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MO multi-issue ag bill heads to governor

May 17, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A multi-issue agriculture bill has been passed by Missouri lawmakers and sent to the governor for his signature, on this last day of the legislative session.

Among other provisions, the omnibus ag bill protects the right of children under 16 to work on family farms.

It makes the theft of Missouri livestock a Class B felony.

It allows for additional civil penalties to be imposed for violations of the Missouri Livestock disease control law.

It creates farmer market tax exemptions for producers with annual sales of less than 25-thousand dollars.

It expands the definition of eggs for inspection to include not only chicken but turkey, duck, goose and guinea eggs that are intended for human consumption.

It allows for the creation of University of Missouri Extension councils.

Filed Under: Crops, Livestock, News, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , , , ,

Missouri child farm labor bill signed

May 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon signed legislation Friday that will allow youth to work on farms and ranches in the state.

The measure exempts farm work performed by children under the age of 16 from certain child labor requirements. The legislation was partly in response to decisions at the federal level, according to Mike Deering, executive vice president of Missouri Cattlemen’s Association.

“The Department of Labor released a rule back in 2011 that would essentially ban youth from working on farms and ranches under the age of 16,” Deering told Brownfield Ag News on Friday. “It was a ludicrous rule, it was outrageous and it was out of line and so what it did allow us to do in Missouri was to take a look at our own rules on the books and see what needs to be cleaned up.”

The bill signed on Friday was introduced in the Senate by Brian Munzlinger, and in the House by Tony Dugger.

Deering says it’s difficult to get young people involved in production agriculture partly due to what he refers to as over regulation and red tape. There are advantages to young people working on farms, he said.

“People not involved in agriculture, the easy thing for them to understand would be hard work, the value of hard work and earning a living and earning a little cash, and I think they can understand that,” said Deering, “and also just empowering the next generation and giving them experience.”

The bill allows children under the age of 16 to work on a farm owned and operated by a close relative. They can also work on a family farm or family farm corporation with the consent of a parent.

AUDIO: Mike Deering (3 min. MP3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News, USDA/Government Tagged With: , , ,

Nebraska AG Sack Lunch program is a hit

April 24, 2013 By 1 Comment
Catherine Ripp distributes 'farm animal' stickers to Gretna fourth graders.

Catherine Ripp distributes ‘farm animal’ stickers to Gretna fourth graders.

A unique agricultural outreach program directed at Nebraska fourth-graders continues to grow in popularity.

The Nebraska AG Sack Lunch Program takes advantage of the fact that over 20-thousand fourth-graders visit the State Capitol Building in Lincoln each year as part of their curriculum. The Sack Lunch program offers them a free lunch featuring foods produced in Nebraska, and a 15-minute presentation from college-age “Ag Ambassadors” on where their food comes from.

University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) student Courtney Schardt, who is from Table Rock, is one of this year’s Ag Ambassadors.

“The main message is just that Nebraska’s agriculture is important and that everything in their lunch comes from Nebraska—from the bread to the corn chips, everything comes from there—and we want them to know that,” says Schardt.

Ag Ambassador Catherine Ripp, a UNL student from Ravenna, says they get some interesting questions and comments from the fourth-graders.

“They’re really surprised on how the things that their parents do in cities, whether they work at a grocery stores or a floral shop, are related to ag—because one in three jobs in Nebraska is related to agriculture and they don’t understand that,” Ripp says. “So the comments we get back are ‘Whoa, that’s awesome!’—and they really enjoy it, I think.”

AUDIO: Schardt-Ripp (3:45 MP3)

One of schools participating in this year’s program was the Whitetail Elementary School of Gretna, a community just outside of Omaha.  Sandy Spethman is a fourth-grade teacher at the school.

“You know, a lot of these kids are city kids and so they’re not used to a lot of the agricultural products and the items that come from some of these products—so it’s a great way to get them informed,” Spethman says. “It’s a very nice program and it offers us a chance to get out and not have to worry about lunches that day—so it’s great.”

AUDIO: Sandy Spethman (1:11 MP3)

Spethman estimates that less than 20 percent of her students live on farms.  For fourth-grader Samuel Nelson, the greatest revelation was that not all cows are black and white.

“There are red cows, too,” Nelson says.

The AG Sack Lunch Program is sponsored by the Nebraska Soybean Board, the Nebraska Pork Producers Association and the Nebraska Corn Board.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Human Interest, News Tagged With: , , ,

SD FFA president ready to recruit others

April 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

2013-2014 South Dakota State FFA Officers (from left to right): State FFA Reporter Carrietta Schalesky, Bison; State FFA Secretary Cheyenne Leonhardt, Groton; State FFA Treasurer David Strain, Sturgis; State FFA Vice President Breanna Bullington, Brookings; State FFA President Makayla Heisler, Newell; State FFA Sentinel Shala Larson, WebsterThe new president of the South Dakota State FFA, MaKayla Heisler of Newell, says she’s looking forward to meeting lots of people and recruiting more members this coming year.

She tells Brownfield Ag News, “Being from West River, I don’t have the opportunity to go to a lot of the chapters that we have in the state of South Dakota. So, one of my goals is to be able to go to all those chapters and meet those different members and for me and my team to be able to put together a successful leadership camp and to get more kids involved in the organization.”

Heisler says she’s planning a career path to teach agriculture in the future.

AUDIO: Interview with MaKayla Heisler (4:00 mp3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News Tagged With: , ,

1st Farm Credit Services helps ag groups

April 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment

For a third year in a row, First Farm Credit Services, in partnership with the Illinois Farm Bureau’s IAA Foundation, has given money to ag groups to enhance their leadership programs.

Terry Hinds, a Senior Vice President at First Farm Credit Services, says they set up a one-million-dollar trust fund in 2010. They set aside that money for agriculture, which he says has had a strong three to five years, especially in the Corn Belt. And a lot of these groups have had state and federal funding cuts…

“We just felt it was an important thing for us to set aside some money when times were good so that if we have leaner years in the future there’ll be some funds that will be available for these types of programs so that we continue to have strong leaders.”

This week, they distributed $102-thousand dollars to 10 recipients, including three universities, FFA, 4-H, AgrAbility Unlimited and Annie’s Project. An estimated 580-thousand farmers, farm family, youth and others are directly impacted by the funding.

Thus far, the fund has given out more than 260-thousand dollars.

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Human Interest, News Tagged With: , , ,

National FFA officer advises, learn to overcome fear

April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

National FFA Secretary Kalie Hall of Georgia, at the Missouri FFA Convention, Apr. 18, 2013.National FFA Secretary Kalie Hall says that fear may prevent young people from pursuing goals. Hall, who’s from Georgia, tells Brownfield that among the many voices competing for attention, fear was one that, for a time, stood in her way.

“But FFA teaches us to set goals and to pursue our dreams and careers and to impact agriculture. And so there are voices that can get in the way of that,” Hall told Brownfield Ag News at the Missouri FFA convention in Columbia last week. “It takes the form of fear in many cases and so I hope to just encourage students to think about what those potential barriers are for them and to able to overcome those so that they can achieve their goals.”

And to those students who may be confused by feelings of fear their pursuit of goals, Hall assures them that the truth will prevail.

“I would encourage students just to test every influence in their life, whether that’s a person, whether that’s something they hear in music or in TV, whatever that is; to test that against what they know to be true and then to use that to decide what they’re going to listen to,” she said.

After serving as National FFA Secretary, Hall plans to go back to the University of Georgia to finish her degree in agricultural education. Her goal is to become a middle school agriculture teacher and FFA advisor.

AUDIO: Kalie Hall (5 min. MP3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News Tagged With: ,

Iowa FFA Convention continues in Ames

April 23, 2013 By Leave a Comment

iowa FFA associationThe 85th Iowa FFA state convention continues today in Ames. 

Theresa Fitzgerald of Boone, North-Central state vice president, says the convention is family tradition.

“My older siblings were really active in FFA, so state convention was always something that I looked forward to before I was in FFA,” says Fitzgerald. “So when I was finally able to wear the blue jacket, it was a really exciting experience.”

For Southwest state vice president Marshall Dolch of Villisca, it’s the relationships that make FFA special.

“I’m making life-long friends here,” Dolch says. “I bet 85 percent of my best friends I’ve met through the blue jacket—and that’s just awesome to see.”

Josh Remington, executive director of the Iowa FFA Foundation, says FFA is alive and well in Iowa.

“We are sitting here right now at roughly 13,400 members in the state of Iowa, which is actually fourth all-time high overall,” says Remington.

About 5,000 FFA members are attending the state convention this week.

AUDIO: Fitzgerald-Dolch (4:04 MP3)

AUDIO: Josh Remington (2:08 MP3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News Tagged With: , ,

Missouri FFA officers chosen

April 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

A young lady from Marshall, Missouri is the new state FFA President.  Abrea Mizer tells Brownfield she followed in the steps of her grandfather and her father in joining the FFA. She’s the product of a corn, soybean and hog farm and plans to attend the University of Missouri preparing for a career in ag public relations.

She joins state Secretary of Taylor Washburn of Eagleville and First Vice President Mitchell Blehm of Walnut Grove. A total of 17 young people from all over Missouri round out the state FFA officer team. The convention culminates Friday night.

Missouri FFA Convention

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Human Interest, News Tagged With: , ,

South Dakota FFA officers chosen

April 18, 2013 By Leave a Comment

2013-2014 South Dakota State FFA OfficersThe 85th Annual South Dakota State FFA Convention held in Brookings this week culminated with a new officer team. The state FFA president for 2013-14 is Makayla Heisler of Newell.

Her officer teammates are: Vice President Breanna Bullington of Brookings, Secretary Cheyenne Leonhardt of Groton, Treasurer David Strain of Sturgis, Reporter Carrietta Schalesky of Bison and Sentinal Shala Larson of Webster.

South Dakota FFA Ambassadors chosen are Courtney Schaeffer of Menno and Kyle Kramer of Flandreau.

2013-2014 South Dakota State FFA AmbassadorsSouth Dakota FFA special awards

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, Human Interest, News Tagged With: , ,

Husker Food Connection is Tuesday

April 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

The second annual Husker Food Connection takes place tomorrow (Tuesday, April 9th) on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s City Campus.

Project coordinator Alissa Doerr, a communications intern with A-FAN, says UNL agricultural students stage the event to help raise agricultural awareness on campus.

“The purpose of the Husker Food Connection is to educate our peers who don’t know as much about agriculture and about where their food comes from, as those of us that have our ag majors over on East Campus and have that agriculture background,” Doerr says. “We just want to let them know that agriculture is very important in their everyday lives.”

Doerr says last year’s inaugural event was a success in terms of both student participation and social media exposure.

“I know a lot students that would take a picture of them with the pigs or the big tractor and post it on Facebook and say ‘oh, look what was on our campus today’,” says Doerr. “So I think that was a great way to spread the message as well.”

Located just outside the City Campus Union, Husker Food Connection features live animal displays, games and free food.  It runs from 10:30 to 2:00 on Tuesday.

AUDIO: Alissa Doerr (4:04 MP3)

Filed Under: Events/Organizations, News Tagged With: , , ,
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