The Farm Post eNews

Friday eNews from the Pike and Scott County Farm Bureaus

JULY 17, 2015

MAKE YOUR CALLS NOW

The House did its job to stop the Waters of the U.S. rule. Now the Senate must do the same. Contact your senators and urge support for the Federal Water Quality Protection Act, S. 1140.

Without your support, the Environmental Protection Agency will expand its jurisdiction over features like dry streambeds and ditches-features that were never intended to be regulated as if they are navigable waterways, under federal jurisdiction, with all the bureaucracy and expense that entails.

Send a message now to block finalization of the rule.

Orr Farm Tour this Wednesday

The 2015 Orr Center Field Day will be held on Wednesday, July 22 starting at 9:00 a.m. at the Orr Farm on IL-104 in Pike County. The event will feature University of Illinois and other specialists speaking on current issues in crop production and protection.

Topics and speakers include:

-Angie Peltier: Management of Sudden Death Syndrome in Soybeans

-Emerson Nafziger: Are We Getting Better at Managing Nitrogen?

-Aaron Hager: To Mix or to Rotate? - Herbicides and Weed Resistance

-Jake Vossenkemper: Soybean Varietal Maturity and Planting Date

-Stacy Zuber & Mollie Adams: Does Crop Rotation Affect Soils?

The field tours will leave from the Center at 9:00 a.m., 9:20 a.m. and 9:40 a.m. A free lunch will be provided for all tour participants. For more information, please contact Mike Vose at 217-236-4911.

Farmers wear lots of hats

The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture recently released a new list outlining five of the different hats farmers wear, from soil scientist to mechanic and meteorologist. The new listing also includes videos, games and other educational resources.

Rough ride on country roads

Far from the idyllic country roads featured in folk songs, the nation's rural transportation system needs vast improvements, according to a report recently released by TRIP, a national non-profit transportation research group.

The report looked at the condition, use and safety of the nation's rural roads, highways and bridges. With significant deficiencies, a lack of safety features and fatal traffic crash rates significantly higher than all other roads and highways, travel on rural roads and bridges is bumpy, to say the least.

Focus on Ag column

Stallman not going to run

AFBF President Bob Stallman announced on Tuesday that he will not seek reelection in January 2016 following 16 years at the helm of the nation's largest, most influential general farm organization. Stallman, a cattle and rice producer from Columbus, Texas, is the 11th president during AFBF's almost 97-year history.

"It has been a tremendous honor to serve the nation's Farm Bureau members and represent agriculture and rural America," Stallman said. "After 16 years as AFBF president, six as Texas Farm Bureau president and several more in other Farm Bureau roles, it is time to hand over the reins of leadership-a decision that is made easier by knowing the great leadership and foundation that exist to continue moving Farm Bureau forward. I am as optimistic as ever about the future of American agriculture and Farm Bureau."

On This Day

JULY 17, 1945

POTSDAM

The Big Three-Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman-met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. After the Yalta Conference of February 1945, Stalin, Churchill, and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had agreed to meet following the surrender of Germany to determine the postwar borders in Europe. Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945, and the Allied leaders agreed to meet over the summer at Potsdam to continue the discussions that had begun at Yalta. Although the Allies remained committed to fighting a joint war in the Pacific, the lack of a common enemy in Europe led to difficulties reaching consensus concerning postwar reconstruction on the European continent.