The Farm Post eNews

Friday eNews from the Pike and Scott County Farm Bureaus
 

JANUARY 22, 2016
Pesticide Training/Testing
Private pesticide applicator TESTING will be held on January 28 at the Pike County Farm Bureau beginning at 10 a.m. TESTING will also be the Morgan County Extension office on February 10. Register on-line.

You can study for these on your own via two methods. The manual and study guide are available from any Extension office for $13. You can also go online for training. The cost is $15 for this online training. Register on-line.
 
Or you can attend a TRAINING AND TESTING session on February 4 at the Quincy Holiday Inn. For all sessions, training will be held between 8am-11:30am and testing is from 11:45 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. You must register here. Select the Private Training icon.There is a $40.00 registration fee per person per clinic.
Salt in the Wounds
The president on Wednesday vetoed a Congressional Joint Resolution that would have rendered the Environmental Protection Agency's Waters of the U.S. rule inoperable.

"The president's veto is salt in the wounds of farmers and ranchers," said AFBF President Zippy Duvall in a statement. "We remain mystified as to why he continues to support this fatally flawed rule. The Government Accountability Office found the rule was issued with the help of illegal 'covert propaganda' by EPA. Ninety-two members of Congress, 22 states, numerous cities and counties and dozens of industry groups have all stood up and said no to this rule. Courts have ordered the rule temporarily halted because of the harm it will cause. But, somehow, the president and the EPA just keep pushing. But we won't stop either. We will not rest until this rule is gone."
Labor = Work
People are needed to keep a farm running. From repair tasks to driving machinery and checking crops-there's no shortage of work to be done. Seems simple right? But farm work is real labor. It's not easy. The job doesn't include an ergonomic chair, cubicle, scheduled vacation or sick days. Farm work requires long days in often undesirable weather conditions and comes with an unpredictable schedule. It requires ongoing training, knowledge of crops and how they grow, plus many hours of twisting, turning, bending, climbing, shoveling and heavy lifting. There's no way around it: It is labor and most Americans do not want to do it.

Focus on Agriculture column
NREC fills the knowledge gap
The Illinois Nutrient Research & Education Council (NREC) funded 20 projects in 2015 to minimize environmental impact, optimize harvest yield, and maximize nutrient utilization. Funding for the projects, totaling more than $2.4 million, come from a dollar-per-ton assessment on fertilizer sold in the state. One quarter of each dollar goes to the state for administrative purposes, and the remaining seventy-five cents goes to NREC for research, primarily for nutrient efficiency issues.

NREC's new Executive Director Julie Armstrong says NREC is playing a key role during the state's budget issues. "Some of the research that would have gone on in a lot of our state universities has been and continues to be cut. A lot of our producers have really relied on the Illinois Agronomy Handbook for years, in particular for recommendations about fertility issues and nutrient management. So we're trying to fill some of those gaps and get that research out."

Armstrong says unlike previous efforts, NREC funds cannot be swept into the state's general fund. She adds the state's Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy drives most of the work that takes place. NREC leaders met this week in Peoria in conjunction with the Illinois Fertilizer & Chemical Association's annual meeting.
 
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TODAY IN HISTORY
First 747 Passenger Flight
January 22, 1970

Captain Robert M. Weeks and crew flew the Pan American World Airways Boeing 747-121, N736PA, Clipper Young America, New York to London on a 6 hour, 43-minute inaugural passenger-carrying flight of the new wide-body jet. Aboard were a crew of 20 and 335 passengers.

The 747-100 series was the first version of the Boeing 747 to be built. It was designed to carry 366 to 452 passengers. It is 231 feet, 10.2 inches long with a wingspan of 195 feet, 8 inches and overall height of 63 feet, 5 inches (19.329 meters). The interior cabin width is 20 feet, giving it the name "wide body

N736PA had initially been named Clipper Victor, but the name was changed to Clipper Young America for the inaugural New York to London flight when the 747 scheduled to make that flight-Clipper Young America-suffered mechanical problems.

The 747 was hijacked on 2 August 1970 and flown to Cuba. After that incident, N736PA was renamed Clipper Victor -its original name. It was destroyed in a collision with another Boeing 747 at Tenerife, Canary Islands, 27 March, 1977.

Read more at Boeing.com 
 
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