The big award winner at the Clean Cities Congress was Johathan Overly, Executive Director of East Tennessee Clean Fuels (right). Jonathan won the Clean Cities Coordinator of the Year award. Presenting him the award is Gunnar Lindstrom, American Honda Company, (left).
Jonathan describes what the award means to him in a short interview I did just before he had to head back home. You can listen to my interview with Jonathan here: 
Jonathan Overly Interview (4 min MP3)
I’m slowly making my way back home to Missouri from south Florida. Chelsea (one of my college daughters) and I are spending today out in rural Georgia on my brother’s farm. We hear so much today about hobby farming and I’ve got a great resource to watch and learn from.
Paul works in pharmaceutical sales and when he’s not selling he’s building fence, mowing, planting, taking care of the horses or something. Actually one of the something’s is establishing some great deer stands. Another sideline for him is fire ant treatment. He has an applicator mounted on a 4-wheeler and is certified to apply pesticide. He does it mainly on pasture and large lots in the area.
We are out in the middle of the woods a long way from any town and he’s set up with wireless broadband from his DSL connection. He spends a fair amount of time online, including finding and learning about how to develop and take care of his place.
Have you got weed problems in your range or pasture? Then you might want to apply some of this stuff. It’s Dow AgroScience’s new ForeFront R&P herbicide.
ForeFront R&P is the first product to combine the new, advanced molecule aminopyralid — the active ingredient in Milestone™ herbicide — with the trusted broad-spectrum control of 2,4-D. This powerful combination provides outstanding control of more than 60 tough broadleaf weed species, including biennial and perennial thistles, cocklebur, horsenettle, curly dock, ironweed, ragweed, vervain and more.
Springtime in Massachusetts means the whistling of Emus at this farm. According to a news release it’s egg hatching time at Songline Emu Farm. The release is a good description of how the whole process works.
Our hens began laying eggs in early winter just before Christmas. They are keyed to the shortened daylight ours of fall/winter because winter in the Australian outback is milder than the brutally hot, dry summer. We’ve tried to explain to them that New England winters are not the best time for a bird to lay eggs – but they don’t seem to listen. The eggs are large, Florida avocado sized, and emerald green. Hens lay regularly every 3 – 4 days and can lay 20 – 50 eggs in a season. We gather the eggs (during many a February blizzard) and place them in a 45-degree refrigerator to inhibit incubation until we have a sufficient number (12 or so) to batch. They are then moved into a computerized incubator set at 97.5 degrees with 27 percent humidity for 50 days. The eggs are rolled a quarter turn every half hour. We weigh the eggs weekly; to be sure they are on target to lose between 12 and 18 percent of their total weight prior to hatching. If they lose too much weight the chick can hatch dry and red-eyed, too little weight and the chick can actually drown inside the shell. We adjust our humidity based on these numbers.
At last week’s Ethanol Day at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway I got to meet Danica Patrick, one of the drivers for Rahal-Letterman Racing. Team Ethanol is a big sponsor of the team and Jeff Simmons drives the ethanol-wrapped car. But I wanted to find out what his teammates think of this new fuel they’re putting in their cars this year.
I got to interview Danica just before they headed out onto the track to take some practice laps. She thinks putting ethanol in your car is a great thing. You can listen to my interview with Danica here: Danica Patrick Interview (2 min MP3)
Here’s an example of what USDA is doing to help improve rural broadband internet access. The Rural Development Broadband Access Loan program is providing the funds. USDA Under Secretary for Rural Development, Tom Dorr had this to say. “Broadband can help to put rural communities on a level playing field when competing with bigger cities for new residents and businesses,” said Dorr. “When people can live in smaller communities that have a higher quality of life and still compete globally, that presents a great opportunity for rural America.”
RC Technologies Corporation in New Effington, South Dakota will receive a loan of more than $3 million to expand broadband access in South Dakota and Minnesota.
Since the program’s inception more than $850 million has been loaned to 57 entities which projects to nearly 300,000 new subscribers in rural America.
The winner of the Deere Gear Toy Tractor Contest for this week is Antoinette McDemrott from New Cumberland, PA.
She chose a 1/16 Scale 4310 Tractor with Attachments. This contest is over for now but a new one will be starting next week. You can find out about it here.
The World Pork Expo is not too far away. It’s coming up June 8 – 10 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines. I’ve been meaning to let you know about it and the 19th Annual Great Pork Barbeqlossal. It looks like it will be a good one. I will however be at a different event taking place at the same time but I’m sure I’ll get information to bring you from the event. Here’s some more information on this year’s contest:
“More than 100 teams are expected to compete in this year’s Great Pork BarbeQlossal contest which would make this one of the largest field of competitors in the history of the competition,” said Barb Determan, a pork producer from Early, Iowa. “There are several changes to the contest this year including a new meat sponsor, W&G Marketing, and over $39,000 in prizes and awards.”
You can see the complete schedule of activities here. As they say, “If it has to do with pork production, you’ll find it at the World Pork Expo.”
For the next several days I’ll be making a trip to South Florida to drive my daughter back home for a summer vacation from college. We’re going to take a couple days. I will have time to get agwired though never fear. In fact, I’m sure there will be some airport time later today.
Can you say “Lost Opportunity?” I just saw a notice about Best Food Nation, a website created to provide the public with the facts about food and done with the support of 18 organizations which I’ll list later in the post. I guess someone’s not reading AgWired.
Although the website looks nice and is easy to navigate around, it’s static. Once you’ve looked around why would you want to go back? With all the money invested in this effort how about a blog? Why not have blog contributions from all those supporting groups? How about a podcast? Let’s produce a regular program that consumers can subscribe to featuring interviews with all the people quoted in all that static information you can find archived on the site? Let consumers comment on the information. There’s no feedback mechanism. How can the consumer feel involved? The website says “We have always invited public discussion . . .” but I don’t see how the public can “discuss.” I’m afraid that without a mechanism for this on the site the visiting consumer will not feel like their input is welcome.Read More
