Randolph County officials reject CAFO ordinance</p><p>
WINCHESTER, Ind. (AP) — County commissioners have rejected an ordinance that would turn much of Randolph County into an agricultural district open to massive livestock farms.</p><p>
Commissioners on Jan. 7 voted 3-0 against the ordinance recommended by the county’s planning commission, which would have rewritten the county’s zoning law to include limited and intensive agricultural districts. Industrial-style livestock operations such as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) would have been allowed in an intensive agricultural district that would have covered about 75 percent of the east-central Indiana county.</p><p>
Commissioners Kathy Beumer and David Lenkensdofer voted against the ordinance because it did not include provisions for the big farms’ effects on air and water. Commissioner Ron Chalfant, a farmer, objected to a change in the proposal increasing the setback between farms and homes from 750 to 1,320 feet.</p><p>
Beumer said she was “not comfortable with the issues that are not addressed (in the ordinance) and feel that they must be before we permit more CAFOs into our county.”</p><p>
The ordinance went back to the planning commission, which was scheduled to meet on Jan. 15.</p><p>
Meanwhile, county commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of a moratorium on CAFOS while planners study specific issues including water tables, odor, manure, setbacks and monitoring. Beumer said the moratorium would not be lifted until the studies have been completed, which she estimated could be done in about 90 days. Chalfant voted against the moratorium.</p><p>
Construction permits are pending for two farms, and their fate under the moratorium is unclear. Indiana Department of Environmental Management spokeswoman Amy Hartsock said the county moratorium would not keep farmers from filing applications with the state.</p><p>
Randolph County officials have discussed a CAFO ordinance off and on during four years that saw the county’s swine population swell. In 2006, the county welcomed 126,866 new hogs, more than any other county in the state. Some 37,577 more swine had been added by October, the state’s third highest total.</p><p>
Francis Childs, Iowa’s ‘Corn King,’ dies at age 68</p><p>
MANCHESTER, Iowa (AP) — The man known as Iowa’s “Corn King” died Jan. 9. Francis Childs was 68.</p><p>
Childs set a number of world records for nonirrigated corn yields, including 442 bushels per acre in 2002. He was a six-time winner of the National Corn Growers Assoc. contest and was known informally as Iowa’s “Corn King.”</p><p>
His achievements were featured in several publications, including the Wall Street Journal.</p><p>
He was born on Aug. 30, 1939, in Delaware County. Besides farming, Childs also liked tractor-pulling and snowmobile racing, owning a snowmobile shop for more than 20 years, according to an obituary published by The Mitchell Family Funeral Home in Manchester.</p><p>
He is survived by four children and three grandchildren. A private memorial service will be held at a later date.</p><p>
Officials with the funeral home said Childs died unexpectedly while visiting a son in St. Anthony, in central Iowa. No cause of death was available.</p><p>
Dynaformer colt brings $380,000 in Kentucky sale</p><p>
LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Wotan, a three-year-old Dynaformer colt, brought $380,000 to top Friday’s session of Keeneland’s January Horses of All Ages Sale.</p><p>
Sold as a racing prospect as part of the complete dispersal of the late Cynthia Phipps’ estate, Wotan finished second and third in two starts last year for earnings of $16,900.</p><p>
Claiborne Farm acted as agent for the dispersal, and the colt was purchased by George Krikorian. Wotan is out of the Mr. Prospector mare Rhineland, and from the family of such graded stakes winners as Saarland, Versailles Treaty and General Assembly.
Keeneland sold 239 horses on Friday for $3,766,400, down 14.2 percent from last year’s gross of $4,390,100. The average of $15,759 was down 20.7 percent from $19,865 reported in 2007.
Through five sessions, Keeneland has sold a total of 1,145 horses for gross receipts of $66,678,700, up two percent over the comparable period in 2007 when 1,201 horses brought $65,385,600. The average of $58,235 increased seven percent over the $54,443 recorded last year.</p><p>

Chinese visit Wisconsin to seek bids for dairy project</p><p>

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Representatives of about 30 Wisconsin agricultural businesses have met with a Chinese delegation looking for suppliers on a $200 million dairy improvement project.
They talked Jan. 9 with representatives from Heilongjiang province in northern China, concerning a World Bank project to modernize its dairy industry.</p><p>
“It’s a fantastic opportunity,” said Bob Holterman, vice president of marketing for Accelerated Genetics, of Baraboo and Westby, which sells bull semen to 85 countries worldwide and would like to expand its business in China.</p><p>
Companies can bid on a variety of Chinese needs starting now through 2011, according to the state Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection.</p><p>
“And there’s an opportunity for an extension. From what we understand, these large projects often are extended,” said Jen Pino-Gallagher, agriculture department economic development consultant.</p><p>
Bob Stratton, vice president of international sales at Cooperative Resources International, a livestock genetics firm in Shawano, said Wisconsin has the kind of dairy industry that China wants. He said his cooperative’s sales in China went from nothing in 2005 to $108,000 last year.</p><p>