CRP eases grazing limits

SEYMOUR, Ind. (AP) — The federal government will allow emergency haying and grazing of Conservation Reserve Program acres in three southern Indiana counties because of this summer’s dry conditions.

Farmers in Jackson, Jennings and Lawrence counties can sign up for the modified program at their local Farm Service Agency office, agency officials said Monday. Farmers may remove up to half of the acreage they have in the program under the plan.

“It’s short and it’s just been a really bad year for getting a hay crop,” Richard Beckort of Purdue’s Jackson County extension office said. “Most first crops of alfalfa, clover and most of the forage crops were lost to that early freeze.”

Dry weather in spring and summer then prevented forage crops from growing, he said.

Gary Plumer of Plumer Hay Farms near Seymour said the weather had hurt his hay crop. Meanwhile, this summer’s lack of rain in several states has fed demand.

“I’ve had calls from all over,” Plumer said. “Texas. Florida. Kentucky. Tennessee. Georgia. Mississippi. They’re all dry.”

Cattle producers and horsemen could be forced to decide whether to keep feeding livestock or sell them, said Jerry Otte, who raises cattle in Jackson County, about midway between Indianapolis and Louisville, Ky.

Otte said he is managing his land by letting cattle graze in one area for about 10 days, then moving them to another section. “It’s helping, but that’s going to run out because what they’re grazing off isn’t growing back,” he said. “We need some rain.”

USDA may lift some cattle tests

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The federal government wants to drop mandatory brucellosis and tuberculosis testing of some live cattle exported to countries lacking required controls for the disease.

The USDA proposal would continue testing only in those states not designated as brucellosis- or tuberculosis-free. For brucellosis, that includes Texas and Idaho. For tuberculosis, it includes Texas, Minnesota and portions of Michigan and New Mexico.

Producers in other states would no longer face the $13-$15 per head testing requirement, according to USDA.

The proposal comes just two months after a brucellosis outbreak in Montana, and as New Mexico authorities continue to investigate a tuberculosis outbreak that threatens its disease-free status statewide. The rule would become effective Aug. 22.

In 2005, the most recent year available, U.S. producers exported more than 21,155 live cattle worth $7.2 million, USDA figures show. Canada imports the most live cattle from the United States.

LaGrange boy dies in fall from horse-drawn farm equipment

LAGRANGE, Ind. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy was killed after falling from a horse-drawn wagon.

Marion F. Yoder of LaGrange was riding on a hay rake July 14 when something startled the horses and sent them galloping down a county road in the community about 40 miles north of Fort Wayne, Indiana State Police said.

Yoder tried to jump from the runaway equipment, struck his head on the pavement and broke his neck, police said.

The boy, who would have started the sixth grade in the fall, was a member of the Old Order Amish Church. He lived with his parents, two sisters and three brothers.

Fire destroys hatchery at farm

MIDDLEBURY, Ind. (AP) — Fire raged through a northern Indiana duck hatchery Thursday, destroying more than 150,000 eggs, the owner said.

No one was injured in the fire that Culver Duck Farms owner Burk Culver said apparently started in a malfunctioning generator. Culver said replacing the 20,000-square-foot building, which was only six months old, likely would cost about $2 million.

“We made sure everyone was out and safe, and we thought we were going to get it out, but when the fire extinguishers ran out and it was still going, we knew it didn’t look good,” Culver said.

The facility, about 30 miles east of South Bend, is used to hatch about 70,000 ducklings a week that are then shipped to one of about 60 farms in a 60-mile radius that raise the birds before shipping them back to be processed.

While the hatchery was a complete loss, Culver said the duck breeding operation was intact. He said he was contacting hatcheries in Michigan, Ohio, Missouri and other states to find an adequate location for the eggs to hatch while the Middlebury hatchery is being rebuilt.

Rural economic index falls again; business still growing

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An index of rural economic health in nine Midwestern and Plains states declined for the fourth consecutive month, but a healthy climate for hiring indicates continued economic growth.

Creighton University economist Ernie Goss said the overall index in July dipped to 54.5 from June’s 61.4 and May’s 66.4.

“A reading of 50.0 is growth-neutral, thus July’s index indicates healthy but somewhat slower growth on Mainstreet,” said Goss.
Rural bank presidents and chief executives were surveyed for the Mainstreet economic index about current economic conditions in their states and their expectations for six months from now. The states are Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

Goss and Bill McQuillan, chief executive officer of City National Bank in Greeley, Neb., created the monthly economic survey.
Asked this month to name the biggest economic risk to their regions, more than three-quarters of the bankers who responded cited higher energy prices. Loan defaults, which are receiving attention nationally, were named by only 13 percent of the bank CEOs, and 10.9 percent listed a trade war as the biggest threat to regional economic well-being.

The new farm bill cropped up in some survey responses.

Two to face trial in Michigan malnourished horses case

JACKSON, Mich. (AP) — A judge on Friday ordered two men to stand trial on animal torture charges stemming from the discovery of 69 malnourished horses that were impounded from a southern Michigan farm.

District Court Judge Joseph Filip ruled there was enough evidence for James Henderson Jr., who owned the horses, and Matthew Mercier, who managed them, to stand trial in Jackson County Circuit Court.

Henderson and Mercier have denied that the horses were harmed. Officials seized the property March 21 after finding the horses without food or water. Many were badly malnourished, officials said, and the horses were found amid piles of trash, rusted auto parts and manure.

More than half were later discovered to be pregnant. One of the horses was later euthanized for a hip injury. The horses – and about 15 foals that have been born since the seizure – were forfeited Friday to Jackson County Animal Control.