| Buisiness Briefs |
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Plant reporting high demand<br>
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — The demand for farm tractors means more work for the Case-New Holland (CNH) tractor plant, which is hiring workers and expanding its capacity.<br>
Plant manager Erik Olson calls the demand “unprecedented.” The Fargo plant, which makes five types of farm and construction tractors, is being upgraded with new paint and more welding robots, and is looking for workers, he said.<br>
“We have hired in the last 12 months about 120 people, and we will probably hire in the 100 range again in the first four months of this year,” Olson said.<br>
The plant’s workforce Friday totaled about 850, officials of the parent company, CNH Global N.V., said.<br>
“If there is an issue, our issue probably is the acquisition of welders,” Olson said. Plant officials are working with the North Dakota State College of Science, the skills and technology center in Fargo and others on training and recruiting welders.<br>
The Fargo plant, one of about 40 CNH manufacturing plants, is no stranger to the ups and downs of farming. In the fall of 2006, Olson announced plans to temporarily shut down the farm equipment making side while continuing with construction equipment.<br>
Having agricultural and construction equipment lines is an advantage for the company, said spokesman Tom Witcom, at CNH headquarters in Burr Ridge, Ill. The Fargo plant’s expansion is no surprise giving the demand for farm equipment, Witcom said Friday. Another farm implement plant in Illinois, which had been slated to close, is still in production, he said.<br>
CNH’s earnings report for the fourth quarter of 2007 said worldwide farm equipment retail volume was up in almost every region of the world “with particular strength in high horsepower tractors, combines and in development markets.”<br>
“We’re seeing continued strength in the ag equipment market,” Witcom said.<br>
World Food Prize gets $5M<br>
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Monsanto Co. is donating $5 million to help renovate a former library in downtown Des Moines into the permanent home of the World Food Prize.<br>
The St. Louis-based agricultural company announced the donation on Friday. The World Food Prize was created by Norman Borlaug, the Iowa farm boy who became a pioneer of the “Green Revolution.” He won the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work fighting world hunger.<br>
With the Monsanto donation, the World Food Prize has secured more than $19 million of the nearly $30 million needed to complete the project, scheduled to be finished in 2010.<br>
Poultry cos. protest injunction<br>
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma’s attempts to stop the spreading of poultry waste in the Illinois River watershed uses unreliable evidence and could force area farmers out of business, Arkansas-based poultry companies told a federal judge.<br>
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson requested a preliminary injunction in November against the poultry companies. He argued that unless the court grants the request by spring, the fecal bacteria found in poultry waste could pose a health threat to the 155,000 people who recreate in the river valley annually. More than 576,000 acres of the 1 million-acre watershed are located in Oklahoma.<br>
The injunction request is part of Edmondson’s ongoing lawsuit against more than a dozen Arkansas-based poultry companies accused of polluting the Illinois River watershed with chicken litter. In their response to Edmondson’s request, filed Feb. 12 in federal court, the poultry companies allege there is no evidence of increased disease in the watershed.<br>
While Edmondson claims that an imminent risk to health has loomed over the watershed for 20 years, “the imminence of that alleged risk is contradicted by the failure to manifest in a single case of illness,” the companies said. They maintain that granting an injunction could cost farmers and growers in watershed counties between $39 million-$77 million during the first year it would take effect.<br>
Jackie Cunningham, director of community relations for the Poultry Community Council, called poultry litter a valuable economic commodity that farmers use as an organic fertilizer.<br>
“(The injunction request) is making an attempt to undermine the Oklahoma legislators and state regulatory authorities,” Cunningham said. “They are the ones who determined that the use of poultry litter on the land is a safe and proper agricultural practice when performed in accordance with the law.”<br>
State and environmental officials contend that years of illegal spreading of the poultry waste, which contains bacteria, antibiotics, growth hormones and harmful metals, is killing Oklahoma’s scenic lakes. The injunction request says the bacteria could also pose a health risk to the 1,700-plus water wells in the Illinois watershed, ground and surface water, and recreational streams.<br>
In a statement, Edmondson accused the industry of dumping the blame on farmers.<br>
“Big poultry’s legal and public relations strategy from the beginning has been to hide behind the farmer,” he said. “They point the finger of pollution at anyone but themselves.”<br>
Edmondson sued the poultry companies in 2005, saying litter pollution rendered Lake Tenkiller in northeastern Oklahoma 70 percent oxygen dead.<br>Named in the 2005 complaint are Tyson Foods, Tyson Poultry, Tyson Chicken, Cobb-Vantress, Aviagen, Cal-Maine Foods, Cargill, Cargill Turkey Production L.L.C., George’s, George’s Farms, Peterson Farms, Simmons Foods, Cal-Maine Farms and Willow Brook Foods. A hearing on the preliminary injunction was set for yesterday in federal court.<br> |
| 2/20/2008 |
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