January 30, 2009 February 2 State Womens Committee Mtg, Denver 3-4 CFB Legislative Conference, Denver 5-7 AFBF National Leadership Conf., Sacramento, CA 15-23 National Food Check-Out Week March 1-7 Ag Safety Awarness Program Week 11-12 AFBF Board Meeting, Washington D.C. 20 National Ag Day Celebration, Denver Quotes to Ponder "The 10% cap on ethanol blends should be raised. It amounts to a mandate for 90% foreign oil dependancy."	- CFB Communications/Technology Training    - Farm Bureaus Offer Scholarships   - HSUS Comes Out Swinging  - Vilsack Holds Teleconference  - Vilsack Extends Payment Limit Comment Period  - History of Sanitation Problems Seen at Georgia Plant  - House, Senate Make Ag Committee Assignments  - Ethanol Emits 51% Less Greenhouse Gas than Gasoline  - Livestock Production Shifts to Larger Specialized Farms  - Governors Forum on Agriculture Coming Up Quick  - Sign-up for 05-07 Disaster Program
News
CFB Communications/Technology Training CFB Communications Specialist Shawn Martini will give a short technology trining workshop to all interested members, after Legislative Conference activities on Feb. 4 th.   If interested, plan on returning to the state office after Legislative Conference and the workshop will start at 1:30pm.   The workshop will be an informal class on how to use the new technology the Farm Bureau is using to increase its presence on the internet. Topics will include: CFB Website use and navigation, CFB Blog, Flickr, etc. The agenda is loose and, depending on the skill level and interests of participants, will be flexible to desired topics. Please RSVP to Shawn Martini at smartini@colofb.com or 303-749-7505. RETURN TO TOP
Farm Bureaus Offer Scholarships If you have children moving on to higher education here is a chance to help supplement the rising costs of school by applying for several scholarships provided by:   1) Participating county farm bureau’s, 2)Colorado Farm Bureau Scholarship Fund,College of Agriculture at Colorado StateUniversity 3)Dodge Division FFA/Farm Bureau Scholarship.   For more information concerning these scholarship programs please contact Scholarship Coordinator Jayde Van Cleave atjvancleave@colofb.com or (719) 478-2832 or you can go to www.colofb.com. RETURN TO TOP
HSUS Comes Out Swinging Wayne Pacelle, President of the Humane Society of the United States says that with the new Obama Administration and a new Congress, the time is right for responsible animal welfare “reforms.”   Read more in The Pulse Blog   RETURN TO TOP
Vilsack Holds Teleconference Tom Vilsack, Sec. of Agriculture, held a press conference last week. He made a short opening statement and then took questions from assembled media. Listen to the conference here. RETURN TO TOP
Vilsack Extends Payment Limit Comment Period Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday that he will extend the comment period for the 2008 farm program payment limitation and payment eligibility rulemaking process to March 29 as requested by a coalition including the American Farm Bureau Federation and other commodity groups.   The coalition had requested an extension of the comment period for the rule from 30 days to 90 days. The comment period was set to close Wednesday. In a Jan. 22 letter to Vilsack, the groups said an extension will allow farmers to better assess the impact of the rule on their operations and to more appropriately comment before the rule is made final for the 2010-2012 crop years.   The department will not modify the rules for the 2009 crop year, Vilsack emphasized. “Sign-up has begun and it’s important that clear and consistent rules remain in place so that producers can prepare for the crop year and manage their risk appropriately,” the secretary said.   Vilsack also announced USDA would reverse a Bush administration plan to move $3.2 million from the Specialty Block Grant Program to enforce country-of-origin labeling (COOL). Vilsack’s decision reverses a decision made by former Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer who planned to transfer the $3.2 million from the block grant program to pay for enforcement and education activities for COOL. USDA news release Des Moines Register article RETURN TO TOP
History of Sanitation Problems Seen at Georgia Plant Inspectors found mildew on a ceiling and other problems last year at the Peanut Corp. ofAmerica plant in Blakely, Ga., that has been linked to a national salmonella outbreak, according to reports released Monday by the Georgia Department of Agriculture.   Agriculture Department inspection reports from 2006 to 2008 show a history of sanitation problems that include grease and dirt buildup, unmarked chemical containers and gaps in doors large enough for rodents. The Blakely plant is targeted as the sole source of the national outbreak.   The company described the problems as “relatively minor and for the most part corrected on site.” PCA this month stopped production at the Blakely plant and launched a nationwide recall of peanut butter and peanut paste made there after July 1.   Meanwhile, in response to the outbreak, the International Food Information Council has created a brief Q&A featuring consumer food safety expert, Dr. Christine Bruhn of the University of California at Davis, to help the public make informed decisions and put the risk into perspective. Atlanta Journal-Constitution article CNNHealth.COM article IFIC Q&A RETURN TO TOP
House, Senate Make Ag Committee Assignments The House Agriculture Committee met Wednesday to organize and adopt rules for the 111th Congress and also ratified the members and leadership of its six subcommittees.   Committee rules approved are similar to rules adopted by the committee during the 110th Congress. One addition to the rules provides that the results of all recorded votes in the Agriculture Committee will be posted on the committee’s Web site within two days.   Chairman Collin Peterson (D–Minn.) and ranking minority member Frank Lucas (R–Okla.) serve as ex officio members of all subcommittees.   In the Senate, Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced Democratic senators that will comprise the majority of the Agriculture Committee. The list of 12 includes new Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand ( D- N.Y. ) and Michael Bennett (D-Colo). House news release Senate news release RETURN TO TOP
Ethanol Emits 51% Less Greenhouse Gas than Gasoline Corn ethanol directly emits an average of 51 percent less greenhouse gas than gasoline, as much as three times the reduction reported in earlier research, due to recent improvements in efficiency throughout the production process, University of Nebraska-Lincoln research shows.   A Journal of Industrial Ecology article outlines the research, conducted by an interdisciplinary team of UNL researchers, which evaluated dry-mill ethanol plants that use natural gas. Such plants account for nearly 90 percent of current production capacity.   The research is the first to quantify the impact of recent improvements throughout the corn-ethanol production process, including crop production, biorefinery operations and co-product use. Previous studies, which found ethanol to have a much smaller edge over gasoline in GHG emissions, relied on estimates based on corn production, ethanol plant performance and co-product use as they were seven years ago. Gothenburg Times article University of Nebraska-Lincoln study RETURN TO TOP
Livestock Production Shifts to Larger Specialized Farms A report titled “The Transformation of U.S. Livestock Agriculture: Scale, Efficiency, and Risks,” from the USDA Economic Research Service states that U.S. livestock has shifted to much larger and more specialized farms. The report also indicates that the various stages of input provision, farm production and processing are now much more tightly coordinated through formal contracts and shared ownership of assets. Important financial advantages have driven these structural changes, which in turn have boosted productivity growth in the livestock sector. But structural changes can also generate environmental and health risks for society, as industrialization concentrates animals and animal wastes in localized areas. This report relies on farm-level data to detail the nature, causes and effects of structural changes in livestock production. ERS summary Download report here RETURN TO TOP
Governors Forum on Agriculture Coming Up Quick State and national leaders in the field of agriculture, including Gov. Bill Ritter, Commissioner of Agriculture John Stulp, Farm Foundation President Neil Conklin and Abner Womack of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, will speak at the annual Governor's Forum on Colorado Agriculture on Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Renaissance Denver Hotel.   The forum, themed "Learning from our Past, Cultivating our Future," will kick off at 8 a.m. with opening remarks from Commissioner Stulp and Gov. Ritter.   Click here for more information. RETURN TO TOP
Sign-up for 05-07 Disaster Program An ag disaster package was passed in 2007.  This disaster package covers 2005-2007, although farmers can only collect disaster payments on one of these three years.    Sign-up for the 2005-2007 disaster program will end on February 27.  Producers should file applications with their local FSA offices before this date.   All application determinations will be made by March 27, 2009. RETURN TO TOP
Staff
Administration Troy Bredenkamp Executive Vice President tbredenkamp@colofb.com (303) 749-7501 Policy Landon Gates National Affairs lgates@colofb.com (303) 749-7516 Crystal Korrey State Affairs ckorrey@colofb.com (303) 749-7502 Organization Chad Vorthmann Vice President chad@colofb.com (303) 749-7509 Communications Shawn Martini Communications Specialist smartini@colofb.com (303) 749-7505 Office Services Patty Kenny Director, Women's pkenny@colofb.com (303) 749-7506 Marge Healy Assistant mhealy@colofb.com (303) 749-7503 Member Services Dana Thompson Region 1,2, YF&R dthompson@colofb.com (970) 227-1783 Jayde Van Cleave Region 3,6 jvancleave@colofb.com (719) 648-7947 Ron Brink Region 7,8 rbrink@colofb.com (719) 588-2519 Tony Hass Region 4,5 thass@colofb.com (719) 680-0619 Richard Connell Region 9,10, Safety rconnell@colofb.com (970) 216-2041