" I heard it through the AgLine"

July 26, 2011

 

 

·        Proposed road regs anger many farmers

·        Rain, cold a headache for Northwest ag

·        How honeybees tolerate some pesticides

·        Central America launches ‘Google’ weather

·        10 electrocuted, 2 killed in corn farm accident

 

 

Proposed road regs anger many farmers

 

(Billings Gazette) – Tractors lumbering down country roads are as common as deer in rural Montana, but the federal government wants to place new driving regulations on farmers and ranchers.

 

"It's a huge deal for us," said John Youngberg of the Montana Farm Bureau. After years of allowing state governments to waive commercial driver's license requirements for farmers hauling crops or driving farm equipment on public roads, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is poised to do away with the exceptions.

 

Regulators are suggesting that all wheat shipments be considered interstate, even when farmers making short hauls to local grain elevators aren't crossing state lines. The change would make commercial driver's licenses — and all the log books and medical requirements that go with them — a necessity for farmers. Some might not qualify.

 

The licenses would also be required of farmers driving farm equipment down public roads. Farmers hauling grain for a neighbor or landlord would be considered commercial drivers hauling for someone else.

 

Ranchers hauling livestock in trailers as small as 16 feet would also be subject to the new rules.

 

But before finalizing the proposed changes, FMCSA is accepting public comment. It originally allowed 30 days for public input last May. Then 18 U.S. senators prodded by farm groups asked that the public be given more time. Comments are now being taken until Aug. 1.

 

In a cautionary letter, Rep. Dennny Rehberg, R-Mont., told FMCSA Administrator Anne Ferro to drop the regulations.

 

"Under your proposal, tractors, combines and pickup trucks hauling trailers would be regulated as commercial vehicles," Rehberg wrote. "Producers who operate these vehicles would be required to obtain commercial driver's licenses, medical cards and log their hours as if they were long-haul truck drivers."

 

Traditionally, farmers driving farm machinery have been exempt from commercial driver's licenses, as have farmers hauling wheat, provided they didn't cross state lines and traveled no farther than 150 air miles to the elevator.

 

"When you haul a commodity 150 miles, it just doesn't make sense to have a commercial driver's license," Youngberg said.

 

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says it wants to make sure federal safety regulations are being carried out uniformly across the nation. According to FMCSA, some states have been asking the administration to clarify rules on grain trucking, farm equipment and trucking for someone else. The reasons behind those questions are numerous.

 

Dana Peterson, National Association of Wheat Growers executive officer, said farm equipment on public roads has become an issue in urban areas, while the other two trucking issues have been sticking points with FMCSA.

 

"That's been the interpretation of the agency for several years now," Peterson said of the interstate rule for grain. "But it hasn't been interpreted that way in all the states."

 

FMCSA argues that because grain will ultimately be shipped out of state, it should be regulated as an interstate product at every transportation step. Treated as a product destined to cross state lines, grain becomes federally regulated under the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.

 

If a farmer's trip to the local elevator is viewed as an intrastate transaction, then public safety becomes the main issue and the state has final say. Officials with the Montana Department of Transportation and Montana Department of Agriculture confirmed last week that they have not responded to federal requests for public comment about the proposed changes.

 

The argument that grain ultimately leaves the state seems to have Montana in mind. Roughly 80 percent of Montana wheat is shipped to other countries, said Lola Raska, of the Montana Grain Growers Association. However, once farmers unload their trucks at the local elevator and collect payment, their end of the business transaction is over.

 

In Montana, the conflicts between federal and state handling of farm freight have been minimal. That hasn't been the case in states where commodities cross state lines more often.

 

In Oregon, farmers along the Columbia River often raise crops on the Washington side of the river as well. Farmers there have similar business arrangements in Idaho, said Shawn Cleave, government affairs specialist with the Oregon Farm Bureau. Crossing the state line has required farmers there to get commercial licenses, or at least that's what the Oregon Farm Bureau has encouraged them to do.

 

The bigger issue in the federal proposal is whether commercial driver's licenses are required for farmers in crop-sharing agreements involving leased farmland where everyone has a stake in the crop's sale.

 

Oregon's farmers are getting older. Their average age is 60, just slightly older than Montana's average farmer. As those farmers get older, it becomes more likely that they'll partner with younger farmers to get crops on their land. Commercial driver's licenses are likely to be a must for the younger farmers in the partnership, Cleave said.

 

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Rain, cold a headache for Northwest ag

 

(AP via The Seattle Times) TANGENT, Ore. — Dennis Glaser's farm should be abuzz with activity, with his tractors in the field and three John Deere combines churning out premium Oregon grass seed.

 

But the combines sit idle in a garage, and Glaser has plenty of time to show around some visitin g golf course managers. That's because, while most of the United States suffers from oppressive heat, Oregon remains far too cold and wet to dry out Glaser's crops.

 

Across the Pacific Northwest, farmers like Glaser are nervously watching their bottom lines as they cope with a year of cool, damp weather that has caused late cherry crops, spoiled peaches and the threat that world-class grass seed could fail to dry out and germinate before it reaches the market.

 

"I don't recall it ever being quite this bad," said Glaser, 64, who farms land that's been in his family since the year before he was born. "We've had wet springs, but it usually stops at some point on the way."

 

Not this year. Oregon grass seed is at least 10 days behind, and more rain would delay it further. Next week's forecast shows some cloudy days.

 

Anticipating a rapid harvest, Glaser bought a third, $250,000 combine last week to help keep up. He doesn't want to leave 1,300 acres of grass in the field like he had to do in 1967, another especially rainy year. He's bracing for the possibility of losing 20 percent of his business.

 

Grass seeds grow on the top of stalks. Farmers harvest it by cutting the stalks and bundling them into rows called windrows, then waiting seven to 10 days for the seeds to dry out. They're then collected in a combine, which separates the seeds from the rest of the plant.

 

The typical warm, dry summers in Oregon's Willamette Valley create an ideal climate to grow high-quality grass and vegetable seed because, usually, Mother Nature will dry seeds out. Oregon's 1,500 grass seed farmers have a competitive advantage over those in England, New Zealand and elsewhere, where high humidity means the seed must be dried artificially, costing time, money and quality.

 

Oregon seed is stored and transported easily. It's shipped globally and sprouts almost two-thirds of cool-season grasses in the United States, experts say. Oregon farmers produced some $256 million worth of grass seed in 2010, making it the state's sixth-most lucrative commodity, according to the state Department of Agriculture.

 

Dampness can destroy the seed or cause it to germinate before it reaches a golf course or baseball outfield.

 

"The industry kind of counts on it not raining once you get to July," said Mark Mellbye, an Oregon State University professor who studies grass seed from the extension office in Albany.

 

The problem is, much of the Willamette Valley has had more than twice the normal rainfall in July, according to National Weather Service data. The average monthly temperature has been 2 to 3 degrees below normal.

 

One rain storm is enough to set back the crop for five days, pushing the harvest closer to the rainy season and making it harder to fill orders on time, experts said.

 

The unusual weather isn't just affecting seeds.

 

A warm spell in February followed by frosts and freezing temperatures hurt cherry and apple production, leading to a U.S. Department of Agriculture disaster declaration last week that covers eight counties in northeast Oregon and neighboring Washington. The declaration gives farmers access to emergency loans.

 

Last month, Washington County outside Portland asked for a similar disaster declaration, estimating an 80 percent loss to peach and caneberry crops because of a cold, wet spring.

 

In Washington, some peas and corn were planted late due to wet weather. Elsewhere, apples are behind schedule and vulnerable to a freeze in the fall, said Dan Wood, director of local affairs for the Washington Farm Bureau.

 

Consumers get accustomed to eating particular foods at certain times of year, farmers say, and if you miss the window, many customers lose interest. The cherry harvest, typically well under way in early July, had barely begun at that time this year.

 

"If you have to wait until after the Fourth of July to start selling your cherries, then you've missed a huge market opportunity," said Lynn Long, an Oregon State professor who studies cherries from the extension office in The Dalles. And, there's a danger now of late-season rains, which can split cherries open if they're ripe, he said.

 

It's not all bad news. Wheat, a roughly $1 billion per-year crop in Oregon and Washington combined, is behind schedule but thriving in some areas. As long as there's not a poorly-timed rain that causes the grain to sprout, wheat farmers could have a good harvest.

 

But other farmers need some warm weather to dry things out. Glazer said it's always a gamble with the weather.

 

"There's no reason to go to Reno, or Vegas," he says. "Farmers gamble all the time, and probably bet a lot more money than they'd ever consider putting in a slot machine."

 

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How honeybees tolerate some pesticides

 

(redOrbit.com) -- A new study reveals how enzymes in the honey bee gut detoxify pesticides commonly used to kill mites in the honey bee hive. This is the first study to tease out the precise molecular mechanisms that allow a pollinating insect to tolerate exposure to these potentially deadly compounds.

 

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

 

Previous studies have shown that honey bee hives are contaminated with an array of agricultural chemicals, many of which the bees themselves bring back to the hive in the form of contaminated pollen and nectar, said University of Illinois entomology professor and department head May Berenbaum, who led the new research.

 

"There are agricultural pesticides everywhere," she said. "They accumulate in the wax of bee hives, so bees in particular are exposed. And their habit of foraging very broadly across a staggering diversity of plant species also tends to expose them to many different types of habitats, which may also have different types of chemical residues."

 

Other chemicals are applied directly to the hives, she said. For the past 20 years, beekeepers have used acaricides – chemicals designed to kill mites but not bees – in the hive.

 

While evidence so far does not support the idea that exposure to synthetic pesticides is a cause or significant contributor to colony collapse disorder, the massive die-off of honey bees first reported in late 2006, "it's abundantly clear that pesticides aren't really very good for any insect," Berenbaum said. "So we figured it was about time somebody knew something about how pollinators process toxins."

 

The researchers focused on cytochrome P450s, enzymes that are well-known agents of detoxification "in most air-breathing organisms," Berenbaum said. Other studies had shown that cytochrome P450s in honey bees play a key role in their tolerance of pyrethroid pesticides, such as tau-fluvalinate, which is used to kill mites in the hive. But no previous study had identified specific cytochrome P450s in bees or in other pollinating insects that contribute to pyrethroid tolerance, Berenbaum said.

 

In a series of experiments, the team identified three cytochrome P450s in the honey bee midgut that metabolize tau-fluvalinate. They discovered that these enzymes also detoxify coumaphos, a structurally different organophosphate pesticide that also is used to kill mites in bee hives.

 

"This suggests that these honey bee cytochrome P450s are not particularly specialized," Berenbaum said. "That raises the possibility that a nontoxic dose of tau-fluvalinate may become toxic if an enzyme that is principally involved in its detoxification is otherwise occupied with a different chemical."

 

The evidence also suggests that honey bees were "pre-adapted" to detoxify pyrethroid pesticides, Berenbaum said. Pyrethroids are similar in structure to naturally occurring defensive compounds, called pyrethrins, produced by some flowering plants. Honey bees have likely had a long history of contact with pyrethrins, which are found even in some flowers in the daisy family. It appears that the same enzymes that helped the honey bees detoxify the pyrethrins in nature may also help them tolerate this relatively new pesticide exposure.

 

The new findings should enhance efforts to develop mite control methods that are even less toxic to bees, Berenbaum said.

 

Also on the study team were U. of I. cell and developmental biology professor Mary Schuler and postdoctoral researcher Wenfu Mao.

 

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Central America launches ‘Google’ weather

 

(PhysOrg.com) – Officials launched a database last week they dubbed the "Google of Central American weather," designed to predict natural disasters as the region grapples with devastating consequences blamed on climate change.

 

Technical director Norman Avila said the project will gather information from 150 stations in seven countries and has already accumulated decades of historical data.

 

The shared information will pave the way for improved forecasts of hurricanes and other severe weather.

 

"Extreme hydrometeorological phenomena are the main threat to Central America," said Patricia Ramirez, head of the Regional Water Resources Committee based in Costa Rica, the organization in charge of developing the database.

 

Launched with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank, the database aims to help the agricultural sector, which has been badly damaged by severe weather in recent years.

 

"The challenge of climate change is how we prepare the region to better address this problem to reduce the risks," said El Salvador's Environmental Minister Herman Rosa Chavez.

 

Agriculture is the largest contributor to Central America's GDP and also the biggest job creator in the region.

 

During the past 40 years, natural disasters on the Central American isthmus have left 57,000 people dead, 123,000 injured and 10 million displaced, according to a study by experts from European and Latin American universities.

 

Hurricane Mitch and other natural disasters between 1996 and 1999 alone cost $16 billion and caused a 1.3 percent reduction in regional GDP.

 

According to the 2009 COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, Central American countries have suffered an estimated $105 million in damages due to climate change.

 

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10 electrocuted, 2 killed in corn farm accident

 

(AP via Fox News) Tampico, Ill. - Two teenage farm workers were electrocuted and eight other workers were injured in an accident Monday while they were removing tassels from corn in rural northwestern Illinois.

 

The Whiteside County Sheriff's Department reported four crew members, including the two who died, came into contact with a field irrigator near the village of Tampico. Several others also felt the shock.

 

Jade Garza and Hannah Kendall, both 14, of Sterling, were pronounced dead at CGH Medical Center in Sterling.

 

Two others were seriously injured in the accident. One was airlifted to St. Anthony's Hospital in Rockford in critical condition. The other was being treated at CGH Medical Center.

 

Authorities did not give the names and ages of the other victims.

 

Six workers were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

 

Tristen Dudley, 13, of Rock Falls told Sauk Valley Media he was one of the workers who saw the girls being electrocuted. He said several others tried to help them.

 

"I heard them yelling. I went over to help," Dudley said. "I didn't do anything because I would have been sucked in."

 

Dudley said the field was filled with water, which conducts electricity.

 

"It was like a pond," he said.

 

About 72 people working for St. Louis-based Monsanto Corp. were de-tasseling corn when the accident occurred. Spokesman Mark Cavenaile said the company has shut down its de-tasseling operations in the Sterling-Rock Falls area for the time being.

 

"It's cautionary," Cavenaile said. "We've never had an incident like this before."

 

Cavenaile said more than 1,000 people have been working for Monsanto this summer. They receive training and are told to walk around irrigation systems.

 

Cavenaile said the accident has been reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

 

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