Farmer Protest

Farmers protest labor bill currently in front of state senate.




Here is another story.




Update*** We need to get all over this one. Bank of America Partners with HSUS
There is a form letter you can use to let them know what you think about them joining such an enemy of animal agriculture.

Do You Want the Good News First?

Gillibrand maintains stance on cow flatulence tax.

Or the bad news?

A good friend of the family is interviewed in this article on potentially disastrous new farm labor laws in NY. By good friend I am talking the kind of guy who showed up to feed cows for weeks when the boss had an emergency appendectomy before the kids were old enough to work.

Or perhaps the really insanely horrible news? FDA may inspect right down to the farm level and call foods from farms that don't comply adulterated.

As if farms weren't already inspected half to death. And as if most food recalls didn't originate at the plant level, not at the farm. I hope people wake up quickly to this one, because it is going to cost everybody who eats a lot of money and add a layer of government that won't be cheap either.

Chuck Jolley Gets it Right

Here is a long, but well worth reading article on the challenge of feeding the world's burgeoning human population. Many will find points to disagree with and experts to dislike. However, the basic dilemma is there whether we like it or not.1930's farming methods will not feed billions of people.

Doomsayers Unite

Or untie...whatever.

This is an interesting George Wills column on things that didn't happen and others that probably won't happen, but the powers that be want you to worry about them.

The Law of Doomsaying

HT to Carpe Diem

Twenty Million Dollars

Does this mean that our taxes will go down?

Assemblyman George Amedore

Spoke at a farm meeting we attended last night. He was brief and informative and showed a good comprehension of farm issues. He is, in fact, on the Assembly Agriculture Committee. As a small businessman I suspect that he understands the challenges such folks face better than a good many career politicians....and believe me, farming is a business, no matter how much we would like to perceive it as something else. (Here at Northview our farm is our sole source of income...unless you count the small stipend I get for writing the Farm Side.)

Some time ago a farm group I belong to reached out to Mr. Amedore to begin a dialog on farm issues, as he was new to the Assembly and to state politics. He willingly met with us to discuss the problems facing us as stewards of the land and business men and women. This sort of dialog is essential to continuing to even be able to farm at in NY or anywhere else in the country. For example consider Proposition 2 in California. Worded as it is it will virtually eliminate a large amount of animal agriculture in that state.

It is a positive thing to sit down with your legislators and tell them why certain taxes or regulations are damaging your business. Sometimes, and in fact oftentimes, laws are passed to address one issue and impact something completely different, entirely inadvertently. Take for example new state regulations aimed at keeping monster semi's full of reeking garbage out of small towns in the western part of the state. The governor wants to keep those trucks on the interstate as much as possible (can't blame the truckers too much..the state raised tolls ridiculously) to protect the quality of life in those towns. However, powers that be neglected to exempt farm trucks, such as those hauling corn silage from the field to the farm, from the rules. Can you imagine if every farmer had to jump on the Thruway with his big dump truck full of corn on the way to the pile? As farms by necessity grow larger, many of them have no choice but to travel on the roads hauling their crops. Many of them have abandoned wagons in favor of trucks, as they are safer on the road and faster for the farmer. This is the kind of legislation farmers need to discuss with their legislators.

NY Farm Bureau has named Amedore to its legislative Circle of Friends too. The Circle of Friends is a pretty good yardstick for measuring the agriculture savvy and policies in the Senate and Assembly. Our area is fortunate in its "Friends", as our state senator, Hugh Farley also regularly makes the list.
Agriculture is NY State's number one industry, despite the perception that the Big Apple is the only apple in town. Upstate has a few apples too...but most of them are grown on trees. We need people in Albany who understand that our industry and lifestyle provides NY folks with everything from apples to wine, to fine cheese to enjoy it with.

HSUS has chosen their candidate

The hugely wealthy, monster-sized animal rights, vegetarian, anti-farm group has found their man.
Read all about it here.

Here is more about their activities.(This time accusations of wiretapping.)

Thinking about the bailout

Match-o-Matic

Compare statements by presidential candidates to see whether you will vote for Obama or McCain.
This is a lot of fun...accurate at least in my case, and there are some statements that will surprise you I'll bet.

10 Sarah Palin facts

From Cattle Network

Old Cars, Rednecks and Stone Henge

This farmer fielded some new neighbors' complaints by being outstanding in his field...or rather by having some old cars outstanding in his field for him.
There is simply nothing wrong with having a sense of humor.

Folks who move next to farms have to understand that farmers...well, they farm. This can sometimes result in odors, dust, noise and things non-farmers would rather not see, hear or smell, but they are part of the job. I am grateful that NY has right to farm laws and Ag districts to protect farmers' ability to do what they do. Thus we probably won't need to build our own Stone Henge out of old demolition derby cars.

I also like the reasonable way farmer Rhett Davis spoke about his actions.

"I respect that they're here and spent a lot on their homes, but on the other hand, give me a little bit, too," Davis said. "I've been here since I was 7 years old."

He said he doesn't intend to keep the cars up permanently.

"These can come out just as easy as they went in," he said.

SeeThroughNY

For those of you living here in NYS, here is a handy dandy database of the salaries and expenditures of all sorts of government employees and entities. It is running a little slowly today due to heavy traffic, but this looks like it may be an extraordinary concept.

Fuel prices and futures trading

Just received this press release....

Agriculture Committee Reviews Trading in Energy Markets

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, the House Agriculture Committee held a hearing to review trading in energy markets. The Committee has
jurisdiction over the federal agency responsible for preventing fraud and manipulation in oil and gas futures markets.

"A growing number of people believe a flood of speculative money into energy futures is driving oil and gas prices higher and
creating instability," said Committee Chairman Collin C. Peterson. "The Agriculture Committee has legislative jurisdiction over the
Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and futures markets, and we intend to examine the issue of energy market trading
thoughtfully and carefully next month, separating the facts from the rhetoric. I look forward to future hearings in July to examine
the legislation that has been introduced and to get all points of view in order to address possible manipulation or excessive
speculation in the energy markets."

"Yesterday's hearing was an important step in addressing our nation's energy crisis," said Committee Ranking Member Bob Goodlatte.
"The Committee needs to continue to rigorously investigate the impact of futures trading on energy prices and we need to do so
quickly. I believe increasing domestic supplies holds the greatest prospect for relief from high prices. America's farmers and
ranchers are hit disproportionally hard by high energy cost and they need relief now."

The Committee heard testimony on trading in energy markets from Walter Lukken, CFTC's Acting Chairman. CFTC is the chief regulator
of commodity futures and options markets. The conference report on the Farm Bill, now signed into law, reauthorizes CFTC through
2013.

The opening statement of Chairman Lukken is available on the Committee website at http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/index.html.
A full transcript of the hearing will be posted on the Committee website at a later date.

Trucker fuel price protest

This started about a mile from our place. I was going to drive down and get a picture for you, but the stuff with Camry kept me here.

Revenge of the Lawn

It is funny where online research will take you. I am always on the lookout for ideas for my weekly newspaper column, the Farm Side. After over ten years of writing it, sometimes not repeating myself is a challenge. Lately I have been mulling over the recent upsurge in home gardening and massive sales of garden seeds and trying to think of a way to get a column out of it. A post Nita wrote on the topic, which reminded me or WWII Victory gardens, was all the stimulus I needed. This week I actually got busy with it and it will run Friday (unless the editor vetoes it or something).

I learned so much while writing this one! I was constantly calling in to the boss, who was reading in the other room. Things like, "Did you know that Sears sold 325,000 pressure cookers in 1943?"
Or, "Did you know that we in America plant three times as much ground in lawn as in corn?"


Here are some of the places I visited in my search for data to back up my positive thoughts about gardens and my somewhat less than positive feelings about lawns.

Victory Garden

The Murder of a Garden

Landscapes and the Law

Garden on Trial

Lawn Nation (if you click any of these, click this one...amazing!)

And, last but not least, Revenge of the Lawn (which will tell you something about my reading tastes in college.

Been saying this all along

Foot and mouth plan used flawed study.

I have been writing in the Farm Side about this since the short list of possible sites was first announced and they were all inland. So have some other bloggers and a few news folks. I still can't believe that our trusty government wants to put a lab exploring deadly and highly infectious cattle diseases right in the middle of cattle country. Can anybody say disaster looking for (and finding) a place to happen?

More on the DFA fund transfer issue

From Dairy Today.

Other links: Dairy Alert
Letter (pdf) from management

An animal disease lab

In the middle of animal country. That is what is being proposed here in the USA right now. (I wrote about this in the Farm Side a long time ago. Wish the paper was a free site so you could read it.) It seems absolutely nuts to me to put an animal virus research lab containing live viruses, with the potential to kill off every cow, sheep and goat in the country, in the middle of farm and ranch land. An accidental release of animal virus would most likely result in a devastating mess. During a simulation of what might occur should foot and mouth disease virus escape into the the American cattle population the end result was food shortages so severe there was rioting in the streets and so many cattle killed that the National Guard ran out of bullets."In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses."

Our existing lab, Plum Island, which is located off Long Island, is said not to be secure enough so a new lab must be built. (We put men on the moon, others in orbit and we can't make our existing facility secure enough? Doesn't make much sense to me.) However, even if a new lab is required, putting it in Kansas (where last time I looked there are an awful lot of cows) seems insane. Great Britain found out just last year that accidental virus release can and will happen. I am behind those in Congress who want some more research done before this decision is finalized.

Westland/Hallmark and some happier cows

The animal abuse incidents at this plant have had and will continue to have, far-reaching and ugly effects on the animal livestock industry. When one business allows such transgressions everybody gets a black eye, whether deserved or not.

Thus I was simply tickled pink to find this story central in all the news feeds over the past few days. It puts a better face on agriculture and it is much more the true face than what the HSUS has been putting about about cattlemen and women. Cow water beds have actually been around for years, as have dozens of other kinds of mattresses for cows. A comfortable cow is a functional, productive cow. Thus it is not only kind to make them comfy, but profitable too. There is actually constant intense research done on which beds cows prefer and will use most, as they make more milk lying down than standing up.

We bed with straw (or right now, hay, since our straw guy is out)., but we do have thick rubber mats under some particular cows, which could be described as klutzy and need them. The cows love to be bedded and fluff their own straw up before lying down on it. Our oldest ever cow, Frieland RORAE Ann, who passed away on the farm at just shy of 21 years old, used to stare at me nights....I could feel her eyes just boring into me while I milked, until I ran over and bedded her stall. Then she would lie down with a contented sigh to chew her cud. We always get a big kick out of the way cows communicate with their peons (us). They have the stare of demand down to a science...and you know, after a couple or three decades of living so close to them, I usually can figure out just what they want from me.

Some of them also delight in eating their bedding, which is both hilarious and frustrating. For example old Beausoleil picks her bedding up on her hind leg so she can reach it easily and eats it that way. It is not that she is hungry, as I can toss a chunk of the same old hay up in her manger and she will push it away. It is just a habit she has and there is nothing I can do about it but laugh at her and stay out of the way of that waving leg when I am shaking out her bed.

And so it is done

Elliot Spitzer has resigned. I spent the morning listening to the news with one ear (no choice, the boss had it on) while writing the Farm Side. Deadline day and as usual I was right up against it. This week it is about the effect this scandal could have on agriculture in the state. The Farm Side BTW is a weekly column about farming (amazing huh?) in our great state. Farming is about as regulated as an industry can get so what happens in government greatly affects everything we do. A late state budget affects everyone who pays taxes. Budget deadline is April 1st. What are the odds that it will be done by then? How many heads of departments will roll under new leadership?

Time will tell how this all plays out, but I am glad at least one aspect is finished.