TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Agriculture (KDA) is hosting a photo contest through June 30. KDA is asking Kansans to submit photographs that display all aspects of Kansas agriculture, from the scenic landscapes and livestock to the machinery and small to large-scale agriculture facilities.

KDA is not only looking for scenic photos but also pictures of Kansas agriculture at work. Examples include crops and machinery in the field, feed yards, people working livestock, feed mills, processing plants, crop harvesting, and other agriculture businesses and activities.

The categories for the competition are youth, adult, professional and KDA employees. The youth category is open to individuals who were 18 years old or younger on January 1, 2012. Individuals aged 19 and older as of January 1, 2012 fill the adult category unless they are a professional photographer. A professional is someone who makes a substantial amount of their living taking photographs.

The photographer of the winning photo in each category will receive $100 gift cards. Photographers of the runner-up photos in each category will receive $50 gift cards. Individuals may submit more than one photo if they desire to do so.

“Kansas is as green now as it gets,” said Kansas Secretary of Agriculture Dale Rodman. “This is a great opportunity to go out and capture what a beautiful and functional agricultural state we live in.”
Contest entries will be used on international trips to give people around the world an idea of what Kansas agriculture looks like. The photos will also be used on the www.ksda.gov website, in publications, on social media and shared with other Kansas agriculture groups.

Photo entries should be sent in .jpg format to [email protected]. Entries should include:

• A title and brief description of each photo
• When and where the photo was taken
• Photographer’s full name
• Photographer category (youth/adult/professional or KDA employee)
• Hometown
• Email address

Alternatively, CDs containing photo files and accompanied by all of the required information may be mailed or hand-delivered to:

Kansas Department of Agriculture
Attn.: Communications
109 SW 9th St., 4th Floor
Topeka, KS 66612

Photos must be submitted no later than midnight on Saturday, June 30, 2012. Winners will be announced by July 31, 2012.

In submitting photos, the photographer gives the Kansas Department of Agriculture permission to use them in any publications, social media, websites, displays, and other places without payment or other consideration.  Additionally, by submitting a photo that includes human subjects, the photographer is indicating they have obtained full permission from those subjects for the photograph to be used in these manners as well.

If you have any questions about the competition, contact KDA Communications Director Chelsea Good at [email protected] or 785-296-2653.

Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says USDA has made substantial year-over-year gains in expanding credit opportunities for the nation’s farmers and ranchers. The increase in farm and operating loans has helped improve productivity, launched new start-up operations and ensured agricultural opportunities for many more Americans. By expanding options in agriculture – Vilsack says we see a new vibrancy across the countryside as younger people pursue livelihoods in farming and raising food for local consumption. Now Vilsack has announced that the department is seeking comments on a new program to help small and family operations progress through their start-up years with needed resources – while building capacity, increasing equity and eventually graduating to commercial credit.

Under this new microloan proposal – producers needing a loan of less than 35-thousand dollars could apply using simplified and streamlined procedures. The required paperwork would be cut in half. The goal is to better meet the credit needs of small farm operations while making more effective use of Farm Service Agency resources. To view the proposed rule – visit the FSA home page at www dot fsa dot usda dot gov (www.fsa.usda.gov). Comments must be submitted by July 23rd through the Federal eRulemaking portal at www dot regulations dot gov (www.regulations.gov) or through mail.

USDA has provided more than 100-thousand loans to family farmers totaling 14.6-billion dollars in the past three years. Since 2008 – the number of loans going to beginning farmers and ranchers has climbed from 11-thousand to 15-thousand. More than 40-percent of USDA’s farm loans now go to beginning farmers. Lending to socially-disadvantaged producers has increased by nearly 50-percent since 2008.

The exceptionally early wheat growing season means combines are already starting to roll in Kansas. Stoney Reif – Branch Manager at the OK Co-op Grain Company at Hardtner, Kansas – says they received about eight to ten loads of wheat Monday evening.

He says early test weights look good – between 58 and 62 – with most around 61. Reif says the wheat coming in is not all completely dry yet – but he expects the local harvest to be in full swing very soon.

The recent trend of drought-like conditions has taken a last minute bite out of the yield potential for this year’s crop.

Reif says the weather – although uncomfortable – has become conducive for a rapid ramp-up in harvest activity. Many areas of North Central and Western Kansas have been experiencing a flash drought where recent hot, dry weather – accompanied by strong winds – have sapped yield potential from the ripening wheat.

A few farmers to the southwest of Hays, Kansas have reported that they put some of their wheat up for hay in order to salvage at least part of the value of their crop.

From the University of Missouri Extension Office

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Two diseases this spring are making trouble for some tree species around Missouri.

Fire blight, a bacterial infection, and the fungal disease anthracnose gained footholds in some trees, aided by a stint of cool, wet weather in April and May.

“This spring presented a good illustration of the disease triangle, in which you need a susceptible host, a pathogen and a conducive environmental condition,” said Chris Starbuck, a University of Missouri Extension state specialist in woody ornamentals. “In some years, the right conditions bring on raging problems with fire blight in ornamental pear trees, crab apples and apple orchards, where it can be a major headache.”

Dead, blackened branch tips and leaves are a telltale sign of the disease. “They call it fire blight because the tips appear to have been burned by a blow torch,” Starbuck said. “You’ll get wilting initially that leads leaves to curl over into a characteristic shepherd’s crook that’s black and shriveled.”

Fire blight is one of several pernicious diseases of apple and crab apple trees, he said. Cool, wet weather puts increased disease pressure even on so-called blight-resistant varieties. Because the bacteria prefer succulent plant growth, fertilizing trees can make them more vulnerable to infection.

Plants in the Rosaceae family, like hawthorn, spirea and cotoneaster, as well as trees like Bradford pear are most susceptible. Most reports this spring involved ornamental pear trees.

The disease typically begins when bees spread it during pollination. As they travel from flower to flower, the infection will take hold in the flower clusters then move through branch tips and into branches. In some cases, fire blight can cause lesions on leaves.

The main defense against fire blight involves pruning out infected branch tips.

“Fire blight can actually spread down into the main trunk,” Starbuck said. “If you can’t prune out the fire blight strikes, the infection may spread to other parts of the tree.”

Infections in larger apple orchards are treated with antibiotic spray, but Starbuck warns that homeowners can promote bacterial resistance to antibiotics if they are not careful with this approach.

Anthracnose is another threat to certain tree species in early spring. Sycamores, maples, ash and some oaks are most commonly affected. Although many trees dodged the bullet by leafing out early, some trees like ash and sycamore didn’t avoid the infection.

Anthracnose is actually a catch-all term for a number of fungal diseases that cause blotches on leaves where water collects in pockets between the veins, Starbuck said. “The spores collect there, germinate and get started in one spot. The lesions tend to look tan or black on sycamore, coalesce and cause the leaf to be distorted or fall off.”

There’s little you can do to combat anthracnose once it becomes apparent, but raking and disposing of dead leaves will limit its spread.

Homeowners should also use this year’s outbreak as a hint to treat their trees with fungicide early next spring.

“Anthracnose goes dormant when weather gets warmer, but you know the inoculum will be there next year,” Starbuck said. “Homeowners should be ready when conditions return next spring and spores are released.”

While it might be unsightly, anthracnose has more bark than bite.

“Anthracnose tends to alarm people because lots of brown or black leaves on your tree make people wonder if their tree is going to die,” Starbuck said. “In general, it looks a lot worse than it is, and in the case of sycamore, most people by the end of the season will forget they had anthracnose.”

The MU Extension publication “Fire Blight” (G6020) is available for free download at extension.missouri.edu/G6020. Read more about anthracnose at soilplantlab.missouri.edu/plant/diseases/anthracnose.aspx.

 

Registration information is available now for this summers golf tournaments with the Missouri Corn Growers.

The tournaments, put on yearly by the Missouri Corn Growers, will all be held in June and July of this year.

In northwest Missouri, The Marvyille tournament will be July 12th.  The Chillicothe event will be July 26th.

For complete registration information and all events, follow the link below.

http://dev.demos4u.com/mocorn/golf/

 

From the Missouri Farm Bureau 

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and its partners are going to invest nearly 32-million dollars in financial and technical assistance for five water quality and wetlands improvement projects in seven Mississippi River Basin states this year. Once fully implemented – these projects will prevent sediment and nutrients from entering waterways, decrease flooding and improve bird and fish habitat. It’s estimated the investment will restore more than 11-thousand acres to wetland habitat. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made the announcement Tuesday. Through these projects – he says agricultural producers are voluntarily taking action to restore and protect wetlands on private lands in watersheds USDA has identified as critical to water quality restoration in the basin.

Funding for the new projects is provided by NRCS through the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program. Landowners interested in applying for this funding can contact their local NRCS office or the project partner. The signup dates may vary for individual projects. A list of the projects and partners can be found at www dot nrcs dot usda dot gov (www.nrcs.usda.gov) in the newsroom.

“PORK Academy Coming Up June 6 & 7”

The Pork Checkoff will again sponsor Producers Opportunity for Revenue and Knowledge – PORK – Academy at World Pork Expo. PORK Academy is a series of seminars designed to provide information for pork producers about current industry challenges in a way that can be applied to their own operations. The seminars cover a variety of topics including herd health, exports, economic outlooks and the We Care initiative. Pork Checkoff Producer and State Services Committee Chair Mary Langhorst says every producer attending Expo in Des Moines, Iowa is invited to participate in the PORK Academy seminars. She says they are a wonderful way to get timely and accurate information on topics that are vital to producer’s operations.

Some of the titles on the PORK Academy agenda include Doing What’s Right versus Looking for the Camera; PRRS Regional Elimination; Procedures for Taking PRRS Out of the Breeding Herd; Ingredient Availability and Cost; the Threat of Foot and Mouth Disease to the Swine Industry; and Export Issues and World Markets. All sessions will take place in the Varied Industries Building, Room C.

For a full look at the schedule – as well as other activities at World Pork Expo sponsored by the Pork Checkoff – visit www dot pork dot org slash wpx (www.pork.org/wpx).

CASPER, Wyo. (AP) – A Wyoming company hopes to build a horse slaughterhouse in the Riverton area within the next year.

United Equine is moving ahead with plans to build slaughter plants in Oklahoma and Missouri. The company’s chief executive, Wyoming Rep. Sue Wallis, said that work on the Wyoming facility won’t begin until those plants are up and running.

Last year, Congress opened the door to opening horse slaughter plants by lifting a 5-year-old ban on funding horse meat inspection. The last plant that butchered horses closed in 2007 in Illinois.

Wallis said the company is looking for local investors to finance the Riverton area plant. She said it would process up to 200 horses a day for sale abroad to ethnic markets in the United States.