KDA action fights wheat blight

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved a crisis exemption last week which allows Kentucky farmers to apply Folicur 3.6F through May 15 to their winter wheat, to fight fusarium head blight. Folicur 3.6F is a fungicide produced by Bayer CropSciences.

“Our Division of Environmental Services took a proactive approach to get this crisis exemption for our wheat growers,” Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said. “Thanks to their quick work, our growers will be able to apply this product as their wheat is heading, when it’s important to suppress fusarium head blight.

“By being able to use this product, our farmers will save at least $5 an acre, plus they will be able to save their wheat crop, which they badly need after the damage done by last year’s spring freeze.”
The crisis exemption limits farmers to a single application of the fungicide at a rate of 4 fluid ounces per acre. The product is not to be applied within 30 days of harvest.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture declared a crisis exemption on April 30 to allow use of Folicur 3.6F on winter wheat. EPA approved the declaration later in the day.

Kentucky farmers planted an estimated 560,000 acres of winter wheat last fall, the highest number of acres seeded to wheat in four years, according to the Kentucky office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. The freeze-damaged 2007 crop yielded 49 bushels of wheat per acre, down from a record 71 bushels in 2006.
Kentucky farmers harvested 12.3 million bushels of wheat valued at $70.4 million in 2007, compared with 22.7 million bushels valued at $78.4 million the previous year.

State welcomes Fort to Port road

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — A $170 million road project that will boost the link between Fort Wayne and Toledo, Ohio, took another step forward when state leaders broke ground on the first Indiana section of the new U.S. Highway 24.

The project dubbed “Fort to Port” drew praise for the safety improvements it will bring to a two-lane road where there has been a high number of fatal crashes.

“You will save lives on what has been known as the highway of death,’’ state Rep. Randy Borror (R-Fort Wayne) told Gov. Mitch Daniels at the April 30 ceremony.

The project will eventually link Fort Wayne and Toledo with an interstate-like highway. Indiana’s portion is an 11-mile stretch from Interstate 469 outside Fort Wayne to the Ohio line. The first segment is from west of Indiana 101 to the state line.
Ohio started construction last year, and the states plan to link the highway at the state line next year. Indiana will then complete the expansion west to New Haven.

Cuba urges farming production

HAVANA (AP) — Cuba announced a major shake-up of its troubled farm sector on May Day, shifting control of the island’s farms from officials at the Agriculture Ministry to more than 150 local delegations.

The move is part of a potentially monumental effort to increase food production and reduce Cuba’s dependence on imports.
It came as hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched Thursday in a shorter May Day parade that reflected the businesslike style of new President Raul Castro.

The Communist Party newspaper Granma said 169 new delegations would take over control of the farm sector, and the government is considering slashing 104 unnecessary departments.

Granma said relying on local farm leaders to make more decisions will “stimulate agricultural production, perfect its sale and increase the availability of food and, in this way, substitute imports.”
Salvador Valdes Mesa, head of the nearly three million-strong Cuban Workers Confederation, used his brief International Workers Day speech to urge government employees to work harder and increase efficiency.

“It is fundamental to concentrate efforts on increasing production and productivity, above all of food,” he said.

Raul Castro, who succeeded his brother Fidel as president in February, did not speak during the festivities, but smiled and waved from a podium as marchers danced, sang and screamed “Long Live Fidel! Long Live Raul!” while streaming past him in Havana’s Revolution Plaza.

The new government has already erased bans on ordinary Cubans obtaining cell phones and renting luxury hotel rooms, as well as made it easier for state workers to own homes they once rented as part of their jobs. It also is letting more private farmers and cooperatives take a crack at putting fallow government land to better use.

The government hopes granting small farmers and local leaders more autonomy could revitalize the sector. Officials estimate that 51 percent of arable land in Cuba was underused or fallow because of government mismanagement.

3 charged with animal cruelty

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Police say the owner of an eastern Kentucky farm, his teenage son and a hired hand have been charged in connection with horses found dead and malnourished.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reported the three are charged with 21 counts each of misdemeanor animal cruelty in connection with 11 dead horses and 10 in poor health that were found at the Rowan County farm.

Authorities have been told that farm owner Don Miller had been critically ill for at least the past year. Detective Gary Lanham of the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department said Miller’s son was directed to take care of the horses, and Bryan Simpson would take care of them one or two days a week.

The son’s name hasn’t been released because he is a juvenile. An attorney could not be located for Miller or Simpson.
Lanham said that according to statements, the teen and Simpson knew of the horses’ bad condition, but did not tell Miller.