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| News from Around the Farm World - August 25, 2010 |
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Iowa farms in national egg recall have close ties
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Two Iowa farms that together recalled more than half a billion potentially tainted eggs share close ties, including suppliers of chickens and feed.
Both are linked to businessman Austin “Jack” DeCoster. He’s been cited for numerous health, safety and employment violations over the years. DeCoster owns Wright County Egg, the original farm that recalled 380 million eggs after they were linked to more than 1,000 reported cases of salmonella poisoning.
He also owns the company Quality Egg, which supplies young chickens and feed to a second farm that recalled another 170 million eggs.
But so far, the source of the disease outbreaks remains a mystery that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is working to unravel. Consumers can find specific recall product numbers at www.eggsafety.org
Ohio seeks heavier freight trucks to spur exports
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration wants certain freight trucks to carry heavier loads on highways so Ohio farmers and manufacturers can increase exports.
The plan is unpopular with critics who say the added weight would further damage roads. The new plan calls for the weight limit on trucks carrying international shipping containers loaded with grain or any other product to be raised from 80,000 pounds to 94,000 pounds.
The Ohio Farm Bureau says other states, including Illinois and Virginia, already have higher weight limits, leaving Ohio at a competitive disadvantage when trying to expand exports to growing markets such as Japan and China. Supporters say containers left partially empty to meet Ohio’s 80,000-pound weight limit aren’t cost-effective to ship.
USDA revises biofuel payment policy
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The USDA’s Rural Business-Cooperative Service announced it is broadening the Advanced Biofuel Payment Program applicability, to include making payments from fiscal year 2009 program funds for eligible advanced biofuel produced at non-rural and foreign-owned biofuel facilities.
The agency is requesting applications from advanced biofuel producers producing eligible advanced biofuel at non-rural facilities and at foreign-owned facilities. To provide assistance to the industry as soon as possible, the USDA will provide an advance FY 2009 supplemental payment to those producers who already submitted eligible requests.
This advanced supplemental payment will equal 25 percent of the payment that the applicant would have received pursuant to that notice.
“ASA (American Soybean Assoc.) applauds the USDA announcement that it is removing the rural area and domestic ownership requirements that were imposed last year in the Biofuel Payment Program,” said ASA President Rob Joslin, a soybean grower from Sidney, Ohio.
“Those requirements were not intended by Congress and were inconsistent with the overall goals of USDA biofuels programs: To increase domestic, renewable energy sources and expand markets for farmers.”
According to the Indiana Soybean Alliance (ISA), the earlier proposed rule had a rural location requirement and a 51 percent domestic ownership provision. This provision excluded Louis Dreyfus in Claypool, Ind., from eligibility, which ISA members successfully requested the USDA change.
Gas apparently killed couple in Iowa well
COON RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the names of a rural western Iowa couple who died after they apparently were overcome by gas in a water well.
Guthrie County Sheriff Marty Arganbright identified the victims as 36-year-old Jamie Eyberg and his wife, Ann, 34. The sheriff said Jamie Eyberg was doing work on the well on the couple’s rural Coon Rapids farm on Saturday when he apparently was overcome by gas. Ann Eyberg found her husband unresponsive in the 6-foot-deep well, called 911, then apparently went into the well to help him and also was overcome.
Jamie Eyberg was pronounced dead at St. Anthony Regional Hospital. His wife later died at a Des Moines hospital. The sheriff said authorities don’t know the type of gas yet.
Kentucky man killed by falling tree after heavy rains
SOMERSET, Ky. (AP) — Authorities say a 72-year-old Pulaski County man was killed when he was struck by a falling tree.
Deputy Coroner Jim McWhorter said Norman Mounce was visiting a friend on a farm in the Nancy area around 2 p.m. Friday when the tree suddenly fell and one of its branches struck Mounce in the back of the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene about an hour later.
McWhorter said the operation of heavy machinery on the site, coupled with the week’s rains, may have softened up the ground enough to cause the tree to fall.
Man found dead in Indiana pond 2 days after last seen
CLAYTON, Ind. (AP) — Searchers found the body of a 21-year-old Indiana National Guard soldier in a central Indiana farm pond two days after authorities say he had gone there after a night at a bar.
Crews found the body of Spc. Samuel Donahue of Brownsburg early Aug. 16 in the pond near the community of Clayton. Hendricks County sheriff’s Lt. Jim Yetter said the property is about 15 miles west of Indianapolis and owned by the parents of a Donahue friend.
Donahue’s friends assumed he went home after they didn’t find him at the house the morning of Aug. 14 and he wasn’t reported missing until the following Monday. Donahue returned in December from deployment to Iraq.
Yetter said investigators don’t suspect foul play. He said Donahue had been drinking alcohol and an autopsy was planned.
Dozens of show sheep killed in NW Indiana barn fire
VALPARAISO, Ind. (AP) — A barn fire in northwestern Indiana killed more than three dozen show sheep from the Middle East.
The barn along U.S. Highway 30 west of Valparaiso was fully engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived the afternoon of Aug. 15. Union Township Fire Chief Tim Beach said the farm owner is an animal breeder. Beach said the fire was believed to be accidental and that hay in the barn might have spontaneously combusted.
Police said the owner reported 55 sheep were in the barn at the time of the fire and that at least 37 died in it. The owner wasn’t home at the time of the fire and several people stopped to let out animals from the barn.
Alliant apologizes for spraying in southeastern Iowa
BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — Alliant Energy has apologized for the application of herbicides to control plants beneath power lines in southeastern Iowa.
The utility said a contractor was hired to trim the plants, but used chemicals which drifted outside the easement, to include farm crops. Alliant spokesman Ryan Stensland would not identify the contractor.
He said because the plants were growing faster than the contractor could keep it trimmed, the company used herbicides.
Concerns about the spraying arose during an Aug. 10 meeting of the Lee County Board of Supervisors. Residents have complained about dead trees and shrubs left in the wake of the spraying. Stensland said the contractor has agreed to clean up the dead plants. |
| 8/25/2010 |
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