, and while the source of the infections has not been identified, several infected individuals reported visiting petting zoos, corn mazes and farms. Since Oct. 1, there have been 20 cases of the toxin-producing E. coli infections reported statewide, primarily along the Wasatch Front and in the central and southwest regions, according to a statement released Thursday by the Utah Department of Health.The ages of those infected range from 10 months to 71-years-old, and 11 of the cases involved children under the age of 18.No deaths have been reported, and six have been hospitalized, while the agency is working with local health departments to determine the source of the infection.
Is this a farm in South Tampa, or a time warp to the Confederate South?
Tampa Bay Times | Posted on November 1, 2018Marion Lambert sits near the wood-burning stove in his living room. There's an outhouse in back, 1,000 chickens, dozens of dairy cows, steer and hogs, all in the middle of would-be posh South Tampa.McMansion neighbors occasionally drive their sedans through mud and what they say is manure, tracked into the streets by Lambert's scratched and dented Dodge pickup.This is South Tampa Farm. It's no petting zoo or field trip. It's four acres tucked between swimming pools and perfect lawns, a stone's throw from bustling MacDill Avenue. Some years back, the cows got loose and ended up on Bayshore Boulevard.He sells milk, eggs, meat and honey by the honor-system. His customers drop cash in a box and take what they want. If they're short, they square up later.Bringing people together in peace, however, is not what Lambert is known for. This year marks the 10th anniversary since he led the effort to raise the massive and, for many, mortifying 30-by-50-foot Confederate flag — then the world's largest — which still flies over Interstate 75 near Interstate 4.
Farm Bureau breaks down costs for new Dairy-RP insurance
Capital Press | Posted on November 1, 2018A new dairy insurance plan by USDA became available Oct. 9 and offers a way to protect dairy farmer revenue — functioning in a manner similar to traditional crop insurance, as opposed to other dairy insurance programs aimed at margins between milk prices and the cost of feed. Dairy Revenue Protection is designed to protect against quarterly declines in revenue from milk sales and is uniquely structured to closely match farm-level milk prices, according to American Farm Bureau Federation, which developed the product in cooperation with American Farm Bureau Insurance Services.The cost will vary based on the state, policy choices, markets, milk yields and contract quarters, but John Newton, AFBF’s chief economist, has zeroed in on what producers can expect.Under Dairy-RP, a producer would choose either a class milk price policy or a milk component policy, the amount of milk production to cover, the level of revenue coverage to insure and which quarterly contracts to cover.Based on the CME futures settlement prices on Oct. 4, Newton’s examples of premium costs factor in a 44 percent government premium subsidy associated with covering 95 percent of expected quarterly revenue.The class milk pricing option is based on a combination of milk futures prices for Class III and Class IV, milk used to manufacture cheese and powder. A producer can choose a weight of Class III ranging from 0 percent to 100 percent to align with the utilization of milk in his marketing area.Assuming a 50 percent class weighting factor, premium rates in Wisconsin would range from a low of 11 cents per hundredweight of milk for a January to March 2019 contract to 26 cents per hundredweight for an October to December 2019 contract.
How the Farm Bureau’s Climate Agenda Is Failing Its Farmers
Inside Climate News | Posted on November 1, 2018That agenda has left farmers ill-prepared to cope with effects of climate change—droughts, heat and storms—while neglecting a key climate solution.The damages to agriculture from climate change are already happening and getting worse; and the latest science suggests they will be much more costly than previously thought. One study found that uncontrolled warming could cut the United States corn crop nearly in half.A landmark United Nations report issued in October included agriculture in its urgent call for "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.''And in a striking message to the world's farmers, they said there is no cheaper and more effective approach than through climate-friendly farming practices that can increase farm profits while stashing billions of tons of carbon in the soil every year.With an all-out campaign to restore soil health, studies have found, U.S. land could absorb half of American agriculture's carbon footprint. Modest annual improvements to arable soils, if adopted worldwide, could halt the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from all human activities.
Minnesota ag co-op’s suit seeks $9.8M from former manager, wife
Brainer Dispatch | Posted on November 1, 2018Both the grain elevator general manager and his wife went on an Australian safari hunt within 30 days of a multi-million fraud that forced the Ashby Farmers Elevator Cooperative to sell out and dissolve, officials say in a complaint.The elevator’s lawyer, Erik Ahlgren, of Fergus Falls, on Oct. 16 filed a civil complaint with Grant County District Court asking for $9.8 million in actual and punitive damages.The co-op details $4,900,186.72 in unauthorized amounts by former general manager Jerry Hennessey. It says his wife, Rebecca “Becky” Hennessey, “knowingly received the benefits” and also is responsibl
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Cargill’s robotic cattle driver could be prototype for other livestock, poultry
Meating Place (free registration required) | Posted on November 1, 2018Cargill has developed an industry-first robotic cattle driver aimed at improving animal welfare and employee safety. The robots are designed to move cattle from pens to the harvest area, reducing stress to the animals by minimizing their proximity to human activity. The company noted in a news release the belief that its robotic cattle driver has multiple applications for improving animal handling and worker safety across livestock and poultry supply chains and Cargill is working toward making them available for use throughout the industry.Employees operate the robots from a catwalk located above the pens, reducing safety risks by keeping those who work in the cattle yard portion of processing plants at a greater distance from the 1300-pound animals.
Trade War May Be More Than “a Short-Term Hiccup” for Agriculture
Farm Policy News | Posted on November 1, 2018“China has the world’s biggest appetite for pork. It’s such a beloved staple that the written Chinese character for ‘home’ depicts a pig inside a house. U.S. producers banked on that business being around for years. “That’s changed. As a result of the Trump administration’s clash with Beijing over trade, China’s tariffs on U.S. pork have climbed as high as70%, making U.S. imports more expensive. At the same time, an outbreak of African swine fever in China has increased demand for imported pork. To fill the void, Chinese customers are increasingly looking to companies in Europe and South America to fill their orders—and those companies aim to turn that opportunity into long-term business. The shift raises the prospect of not just a short-term hiccup for American hog farmers, but a fundamental realignment in the global supply chain in one of the world’s hungriest markets.The Journal writers pointed out that, “A boom in China’s domestic hog production, fueled by government efforts to consolidate smaller, family-owned farms into giant commercial operations, helped push pork prices to a four-year low in May. Outbreaks of African swine fever have since driven domestic pork prices in September near their highest level in a year.”“China’s efforts to buy low-cost pork from other countries suggest that the U.S. may have to cut prices to keep its sales there,
Working lands play a key role in protecting biodiversity
Science Daily | Posted on November 1, 2018Diversifying working lands -- including farmland, rangeland and forests -- may be key to preserving biodiversity in the face of climate change, says a new review article. These changes could extend the habitat of critters like bats, but also much larger creatures like bears, elk and other wildlife, outside the boundaries of protected areas, while creating more sustainable, and potentially more productive, working lands.