.STRAIGHT FROM THE HORSES MOUTH

Duane A. Lienemann

UNL Extension Educator,

Webster County
February 2, 2012 Edition
I am writing this as the weather forecasters are warning about 10-15” of snow. I figured we would pay for the good weather eventually, but did not expect that. But we do need the moisture, so you won’t see me complaining. I will however complain a little about a decision that just came down from the US Department of Labor concerning farm child labor.
The DOL announced that it will revise part of its controversial farm labor rule that aims to increase protections for youth workers. The Wage and Hour Division said it will be revising and re-proposing the portion of the rule that interprets "parental exemption." Originally, the rule allowed children of any age employed by a parent or legal guardian to perform any farm duty provided the farm was owned by the parent or guardian. Otherwise, children under the age of 18 would be prohibited from performing certain farm duties that are deemed hazardous, which is pretty much all agricultural work.
The good news is that the DOL agreed to revise the parental exemption portion after hearing months of opposition from farmers and members of Congress. The revised parental exemption portion is expected to be completed and published for public comment by early summer. Meanwhile, the department will continue to seek public comments on the proposed labor rule. Until rule is final, the Wage and Hour Division said it will apply the parental exemption to situations in which the parent or legal guardian is a part-owner of the farm, or part of a partnership or corporation that owns the farm, provided the ownership interest is substantial.
While that is good news, I am of the opinion that it does not go far enough. I don’t think they really listened to the concerns that I know were expressed when this first came out. For them to only take care of this one little piece is nothing more than throwing us a biscuit to try to silence those that think they are far outreaching their bounds. The Federal regulators said in November and again Wednesday that they're trying to respond to studies that show children are significantly more likely to be killed when working on farms and ranches than while working in all other industries combined. That is what is driving this continued effort to stifle the work of young people on farms.
I still believe that the original rule still goes way too far, and this concession doesn’t back off enough to really make a big difference. This rule change still threatens the jobs of thousands of teenagers in the Midwest who detassel corn during their summer vacations, and it makes no allowances for vocational agriculture students who tend to livestock on farms their parents don't own or occupy. As I understand it, the adjusted rules appears limited to who, besides parents, might qualify for a parental exemption on the basis of what is described as "substantial ownership" of property where children younger than 16 are working. I don’t know if this allows LLC’s or farming corporations to be exempt. We will have to see.
There are many proposed changes in child labor laws for agriculture that have nothing to do with parental exemptions like allowing young people to be anywhere over 6 feet tall, like on a ladder or in the hay mow! Another rule appears to place major restrictions on working with machinery. I think there is still a lot of dialogue that needs to be done on this. While we have made some progress, it looks to me that we are not done with this pending rule. It is enough to make you drink! Speaking of drink…Here is some unusual news considering imbibing.
A new study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests that moderate alcohol consumption, particularly in the form of wine—two drinks a day for men and one for women—is part of a healthy lifestyle. Specifically, the study says moderate alcohol is one of four low-risk lifestyle behaviors that together can reduce mortality rates by 63 percent, compared to people who do not partake in any of the behaviors. The other three behaviors are never smoking, a healthy diet and sufficient exercise.
Researchers were clearly aware of the complex nature of alcohol’s potential health benefits and the danger in promoting alcohol use. In fact, the CDC’s official press release for the study claims “limiting alcohol consumption” is the healthy lifestyle behavior studied. However, while excessive alcohol use is indeed considered a high-risk behavior in the study text, no alcohol intake is a high-risk category as well.
Cows, which ultimately produce those wine accompaniments of steak and cheese, may get fit from wine just like humans do, a new agricultural nutrition study shows. Cows in Australia were fed about 11 pounds of grape pomace, or marc—the skins, seeds and stems usually repurposed after winemaking for brandy production, or tossed in the refuse bin—along with their usual cuisine of cow food, for 37 days. Some of the winemaking leftovers were consumed in pellet form and some were scraped right out of the vat, retaining their pleasing winey smell for the animals.
Compared to the dairy cows that only ate hay and grain, the wine waste bovines improved, at least for general purposes, in three ways: They produced 5 percent more milk, which was higher in anti-oxidants and fatty acids (that's a good thing) and, perhaps best of all for climatologists, the cows' methane emissions were reduced by 20 percent. Cows, as we all know have four stomachs and according to environmentalists-- when they get gassy after a big meal, “entire ecosystems cry out with great lamentation”. Supposedly a cow annually spews as much greenhouse gas as a car does. So drink up—tonight's wine might make tomorrow morning's milk cheaper, better for you and I would guess - better for the planet.
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