Ron Hoyt

The state’s largest County Extension office has a new home. The Marion County Extension office is now located in Discovery Hall at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.  County Extension Director Ron Hoyt says this central location will allow his 5 educators to better serve Indianapolis, “The central location makes our office easier for all of the people in the city to reach.” He added, for 4-H in particular, having a location at the State Fair is especially significant.

While the Marion County 4-H program is one of the largest in the state, it has a much different structure and serves a much different population that most of the other 91 counties.  Hoyt said it focuses more on science, math, and technology along with leadership, literacy, and healthy living.  He told HAT, “The facility here at the State Fair gives us the opportunity to not only demonstrate these things but bring kids from the city into an agricultural environment.”  In addition to offices, the new facility has classroom, a kitchen, conference areas, and even access to banquet and dormitory facilities on the third floor.

State Fair Director Cindy Hoye says having a full-time presence of Purdue Extension on the grounds will lead to more opportunities to partner with the year-round educational activities that take place at the Fairgrounds, “This campus is year around about agricultural education. This is a nice niche for the continued development of things like the World Largest Classroom and the Normandy Barn.” She feels there are many partnership opportunities in the future between the State Fair, business, and Purdue Extension.

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Will 2012 be the year when permanent relief from the estate tax is within reach?  Kent Baucus, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association associate director of legislative affairs thinks so. Baucus addressed attendees of the 2012 Cattle Industry Convention and NCBA Trade Show in Nashville, Tennessee. He said the estate tax is top of mind for many cattlemen, especially young farmers and ranchers hoping to take over family-owned cattle operations.

Bacus said – this is not a tax on the wealthy elite. The wealthy are more likely to find a way to weather the storm. Small business owners and family farmers and ranchers will be forced to make difficult decisions. As the global population continues to grow, it is paramount we keep farms and ranches intact. We have to be able to feed people.

There are 29 pieces of legislation in the U.S. Congress to address the estate tax. Bacus said NCBA supports the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act of 2011 introduced by Representative Kevin Brady of Texas. The legislation, if passed, would repeal the estate and generation-skipping transfer taxes. Bacus said the legislation has already garnered 194 bipartisan co-sponsors.

Source: NAFB News Service

The head of the largest U.S. farm group makes a pitch for a new kind of ag safety net in an area of the country where support for traditional farm subsidy programs runs deep.

American Farm Bureau president Bob Stallman told Mississippi cotton and rice growers, “Government’s role is not to write us a check every year because we’re not going to have the budget dollars to do it. We’re not going to have the political and social will to do it.”

Stallman says that’s why AFBF is pushing the House and Senate Ag committees to write a safety net into the next Farm Bill, that instead of supporting grain, soybean, and cotton prices, protects growers from catastrophic events.

“Because of weather disasters or it can come about because of massive revenue drops in terms of losses and market prices. We believe that is a more practical and doable program and policy than trying to protect against just shallow losses. When you have those deep, disaster kind of events that we’ve experienced a lot of this year, you don’t really have the protection you need using those shallow loss programs.”

Stallman, a rice producer from Texas, said the coming Farm Bill debate will be the most difficult in at least 25 years.

Speaking at the National Conservation Systems Cotton and Rice Conference in Tunica, Mississippi Stallman urged mid-south farmers to get over their hang-ups with crop insurance.

“Crop insurance just doesn’t work for us, and I keep asking why. In essence the answer that usually comes back is well, we pay these premiums but we don’t get that much back every year. that’s not what risk management is all about, and as we move toward policies that will emphasize risk management it is important for those of us in the south to become used to, and learn and help to develop better risk management tools in terms of crop insurance for southeastern agriculture and the crops we have down here.”

Stallman noted that virtually all of the safety net proposals vying for inclusion in the next farm bill presume that federal crop insurance will become the primary risk management tool for farmers.

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Source: NAFB News Service

The University of Illinois is planning the first International Agronomy Day on August 27.  The U of I Department of Crop Sciences is encouraging producers from around the globe to participate in this unique forum bringing its nationally renowned faculty together to share the latest in agronomy, weed science, crop production, pest management, agricultural economics and more.

German Bollero, head of the Department of Crop Sciences, said he’s excited about the opportunity for more global engagement. He says – we all face similar challenges in producing food and feedstuffs so we want to provide information based on sound scientific research to help improve global food production.

International Agronomy Day will take place on Monday, August 27, from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. central time at the U of I South Farms, allowing participants time to continue on to Iowa for the 2012 Farm Progress Show on August 28-30. Aaron Hager, International Agronomy Day chairman, says – we hope to create a new tradition for people who attend the Farm Progress Show and add value to their experience.

Source: NAFB News Service