Teen critically hurt in Ind. fall
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (AP) — Indianapolis police say a 16-year-old boy who was in town for the National FFA Convention was critically hurt in a three-story fall from a mall escalator.

Phillip Caler of Booker, Texas, was hurt about 2:45 p.m. Oct. 22. Police say he apparently was sitting on a railing at Circle Center Mall when he lost his balance and fell 41 feet. Emergency crews took him to Methodist Hospital.

Police say the teen was attending the convention of the National FFA Organization, which opened Oct. 21 and ended Saturday. The group says it has 7,429 chapters and 506,199 members and says about 55,000 people were expected to have attended the convention.

Soy exports set record again
CHESTERFIELD, Mo. — Whole U.S. soybean exports this year totaled 1.24 billion bushels and soy meal exports equaled 318 million bushels, according to the United Soybean Board (USB).
The USDA estimates that exports equaled 55 percent of the soybean crop harvested in fall 2008. The top soybean export markets were China, 686 million bushels; Mexico, 113 million bushels; and Japan, 88 million bushels. The largest soy meal export markets included Mexico, 56 million bushels; Canada, 47 million bushels; and Venezuela, 25 million bushels.

The largest soy oil export market was India, with 172,600 metric tons. The most important export market for U.S. farmers continued to be China, stated the USB, as the country imported nearly one-quarter of the soybeans grown in the United States last year, with total imports of more than 23 percent of the total crop.

255M acres in DCP and ACRE
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that approximately 255 million base acres on about 1.7 million farms were enrolled in the Direct and Counter-cyclical Program (DCP) and in the Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program.
The USDA will issue nearly $4 billion in 2009 final direct payments to eligible producers on approved contracts. Producers have already received advance payments of approximately $900 million.

“The signup numbers demonstrate that producers value having the option of two programs from which to choose the greatest benefit to their individual farming operation,” said Vilsack. “I also want to remind all producers that 2010 sign up for DCP and ACRE has already started and the deadline is June 1, 2010.”

This was the first year of ACRE and approximately 8 percent of the total number of farms enrolled in the 2009 DCP and ACRE programs elected to participate in ACRE, representing nearly 13 percent of the base acres. Of the 22 different crops eligible, corn had the highest number of base acres enrolled, followed by wheat and soybeans. The states with the largest number of base acres enrolled are Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota.

Tables showing enrollment for each commodity by state may be found at www.fsa.usda.gov/dcp

Court upholds murder conviction

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The Iowa Court of Appeals has upheld the second-degree murder conviction of a man in the shooting death of a central Iowa sheep farmer.

Aron Moss was convicted in June 2008 of aiding in the shooting death of Michael “Shane” Hill of Boone. He was killed in May 2007 on a farm near Ogden. The first-degree murder trial for Hill’s wife, Jessica, began Oct. 20 in Pottawattamie County, where it was moved because of pre-trial publicity. Her lover, Daniel Blair, was convicted of first-degree murder.

In his appeal, Moss claimed, among other issues, his counsel was ineffective for failing to raise a claim of insufficient evidence. In the Oct. 21 ruling, the court said “there was considerable evidence, circumstantial or otherwise.”

A telephone call to Moss’ attorney wasn’t immediately returned.