John Nigh, a Hancock County farm youth and 1965 Hancock Central High School graduate, has been named 1965 Indiana Star Farmer at the Indiana State FFA Convention at Purdue University. John will be attending Purdue in the fall. The three other section Star Farmers are Larry Friedrich, Fulton Chapter; Duane Blacker, Clinton Prairie Chapter; and Tom Mergenthal, Brookville Chapter.

Bonnie Jackson of Farmland was elected Indiana Red Poll Queen at the State Red Poll picnic at Crawfordsville. She is a student at Monroe Central High School.

An electrical storm caused a barn fire on the Carol Foust farm west of Carthage. Destroyed in the barn, by bolt of lightning, was a 1937 LaSalle automobile, an old ammunition cart of World War I vintage, an implement trailer, a small tractor-mower and small number of bales of hay. There was no livestock in the barn.

Real estate for sale: 470 acres, no buildings, poor fencing, 100 acres rich bottom lands being tilled; balance in woodlands with some pasture. Priced in the $350-per-acre bracket. North from Interstate 74 Batesville exit – Tri-County Real Estate, Cambridge City, Ind.

Cattle for sale: Ten 1/2 Simmental bulls. Two proved 1/2 Angus at $500 and eight 1/2 Hereford yearlings sired by Galant, $250-$350. Also, young Angus cows and heifers bred to calve this fall, $250-$300 – R.W. Mahan, Columbus, Ind.

David Parker of Hancock County and the Greenfield Central FFA Chapter was elected as president of the 1975-76 Indiana State FFA Assoc. Other state officers are David Sheets, North Judson chapter, vice president at large; Kent Crosby, Twin Lakes chapter, vice president Northern Region; Tim Webb, Hagerstown chapter, vice president Southern Region; Jerry Ott, Carroll chapter, treasurer; Dave Bechman, Whiteland chapter, secretary; Mary Ann Lutes, Fairfield chapter, reporter; and Rick Crum, Clinton Central chapter, sentinel.

Daniel Kerhoff, Benton Central chapter, was named the Star Farmer and Kenneth Popp Jr., Ohio Valley Chapter, was named Star Agribusinessman. Guyanne Lee Van Hook of Southwestern Chapter was selected as State Sweetheart.

Real estate for sale: 110 acres, 5 miles south of South Bend on U.S. Highway 31, 85 tillable, remainder woodland, $1,500 an acre. Name your price in five years, developers say; will rent back – South Bend, Ind.

A certain rare strain of blackleg fungus that causes severe damage to canola, a potentially important grain grown in parts of Kentucky, has been confirmed in some western Kentucky fields, primarily in Logan County.

Unusually cold weather in late April and early May has damaged Michigan’s asparagus crop extensively, by about 10 percent and two pickings, reports Rodney Winkel, an asparagus grower in Berrien County near Watervliet.

Also damaged, but not to the degree as the asparagus, was the fruit crop.

Indiana State Veterinarian Bret Marsh, DVM recently announced the appointment of Jennifer Greiner, DVM to the newly created position of director of Identification Programs for the Indiana State Board of Animal Health. She will be responsible for bringing Indiana into alignment with the National Animal Identification System, or NAIS.