Duane A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator,
Webster County
November 3, 2011 Edition
Agriculture has actually had some good news come its way this past couple of weeks. I am always a little reserved when it comes to these things, because it seems that just when you think you may have a little sunshine it seems that the another hammer comes down in some fashion. You get to the point that you just hope for little victories instead of counting on winning the battles. The first little victory is definitely the harvest. I cannot in my 50 years of agriculture awareness remember a better year for harvest, both from a climate point of view and especially a yield stand point. Almost everyone that I have talked to has experienced one of their best yield years in most every crop. In many cases, the dryland crops were probably the best surprises of all. You could see it all growing season. There weren’t even the usual calls concerning insects and disease and very little – “What is wrong with my beans (corn, milo, etc.)” this year. That is not to say there weren’t some concerns. Take for instance the extremely hot weather during pollination. I fully expected some negative effects from that. It turns out that the high humidity that I, and many others, were cussing at that time, probably saved our corn.
We not only have great yields, we have decent prices to go along with those yields. I know a lot of farmers have pinched themselves to make sure they aren’t dreaming. I fully understand, along with the producers, that inputs are also high and we must not lose sight of that. Input costs are those things that we cannot really control. One thing is for sure, it is a given that prices for grain will come down, but I can tell you that it takes a lot longer for those input costs to come down. We also know that this current set of events is not the norm, and again I know that a lot of farmers are waiting for the hammer to fall. We certainly will take what the Lord and the economy is willing to give us now. These past years have gone along ways to healing up some of the wounds that farmers had in low prices, high input costs and shrinking income potential. I know a lot of farmers who, in order to continue with their farming enterprise, needed this reprieve.
Another little victory was the EPA recent announcement that it is planning to retain the existing EPA dust standards rather than adopt new ones. I have been concerned for a couple of years that a revision of the current law which would evolve into a more stringent “dust or particulates law” which was likely to be wrote into stone, at dire consequences felt by Nebraska’s ag base. While that is indeed good news, I will have to admit that I am a little disappointed that our Congress hasn’t been a little more demanding. I know full well that in five short years, EPA will likely be in review again of the “particulate matter standards” and with the pressures that are likely to continually come from environmentalists and anti-ag groups, it could likely lower that standard again, and most likely as high as twice as stringent as the current standard.
I, for one, am disappointed that Congress has not yet passed the Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011. The last I heard it was scheduled for a hearing on October 25 with the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power. The bill was introduced originally in the House by South Dakota Representative Kristi Noem, and by Nebraska Senator, Mike Johanns. I do think that the threat of this legislation probably convinced the EPA director Jackson that she probably shouldn’t go forward with the revision, as I am pretty sure they were contemplating. It would not hurt if all of us worried about EPA over-regulation would contact our Congressmen and Senators to encourage them to pass this bill and give us some peace.
I also learned today that we may have another little victory. The Senate passed the 2012 Ag Appropriations bill without any riders prohibiting humane horse processing! If you are not aware, the Humane Society of the U.S. and other radical animal rights groups several years ago used a back door strategy to dupe Congress into denying the horse industry the legislative process and full hearings on the horse processing issue. They then lobbied successfully to deny people that have horses, a market for unneeded, rank or old horses. It denied the process of slaughtering horses in all states, forcing a long, grueling ride to Mexico or Canada and even worse fates. I could spend several pages talking about the negative things that came from this ill-conceived and counter-productive policy that actually decreases the welfare of horses and at the same time unfairly destroys an entire sector of animal agriculture. Here again is proof that HSUS thinks they can do a better job of managing livestock and forced the issue with their lawyers, slick ads, lobbying, and their television and internet videos and in actuality make things worse, not better for horses and their owners. Go to http://www.united-horsemen.org/
Now the Ag Appropriation bill moves to Conference Committee to reconcile the differences between the pro-horse industry Senate bill, and the House bill (H.R. 2122) which still includes the annual riders that have been included at HSUS' behest since 2007 that prohibits USDA from providing inspection to ensure humane handling and food safety in the United States. We need to convince the House to follow suit with the Senate. So if you love horses and want to go back to a sane, common sense, and fair means of handling your unwanted horses, then contact your Congressmen to encourage that the conference committee reconcile the bills, and come out on the side of horse slaughter and processing. What we now have is unfair and damaging, to not only the people that raise and use the horses for productive purposes, but in actuality is dreadful for their horses. Encourage our legislators to come back to the side of reason and common “horse sense”.
The preceding information comes from the research and personal observations of the writer which may or may not reflect the views of UNL or UNL Extension. For more further information on these or other topics contact D. A. Lienemann, UNL Extension Educator for Webster County in Red Cloud, (402) 746-3417 or email to: dlienemann2@unl.edu or go to the website at: http://www.webster.unl.edu/me
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