Happy Good Friday, happy Passover, or just happy Friday. Let’s take a look at some random news from the week.
Roundup Will Face New Requirements: EPA released a statement that Monsanto will be required to have a weed resistant management plan for Roundup. The plan would include consumer education, remediation plans, and weed monitoring to address concerns of weed resistance. To read more, check out the Reuters article by Carey Gillam at http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/31/us-monsanto-herbicide-weeds-idUSKBN0MR2JT20150331.
CSA Webinar Online: If you missed the CSA Contracting webinar on Tuesday night, it is now online at http://bit.ly/CSAKwebinar. We will be covering labor and risk management tools this coming Tuesday night and you can still sign up at: http://bit.ly/CSAWebinar. Finally, we have developed a CSA contracting room to house the materials we are developing (including the model contract) and you can find that at http://bit.ly/CSARoom.
ARC/PLC Signup: Do not forget the extended deadline for ARC/PLC signup is on April 7th. Contact your county FSA office to select your farm bill programs today to set up an appointment if you have not already done so.
Ten Key Trends in U.S. Agriculture: Each year, prognosticators put together trend forecasts for stakeholders in almost every industry. But one of the biggest pitfalls to such measurements is that few companies and individuals are altering their budgets and business strategies well into January. For this reason, monitoring trends in the month’s first year as they pertain to the concluding months of the previous year can provide a better expectation of the next 11 months on the calendar. Read about the 10 major trends in agriculture for 2015. The full story is available here: http://www.agprofessional.com/news/global-aginvesting-ten-key-trends-us-agriculture
Final PMT Regs: The revised PMT regs will be submitted today to the Maryland Register. To review the proposed regs, see http://mda.maryland.gov/Documents/ProposedPMTRegs4.3.15Register.pdf.
Farmers Reduce Pollution After Ditching Old Way Of Handling Runoff: Could a two-stage ditch be a practice you should consider? A regular ditch is trapezoidal in cross section. Water comes over the side and falls to the bottom, where it flows along to the stream. A two-stage ditch is more like a split-level staircase in cross section. The water flows down the sides gradually and collects in a bench on each side of the deeper trench. The bench is filled with vegetation that slows the flow of water and allows nutrients in the runoff to enrich plant life instead of polluting rivers.The two-stage ditch creates a natural floodplain and returns channelized streams to their historic contours. In the process, the ditch’s benches trap sediment, blunt storm surges and collect much of the nitrate, suspended solids and phosphorus before they get into waterways. Maryland recently received $5 million in federal funds from the USDA for conservation practices. John Rhoderick, special projects and research coordinator with the Resource Conservation Office at the Maryland Department of Agriculture said he expects the money to be used for two-stage ditches as well as water-control structures and gypsum curtains to reduce phosphorus — a practice still being tested at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore. Read the whole story at: http://www.bayjournal.com/article/farmers_reduce_pollution_after_ditching_old_way_of_handling_runoff
Nursery Crop Insurance: For nursery growers out there the deadline to purchase crop insurance is May 1. Check out RMA’s Nursery Crop page to see what your options are http://www.rma.usda.gov/policies/nursery/index.html.