Franklin County Farm Bureau

Farmers will have an opportunity to spend time with their families this Memorial Day weekend as rain has halted all field work for a few days. I believe that 80-90% of the corn is planted in the county and I hear that many farmers are abandoning plans to plant the remainder of their corn because of the late date. Perhaps 20% of the soybeans are planted and wheat fields are beginning to have somewhat of a golden color, which means that harvest cannot be very far down the road. Livestock farmers are waiting to harvest hay that has already past top quality and it will have to wait a few more days before conditions will allow harvest. Very little hay has been baled at this point. Even pastures are being damaged by the wet conditions as cattle graze very wet fields.

Issues surrounding the crop-share, for-hire and interstate/intrastate issues impacting farmers remain unresolved.  Federal officials have assured Illinois Farm Bureau that we will be kept in the loop.

IDOT will continue with efforts to catch up on the backlog of USDOT Number new entrant audits for some of the more than 800 Illinois farm operations in the pipeline.  They’ll use pre-screening to avoid crop-share farmers and might also pre-screen for those hauling grain with tractor and wagon.  IDOT wants to avoid a situation where the farmer’s operation is affected by any of the pending questions awaiting FMCSA answers.

IDOT will also consider doing group audits as a means of catching up, but those will likely need to wait until after the FMCSA issues a ruling.  Many County Farm Bureaus have offered to assist by helping to coordinate and providing meeting space.

The Federal Government sold off its last bit of permissible debt Monday officially hitting the nation’s $14.294 trillion debt ceiling.   Bipartisan negotiations on raising the debt ceiling have reportedly centered around a package of $1 trillion in spending cuts in mostly discretionary accounts including defense spending.   Negotiators, led by Vice president Biden, have also targeted mandatory spending like farm programs and Medicaid.   Meanwhile the Senate’s “Gang of Six” appears to be bogged down in its talks to cut the deficit, with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn announcing that he’s taking a break from the bipartisan negotiations aimed at cutting the national debt by $4 trillion.  On Fox News Sunday, Sen. Durbin said that Medicare and Social Security reforms will be needed.

This is a reminder that if you would like to submit a recipe for the Young Leaders Cook Book that you need to do it now.  We are be taking recipes until the middle of June so don’t hesitate to mail your favorite recipes to P O Box 457, Benton, IL 62812 or to email them to fcfb028@frontier.com We still need more recipes and yours are welcome.  Let’s support the Young Leaders with this Cook Book Project – they will be ready before Thanksgiving so send your recipe in now.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.

The Franklin County Farm Bureau Foundation was pleased to be able to award a $500 College Scholarship to Bobbie Jo Bauman.

Bobbie Jo is the daughter of Kevin and Tammy Bauman Sesser.  Bobbie Jo ranked 8^th in her graduating class and participated in concert band, pep band and solo contest band. She is also a member of the National Honor Society and WYSE.  Bobbie Jo is the current Secretary of the FFA in Sesser and has been the Treasurer of her 4-H Club for the past 6 years.

The family owns and operates a farm and Bobbie Jo has spent many summers on the farm working with the livestock and helping in the fields.

Bobbie Jo will be attending Rend Lake College and majoring in Ag Production and Management.  After graduating from Rend Lake her plans are to attend Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and continue on with Ag Education.

The Franklin County Farm Bureau Board of Directors along with the Foundation Board would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Bobbie Jo and wish her well.

Franklin County Ag in the Classroom is quacking up.  Coordinator, Melissa Lamczyk, has just finished with the last hatch of the year.  This last hatch was started before Easter break and finished the first week in May.  Sesser-Valier’s second grade teacher, Mrs. Tiffany Petro, is concluding her second hatch of the year with ducks, she did an incubation earlier in the year where twenty-three baby chicks were hatched.

Thirty eggs were donated by Harrisburg’s Ag instructor, Rick Walter and we would like to thank him for the opportunity to have these nineteen ducks hatch in a classroom.  This is Mrs. Petro’s second year of incubation with Ag in the Classroom, last year she had eighteen chickens hatch in February. She had expressed an interest at the beginning of this year for incubation of ducks and Melissa was glad to help.

Each time Mrs. Petro does a hatch she is very diligent in having presentations done in the classroom for students and following with themed learning and activities.  The students learn all about incubation, growth of the embryos, life cycles and body parts.  After the hatches were complete, the baby chickens or ducks, were displayed in the classroom for a few weeks for the students to observe and interact.

We also schedule a play date where we take the three week old babies to an open area and have the children form a circle where we then put the babies in the inner circle.  We usually have to observe the chicks indoors due to winter weather, but we were lucky to have nice weather outdoors for the ducks.

Mrs. Petro provided a small pool so the students could observe how early a ducks natural instincts take over.  The students saw how the ducks ate bugs and worms from the grassy area  and observed how the ducks feathers repel the water due to the special oils their bodies produce.  We had one duck who really liked to take a dive and swim completely under water.  The students learn how to handle and care for the ducks. Of course, there’s a lot of quacking at first, but students and ducks get use to each other and things quiet down.  The students also know they must wash their hands before and after handling these babies so they don’t spread germs or diseases.

The Franklin County AITC received a grant that Melissa had been awarded through Monsanto earlier this year and part of that grant gave us the opportunity to purchase some new and improved incubators for the classrooms.  These incubators are more efficient and take less care during the incubation process.  Due to differences in classroom construction these incubators aren’t affected by the air control in the rooms.

AITC hopes to have enough incubators by next year so that each school can share incubators between teachers.  This has worked out for this year, but it was close getting all the incubation’s in before the end of the year. We hope there are more teachers who would like to include their classrooms in this process of learning about life cycles. Ag in the Classroom (AITC) is available to all age groups and schools in the Franklin County area.

Franklin County Ag in the Classroom (AITC) has been talking chocolate.  A new lesson was presented to AITC coordinators this past year about chocolate and students are loving it.  Franklin County AITC Coordinator, Melissa Lamczyk, has recently added the chocolate lesson plan to her mAGic kits.

This chocolate lesson teaches students that chocolate actually comes from a tree and which chocolate is good for you.  Yes, some chocolate is good for you and students love to hear this.  We also get to do a “hands on” lesson by making tootsie rolls.  AITC recently visited the Benton Elementary third grades for this activity.  All five third grades watched a short video explaining where chocolate comes from and then made homemade tootsie rolls and of course, the best part is tasting the results. The students also receive a copy of the recipe and information about cacao. There were also some ideas that students had for changing up the flavors for their tootsie roll recipes.

This lesson was also presented in other Franklin county classrooms.  We didn’t make tootsie rolls in West Frankfort Kindergartens, but they were given five different flavors of tootsie rolls to take home and try.  The treat bags were also sent home for the students to share with someone.  AITC hopes students are sharing their experiences with their friends and families.  Hope they’ve had some luck with that.  Mrs. Lamczyk hopes to increase the number of classrooms participating next year in the chocolate lesson.

A Monsanto grant received earlier this year has allowed us to put together a small kit for chocolate. The Monsanto grant is aiding in teaching students about farmers, how their food is grown and what parts of the world it comes from.  Thanks to Hershey’s for the brochures that are also included in this lesson.

If your child was in one of the classrooms that participated in the chocolate lesson, or any of the activities that Ag in the Classroom has done this year, please ask them what they’ve learned and what they enjoy about these lessons and activities.

Farmers continue their hurried pace of planting corn and working around wet areas. Rain last weekend had kept farmers out of the fields until mid-week for the southern areas of the county but even in the northern part of the county we are a long way from ideal conditions. A lot of the corn crop will be planted by week’s end and soybeans are being planted at this time. Cool temperatures are causing emergence to be very slow even at this date in May. I have noticed that gardens are fewer this year because of the wet weather.

As I reported last week, the Benton Library District has expanded their district border to encompass all of the Benton High School District. This will expand their taxing of property into Ewing, Northern and Eastern Township. All of this is made possible by a State Law that allows the Library board to pass an ordinance to enlarge from just the Grade School District to the larger land mass of the High School District. This ordinance was passed in March of 2010. Some of you noticed that you voted in the last election for board members of the library district which you have never done before. There is yet an opportunity to call for a vote on this issue if a petition of intent to disconnect from the district is received 30 days after the receipt of tax bills in mid-June. Our purpose in providing this information is to help facilitate any effort to bring this issue to referendum if it is the desire of the voters in the affected areas. We can provide additional information to help with this situation. Please call our office at 435-3616 to express your desire in dealing with this issue. We need to hear from our members if we are to continue any farther with this.

The most important question that people are concerned with is the cost on a yearly basis of the addition of the Library District to their tax bill. In conversations with the Library attorney the rate would be around .3074 which would cost $30.74 for every $10,000 of “Net Taxable Value”. Every tax bill is different but your cost can be determined by looking at your last year’s tax bill. From what I have seen this will raise your bill by between 3 to 4.5%. Of course, another question is what you consider the value of the service that the library provides. In the past, an annual fee of $60 would give you access to all of the services if you were not in the library district. All of these questions need to be evaluated in determining how you feel about this issue.

Melissa Lamczyk, Ag in the Classroom Coordinator has been very busy these last couple of weeks of school.  Several classrooms around the county have hatched baby chicks and one classroom even hatched baby ducks.  Melissa has been teaching the school children about the “good” kind of chocolate and some classrooms have been making home made “tootsie rolls”.  If you have an organization that would like for Melissa to come and make a presentation over the summer she would be available.  She does a lot of fun stuff and teaches in the process.  Just call our office at 435-3616 to schedule Melissa to come and make a presentation for group.

We have extended the deadline to May 31st for everyone to get their recipes to us for the Young Leaders Cook Book.  Their goal is to have 150 recipes for the book with a wide variety.  Please take the time to either mail – to P.O. Box 457, Benton, IL  62812 or email to fcfb028@frontier.com one or more recipes so that the Young Leaders will have plenty to choose from.  Chances are your recipe will make it into the 2011 Franklin County Farm Bureau Young Leaders Cook Book to be out before Thanksgiving.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.

Congratulations to Bobbie Jo. Bauman of Sesser. She is the recipient of the 2011 Franklin County Farm Bureau Scholarship. Bobbie Jo is the daughter of Kevin and Tammy Bauman and will be attending Rend Lake College and will major in Ag Production and Management. Her plans are to transfer to Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and go on to get her Bachelor in Ag Education. We wish Bobbie Jo the best of luck.

Rural areas were busy this week if for no other reason than farmers driving around trying to find a place to work. Fields varied greatly in the ability to be suitable for tillage. Corn is going in the ground with increased fervor from farmers each day. Ground conditions are not great but are getting better each day. Remember to be safe on the roadways as farmers are moving equipment which is large and slow. Please be patient!

In the last few weeks we have been made aware that the Benton Library District is expanding to include all of the Benton High School district. One of the policies of Farm Bureau is that addition of land areas should be done by referendum. If you live in the rural areas of the Benton High School District you will have the added levy of the Benton Library. We will be providing more information about this issue but please feel free to call our office at 435-3616 concerning this issue. More information will be coming next week.

WeatherBill, sellers of weather insurance, says likely loss due to wet weather this spring is 834 million bushels of US corn so far. With this kind of loss why has corn gone down 50 cents in the last 2 days?

We have extended the deadline to May 31st for everyone to get their recipes to us for the Young Leaders Cook Book.  Their goal is to have 150 recipes for the book with a wide variety.  Please take the time to either mail – to P.O. Box 457, Benton, IL  62812 or email to fcfb028@frontier.com one or more recipes so that the Young Leaders will have plenty to choose from.  Chances are your recipe will make it into the 2011 Franklin County Farm Bureau Young Leaders Cook Book to be out before Thanksgiving.

This year Governor Quinn and members of the State Legislature have stated that worker’s compensation reform is a priority to help reform the business climate in Illinois. According to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce, nearly everyone recognizes that substantial changes need to be made to current Illinois law on this subject, but legislature has yet to act on any meaningful legislation.

One of the main areas of reform is related to “causation”. In Illinois, a claim can be filed if the workplace attributes 1% or less to the injury. An employee must only show that the workplace duties could or might have been a cause of an injury, or could or might have been a cause in aggravating a pre-existing condition.  20 states have a higher standard of “causation” than Illinois.

There is no doubt that the high price tag of workers’ compensation coupled with higher taxes is costing Illinois jobs. If Illinoisans are truly serious about improving our business climate and crating jobs, our government representatives need to enact true workers’ compensation reform, tort reform, regulatory reform, and tax relief.

The citizens of Illinois must take advantage of the opportunity to act on this as the legislative body continues to address the budget crisis and the need to restore Illinois’ competitiveness in creating and retaining quality new jobs and new business.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.

With the arrival of May and with very little corn planted, farmers are beginning to consider some changes in their cropping program. They are considering planting short season varieties of corn or perhaps putting more acres in soybeans. I believe that those types of changes are premature at this point but we have nothing to do but think at this point and consider the possibilities. I think that we should at least stay with our plans until late May and then consider more serious changes. Keep the faith!

I attended the annual Manager’s Conference in Bloomington this week and as always it is a good time of information and seeing fellow managers. One of the interesting parts of the conference is the drive to Bloomington and surveying the progress of planting. I saw one field of corn planted between Champaign and Bloomington which was recently planted and had been hit hard by a heavy rain since planting. It was not up. Some corn was planted around Mattoon that was a couple of inches tall. All of it was very wet. There was some very limited field activity around Bloomington late Thursday but rain was in the forecast that night.

As I returned to Franklin County, I saw a helicopter applying fungicide on wheat that had grain heads exposed. Fungicide treatment is becoming more common on wheat with as many as 2 treatments on the crop in the spring.

Our Young Leaders have been busy this week preparing a float for the Rend Lake parade and making to presentations to Driver’s Education classes at Benton High School. We are planning on visiting every high school in the county with this safety program on an annual basis. Kendall and Michael Browning did an excellent job relating to students on safety issues.

Locally Didion Elevator has not ceased business because it was purchased by Consolidated Grain and Barge Company and they began operations on May 2^nd. This change will no doubt have good long term positive effects on farmers in Franklin County and the surrounding areas. CGB has been a buyer of field grains in southern Illinois, southern Missouri and southern Indiana for many years. The purchase of this elevator by CGB will be a long term investment and a stable market for grain in Franklin County.

This is just a reminder that the Young Leaders are putting together a Cook Book and we would like for you to send us your recipes.  You can either mail them to P O Box 457, Benton, IL 62812 or email them to fcfb028@frontier.com.  You can send more than one and we want to know who sent them so that your name can be included in the cook book. The books will be available before Thanksgiving and they will make great Christmas gifts.  Hurry we need your recipes by May 16.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let know.

Is it possible to write this article without talking about the weather this past week? I don’t think so as 13 inches of rain has fallen in the past week. The question that I am asked is, what does this mean for farmers? That is a difficult question and I suppose that the answer depends on the weather from here to fall. If we can plant corn by the middle of May and soybeans soon after and we get some rain during the summer, no problem but….that is the big question. What is behind us is not as important as what is ahead. Farming is not for the faint of heart. There are still great possibilities for the 2011 crop.

May marks the beginning of Farmers Markets in both Benton and West Frankfort.

The Benton Farmers Market begins this Thursday, May 5^th at the parking lot of the Benton Civic Center from 3-6 PM. They will feature locally grown fruits and vegetables,

locally made baked goods, pies, cakes, breads, cookies Hand made crafts plus a great atmosphere for seeing friends and neighbors. The West Frankfort market will be on Tuesdays, 3-6 PM at the West Frankfort City Park.

The Franklin County Farm Bureau Young Leaders are looking for your favorite recipes to add to the recipe book that they are working on.  The book will be available for purchase before Thanksgiving and will contain recipes from local farmers and friends.  If you would like to send in your recipes just write them or type them and mail to P O Box 457, Benton, IL  62812 or you can email them to fcfb028@frontier.com but don’t hesitate because we need your recipes before May 15^th.  You can send more than one recipe and we might have to choose which one to use but be sure and send one in for the 2011 Young Leaders Recipe Book.

The Rend Lake Water Festival Parade will be on Saturday May 7^th at 10:02 a.m. and the Young Leaders will have a great float in the parade.  Be sure to come out and watch the parade and see what they have to give out.

One of the big news items today is the issue as to whether the Army Corp of Engineers will break a levee in Missouri to relieve pressure on the water levels in Cairo. Here is my observation. If the levee is blasted open it will (no question) flood thousands of acres of farmland and flood homes (100) in that floodplain. Some land will be lost to production forever. If they do nothing perhaps all will be fine. At this point there is no concern as to the levees holding but rather if the river would reach the top of the levees in Cairo. As I understand there is no concern about the integrity of those levees. The levees in Cairo are 64 feet and the river is expected to crest at 61 feet. Decisions could be made quickly to avert any tragedy in Cairo.

Remember we are farmers working together. If we can help let us know.