Weblog for Agricultural Risk Management

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has confirmed bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in an 80-month-old dairy cow from Alberta. No part of the animal’s carcass entered the human food or animal feed systems.

The animal’s birth farm has been identified, and an investigation is underway. The age and location of the infected animal are consistent with previous cases detected in Canada.

This case was detected through the national BSE surveillance program, which continues to play an important role in Canada’s strategy to manage BSE.

Canada remains a Controlled Risk country for BSE, as recognized by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Accordingly, this case should not affect exports of Canadian cattle or beef.

5/19/2009 11:52:21 AM
Canada Finds 16th BSE-infected Cow
by Canadian Food Inspection Agency release

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SILAGE AND GRAN CORN -JUNE 10:
Final planting date for Vermont silage and grain corn growers enrolled in the Federal Crop Insurance program, unless insured for late planting.

Late planting and prevented planting provides for reduced protection on acreage that is planted late, or that cannot be planted by June 10, or within the late planting period.

Replanting payments are not available with CAT coverage.

FRESH MARKET SWEET CORN – varies by Vermont county:

JUNE 10 – for Essex, Franklin and Orleans counties.

JUNE 20 – for Addison, Caledonia, Chittenden, Grand Isle, Lamoille, Orange and Washington counties.

JUNE 30 – for Bennington, Rutland, Windham, and Windsor counties.

REMEMBER: Crop Insurance covers unavoidable losses due to naturally occurring events such as flooding, drought, insect, fire, hail and freezing. Losses due to negligence or failure to follow good farming practices are not insurable.

Keep good records. In the event of a loss your records will provide the details of what you did. Stay informed about disease or pest outbreaks in your area.

Consult your crop insurance agent before making any decisions regarding an insurance claim and for specific details about your coverage.

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National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) Public Policy Action Team Vice Chairman Mike Clemens testified on April 22 before the House Agriculture Subcommittee on General Commodities and Risk Management, emphasizing the importance of the federal crop insurance program to the viability of corn growers’ farm operations.

“Federal crop insurance remains our single most important risk management tool,” Clemens said. “Although the farm bill’s safety net programs are important to our grower members, the dramatic increase in market volatility over the past year underscores the value of crop insurance as a key component of sound risk management.”

A farmer from Wimbledon, ND, Clemens highlighted major improvements to federal crop insurance made possible by the significant increase in resources approved by Congress beginning in 2000, including more affordable premiums, new revenue based products and the elimination of cost share disparities for enterprise unit and whole farm coverage. NCGA is concerned with proposed funding cuts that put at risk the expansion in producer participation and higher levels of coverage. Clemens also mentioned in his testimony that NCGA believes further budget cuts will adversely impact the Risk Management Agency’s ability to address the program’s deficiencies.

Clemens’s testimony also called attention to ongoing concerns with the crop insurance program. Because indemnities for corn have been well below the policy premiums being paid, growers are asking why premiums are not being reduced to better reflect their actual crop losses. Clemens also raised producers’ concerns about quality loss adjustment procedures for aflatoxin, eligibility standards for prevented planting claims and the coverage reduction caused by combining converted skip row and solid plant yield history into one data base.

Reprinted from Country Folks, May 4, 2009.

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Dairy cows that produce USDA-certified organic milk also produce manure that may gradually replenish soil nutrients and potentially reduce the flow of agricultural pollutants to nearby water sources, according to findings by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and colleagues.

Cows on organic dairy farms generally consume forage feeds cultivated on soils that are fertilized with manure and compost rather than manufactured fertilizers. This organic management, in turn, may significantly affect how easily nutrients are converted in soil into forms readily taken up by crops.

Working with colleagues at the ARS New England Plant, Soil, and Water Laboratory in Orono, Maine, and elsewhere, chemist Zhongqi He showed that conventional and organic dairy manures from commercial dairy farms differed in concentrations of plant nutrients, including phosphorus, metals and minerals.

The team used two different types of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to pinpoint these differences. Solution NMR spectroscopy is already widely used to analyze phosphorus content in manure. For this study, the scientists also analyzed manure content using solid-state NMR spectroscopy, which is especially effective at finding unique “signatures” of the different kinds of metals and minerals.

The researchers found that the two types of manure had at least 17 different chemical forms of phosphorus that varied in concentrations. The organic dairy manure had higher levels of phosphorus, calcium, potassium, manganese, zinc and magnesium.

Reprinted from Country Folks, May 4, 2009

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The Administration had proposed limiting direct farm commodity payments to any farms with gross sales over $500,000. I don't know who did the math on that at the Office of Management and Budget but they better send them back to the Wharton School of Economics for a refresher course. You all know id doesn't take a very large farm to have sales of $500,000 or more. In fact, when farm milk prices are good a 100 to 125 cow dairy can exceed $500,000 in gross annual sales of milk. What we want to tell the folks at OMB is that it is the bottom line that counts, not gross sales. You could have gross sales of more than $10 million and still be losing money and certainly not be rich by any standard. People who don't understand agriculture should not be dabbling in farm policy matters.

The gross sales issue had a stake put right through its heart last week when the House and Senate Budget Committees were preparing the Budget Resolution (which sets the parameters for spending next year) put language in both the House and Senate bill that would ensure no gross sales cap was implemented.

Reprinted from the NDFC Newsletter, April 10, 2009.

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