Hello, Friends:
I knew they would finally catch up with me. I received that dreaded pink slip, however it wasn’t signed so I guess I can write at least one more article before they catch up with me.
This past week, our town put on their first-ever Critter Cook-off. One local resident provided his opinion in our local paper that an event like this would make the town appear to be a Podunk Town. I was wondering what’s wrong with being from a Podunk, small or “hick” town.
I’m sure many Farm and Dairy readers are from places just like this and I’ll bet you like it better than the “Big City”. I liked the idea and of course I went to see what sort of table fare they would have.
I was a little disappointed, as I’ll bet you would never guess, they didn’t have any barbecued groundhog. I think I’ll take some next year. The cost of everything seems to be going up, so I try to take in all the free events I can — I guess that makes me a cheap hick.
I went to the vet the other day to get wormer for my two Labs that run around dispatching various animals (groundhogs included), then eating them. Hence, the need for wormer.
After I got over the vet tech saying, “stick ’em up,” I forked over $72 for 3.5 pills. I sure hope they work. I guess I should now apologize to PETA. Yes, my dogs are killers of wild animals and they consume meat from them. Honestly, I do feed them.
I guess I had better mix in some good ol’ FSA information now. It might help hold off that pink slip. I believe (opinion) that more producers need to pay closer attention to our disaster-related programs. Congress determined in the last farm bill that there would be no more ad hoc disaster programs. Funding disaster-related activities as they popped up was just too problematic. They decided to put in place a bevy of programs to cover disaster-related losses, but producers need to be signed up in advance (most of the time).
I previously wrote about the ACRE program, which protects revenue losses on row/grain crops. The deadline is Aug. 15. The NAP Deadline for 2010 Nursery Crops is Sept.. 1. NAP covers low yields, loss of inventory or prevented planting that occurs due to natural disasters. NAP covers just about every crop that FCIC doesn’t.
The Livestock Indemnity Program compensates farmers or contract growers for livestock deaths in excess of normal mortality due to adverse weather. Livestock deaths occurring in 2008 must be filed by Sept. 13. Losses from Jan. 1 through July 12 must also be filed by that date. 2009 losses after July 13 must be filed 30 days after death.
There are a bunch of other programs available : SURE, ELAP, TAP, LFP and SURE, and if you don’t know what these are, contact your local FSA office for more details.
Reminder: Aug. 3 is last day for county committee nominations.
,
That’s all for now
FSA Andy
