Agriculture : News
DATE: March 08, 2010
HARDIN COUNTY COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE
201 Peterson Drive
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701-9370
BY: Doug Shepherd
County Extension Agent for Agriculture and Natural Resources
Pesticide Tests:
It seems every year after we complete a series of Private Pesticide Applicator certification training meetings, the very next day someone will call in that forgot, or for some reason missed the previous training opportunities, and is now concerned about how to be able to purchase restricted use pesticides. Well those folks will have two additional opportunities, but this time it won’t be a training, but they will be required to take a test to obtain their certification.
Two testing dates have been set: Thursday, March 11 and Monday, March 15. Testing time is 2:00 PM on both dates, and the location is the Hardin County Cooperative Extension Service Office. Study materials are available at the Extension Office. Pre-registration is not necessary. Tests will involve around a hundred true or false and multiple choice questions, some of which involve simple math problems.
These tests are only for private pesticide applicators, not commercial applicators. Those tests are given by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and involve various categories of applicators and applications.
Fertilizer Prices lower:
According to information recently supplied by Dr. Greg Halich and Kenny Burdine, February Midwest fertilizer prices have lowered across the board compared to prices a year ago. Potash prices were well above $850 per ton a year ago, are now below $500 is some markets. In fact most products were in the $500 per ton range, with actual per unit prices in the thirty-five to forty-five cents per unit range. However, according to the specialists, prices for all materials had increased from the previous month, so there may be an upward trend beginning.
National Ag Day:
National Ag Week is March 14-20 with National Ag Day set for Saturday, March 20. This year’s national theme is: American Agriculture: Abundant, Affordable, Amazing! The annual day is set aside to recognize and celebrate the abundance provided by American Agriculture.
Agriculture provides almost everything we eat, use and wear on a daily basis. But too few people truly understand this contribution. This is particularly the case in our schools, where students may only be exposed to agriculture if they enroll in related vocational training. By building awareness of Ag’s importance, the American Agriculture Council, sponsor of Ag Week, is encouraging young people to consider career opportunities in agriculture.
Each American farmer feeds more than 144 people both here and abroad...a dramatic increase from 25 people in the 1960's. Quite simply, American agriculture is doing more - and doing it better. As the world population soars, there is an even greater demand for food and fiber produced in the United States.
More than three million people farm or ranch in the United States. Individuals, family partnerships or family corporations operate almost 99 percent of U.S. farms, not large companies as portrayed by some. Over 22 million people are employed in farm or farm-related jobs, including production agriculture, farm inputs, processing and marketing and wholesale and retail sales.
Average age of the principal operator is 55.3. Forty-one percent of U.S. total land area is farmland (938.28 million acres). In 1900, the average farm size was 147 acres, compared to 441 acres today.
The top five agricultural commodities are cattle and calves, dairy products, broilers, corn and soybeans. U.S. farmers produce 46% of the world’s soybeans, 41% of the world’s corn, 20.5% of the world’s cotton and 13% of the world’s wheat.
Farmers and ranchers are independent business people who provide for their families by growing and producing food and fiber. They use modern production techniques to increase the quality and quantity of the food they produce, which has lead to the changing face of American Agriculture.
Farmers and ranchers are producing meat lower in fat and cholesterol. This has resulted in retail cuts that are 15 percent leaner, giving consumers better value for their dollar. For example, a pork tenderloin now has only one more gram of fat than a skinless chicken breast, one of the true fat "lightweights." Also, much leaner beef cuts are being produced than 20 years ago, resulting in 27 percent less fat reaching the retail case than in 1985.
Research and advancements in biotechnology are now in the marketplace with tastier fruits and vegetables that stay fresh longer and are not damaged by insects. A new technique called "precision farming" boosts crop yields and reduces waste by using satellite maps and computers to match seed, fertilizer and crop protection applications to local soil conditions.
Farm equipment has evolved dramatically from the team of horses used in the early 1900s. Today’s four-wheel drive tractors have the power of 40 - 300 horses. This makes for a large capital investment, as farmers pay anywhere from $97,000 for an average 160 horsepower tractor to $170,000 for a four-wheel drive model.
As the amount of mechanization and horsepower in farm machinery has increased, the time needed to complete tasks has decreased. Combines, huge machines used to harvest grains such as corn, soybeans and wheat, have dramatically changed agriculture. In the 1930s, before the machines were available, a farmer could harvest an average of 100 bushels of corn by hand in a nine-hour day. Today’s combines can harvest 900 bushels of corn per hour-or 100 bushels of corn in under seven minutes!
The efficiency of U.S. farmers benefits the United States consumer in the pocketbook. Americans spend less on food than any other developed nation in the world. On average in 2004, Americans spent only 2% of their disposable income on meat and poultry, compared to 4.1 percent in 1970.
We’ll share some more interesting facts on the only truly vital US industry, agriculture, next week. Folks many times forget, without food and water, we truly will not survive.
Educational programs of the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service serve all people regardless of race, color, sex, age, religion, national origin, or disability.
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