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News From Around the Farm World - Feb. 18, 2009

Assistance grant funds still available for Hoosiers

CLAYTON, Ind. — Hoosier Organic Marketing Education (HOME), an Indiana-based nonprofit, has received authorization from Farm Aid and OpUSA to extend the deadline for Indiana Family Farmers to submit applications for emergency flood relief grant money, to April.

The funds must be used for immediate household necessities in order to provide direct emergency assistance for those who have faced losses during Indiana’s recent floods. Family farmers who are in need of emergency funds for food, clothing, utilities or health care related to this emergency should contact HOME immediately.

Funds will be distributed to those whom HOME has identified as most in need via a cash payment starting at $300 and no more than $500. The farm must be family owned and operated and not a conglomerate corporation; the financial concerns must have been generated during or since floods of June 2008; and the money cannot go directly to the business.

If you are an Indiana farm family with farm reconstruction or rebuilding due to the floods of the latter part of 2008, and the expenses from these have postponed purchasing personal, medical or household necessities, you may be eligible for this grant. A short list of eligibility criteria and an application may be viewed at www.indianacertifiedorganic.com/farm assistance

Regulators close Corn Belt Bank and Trust in Illinois

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — Regulators on Friday closed Sherman County Bank in Nebraska, Riverside Bank of the Gulf Coast in Florida and Corn Belt Bank and Trust Co. in Illinois, marking 12 failures this year of federally insured institutions.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) was appointed receiver of the banks. Corn Belt Bank and Trust Co. of Pittsfield, Ill., had total assets of $271.8 million and deposits of $234.4 million as of Dec. 31.

Twenty-five U.S. banks failed last year, far more than in the previous five years combined. There were only three bank failures in 2007. It’s expected that many more banks won’t survive this year amid rising unemployment, falling home prices and tighter credit.

The Carlinville National Bank of Carlinville, Ill., will assume all of the deposits of Corn Belt Bank and Trust, whose two branches were to reopen yesterday as Carlinville National Bank branches. Carlinville Bank and Trust will not assume $92 million in Corn Belt brokered deposits.

The FDIC will pay the brokers directly for the amount of the insured funds. Carlinville National Bank will also assume $60.7 million in assets.

The FDIC estimated that the cost to the federal deposit insurance fund from the resolution of these three failed banks will be about $329.5 million. Regular deposit accounts are insured up to $250,000.

Trial delayed in MowMar Farms hog abuse case

BAYARD, Iowa (AP) — Trial will be delayed for at least one person accused of abusing hogs at a Greene County farm in western Iowa.
Shelly Mauch was slated to stand trial Feb. 12 for animal cruelty, but County Attorney Nick Martino says it will be delayed until at least next month. Mauch was one of six people arrested last October after an animal rights group released an undercover video that showed pigs being abused at a MowMar Farms.

Four others are scheduled for trial on Feb. 24, but Martino expects those will be delayed too. Another person charged in the case, Shawn Lyons, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty earlier this month.
Minnesota-based MowMar has said that it no longer employs the workers.

National Cotton Council releases planting survey

WASHINGTON, D.C. — An early-season survey of U.S. cotton farmers finds growers intend to plant 8.1 million acres this year.
While many farmers haven’t made firm planting decisions yet, the survey by the National Cotton Council is meant to get an early indication of their thinking. The USDA plans to release its own planting intentions report in late March. It estimated 2008 planting at 9.5 million acres.

Dale Cougot, a senior economist with the cotton council, expects farmers to monitor prices for cotton and other crops in the coming weeks. Cotton can be more expensive to produce than other crops, and over the last few years, many farmers have swapped traditional cotton acreage for higher-priced crops, like corn or soybeans.

Burlington man dies in Illinois tractor accident on farm

BURLINGTON, Iowa (AP) — A Burlington man has died in a tractor accident on a farm in western Illinois.

Fifty-seven-year-old Charles Jones died Feb. 8 near Lomax, Ill. Henderson County Coroner Kris Beals said Jones was moving large bales of hay when the tractor he was driving slid off a path and rolled over, pinning him underneath.

Beals said the area where Jones was working was muddy and slippery. Beals said Jones’ body was found about 5 p.m., after his wife sent friends to check on him when he didn’t return home.

U.S. farm sales to Cuba rise 61 percent, group says
HAVANA (AP) — Cuba spent a record $710 million on U.S. farm imports last year, a 61 percent increase over 2007, as hurricanes destroyed much of the country’s farms, a leading trade research group said last week.

Spending on imports jumped with rising food prices during the first part of the year, said the New York-based U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. It increased more after three hurricanes hit the island, crippling food production in many parts of the countryside.
Cuban food and farm imports from the U.S. have climbed annually since 2001, a year after the U.S. modified its trade embargo to allow the direct, cash-only sale of farm goods to the island. The U.S. is Cuba’s top foreign source of food.

Hurricanes Gustav, Ike and Paloma hit Cuba in 2008, causing more than $10 billion in damage and forcing a sharp increase in food imports. The Cuban government has not released a breakdown of import or export figures for the year.

Fertilizer odor forces Rhea County schools to close

DAYTON, Tenn. (AP) — Icy roads and frigid temperatures are one thing, but schools in Rhea County closed for a half day Feb. 9 due to an offensive odor from chicken manure at a farm near the high school.

District officials said the “very distinct odor” forced them to close all schools due to bus schedules. Officials said since it was a half day, the missed classroom time will not have to be made up. The school system has about 4,000 students.

WDEF-TV in Chattanooga reported that a farmer near Rhea County High in Evensville spread 17 loads of chicken manure on his pasture and the school’s air system pulled the odor inside.

80-year-old woman dies in fire in Boone County, Iowa
BOONE, Iowa (AP) — Authorities have released the name of an 80-year-old woman who was found dead in a burning garage on a farm near Ogden in Boone County.

Officials say Joan Haub was found in a vehicle in the detached garage on Feb 8. Firefighters were called to the farm around 5:15 p.m. The fire was so intense that it ignited siding on a house about 30 feet away. Firefighters were able to save the house.
Ogden Fire Chief Dan Wilson said the fire appears to be accidental, but the cause remains under investigation.

2/18/2009