Sunday, August 29, 2010

2010 Putnam County Farm Bureau Pet Parade












As promised here are some of the participants in this year's Pet Parade. Thanks to Phyllis Legan for serving as MC, Ryan Wilson, Jerry Martin, and Nick Tharp were the judges. We do ask for your responses as to the interest in continuing the Pet Parade as we struggle to maintain our spot in the fair schedule. Patti Cash served as the Farm Bureau Committee Chairman of the event.



Friday, August 20, 2010

The truth about eggs !

USDA scientists have found that only about 1 in every 20,000 eggs might be contaminated with Salmonella. At current consumption rates, the average American might encounter one of those eggs every 84 years.
Even if an egg is contaminated with Salmonella, the only way it can translate into a human illness is if the egg isn’t refrigerated or cooked properly.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

FB Crop Meeting

Nearly 25 Putnam County Farmers had the opportunity to hear from Lynn Campbell of Cargill AgriHorizons Marketing Services and David Brooks and Trent Gray from POET biorefining on Thursday, August 19th. Lynn spoke to the group on Cargill's Personal Marketing Manager services where their experienced personnel will work with local farmers in analyzing the various crop markets and be able to explain the reasons behind each increase or decrease in crop prices along with changes in input costs. David Brooks, the General Manager of the POET Ethanol plant in Marion, Ohio and Trent Gray, the Commodity Manager for the plant in Alexandria, IN are working to help get the Cloverdale Ethanol plant up and running. The Cloverdale plant plans to begin purchasing corn immediately to fill the two existing bins at the site and then will purchase more corn in Feb. to fill two additional bins to be built. After $30 million in upgrades they plan to begin operation the end of March. The plant will employ around 40 people and interviews for hourly employment will begin at the end of this year. POET is currently the largest company in the world for the production of Ethanol. Trent suggested going to www.poet.com/alexandria for more information on prices and other news. The plant in Cloverdale will be a zero discharge plant. POET supports the addition of blending pumps to allow Ethanol customers to dial the % Ethanol they want in their gas. Any of today's cars can operate on a blend of as much as 50% but current engines work best with a 30%-40% blend and expect only a minimal drop of 1 MPG. Current research is working on an engine that will increase MPG and engine horsepower.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Farm Bureau Scholarships available (due 9-1-10)

Farm Bureau Scholarship Opportunities

Foundation Scholarship, Marion Stackhouse Scholarship and Career Enrichment Scholarships are the Indiana Farm Bureau Scholarships due by the first of September.

The Foundation Scholarship is due September 1st to the Farm Bureau Women’s Leader, Beth Evans, or it can be turned into the local Putnam County Farm Bureau office. One $500.00 scholarship will be awarded in each district. Eligible applicants must be over 17 years of age and from a family who has been a member of Indiana Farm Bureau for a period of two or more years prior to application. Additionally, the person must be a high school graduate, admitted to an approved or accredited school of higher learning and planning to study a minimum of 1 year as a full-time student in an ag-related major.

The Marion Stackhouse Scholarship is due September 1st. Applications must be sent to the Indiana Farm Bureau home office by the deadline. This scholarship may be used for a workshop, seminar, credit, or noncredit class or degree program in an agricultural area. One applicant may be awarded the full $1,000.00 scholarship, or it may be divided among several applications. Any Indiana Farm Bureau family member is eligible.

Career Enrichment Scholarship application deadline is September 2nd. Applications need to be returned to the organizational team at the Indiana Farm Bureau home office. This application is awarded to adults, 21 years or older. The scholarship may be used for a workshop, seminar, credit or non-credit class or degree program. The award will be made up to the of $500.00 (not to exceed cost of the class).

Applications for all the scholarships as well as additional information are available on the Indiana Farm Bureau website, www.infarmbureau.org. or from the local Farm Bureau office, or County Women’s Leader Beth Evans 765-720.0011.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

A Perfect Storm

Corn, Soybeans and Wheat Face the Perfect Storm
August 6, 2010
By: Greg Vincent, AGWEB.com Editor

We have a good crop in the United States, says Jerry Gulke, of the Gulke Group. The wheat harvest has gone well and there is a huge supply of wheat in this country. While there remain some questions about the stateside corn and soybean crops, what’s happening overseas and on the technical charts are combining to build a perfect storm that should lead to higher commodity prices for some time to come.
A little more than a month ago, $3.50/bu. for corn looked like a party. Now he says corn buyers around the world are now starting to look at $4.00/bu. corn as a gift.
"It starts in Russia with the heat and the destruction of their crops. It’s the worst drought in 123 years, and it’s reminiscent of 1973-74 when the communist controlled country came in and bought all of our wheat," Gulke says.
"Fortunately worldwide we had a lot of wheat stocks and all we heard two or three months ago was they’d by a billion bushels further on out. What has happened is that source of feed wheat in Eastern Europe has been sharply curtailed."
The drought has now turned so severe that is appears the Eastern European states may now have to imports as much as two- to three-million metric tons of feed grains. Gulke believes that likely will not be feed wheat, but it does mean corn comes into play.
Drought impacts spread beyond the wheat and corn markets, as well, he says. "They also grow sunflowers, corn, barley, and all those crops are severely down. And they have no forage. You’ve got disappearing as well, so how do you keep the dairy and livestock production alive. This is not a small item, it’s the biggest thing out of Russia since 1973-74."
(To receive Gulke's analysis and charts, click here, or visit www.GulkeGroup.com.)
One of the biggest concerns on Gulke’s mind is the export infrastructure in the U.S. With the prospect for record exports in our country, that is a huge question.
Technically, the market has been positioning for a while to move higher. "When you start to look markets trading or closing above the previous week’s high, especially when you had a crop report, it’s telling me the market is digesting everything to that point and new fundamentals are entering. The criteria has changed."
This shows when it happens in one month. The situation now is the markets are on a roll.
"When you can take out the monthly highs in April, May and June, and do it in July, then August again, that’s pretty positive. All those things were happening two weeks and I said then that I’ve never seen all the grains and oil seeds turning positive at the same time."

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

2010 Pedal Pull Winners




66# and over Class
1st James Stouder, 2nd Seth Lawrenz, 3rd Brady Mann

55 - 65 # Class
1st Lane Sillery, 2nd Dillon Sutherlin, 3rd Eli Smith



41 - 54 # Class
1st Brayden Grable, 2nd Jonathan Short, 3rd Matthew Goodpaster



0-40# Class
1st Joel Hammond, 2nd Kyle Spencer, 3rd Kiara Boyd
Special thanks to John Shoffner and the North Putnam FFA for their help in running the pull.
Pet Parade pictures coming soon.....