Groups Ask FSA to Halt Lending for New Poultry Houses

Andrew Jenner
Virginia Correspondent

Amidst an extended period of oversupply in the poultry and swine industries, a coalition of farm advocacy groups delivered a petition last week to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack requesting the USDA to halt lending practices they say exacerbate the problem.

“The Farm Service Agency (FSA) is continuing to provide loans to build new hog and poultry facilities and expand production, at a time when overproduction in these sectors is greatly depressing prices,” reads a letter delivered with the petition, which called on the USDA to “immediately suspend all direct or guaranteed loans for the construction or expansion of specialized hog or poultry production facilities.”

According to lending data released by the FSA, more than $196 million in direct and guaranteed loans have been issued for construction of new poultry house construction nationwide in fiscal years 2008 and 2009.

N.Y. Farm Bureau Battling DOT Ban

Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
New York Correspondent

ALBANY — Time is running out for public comment on legislation that could impact certain types of farm traffic on rural roads. First presented by Gov. David Paterson in May 2008, the legislation could make delivery of farm goods more complicated since it would force trucks 45 feet or longer to first use main interstates before considering the use of rural routes.

The legislation makes no distinction between trucks hauling garbage and those transporting farm goods and other products.

Lean Times Don’t Have to Mean Lean Lamb

Sheep Symposium Focuses on Marketing

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

PENNSYLVANIA FURNACE, Pa. — When it comes to lamb meat, leaner is not always better.

That’s according to Dr. Paul Kuber, a meat specialist from Ohio State University, speaking at last Saturday’s sheep symposium “Surviving the Economy,” here at the Samuel E.

The Future of Farming?

A Look Into the Astonishing Possibilities of Vertical Farms

Tracy Sutton
Regional Editor

NEW YORK — Dr. Dickson Despommier has an unsettling message for farmers — in 50 years, he says, “soil-based agriculture will no longer be sustainable.”

Despommier, a professor of environmental health at Columbia University in New York, supports his grim prognosis for dirt farming with a litany of woes for farmers of the future, among them: climate change, drought, too little farmland, too many people, and too much pollution.

“Right now farming uses 20 percent of all of our energy,” said Despommier.

North Country Power Discount Program Announced

Low-Cost St. Lawrence Hydropower to Provide Up to $10M in Savings

Governor David A. Paterson announcedthis week that more than 3,500 Northern New York businesses and dairy farms will receive an approximately 9 percent discount on their electric bill for the next year.

Scuse Sees Dairy Crisis as an Opportunity

Chris Torres
Staff Writer

HARRISBURG, Pa. — “This crisis is in fact an opportunity. An opportunity to make a long term positive influence within the dairy sector.”

That’s USDA Deputy Undersecretary of Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Michael Scuse’s take on the current troubles in the dairy industry during his appearance at Tuesday’s Dairy Profitability Forum at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.

This was the fourth year for the forum, which was also held Wednesday at a different location in the state.

About 180 people, many of them farmers, registered for Tuesday’s meeting.

Pa. Pronounced Plum Pox-Free

BIGLERVILLE, Pa. — Pennsylvania acting Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding announced Thursday that after 10 years the plum pox virus has been eradicated in the state.

The plum pox virus is a disease that severely affects stone fruit production.

Found in Adams County peach trees in 1999 — the first-ever detection of the virus in North America — the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, USDA, and Penn State collaborated to impose a 300-square mile quarantine area, perform aggressive surveillance and develop an eradication program.

No virus has been found in the past three years, which meets the requirements to declare Pennsylvania free of the virus.

Farmers See Latest in Bioenergy Research at USDA Lab

Marilyn Hershey
Southeastern Pa. Correspondent

WYNDMOOR, Pa. — Montgomery County Farm Bureau farmers, energy specialists, and additional participating farmers earlier this month met here at USDA’s Eastern Regional Research Center to learn about bioenergy developments and tour the research facilities.

The Eastern Regional Research Center (ERRC) was built in 1940 and is the largest USDA facility in the country.

30 Years and Counting

Falmouth Hosts Another
Successful Day Of Goat Races

Michelle Kunjappu
Reporter

FALMOUTH, Pa. — If you have $4, a goat and a need for speed, put next year’s Falmouth goat races on your calendar.

Thirty years ago, a practical joke led to the inaugural goat race, which proved to be such a great source of small-town fun that the organizers have continued the event.