March 27, 2016 - Journal Courier

Transcription

MODERN
FARMER
Sunday, March 27, 2016
MODERN FARMER
10 Sunday, March 27, 2016
Jacksonville Journal-Courier
Programs struggle to keep ag interest alive
By Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree
[email protected]
For Kaitlyn Baker, agriculture wasn’t something she had
an interest in, other than her
horses.
But after taking an agriculture class at Franklin, Baker, a
junior and vice president of the
Franklin High School FFA chapter, that has changed.
“I wouldn’t have learned
anything [about agriculture] if
I hadn’t joined the FFA,” Baker
said. “I wouldn’t have even considered a job in agriculture.”
While Baker said she isn’t
sure what she’ll study when she
goes to college, she has a world
of new possibilities.
That’s the goal of the agriculture-based programs like FFA
and 4-H.
As more students are going
away from the family farm,
deciding to pursue other careers
while their parents or other
family members maintain the
land, the importance of agriculture education is increasing.
Kenny Dufelmeier, the FFA
adviser and agriculture teacher
at Jacksonville High School,
said agriculture education is
needed across the country as
the population increases.
“Everyone needs a doctor
every once in a while, but you
need a farmer three times a
day,” Dufelmeier said.
Jonathan Morris, the agriculture teacher and FFA adviser at
Franklin High School, said more
students are leaving family
farms for other careers and the
Photo submitted
J
Kayla Keeton (right), a freshman at Franklin High School, and junior Colby Myer work on model greenhouses during their
C agriculture class.
Cnumber of farms is decreasing
education to fall back on.”
Dufelmeier said because of
P across the country.
Morris said the increase in
low farm incomes, it is hard for
“The population is expected
to double in the next 20 years,
but we are running out of farmland,” he said.
And younger farmers.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s most
recent agriculture census, 97
percent of the county’s 2.1 million farms were family owned.
On those, the average age of
the farm operator was 55 to 57
years old.
small family farms to generate
enough money for kids to make
a living, which is why more
are being encouraged to get an
education and a job outside the
farm.
“Parents want their kids to
go out, learn something and
bring it back to the farm later,”
Dufelmeier said. “When the
parents are older, the children
can come back and apply what
they learned. And, they have an
technology is also allowing
young adults to explore other
options.
“It doesn’t take as many
people to tend to the land as
it did years ago because of the
increased technology,” he said.
Morris said with the
increased technology use on
the farms, families require less
manpower to maintain the farm,
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MODERN FARMER
11
Corn group offering free water testing to farmers
By Mike Mallory
Morris Daily Herald (TNS)
With the start of the 2016
crop cycle approaching in April
and May, the Illinois Corn
Growers Association is reminding farmers statewide about the
benefits of water sampling.
The free and confidential
water testing service offered by
the Bloomington-based ICGA
can help farmers understand
nutrient loss at various times
of the year, depending on when
samples are taken.
“We’re just trying to begin to
fully understand the problems
causing nutrient loss,” said Paul
Jeschke, an Illinois Corn Mar-
Programs
From page 10
Morris said, freeing up the children to pursue other opportunities.
But, even if the number of
farms is decreasing, the number
of agriculture jobs is increasing.
Which is why agricultural programs try to encourage students
to pursue the multitude of different career options within the
agriculture sector. But that is a
task that is becoming harder as
communities and government
officials focus on other things
and agriculture becomes less of
a priority.
keting Board member.
It’s unrealistic to recommend
and expect all farmers to get
water tested, Jeschke said,
though he would encourage all
farmers to at least learn about
the issue of nutrient loss.
Farmers can take water
samples from sources on their
land, such as streams or drainage tiles, and collect them in
something as simple as a clean
mason jar, Jeschke said. Farmers then have the option of traveling with the samples to ICGA
headquarters for a test, mailing
them there or waiting for a traveling test site. Jeschke said the
2016 traveling test dates have
not been released yet.
Jeschke does water testing
whenever it’s convenient, often
in accordance with ICGA events
and meetings in Bloomington.
He took a test in December
because he was curious what
winter test results would look
like. He’s also curious how the
March rains will alter upcoming
test results.
“Testing can help you get a
handle on nutrient levels and
show how they can change
throughout the growing season,” Jeschke said.
To that point, he recommends
testing water in April before
planting crops, again around
June 1 and again in mid-to-lateJuly. Timing of these tests will
show highs and lows in nutrient loss. For example, nutrient
loss in the middle of July will
be drastically different than in
spring months, Jeschke said.
Ultimately, water testing helps
farmers make management
decisions on how to get the
best quantity and quality from
their fields. But these decisions
can also help keep nitrates and
phosphorus out of waterways.
Too much of these nutrients creates excessive algae blooms and
disrupts wildlife.
Jeschke said the water sampling efforts are aimed at meeting the Environmental Protection Agency’s goal by 2035 of
reducing the areal extent of the
Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone to
less than 5,000 km2. The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico
Watershed Nutrient Task Force,
also known as the Hypoxia Task
Force, agreed on an interim target of a 20 percent nutrient load
reduction by the year 2025 as a
milestone toward achieving the
final goal in 2035.
The hypoxic zone — an area
of low oxygen levels — is currently the width of the southern
tip of Louisiana, but nutrientenriched water creates algae
blooms in water systems from
Montana to Pennsylvania that
eventually make their way to
the Mississippi River and finally, the Gulf of Mexico.
The state is proposing cutting
the agricultural education line
item from the budget. While
that hasn’t happened yet, Morris said schools have already
had to adjust after funding was
cut in half several years ago.
The money provided by the
state helps fund school agricultural programs and provides
equipment upgrades, funds to
establish new programs, as well
as things that are continuously
needed within the program,
such as seeds.
Gov. Bruce Rauner announced
a new proposal on Tuesday that
would create a foundation that
will collect private donations to
fund agriculture programs.
Rauner said he would like
to put more money into the
schools and let them determine
what programs they fund.
“Let’s put a lot more money
into schools and let the schools
decide how they spend their
money,” Rauner said at a press
conference Tuesday. “I hope a
lot of the schools in Illinois put
more money into agriculture,
not less. All I’m saying is let the
schools, let the principals and
teachers decide how they spend
their money.”
Without the funds, Morris
said the programs would not
be able to update equipment to
stay current with technology.
“It’s hard to go to your
principal and say ‘hey, can I
spend $3,000 on new welding
machines’,” Morris said. “We’d
be teaching students on equipment that is out of date.”
Dufelmeier said that would
leave students unprepared for
any agriculture programs.
“If they wants to cut it out
of the budget, are we just not
going to prepare students for
the number one sector of our
economy,” Dufelmeier said.
“Are we saying we are going to
cut agriculture out of Illinois?”
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MODERN FARMER
Student building drone to help farmers
By Josh Moody
Associated Press
Evan Palmer has sky high
ambitions. A sophomore, Palmer is building a fixed-wing drone
to help farmers improve crop
production.
The project began after
Palmer applied for and received
a $1,000 grant from Nebraska
Farm Bureau to build the
unmanned aerial vehicle. He
also attracted other sponsors
who have contributed to the
cost of designing and building
his drone.
Palmer then began looking
at online forums to understand
how to build the drone and to
determine parts he would need.
“I started to get a basic idea of
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what I needed for the drone.
From there, I started building a
components list,” he said.
Along the way, Palmer also
learned how to use the 3D
printer at his high school to
fashion some of the parts needed for his project.
He looked into flight systems,
cameras and 3D mapping software for his project. He also
researched fixed-wing and quadcopter style drones, settling on
the fixed wing.
“I chose the fixed wing
because it will be able to cover a
larger area in less time,” Palmer
explained.
He chose a normalized difference vegetation index imaging
system, which relies on infrared
photos of crops to show their
health.
Photos taken by a drone,
using that NDVI system, can
be stitched together into a 3D
model using software called
DroneDeploy. The software was
donated to Palmer by the manufacturer.
The 3D model, mapped from
drone photos, will show farmers
issues with their crops such as
water runoff and plant health.
“On the ground they aren’t
able to see all of these different
spots. So when they have this
map of the field, they can view
firsthand what the issues are in
their fields,” Palmer said.
He envisions his drone being
used by farmers to check crop
health and make decisions
Josh Moody | The Daily Hub (AP)
Evan Palmer, a sophomore, works on the fixed-wing drone he’s building to survey
crops. Palmer plans to pair the drone with an infrared camera and 3D mapping
software to help farmers identify crop issues.
accordingly. “This will help
them save money, because they
can make the decision through
precision agriculture,” Palmer
explained.
Although drones are commonly used by the military and
in other industries such as construction and entertainment,
Palmer sees a lot of potential
for drones in agriculture.
“I think that as the drone
business develops more, you’ll
begin to see that agriculture is
the primary use for it,” he said.
“With the new software that
we’re using, it’s really providing
large benefits to farmers.”
With his project nearing
completion, Palmer said that he
plans to make a maiden flight of
his drone in late March.
The high school sophomore
already has a goal to create a
business from his handiwork by
flying the drone over fields and
providing crop imaging data to
farmers.
Palmer plans to continue his
interest in drones after high
school. He’s interested in the
unmanned aerial system program offered at Kansas State
University.
He added that he would be
interested in becoming a drone
pilot or entering aerospace engineering.
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MODERN FARMER
Spring can bring unwanted pests
By Family Features
Spring is the season when
pesky creatures can invade
homes. Even minor flaws in
a new home should not be
ignored as they can potentially
lead to pest damage.
Ron Harrison, entomologist
with Orkin, recommends homeowners avoid making these five
mistakes:
Overlooking tiny cracks
Even tiny cracks and crevices
in the foundation, doorways
and walls where pipes enter the
home could be inviting ants,
roaches, spiders, rodents and
other pests inside.
A rat can squeeze through an
opening as small as a quarter
and a mouse can fit through a
hole the size of a dime. Cockroaches, ants and spiders can
enter through tiny crevices, too.
Pests are attracted to shelter,
food and water. Homeowners
should promptly clean up all
Getty Images
water and food spills, seal any
cracks and crevices around
doors, windows and pipes and
install weather stripping around
and under all doors, including
garage doors.
Obtaining second-hand furniture
Buying a home is an expensive investment and it may be
tempting to save money with
furniture from a thrift shop or
garage sale, but bed bugs, spiders and even scorpions have
been known to dwell in secondhand upholstered furniture.
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Once inside, they can spread
from room to room. That’s why
it’s important to inspect and
quarantine – for several months
if possible – all second-hand furniture before bringing it inside
your home.
Ignoring insulation
A home’s attic can be a gateway inside for many pests, such
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insulation that is wet, matted
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New insulation technology
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Ignoring flooring and siding
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Termites are called “silent
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They cause more than $5 billion in damage every year in
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House foundations, wood
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Brick and mortar homes are
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Not repairing leaks
Minor leaks may seem to be
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American cockroaches,
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tiny cracks and are attracted to
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Small steps make a big difference. Fix leaking faucets, water
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MODERN FARMER
15
Ethanol industry facing uncertain future
By Steve Tarter
Journal Star (TNS)
These are tough economic
times for ethanol plants.
Proof of that came from
Archer Daniels Midland Co.
when the ethanol giant said
recently it was considering selling three of its dry-mill ethanol
plants.
One of those three plants
operates on the Peoria riverfront. ADM has operated the
facility there since 1981, when
it took over the site previously
operated by the Hiram Walker
whiskey firm.
“Margin continues to be historically low,” said ADM CEO
Juan Luciano in an exchange
with analysts. “We are concerned about the long term
from the dry mill part of the
industry.”
ADM profits from its bioproducts division, which
includes ethanol, dropped 70
percent in the fourth quarter
of 2015 compared to the same
period in the previous year.
Dry mills, which make up a
small part of the 17 corn processing plants ADM operates
in five states, deliver fewer
byproducts than wet mills,
which can also produce modified starches, high fructose
corn syrup, dextrose, gluten
feed and yeast — that, along
with ethanol, can be sold separately.
“ADM hasn’t lost any of its
commitment to ethanol. This
is a business strategy to focus
more on their wet mills,” said
Dave Loos, technology and
business development manager
for the Bloomington-based Illinois Corn Growers Association.
But Loos admits this is a
down period for the ethanol
industry.
“Margins for (ethanol) producers are close. We’ll probably
be seeing some supply cut-
backs,” he said.
Don Oldham, president of Illinois Corn Processing in Pekin,
said corn is the most expensive
ingredient for any ethanol
plant.
“Corn prices will dictate what
the future may bring,” he said.
“Right now, due to on-farm
storage, the farmer has held
some of the 2014 crop and most
of the 2015 crop in hopes of
driving the price higher. Farmer
selling is slim in the Peoria
area,” said Oldham, adding selling could pick up depending on
this year’s crop and subsequent
price swings.
Oldham said he wouldn’t be
surprised to see other ethanol
plants go on the market.
“I believe all ethanol producers are evaluating what make
sense for them in this very tight
margin time period for fuel
ethanol. Yes, you will see other
plants go for sale. One domestic giant — Abengoa — is up
for sale now with several plants
across the United States,” he
said.
“Some of the smaller plants
that are working off of gains
obtained in the banner year of
2014 will soon idle and consequently may go up for sale,”
said Oldham.
Ethanol producers also face
an old adversary, the oil industry whose representatives are
calling for an end to the Renewable Fuel Standard, the federal
mandate that dictates the use of
biofuels in this country.
The U.S. oil industry now
produces 3 million more barrels
of oil per day (in this country)
than it did 10 years ago when
the RFS was passed, said Frank
Macchiarola of the Washington,
D.C-based American Petroleum
Institute, suggesting that ethanol is no longer necessary.
The RFS standard calls for
18.1 billion gallons of biofuels,
mostly corn ethanol, to be produced this year, up from 16.9
billion gallons in 2015.
Loos said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
the federal agency that oversees
the RFS, could help advance the
use of biofuels in this country
by doing more to make E15 the
national standard instead of
E10.
The 10 percent blend of
ethanol in gasoline has become
a line in the sand for the oil
industry, said Bob Dineen, CEO
of the Washington, D.C.-based
Renewable Fuels Association.
“We are in 10 percent of the
nation’s motor fuel. (The oil
industry) doesn’t want to see
the industry grow any more,”
he said.
To help provide more choices
for motorists, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is partnering with 21 states to increase
the number of fuel pumps that
provide higher blends of ethanol
(up to E85) for the estimated
17 million flex-fuel vehicles on
U.S. roads today.
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MODERN FARMER
17
Farmers face
El Nino’s end could launch grain prices
‘challenging year’
By Tim Mitchell
enced a diminishing El Nino, he said, nine out of
10 times there were above-average temperatures
for July and August the following year.
“It looks like the weather will be hotter than
normal, but we aren’t sure about the drier than
normal,” Crowley said. “Right now the drier
weather is forecasted to occur in the southern
U.S.”
As temperatures increase, Crowley said, the
markets may experience a “weather premium”
that could add to the price of corn and soybeans.
“Anything that threatens the supply should
push prices higher for corn,” he said. “But you
may not see the markets move as much for
weather with beans as you would with corn.”
Crowley said it wouldn’t be surprising to see
corn prices jump to about $4.50 to $5 a bushel
and soybean prices to $9.50 to $10 a bushel,
depending upon the severity of the weather.
Crowley told the meeting participants that is
appears that the commodity markets are bottoming out.
He said it appears that corn reached a low
for the current five-year grain cycle in October
2014, with soybeans reaching their low in September 2015.
“We have seen our prices stop going down,”
he said.
The News-Gazette (TNS)
By Kevin Barlow
to figure out how to make a
profit when the income has
been greatly reduced but the
Lower fuel prices may help
input costs have essentially
farmers this spring, but it
stayed the same,” he said.
probably won’t be enough to
Thomas Wargel, owner of
offset the average annual cost
Black Prairie Ag Services, a
of running a farm.
farm management service in
“It’s going to be a challengClinton, is telling clients the
ing year,” said John Hawkins
same thing.
of Illinois Farm Bureau. “Pric“Expenses have hardly
es for corn and soybeans are
moved and so we are looking
low to start with,
at being about $90
and the input
per acre down on
“Farmers will
prices — such as
gross income,” he
the cost of seed
have to sharpen
said. “That comes
and fertilizer —
off the profit, so
their pencils and
are still pretty
everyone is looksee where they
close to what
ing for ways to
can cut costs.”
they were last
cut production to
— John Hawkins bring the profit
year. Farmers will
Illinois Farm Bureau back up. There
have to sharpen
their pencils and
aren’t a lot of placsee where they
es to cut costs, but
can cut costs.”
the one area that is affected is
Lower commodity prices
the family living allowance.”
will mean smaller profits for
Lower fuel prices should
farmers, Hawkins said. Corn
provide a decrease in spendis selling for about $3.70 a
ing.
bushel and soybeans are sell“That will help, but that’s
ing for about $8.75 a bushel.
not going to be anywhere
“It’s not going to be the best close to being enough,”
of times, but it is not going to Hawkins said.
be the worst of times, either,”
Myers agreed. “That’s going
said Steve Myers, senior vice
to move the needle some, but
president, accredited farm
we need to move the needle a
manager and certified crop
whole lot,” he said. “Farmers
adviser with Busey Ag Sermight see some slight relief on
vices in LeRoy. “We are going
fertilizer, seed and herbicide,
to have to adjust to the times.
but those are all minor.”
We discuss with our clients
Still, Myers doesn’t foresee
about managing risk and
huge losses.
managing their volatility, but
“It’s not that farmers aren’t
those are discussions we have
going to make money in 2016,
always had. This year, those
it’s just that the bottom line
concerns are magnified and
is going to be a lot tighter,”
amplified because we don’t
he said. “We are saying that
have $7 corn anymore.”
you aren’t going to make the
Myers said farmers had
money you were used to and
record income levels between
you are going to have to get
2010 and 2014, and input
used to a different number. It’s
costs increased slightly over
all in how we adjust and adapt
that time.
and I know of nobody that can
“So the hard math is trying
adapt better than the farmer.”
The Pantagraph (TNS)
The principal at a Watseka commodities firm
anticipates the impending end of the El Nino
could lead to higher grain prices in 2016.
Merrill D. Crowley of Crowley Commodities
said it appears we are entering the end of the El
Nino period.
“It looks like price rallies may happen somewhere about May or June,” he said.
An El Nino is a weather condition associated
with a band of warm ocean water that develops
in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific
that often leads to warmer and drier weather in
the Midwest.
Crowley noted that 2015 was the second
warmest year on record for the area since 1895.
He said the 10 warmest September-to-December
time periods with temperatures similar to 2015
were all followed by years with warmer-thannormal weather.
“They are saying the El Nino is diminishing, but there is some debate on how soon it is
diminishing,” he said.
When the El Nino concludes, Crowley said,
there is a chance for some extreme weather.
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MODERN FARMER
Unchecked water
weeds can kill a pond
By Greg Olson
[email protected]
Greg Olson | Journal-Courier
University of Illinois Extension educator Duane Friend looks at some early spring algae on a Jacksonville-area lake. Friend said
pond owners need to address water weeds early in order to maintain a healthy pond.
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Maintaining a healthy
pond is a concern for property owners who use the bodies of water for such things
as livestock, wildlife and
recreation.
Water weeds and dead fish
are two signs that pond owners may have an unhealthy
pond. University of Illinois
Extension educator Duane
Friend same pond owners
normally begin calling him
in June and July to inquire
about those issues.
“Excessive pond weeds and
fish kills are typically related
to each other, but it’s not
for the reason most people
think,” Friend said. “Most
people relate the fish kills to
herbicide runoff, but the fish
deaths are usually because of
the weeds dying and decomposing.”
When pond weeds die,
Friend said, microbes decompose the organic material,
using dissolved oxygen in the
water.
“Also, as water temperatures increase, dissolved oxygen levels in water decrease,
which further reduces oxygen
levels,” he said. “A good indicator of low oxygen levels in
a pond is when you find fish
gasping for air in the early
morning, when oxygen levels
are at their lowest.”
Friend and other Extension
educators hold informational
seminars on pond management in the spring, and onsite workshops in the summer. “We talk about basic
pond ecology, weed management and fish management,”
he said. “What we try to do
with the pond management
seminars is to provide pond
owners with options on how
“Excessive pond weeds
and fish kills are typically
related to each other, but
it’s not for the reason
most people think. Most
people relate the fish
kills to herbicide runoff,
but the fish deaths
are usually because of
the weeds dying and
decomposing.”
– Duane Friend
University of Illinois Extension
educator
to manage their pond in a
way that meets their needs.
For example, we provide
information on proper fish
stocking, fish populations
that will provide a good fishing opportunity for a pond.”
Friend said that while a
pond may look aesthetically
pleasing, it may be an ecological desert, lacking the natural food web that one finds in
more natural environments.
“It’s not easy for pond
owners to maintain a healthy
pond because of excessive
nutrients coming into the
pond along with sediment
from excessive erosion,”
Friend said. Increased nutrients in the water lead to an
explosion of plant growth,
which then die off and reduce
water oxygen levels in late
summer.
“Pond owners should be
proactive in their management of ponds by controlling
weeds early and by reducing
the amount of sediment coming into their pond by using
waterways and buffer strips,”
Friend said.
Greg Olson can be reached at 217245-6121, ext. 1224, or on Twitter @
JCNews_Greg.
MODERN FARMER
19
Antibiotic-free chicken chasing cage-free eggs
By Greg Trotter
Chicago Tribune (TNS)
When it comes to poultry
industry trends, this much
is clear: The cage-free egg
came before the antibiotic-free
chicken.
But similar to the egg industry’s shift toward cage-free
housing systems for hens, the
movement to rid chickens of
antibiotics is quickly gaining
traction among the nation’s top
suppliers.
Perdue, the country’s thirdlargest chicken producer, has
announced that two-thirds of its
chickens are now raised without
antibiotics. Those birds will be
processed and marketed under
Perdue’s “No Antibiotics Ever”
label.
For years, health advocates
have pressured suppliers to
stop using antibiotics that
cause chickens to grow plumper
faster, warning such practices
add to the spread of antibioticresistant bacteria, which can be
transmitted to humans who eat
the meat. Meanwhile, consumers have become increasingly
willing to pay more to feel good
about the food they buy.
“It’s something consumers
have told us is important to
them,” said Eric Christianson,
senior vice president of marketing and innovation for Perdue.
Perdue, a $7 billion privately
held company based in Maryland, doesn’t envision a future
where no antibiotics are used.
Not even groups that have
called for a reduction in antibiotic use — like The Pew Charitable Trusts and The Humane
Society of the United States —
demand that. Sick birds should
be treated with antibiotics,
everyone seems to agree.
But eliminating routine, nonmedical use of antibiotics benefits public health, said Karin
Hoelzer, an officer in health
programs at Pew.
“We believe Perdue has to
be commended for this major
change,” said Hoelzer, a veterinarian involved with Pew’s
antibiotic resistance project.
“The more we use antibiotics
in any setting, the less effective
they become, so any moves to
reduce inappropriate uses are
welcomed.”
It’s also good for business.
At Perdue, organic and
antibiotic-free birds represented
about 16 percent of its fresh
chicken sales last year, compared with 84 percent for conventional chickens, Christianson said. But the organic and
antibiotic-free sales are growing
at a much faster clip.
The company is not raising
the suggested retail prices on
the products being brought into
the “No Antibiotics Ever” line,
food such as nuggets, strips
and marinated chicken breasts,
Christianson said. But in general, Perdue charges more for its
antibiotic-free chicken than its
conventional products to offset
the additional costs of raising
chickens without antibiotics.
A recent Deloitte study found
that more people across age and
income levels are buying food
based on factors like health and
social impact, rather than more
traditional factors like price and
taste.
Tyson Foods, a $40.6 billion
company and the largest pro-
ducer of chicken and beef in the
U.S., has launched its own lines
of antibiotic-free meat. Earlier
this week, Tyson launched its
“Open Prairie Natural Pork”
brand from hogs raised without
antibiotics, joining its similarly
branded offerings in chicken
and beef.
“We’ll stress that this is not
a marketing effort,” said Tyson
spokesman Worth Sparkman
in an email. “We’re moving
away from (antibiotics used on
humans) because it’s the right
thing to do.”
Perdue began phasing out
antibiotics more than 10 years
ago and eliminated the use of
human antibiotics on its chickens in 2014. Tyson intends to
do the same by the end of 2017.
The Food and Drug Administration has taken steps to
tighten regulation of antibiotics
used in agriculture, calling on
pharmaceutical companies to
voluntarily stop promoting the
use of antibiotics to accelerate
animal growth.
Antibiotic resistance has
become a “major problem,” said
Guy Crosby, adjunct associate
professor of nutrition at the
Harvard T.H. Chan School of
Public Health. The decision by
meat suppliers to reduce their
use of antibiotics is a “win-win”
for public health and companies’
bottom lines, he said.
Dr. Stuart Levy, director
of the Center for Adaptation
Genetics and Drug Resistance
at Tufts University, was among
the first scientific researchers to
look at the issue in the 1970s.
His study found that chickens
given antibiotics developed
drug-resistant bacteria, findings
that didn’t sit well with the meat
industry at the time.
Decades later, Levy said he
found it “fascinating” to see the
meat industry come around.
“Right now, I think the whole
world is concerned about drugresistant bacteria and use of
antibiotics on animals is a big
part of it,” Levy said.
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MODERN FARMER
INSIDE:
Photos by David Blanchette | Journal-Courier
Wayne Brown sits in the cab of his tractor, which is equipped with modern technology to help him farm.
Data making farming a matter of precision
By David Blanchette
For the Journal-Courier
Agriculture is a business of
inches and acres.
The newest precision agriculture technology can help
farmers precisely plow, plant,
fertilize and harvest in the same
narrow area year after year,
maximizing their productivity
and minimizing monetary and
environmental expense. It can
help farmers apply fertilizer
only where it’s needed, avoid
under or over-seeding difficult
areas like irregular field edges,
accurately measure the productivity of each part of a field, and
utilize every square inch of land
to generate a profit.
It’s a brave — and expensive
— new world of agriculture.
“The new systems offer subinch accuracy. You can operate
that machine in the same track
year after year, known as strip
tilling, which is concentrating the fertilizer and chemical
applications in the furrow right
where the seed is going to be,”
said Wayne Brown, integrated
solutions manager for ArendsAwe in Riggston, an area John
Deere dealer. “Farmers are
seeing an increase in productivity due to that, and the cost of
doing it is going down. You can
concentrate it all in the strip
instead of spreading it all over
the field.”
One of the newer focuses for
precision agriculture is data
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■ Data making farming
a matter of precision ........................................... 2
■ More women finding
fields in the field................................................... 7
■ Food lobby builds
support for growing local ....................................8
■ Programs struggle to
keep ag interest alive ......................................... 10
■ Corn group offering free
water testing to farmers .....................................11
■ Student building
drone to help farmers ........................................ 12
■ Spring can bring
unwanted pests ................................................. 14
■ Ethanol industry
facing uncertain future ...................................... 15
■ Farmers face
‘challenging year’................................................17
■ El Nino’s end could
launch grain prices .............................................17
■ Unchecked water
weeds can kill a pond ......................................... 18
■ Antibiotic-free chicken
chasing cage-free eggs...................................... 19
■ Central counties lead
state in corn, bean production ..........................20
■ Calf Watch gives students
hands-on experience .........................................22
■ Seed provides a
homage to ancient brews ..................................23
■ Man one of nation’s
only master saddlers .........................................24
■ GMO labeling debate
puts food industry on defensive ........................26
■ Farm group welcomes
2016 Ag Baby .....................................................28
■ Net-pen fish farming
faces opposition ................................................30
■ Students learn how to
navigate grain market ........................................ 31
■ Illinois Farm Bureau
marks 100 years ................................................ 31
MODERN FARMER
Central counties lead state in corn, bean production
By Kevin Barlow
McLean County farmers led
the state last year in harvesting
the most corn and soybeans,
but Piatt County recorded
the top average yield for both
grains.
McLean County harvested
63 million bushels of corn and
19 million bushels of soybeans,
according to statistics released
by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Overall, it wasn’t very
consistent and the numbers
reflected the weirdness of the
last growing season,” said John
Hawkins, a spokesman for the
Illinois Farm Bureau.
Last year, heavy rains in June
caused flooding in many areas
throughout the state.
The National Ag Statistics
Office said the state average
corn yield was 175 bushels an
acre, compared to 200 bushels
in 2014.
The state soybean average
yield was 56 bushels an acre,
equaling the 2014 state yield
average.
“The lower yields were no
fault of the farmer because
Mother Nature threw everything
at them,” Hawkins said. “When
you have so much rain and flood-
ing, it’s like farming with one
hand tied behind your back.”
Farmers said yields were difficult to predict because of rains
that caused flooding in low
areas.
“It was hit or miss,” said
Marvin Farrell, who farms near
Lexington. “Even in the same
field, there were really good
spots and a couple of really
poor spots.”
Still, the numbers were better
than the five-year average prior
to 2015. From 2010 to 2014,
corn yields in Illinois averaged
159.5 bushels an acre. The fiveyear average for soybeans was
41.4 bushels an acre.
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MODERN FARMER
Calf Watch gives students hands-on experience
By Lenore Sobota
When it comes to getting
hands-on experience in Illinois
State University’s Calf Watch
program, the “hands-on” part
is quite literal and can go
beyond the hands.
If cow is having a problem
giving birth, students step in
and could find themselves “up
to their arms and shoulders”
assisting, explained ISU Farm
manager Russ Derango.
“If they’re going to go out
into the industry, they need
the experience,” Derango
said. “You can talk about it in
the classroom, but it’s not the
same as seeing it.”
Students participating in
Calf Watch work shifts from
6 p.m. to 6 a.m. as part of an
independent study program
that also includes keeping
a journal. For every hour of
credit, the student has to
spend three nights at the farm,
located near Lexington.
“The purpose is to give students some hands-on experience and learn about the calving process and the work that
a beef owner goes through,”
Derango said.
Every hour, they go through
the cattle barn, checking on
the cows and calves and looking for signs of calving in the
cattle that haven’t given birth
yet, he said. On cold nights,
they also ensure that drinking
water isn’t frozen, and break
any ice that forms.
About 40 students are
involved this semester. On any
given night, about five or six
are at the farm.
The idea is to have students
understand not only the physical signs of a cow about to
“If they’re going to go out into the industry, they need
the experience,” Derango said. “You can talk about it in
the classroom, but it’s not the same as seeing it.”
— Russ Derango
Illinois State University Farm manager
give birth but also their behavior, such as being restless or
nervous and moving to a more
secluded spot, Derango said.
“A lot of them come from a
farming background but not
necessarily a livestock background,” Derango said of the
participants. “We see somewhat of an increase in students
coming from an urban area”
in the pre-veterinary medicine
program.
Erich Turk’s family raises
horses, not cattle, on their
farm in Kaneville. The senior
in agricultural business and
agronomy management said
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he likes “the whole experience
behind (Calf Watch), from the
behavioral tendency of the
cattle to the calving process.”
Every student goes through
training before taking shifts
at the farm. This training
includes learning about animal care standards overseen
by ISU’s Institutional Animal
Care and Usage Committee,
taking an online health and
safety quiz and understanding
operating procedures for the
entire farm, not just the beef
area.
Derango said they also discuss the calving process, how
to handle cows and be around
livestock and what is proper
presentation at birth — two
front legs and a head.
If something isn’t going
right, the students will call
Derango or another worker
who lives at the farm.
Freshman Mariah Dietz, an
animal science major from
Glen Ellyn without any livestock background, said she
learned a lot in a short period
of time.
“I learned pretty quickly …
how mean the mom cow could
be,” Dietz said. “She was ramming the gate chasing us.”
But Emma Nicholas, a prevet freshman from Chicago,
said the cow was just being
“protective,” not “mean.”
Nicholas used to live in Ireland, where her father has a
farm with cattle, so she’s used
to being around livestock. But
her father has a smaller herd.
ISU’s herd gives birth
to about 100 calves a year
between Feb. 1 and the end of
March.
“With 100 calves, the
chances of having some kind
of problem you have to assist
with is larger,” said Derango,
who has worked at the ISU
Farm for 37 years.
Sometimes that means “pulling” a calf. Yes, the process is
just what it sounds like. Two
people work together.
“Whenever she pushes, you
pull,” he explained.
If more assistance is
needed, for example, if the
cow isn’t pushing enough or
at all, chains are attached to
the calf’s legs to help pull,
Derango said. A mechanical
“calf puller” might be used,
which alternates pulling one
leg more than the other, to
help move the calf through the
birth canal, he added.
The goal is to have the students do as much of the work
as possible.
“We want the student to get
the experience and still have a
live birth,” Derango said.
As much as they do not
want to have to pull a calf or
see a backward birth, it does
provide an educational experience for the students, he said.
Junior Andrew Erickson of
Oneida, an agricultural business major, already had experience pulling calves on his
family farm, which has hogs,
corn and soybeans in addition
to cattle.
“I’m willing to give input
if they (fellow students) ask
questions,” said Erickson, who
also likes learning different
approaches to handling cattle.
Hannah Monroe of McNabb,
a senior in agricultural business, also had experience
before joining Calf Watch.
“I raised cattle back home,
but it’s good to see it from a
different perspective. It gives
me something to take back
home,” she said. “You always
learn something new.”
MODERN FARMER
23
Seed provides an homage to ancient brews
By Dirk Lammers
Associated Press
Fourteen years ago, University of South Dakota anthropology professor Matthew Sayre
unearthed pepper tree seed
from the southern tip of Peru,
unaware he’d stumbled upon a
spent ingredient from a small
1,000-year-old brewery.
That discovery evolved
into a team from Chicago’s
Field Museum team excavating a larger 500-gallon batch
operation at Cerro Baul and
the issuance of an ale inspired
by the ingredients and brewing
practices of the ancient Wari
people.
In the recent craft-beer
booms, brewers have turned to
ancient civilizations’ obscure,
millennia-old recipes using
corn, rice, peppers and berries
to set themselves apart from
their colleagues’ beers as well
as the vast majority of modern
beer, which is brewed primarily
with barley, hops and yeast.
“They started spreading
out and trying other things,
and it turned out that ancient
people were doing the same
thing,” said Patrick McGovern,
an ancient beverage expert at
the University of Pennsylvania
Museum in Philadelphia. “It
takes us back to our roots.”
Wari Ale, the latest offering
that taps ancient cultures for
inspiration, carries the sourness of a corn mash with a
late-breaking, delicate hint of
sweetness from the pepper,
said Patrick Ryan Williams, the
museum’s associate curator and
head of anthropology.
“It’s very refreshing, clear,
summer ale type,” Williams
said of the purple beer, which
was made by Chicago’s Off
Color Brewing. “Maybe like a
shandy.”
Delaware-based Dogfish
Head Craft Brewery was
Carson Walker | University of South Dakota
University of South Dakota assistant professor Matthew Sayre (left) and student
Aaron Mayer, who are researching the Wari people of Peru, hold seeds from that part
of the world that inspired a new craft beer called Wari.
among the first to tap into
ancient beers market in 1999
as part of collaboration with
McGovern. The recipe for the
beer-wine-mead hybrid brew
Midas Touch — honey, barley
malt, white muscat grapes and
saffron — came from molecular
evidence found in a Turkish
tomb believed to have belonged
to King Midas.
Inspirations for later Dogfish
Head ancients, which McGovern will be chronicling in his
upcoming book “Liquid Time
Capsules,” include a 3,500-yearold Danish drinking vessel,
3,400-year-old pottery fragments found in Honduras and a
9,000-year-old tomb from Neo-
lithic China.
A 2009 batch of the traditional Peruvian chicha replicated
the ancient act of milling and
moistening the corn in Dogfish
brewers’ mouths before adding
it into the boil. Attendees of the
Great American Beer Festival
couldn’t wait to try it, McGovern said.
“The line of people across the
Denver Convention Center was
unbelievable,” he said.
Sayre’s seed discovery, which
he quickly connected to berries
growing nearby, came along
with evidence of many smaller
sites that were home probably
breweries, he said, but the giant
operation unearthed by Field
Museum anthropologists was
much larger than the ones he
found.
“When it was brewed in large
amounts, that was probably for
big feast events,” Sayre said.
To map out a process for a
modern take on chicha, Williams and a team of researchers
brewed experimental batches in
Peru using locally grown corn
and pepper berries.
“We used reproduction ceramic vessels of the boiling jars and
we did it over an open fire using
natural woods and fuel,” Wil-
liams said. “We really wanted to
understand how the brew was
created.”
The batches gave the scientists a pretty good idea of how
the brew should taste, and then
the museum took its information to Off Color Brewing.
To be called a beer in the
U.S., breweries must use barley
and hops, so those ingredients
were incorporated into the
recipe.
“So it’s not an exact recreation,” Williams said. “It’s a chicha de molle-inspired ale.
Off Color co-founder David
Bleitner brewed some small
batches until settling on a
method that would work for a
large-scale replication, overcoming logistical challenges such as
finding an importer to source
the purple corn from Peru.
“We’ve never done anything
like this before,” Bleitner said.
“This was probably the most
work I’ve ever put into concepting and making a beer.”
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MODERN FARMER
Man one of nation’s only master saddlers
By Todd Shields
Pioneer Press Newspapers (TNS)
In 2013, when saddle maker
Michael Dainton measured a
horse for a family member of
Julia Julian, she said the difference was very noticeable.
The saddle was for her
daughter, who Dainton also
measured to ride the custom-fit
saddle.
“It was the way her horse
moved with the new saddle. It
gave the horse more freedom
of movement,” said Julian, the
owner of Flying Dutchman
Farm, an 18-stall private horse
training facility she leases in
Barrington Hills.
Dainton said he has been
a horse saddle maker at Barrington Saddlery in Barrington
for four years. He is one of
only five master saddlers in the
United States, having been certified by the U.K.-based Society
of Master Saddlers in 1983.
The society deemed him a
master after Dainton completed a four-year apprenticeship
and passed several skills tests,
Dainton said.
One of the other five masters
in America is Kate Ballard,
who also works at Barrington
Saddlery.
In 1976, Dainton started an
apprenticeship at age 21 in
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, a city in
northeast England, his native
country.
“I learned the whole nine
yards of the saddlery business
— making bridles, saddles,
driving harnesses, driving collars,” said Dainton, a Lake Barrington resident.
“I was very lucky because I
learned to do repair work, too.”
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He finished the apprentice
stint, worked for a few saddlers, started his own business
and moved to the United States
in 2000. He said he worked in
West Chester, Penn., for four
years, before coming to the
Midwest in 2008.
“The States is an open playing field in the equestrian
industry that was already starting to flourish,” Dainton said.
At Barrington Saddlery,
Dainton stood at his workbench, pointing to more than
200 well-worn hand tools, such
as round knives, screw creases
and pricking irons.
“Some of these tools are from
the early 1900s in England,” he
said.
Similar to his father, who
owned three butcher shops in
England, Dainton said he also
liked working with his hands.
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“My father was a good
business man and good with
people. It’s like this business
because both are very relational. People come in and usually
spend a lot of money,” he said.
“And I spend a lot time with
them. If they need an adjustment or repair, they come back
to see me. You instill trust.”
He also said the Internet has
changed the saddle and tack
shop business, explaining customers know a lot about horseback riding equipment before
coming to Barrington Saddlery.
“But I instill confidence in
them. I know more about this
business than what they’ve
read on the Internet,” he said.
Creating a custom saddle
takes two to four weeks, Dainton said. First, he wets the
uncut leather sheet with water
and stretches it over a saddletree that serves as its structural
foundation, he said, unhooking
one of several trees hanging on
his shop wall.
“The leather dries and I hand
sew all the saddle skirts. I
make about 10 custom saddles
a year. We keep very busy
here,” he said.
“The Barrington area has a
lot of horse investments and a
broad spectrum in the different
disciplines of riding.”
Barrington Saddlery also has
a section for horse health and
grooming products, competition attire such as riding coats
and custom boots, an equestrian fashion store, as well as a
full service laundry and repair
service for horse blankets.
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25
MODERN FARMER
GMO labeling debate puts food industry on defensive
By Greg Trotter
Chicago Tribune (TNS)
If you’ve had a soda, a bag of
chips or a store-bought cookie
in the past 20 years, chances are
you’ve eaten genetically modified organisms — better known
as GMOs.
For years, food containing
GMOs have lined the shelves of
American grocery stores with
little protest. Those ingredients
— derived from crops bioengineered to resist herbicides and
pests — are deemed perfectly
safe for consumption by the federal government and the food
industry.
But a growing wariness
among consumers — and
increasing concern among
scientists over a herbicide commonly sprayed on the crops —
has led to a national fight over
whether foods containing such
ingredients should say so on the
label.
There’s no law in Illinois
“We have a right to know what we put in our bodies,”
said Tamara Holley, 53, of Hyde Park, as she left a
Whole Foods Market. “And companies should be held
responsible for that.”
— Tamara Holley, 53, of Hyde Park
requiring foods with GMOs to
be labeled, but other states are
pushing forward. A Vermont
law that mandates labels — the
first of its kind — takes effect
July 1 and has legislators scrambling to pass a bill through Congress that would keep labeling
voluntary and prevent states
from passing their own laws.
Large food manufacturers
based in the Chicago area,
including Kraft Heinz and Oreo
maker Mondelez International,
support voluntary labeling,
saying mandatory labels would
mislead consumers and that the
extra labeling and production
costs could be passed on to customers.
For many consumers, the
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issue is clear: They want to
know what’s in their food.
“We have a right to know
what we put in our bodies,”
said Tamara Holley, 53, of Hyde
Park, as she left a Whole Foods
Market. “And companies should
be held responsible for that.”
Last spring, the cancer
research arm of the World
Health Organization declared
glyphosate, the most commonly
used herbicide on GMO crops,
to be a probable carcinogen.
And just last month, the FDA
announced it would begin testing food products sold in the
U.S. for glyphosate residue.
State legislators across the
nation introduced 101 bills last
year pertaining to GMOs. Of
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the 15 that passed, four had to
do with labeling, according to
the National Conference of State
Legislatures. A bill introduced
by Illinois state Sen. David
Koehler, D-Peoria, requiring disclosure of genetically engineered
ingredients stalled in committee.
More than 90 percent of corn
and soybeans grown in Illinois is
genetically modified, said Adam
Nielsen, director of national
legislation for the Illinois Farm
Bureau, which opposes mandatory labeling.
The labeling issue appears
to be coming to a head in Congress. Earlier this month, a
Senate bill that would establish
a “national voluntary standard”
for GMO labeling was voted out
of the Agriculture Committee.
Sponsored by Sen. Pat Roberts,
R-Kan., the bill would pre-empt
state laws, such as Vermont’s.
It has widespread support from
the food industry.
Roberts has framed the debate
as an economic issue, not a
matter of safety, and noted the
regulatory oversight already in
place from three federal agencies: The U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Animal and Plant
Health Inspection Service,
the Environmental Protection
Agency and the Food and Drug
Administration.
Opponents of Roberts’ bill
have dubbed it — and a similar
bill that passed the House last
summer — as the Denying
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Americans the Right to Know
or DARK Act. Many of them
support an opposing bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Merkley,
D-Ore., which would establish
a national standard for mandatory labeling.
Mandatory labeling is “inherently misleading” because it
appears to be a warning when
the food is completely safe,
said Mike Gruber, senior vice
president of federal affairs for
the Grocery Manufacturers
Association, the industry trade
group representing large food
and beverage companies.
“The most important thing is
to have a national (voluntary)
standard and not a patchwork
of state mandates,” Gruber
said.
In lieu of GMO labeling on
the product itself, the grocery
trade group recently launched
a program that allows customers to scan a product’s QR code
and find GMO-related information on their smartphones, he
said. Some companies, including Hershey Co. and General
Mills, already use the technology on some of their products,
according to the association.
Other companies are taking
it further. In January, Campbell
Soup Co. broke from the ranks
to support mandatory labeling,
even while defending the safety
of GMOs.
Until the 20th century, everyone knew where their food
came from, said Steve Moose,
professor of maize genomics in
the Department of Crop Sciences at the University of Illinois.
But that changed with advances
in agriculture and technology,
and the GMO labeling issue is
part of a larger movement to
reconnect to the food supply,
Moose said.
The GMO crop movement
took off in 1996, when Monsanto Co. introduced Roundup
See GMO | 27
MODERN FARMER
GMO
From page 26
Ready soybean seeds, genetically modified to resist Monsanto’s
glyphosate-based herbicide.
Similarly marketed cotton, canola, corn and sugar beet seeds
soon followed.
For farmers, glyphosate
represented a safer, cheaper,
more effective way of controlling weeds, thwarting pests and
growing crops, Moose said. It’s
since become the standard in
large-scale agriculture.
The general public and the
scientific community don’t tend
to agree when it comes to GMO
safety, according to a 2015 Pew
Research Center survey conducted before the World Health
Organization finding. Most consumers surveyed, 57 percent,
said they considered GMOs
to be generally unsafe to eat,
whereas 88 percent of scientists
surveyed, all of them connected
to the American Association for
the Advancement of Science,
said GMOs were generally safe.
Genetically modified crops
don’t present a health risk, but
the herbicides used on them
are “a big problem,” said Dr.
Philip Landrigan, dean for
global health at the Mount Sinai
School of Medicine in New York
City and an expert on environmental health concerns and
children.
As GMO crops have become
more common over the years,
weeds have become resistant
to glyphosate, which has led to
heavier use of the herbicide, he
said.
Landrigan is among scientists
and health experts calling on
the EPA to “urgently review the
safety risk of glyphosate” and
says it’s time for GMO labeling.
“Not because I think genetic
rearrangement is bad, but
because I think consumers have
a right to know what they’re eating,” he said.
Some consumers, like Brendan Welsh, a 40-year-old Humboldt Park man, have made up
their minds after conducting
their own Internet research. As
he loaded groceries into his car
at a South Loop Jewel-Osco,
Welsh said he’s distrustful of
information from or funded by
large agriculture companies.
“I try to keep (GMOs) out
of my body at all costs,” Welsh
said. “I don’t think they’re good
for people or animals.”
Downstate in Hancock County, Matthew Starr has a different
view. He grows both kinds of
corn — GMO and non-GMO
— and genetically modified
soybeans on the 2,500-acre farm
that’s been in his family for five
generations.
Starr, 35, said the genetically
modified crops have meant he
27
uses less herbicide, and he considers it to be safer. He’s been
able to avoid the problem of
herbicide-resistant weeds faced
by many farmers through consistent crop rotation, he said.
And he turns a bigger profit
on his non-GMO corn, which
in recent years has been sold,
shipped down the river and
exported to a Japanese beer
company. Starr said he’s not
opposed to GMO labeling as
long as there is a national standard that provides consistency
among the states.
Starr said he’d like people to
understand that GMO products are safe. He believes there
should be a market for both.
“Some people aren’t on a
budget to shop at Whole Foods
every day and shop for nonGMO food,” Starr said. “But if
they have mistrust for the food
industry and the government,
and if they have the income, by
all means, they should be able
to have the choice.”
MODERN FARMER
Farm group welcomes 2016 Ag Baby
By Heidi Litchfield
Morris Daily Herald (TNS)
Ashley and Joe Cook of
Ottawa had no idea that when
their daughter, Nora, was being
delivered March 15 that she
would be born with a title — Ag
Baby 2016.
Grundy County Farm Bureau
Young Leader Committee celebrates National Ag Day with the
rest of the United States, but
have made it their own by naming the first baby born at Morris
Hospital the county’s Ag Baby.
They started the Ag Baby
program in 2009, and each
year present the Ag Baby with
a laundry basket filled with
agriculture goodies. This year
young leaders Cory Kodat and
Kaylee Shell presented the bas-
ket.
“Every year, the Young Leaders highlight how agriculture
touches everyone’s life, even an
infant’s life, from day one,” said
Tasha Bunting, manager of the
Grundy County Farm Bureau.
“From the ethanol gas used to
fuel your car to the soy ink used
to printnewspapers, it all begins
on the farm.”
The goal of the project is
to show how each item in the
basket is made from agriculture
commodities grown in Grundy
County as well as other parts of
the nation.
Nora will be no stranger to a
farm, as her mother was raised
on a farm and her grandfather
Dave Sommer still lives in a
farmhouse and helps other farmers on their land.
Nora just barely made it, waiting until after 11 p.m. to make
her debut at 7 pounds 14 ounces
and 19.5 inches long.
Her parents said they had
no idea that it was National Ag
week, or that there was an Ag
baby, but they were thrilled to
find out.
Ashley is a kindergarten
teacher at Jefferson Elementary
School in Ottawa and Joe works
for Republic Services in Ottawa.
Basket items include diaper
rash cream and baby powder
made from corn starch; wipes
that have lanolin, which comes
from sheep’s wool; and diapers,
which have corn starch in them.
One of the more surprising items are infant feeding
spoons and forks made from
corn starch plastic. The plastic
is made from the same type of
corn grown in most of Grundy
County’s cornfields.
With more than 85 percent of
Grundy County being agriculture based, and home to about
450 farmsteads, Bunting said it
is important consumers and legislators realize how important
agriculture is to everyday life.
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MODERN FARMER
Data
From page 2
collection, including the latest
technology that allows automatic yield measurements to be
taken during harvest. The collected data can be sent over the
airwaves through a modem, just
like a cell phone, and then transferred wirelessly to a website
controlled by the farmer, where
it can be shared.
“Farmers can harvest, send
the map up to the cloud,
send that information to their
agronomist, and the next day
can have fertilizer being put
down. That’s how fast they can
be working,” Brown said. “If
there were two sprayers working a field, the second sprayer
could never tell where the first
sprayer had been. Now they can
share the same data map, so
the sprayers can shut off automatically every time they reach
an area that has already been
sprayed.”
And what about reliability?
“It’s been tested in the field
for a couple of years before
the dealers see, sell or use it,”
Brown said. “So far, the technology has been pretty solid.”
Jay Harris, owner of agricultural equipment dealership J.O.
Harris Sales in Alexander and
a fifth-generation family farmer,
agrees that the new technology is making things better for
farmers.
“You really don’t want to
waste. A lot of farmers are
working toward that,” Harris
said. “They are not only watch-
ing out for their own expenses,
but they also want to be good
stewards of the land. Just putting out there what you need for
your fertilizer, for instance, is
very important for soil health.”
Harris says among the many
popular new pieces of equipment are devices that communicate through standard ISOBUS
system-equipped tractors, and
utilize GPS to put the right
amount of seed or fertilizer
exactly where it’s needed.
“You hook it into your tractor
and make maps showing the
existing nitrogen level in the
soil in each part of your field.
This technology allows you as
you drive to automatically put
more nitrogen where you need
it and less or no nitrogen where
you don’t,” Harris said. “There
is less chance for leaching and
fewer nitrates in the ground
water, and more nitrogen available for your crop.”
J.O. Harris installs precision
row cleaners on planters that
remove the previous year’s crop
residue during planting. They
also install new electric drives
that shut each row of the planter off individually to avoid overplanting, and make adjustments
for irregular field shapes.
“The main thing is making
the best use of your field, not
over planting but also not leaving bare spots for weeds to
grow,” Harris said. “You can
achieve higher planted seed
density that way. That means
more plants per acre, which
means more bushels. We figure
two more harvestable ears of
corn per acre will pay for all the
3
Cody
Mason
shows a
detailed
map
used for
farming
on his
land.
new equipment we put on our
planters.”
Having dealers that offer the
latest agricultural technology
is one thing, but are central
Illinois farmers actually using
it? Dale Hadden, a rural Jacksonville farmer, uses the new
technology in several ways.
“We use technology to put
on what the crop needs so we
don’t over-apply, and to apply
it when it’s needed,” Hadden
said. “When we go through
with the combine we have a
yield monitor that records the
yield every three seconds. We
put back onto the soil what we
are removing with the yields.
We keep track of that from year
to year and use that to re-apply
See DATA | 5
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T
Net-pen fish farming faces opposition
MODERN FARMER
here’stheir
no question
to keep
plants that
alive.Jacksonville Journal-Courier
Eric Ciula picked a bad
But
wonahis
family’s
year Ciula
to get into
com2012 contest with an heirloom
petition for growing the bigtomato that was just shy of
gest tomato. The worst U.S.
2 pounds. He credits his soil
By John Flesher
drought in decades was grip“When you put that many animals in a dense
Associated Press
preparation and some expertwo-thirds of the naenvironment, it’s like a feedlot. There’s a better chance pingimental
growing techniques,
Michigan should reject
of disease becoming more prevalent and spreading to tion, and many gardeners were
net-like commercial fishing
but he admits it was largely
enclosures in parts of the Great the wild fish populations. There’s a chance of mutationsspending hours watering just
“dumb luck.”
forming.”
Lakes that are under the state’s
to
keep
their
plants
alive.
— Frank Krist
jurisdiction, regulators recom“I
didn’t
know
we were goChairman of the DNR’s Lake Huron Citizens’ Fish Advisory Committee
mend.
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won a
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family’s I was
ingCiula
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2012
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in lockstep in not recommend- tomato that was just shy of
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Ciula said.
damage the environment and
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wild fish populations while
Native American tribes, some of Great Lakes at this time,” said preparation
Apriland
is asome
planning
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requiring the state to develop
which have fishing treaty rights Tammy Newcomb, senior waterimental growing techniques,
for gardeners throughout
CIULA
an oversight program costing
policy adviser AP/ERIC
for the DNR.
in parts of the Great Lakes.
but
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it was
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idly shifting weather condiQuality, and Agriculture and
lawmakers to enact a measure
pects for approval would be
Ciula
said. Ciula himself spent a reRural Development co-authored slim.
to ban the operations sponsored
tions.
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by Rep. Jon Bumstead, a Repub- April is a planning month
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rapcombing gardening blogs for
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idly shifting weather condinew ideas.
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Fuchs,
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cliu
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and spreads greenish muck
Lakeareas
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and to and
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million to establish a net-pen
environmental and economic
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But
he
noted
year’s oversight program
spring,
Fuchs,
a cliaquaculture
effects,
as
wellBrian
as legal
issues.last
District Sales Manager
matologist
with
the
Nationmillion annually to
Net-pen aquaculture
“would up and
drought
sneaked
on $2.3
every
217-370-1548
Please
Rt. 1, Box
128 contact
• Roodhouse
operate it, which “does not
pose significant
risks to fishery
al Drought
Mitigation
Cenone, emerging
over aappear
couple
Please contact
to be a prudent use
management
and other
types
[email protected]
ter.
But
he
noted
last
year’s
217-473-6975
217-473-4910
(217) 473-6975 • [email protected]
Bob Hart
of
the
state’s
resources,” the
ofof
recreation
and
tourism,”
the
weeks
in June.
drought
sneaked
up on ever y
Bob Hart
Joe Hallock,
Bob Hart
Eric Hart
Rt.Rt.
1,
Box
Roodhouse
Bob
Hart
Eric Hart
1,
Box128
128 •• Roodhouse
217-473-4910
(217)217-473-6975
473-6975
• [email protected]
[email protected]
Rt. 1, Box 128 • Roodhouse
[email protected]
report issued Friday said.
report said.
it’s like a feedlot,” said Frank
Krist, chairman of the DNR’s
Lake Huron Citizens’ Fish Advi-
million at best, with fewer than
50 direct and spinoff jobs, it
said.
one,“When
emerging
a couple
Economic output from the
you put over
that many
aniof weeks
June.
two operations would be $10.3
mals in a in
dense
environment,
MODERN FARMER
Students learn how to
navigate grain market
By Chris Lusvardi
Herald & Review (TNS)
— Sophomore Peyton Ruwe
Turner said. “We used our experience to make the best prediction possible.”
Those responsible for watching the market each day needed
to have an idea of the direction
the market was headed, junior
Jaret Duff said.
“It could be high one day,”
Duff said. “We could wait it out,
but then it would drop 20 cents
and we should have sold it.”
Everyone’s guess is different and paying close attention
to market trends was critical,
senior Cole Fredrickson said.
“We couldn’t miss one day,”
Fredrickson said. “You can’t go
back and redo it.”
They didn’t want to sell all
the grain at once and needed to
know a reasonable price to offer
at the elevator, Fredrickson said.
Sometimes being able to store
grain can provide farmers with
the ability to later sell it for a
better price, he said.
One thing the students would
like to improve upon is extending the length of the learning
opportunity. Turner said they
could spot more changes in the
market over a longer period of
time and be in a better position
to react to what it does.
The group sold the grain to
either the Topflight Grain CoOperative elevator in Emery or
Clarkson Grain in Oakley and
had to have all sold by Dec. 31.
Turner said they were able to
record a $7,281.08 profit.
The money raised helps support scholarships, 4-H activities
Pittsfield
and offset fees for members.
31
Illinois Farm Bureau marks 100 years
By Kevin Barlow
On the day in January that
the Illinois Farm Bureau celebrated its 100th anniversary,
IFB President Richard Guebert
Jr. met separately with its past
presidents and members of the
Future Leaders program.
“I just couldn’t help but think
in those meetings about what
the founders what have thought
about our organization at 100
years old,” he said. “I think
they would say ‘Wow, this isn’t
what we imagined, but we are
very proud.’”
Guebert oversaw a special
ceremony to commemorate
100 years of the Illinois Farm
Bureau at the headquarters in
Bloomington.
One of the things Guebert
will remember most about the
day, he said, was meeting with
the past presidents.
“Their leadership in years
past set the stage and propelled
us to get to this point today,”
he said. “They made a lot of
tough decisions and a lot of the
issues they faced are similar
to the ones we still face today.
And in meeting with the future
leaders, I can feel very good
about our future because I
know it is in good hands.”
The IFB was founded in 1916
by a group of farmers who met
at the University of Illinois to
discuss the need for agriculture
education, better information
for farmers, and more effective
farming practices.
Thirteen 13 local farm
bureaus came together to form
a statewide organization. Initial concerns centered around
issues such as control of insect
pests, protection of livestock
from disease, and the construc-
tion of better rural roads.
“We are talking about an
anniversary today but, really,
it feels more like a family
reunion,” said Matt McLelland,
director of operations for Prairie Farms Dairy, an affiliate of
the IFB. “We are, in fact, one
big family, and always there to
support each other.
A new historical exhibit, “A
Voice for Agriculture: the Centennial History of Illinois Farm
Bureau,” was unveiled. The
display showcases artifacts,
photos and memorabilia that
highlight IFB’s first 100 years.
“We will be celebrating our
history throughout the course
of the year,” Guebert said. “But
we were really looking forward
to today when we could celebrate with all of our employees.
Today is a special day but it
makes us all excited to start on
the next 100 years.”
UCBbank.com
Pittsfield Pittsfield
Roadhouse
Winchester
Greenfield
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S. Morse
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Market
St.
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St.St.
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St. 402 402
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217-285-2176
217-589-4331
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217-285-2176
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217-742-3121 217-368-2171
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Like typical high school students, members of the Maroa
4-H Marketing Club constantly
are looking at their phones and
sending text messages.
Unlike most other teenagers,
members of the group have had
their eyes on what’s happening
with the grain market. They
spent the fall collecting grain
donations to benefit the Macon
County 4-H and Extension
Foundation and then learning
how to sell the grain and maximize profit.
“I didn’t realize how much
goes into the selling process,”
sophomore Peyton Ruwe said.
“Now I realize how much it
takes to do that.”
Members of the club shared
some of their experiences earlier this month during the foundation annual meeting.
Donations were collected
using the 4-H grain cart from
farmers throughout Macon
County.
Allowing students to market
the grain that is collected has
been a goal for several years
that was achieved for the first
time, said Amy Leman, 4-H
youth development educator for
Macon County. Junior Andrew
Blair called it a great learning
experience.
“Not having a farm background, I just thought it went
from seed to harvest,” senior
Kirsten Kapraun said. “I missed
the whole marketing side.”
By learning about the markets, Kapraun can better understand the reasons for prices of
products.
The students used information from speakers over seven
weeks and learned to watch the
market closely, senior Abbey
Turner said.
“It felt like a guessing game,”
“I didn’t realize how much
goes into the selling
process. Now I realize how
much it takes to do that.”
MODERN FARMER
Trustees of the Passavant Area Hospital Foundation
are grateful to visionary donors whose generous
gifts of farmland and provisions through trusts
enable Passavant Area Hospital to provide
quality healthcare.
1928
1928
1959
1972
1973
1981
1982
1982
1982
1985
1999
1999
2014
Charles A. Rowe
Thomas Tissington
Nellie Rice
Robert Shekelton
Frances W. Corrington
Frank C. Dinwiddie
Mildred J. Dinwiddie
Emma Lucille Hembrough
Edward P. Hostman
Irma Fox Barsnes
William and Oley Beilschmidt
Lloyd Gordon
Howard and Vera Million
To discuss your desire to establish a family legacy,
please contact:
Pam Martin, Executive Director
217-479-5575 | [email protected]
PassavantHospital.com
312-0019 02/08/16
Advancing Health
WITH EVERY GIFT
MODERN FARMER
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0% A.P.R. interest is available to customers if no dealer documentation preparation fee is charged. Dealer charge for document preparation fee shall be in
accordance with state laws. Inclusion of ineligible equipment may result in a higher blended A.P.R. 0% A.P.R. and low-rate financing may not be available
with customer instant rebate offers. Financing is available through Kubota Credit Corporation, U.S.A., 3401 Del Amo Blvd., Torrance, CA 90503; subject to
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© Kubota Tractor Corporation, 2016
information. Optional equipment may be shown.
(217) 285-6876
MODERN FARMER
Data
From page 3
fertilizer. We were one of the
first farms in the United States
to beta test a yield monitor like
this in the early 1990s.”
“In the old days nothing like
that happened,” Hadden said.
“You got done with harvest, you
called the dealer, they did a soil
test, and then you made a blanket application to put back what
you took off. We are now doing
a better job of managing the dollars that we’re spending, to put
exactly in the soil what we’re
trying to take out of it.”
“If we’re planting 37,000
seeds per acre, we use GPS and
electric drives to drop a seed
exactly every five and a quarter
inches,” Hadden said. “We want
that spacing to be optimum,
because what we’re doing is harnessing sunlight, and you don’t
want to see any sunlight hitting the ground because you’ve
missed the opportunity to harvest that sunlight to put into the
plant to produce the crop.”
But using the newest technology on the farm comes with a
price.
“It’s more difficult than when
I started farming because all of
this technology creates lots of
different questions,” Hadden
said. “Before the planters were
pretty basic, you just hoped to
drop about 30,000 seeds, there
was one thing you changed once
a year and that was it. Now
you’re changing seed populations 40 to 50 times throughout
the field, so we as producers
need to determine what the
5
“The day of the old-time shop mechanic out here turning
wrenches, that number is declining, because everything
is so well-built and electronic, there’s not as much need
for that. Now we need more people to think about what’s
wrong instead of actually going and fixing what’s wrong.”
— Andy Mason
optimum population is for that
soil type or piece of the field.”
“It will be interesting to see
as commodity prices come
down, can farmers still justify
the expense of the technology,”
Hadden said. “Because while
we’re not spending as much on
raw inputs, we’re spending the
additional dollars on the technology side.”
Andy Mason and his son
Cody operate farms in rural
Jacksonville and in Missouri,
and they also use the latest precision agricultural technology.
They share Hadden’s feelings
about the new technology cost.
“We have tens of thousands of
dollars in computer screens and
software and the ability to grab
as many satellites as possible,”
Andy Mason said. “These computers and globes and signals
and everything we need to operate these systems have a cost.
Ironically, the better the data,
the more precise you can be, the
higher the cost.”
“It’s a lot of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs,’
but to me as a producer, I’ve
got to step back and say, ‘OK,
what’s the return on my investment for doing this?’” Andy
Mason said. “You can spend
yourself into bankruptcy. How
much is enough, and what’s the
return on our crop? Some guys
will spend a fortune to raise a
good crop, but at the end of the
day their net return per acre is
horrible. There’s a point where
the two lines meet on the graph,
and that’s where you say ‘that’s
enough,’ you get what you get.”
But, he added, “once we have
it in the shed and it’s paid for,
I would not want to lose it. I
would hate for it to be taken
away from us,” Andy Mason
said. “I think to compete in the
world market, or in Morgan
County, Illinois, this brings so
much value and opportunity to
become better at what you do.”
Another issue is service. The
precision technology is great,
but what happens when it
breaks down?
“The day of the old-time
shop mechanic out here turning wrenches, that number is
declining, because everything
is so well-built and electronic,
there’s not as much need for
that,” Andy Mason said. “Now
we need more people to think
about what’s wrong instead of
actually going and fixing what’s
wrong. If we blow a fuse, or a
wire gets hot and quits, or a
switch or module quits working, we are dead in our tracks.
We can’t move until we have a
service call. Then they come and
See DATA | 6
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MODERN FARMER
Jay Harris
Dale Hadden prepares to head into the field.
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Data
From page 5
diagnose that with their laptops,
they plug into our mainframe,
and they figure out what went
wrong.”
“I’m glad my son Cody is here
because he understands it better,
because he had some of it when
he was in college. So he’s jumping on the ladder on about the
ninth rung, and I’m still down
here climbing it,” Andy Mason
said. “I learned it because I had
to learn it, but I’m glad he’s here
now to take it from this point
forward.”
“I studied things in college
that weren’t offered when mom
and dad were going. They are
good on crop science, but as
far as mechanical, GPS and the
newest electronics, we needed
somebody on the farm that could
do that kind of thing,” Cody
Mason said. “But some times I
would love to go back to the old
ways. When the tractor is sitting
in the field and I’m waiting on a
service call, I’d loved to have an
old tractor and just put markers
down and plant.”
“Precision ag has grown so
much in the last ten years that
they just can’t keep up. There
is a computer in every tractor,
and there are a lot of old time
farmers who have a hard time
with technology,” Cody Mason
said. “It’s gotten so huge, it’s
like growing pains. The ratio of
people doing service work per
farmer needs to be better.”
Still, Cody is excited about the
new precision technology and
uses it to best advantage on the
family farms.
“We had four or five years
of data from our yield monitor
and it showed that on parts of
the farm the yield dropped off,”
Cody Mason said. “We showed
that to the landlord and because
he wanted his farmland to be the
best in productivity, he ended
up tiling it and fixing all of the
problems.”
“If I go through the field and
have two different hybrids growing. as I’m going through the
field in the combine it shows
exactly which hybrids yield the
best,” Cody Mason said. “Then
we can use variable rate technology to apply fertilizer, potash
and anhydrous only where it’s
needed.”
Cody is optimistic, yet realistic
about the bottom line when it
comes to precision agriculture
technology. “I think it will pay
for itself, but it takes a little
time,” he said.
MODERN FARMER
7
More women finding fields in the field
By Nick Draper
[email protected]
For a long time, the word
“farmer” conjured an image of
a man and a tractor out in the
field, doing hard work from sunrise to sundown.
But more and more women
are entering the agricultural
field in a variety of jobs, from
administrative positions to
marketing to taking to the field
themselves.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture shows that nearly 1 million farms in the U.S. are operated by women, with 24,265 of
those in Illinois. About 288,264
women are the principal
operators, which is down from
306,209 reported in 2007.
“When you think of farmers, you’re automatically going
to think of a guy, of an older
man,” said Lindsay McQueen,
manager of the Cass/Morgan
Farm Bureau. “It’s not the reality anymore … it’s one of those
male-dominated careers that
has vastly gained women and
have accepted leading roles for
women. It’s awesome to see
women taking the lead, being
respected by men.”
Still, the women are outnumbered compared to the men.
In 2007, 1.9 million principal
farm operators were men. That
number also fell to 1.8 million
by 2012.
For many women, such as
McQueen, interest in agriculture started at home on the
family farm. For those who
don’t have a family farm and
the chores that come with it,
women start getting an interest
at the school level.
Jennie Dodds, an agriculture
teacher for Virginia School
District, said that by default her
classes are mostly boys because
of the large male enrollment
in the district. There’s still a
good amount of girls interested
in agriculture in her class, she
Greg Olson | Journal-Courier
Nick Draper | Journal-Courier
said, though many of them are
apprehensive to join programs
such as FFA.
“I think it’s something that
the (agriculture) community
struggles with,” Dodds said. “I
think it’s important for the ag
community to realize that it’s
just as important for women
to get into this field as men.
Women are just as capable of
doing the hard work. I think it’s
going to be incredibly important to get them involved moving forward.”
The FFA began allowing
women to gain full membership
status in 1969. Now more than
45 percent of FFA members are
women.
The agriculture industry is
a broad and diverse one, with
many different roles that need
filled.
Tonya Crow, energy marketing manager for Prairieland
FS, said that when she started
going to meetings in 1995,
there was rarely any women
present.
“I would go to a meeting
and there would be a lot of
men involved, although the
farm service system as a whole
has never made me feel out of
place,” Crow said. “I’ve never
had any problems with the
‘men’s club’ but you definitely
notice it when you come to
meetings. Now you’re seeing
women chemical reps, accountants, managers. Women are
taking on bigger roles on the
farm at home as well as our
business as a whole.”
In a state like Illinois, where
agricultural commodities
account for $19 billion annu-
At left: Virginia FFA members Hannah Krause (from left),
Dylan McGlasson and Ben Krause talk with Virginia prekindergarten students about petting zoo animals during FFA
Week. Above: Lindsay McQueen, manager of the Cass/Morgan
Farm Bureau.
ally, agricultural-related jobs are
in demand. With more women
taking interest in family farms
or school agriculture programs,
those positions are sure to be
filled by more women ready to
change the face of agriculture.
“On a family farm, it doesn’t
matter who you are, there are
chores to be done and animals
to take care of,” McQueen
said. “You have to provide for
your family. I think when you
grow up thinking that I don’t
think you see limits. So I feel
like there’s always going to be
women in ag.”
Nick Draper can be reached at 217-245-6121,
ext. 1223, or on Twitter @nick_draper.
REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE
FARM MANAGEMENT
APPRAISALS
AUCTIONS
2240 West Morton Avenue in Jacksonville Illinois
217-245-1618 • www.worrell-landservices.com
MODERN FARMER
Food lobby builds support for growing local
Journal-Courier staff
On April 7, the Illinois Stewardship Alliance will bring
together food advocates, farmers and others for the seventh
annual Local Food Lobby Day.
Local Food Lobby Day plays
a role in building food systems
in Illinois by giving people the
chance to speak with their legislators about agricultural policies
that support small fruit and vegetable crop farmers, local food
access and sustainable farming.
The day will begin with a
legislative update, lobbying
training and lunch. Following
lunch, participants will move to
the Capitol to educate representatives and senators about the
importance of food and farming to the health of the Illinois
economy and its people.
“As important as it is for
people to vote with their pocketbooks in their food choices,
big change — systemic, trans-
formative change — will only
be accomplished if farmers and
eaters proactively engage in
the legislative process,” said
Rebecca Osland, policy associate for the Illinois Stewardship
Alliance.
This year there are several
pieces of legislation that will
have an impact on local food
and farming in Illinois:
Co-op expansion
In 2014, the General Assembly passed legislation that made
updates to the law that governs
grocery co-ops like Common
Ground in Champaign-Urbana,
increasing the level of financial
support co-op members can
contribute. While a co-op stakeholder coalition continues work
drafting a major bill to modernize the 101-year-old law, the
Illinois Stewardship Alliance is
also working on a simpler bill to
expand the act to include more
worker co-ops.
SNAP Double-Value Incen-
Photo provided
Local Food Lobby Day gives people the chance to speak with legislators about agricultural policies that support small fruit
and vegetable crop farmers, local food access and sustainable farming.
Agriculture Real Estate Brokerage Services
Auction Services • Agriculture Consulting
If you are thinking about selling your farmland, I have numerous buyers
looking to invest in land. We can get the Capital Gains Taxes
legally forgiven and Inheritance Taxes eliminated.
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B
Bill
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Handy,
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a
Managing Broker/Owner
H:
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email:
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Agronomy • Energy • Tire Sales and Lawn Care Services
tives
SNAP (food stamp) incentive
programs have been offered
for years at farmers markets
across the country, such as
at the Urbana Market on the
Square, where each dollar a
SNAP recipient uses at a farmers market is matched, up to a
limit, increasing the purchasing
power of low-income households for healthy food, while
expanding direct sales opportunities for local farmers.
The 2014 Farm Bill created
a new SNAP incentive grant
program, known as the Food
Insecurity Nutrition Incentive
Program, which incentivizes
the purchase of fruit and vegetables, but it requires a 50
percent match. Here in Illinois,
a coalition led by the Illinois
Alliance to Prevent Obesity, the
American Heart Association,
and the Experimental Station
has formed in order to advocate
for the creation of a state SNAP
incentive program that could
provide grants to serve as the
full or partial match to prospective federal funding.
Seed Law Exemption for
Seed Sharing
As the presence of seed
libraries in Illinois grows, the
Illinois Stewardship Association wants to make it clear that
the laws governing commercial
seed companies do not apply
to community seed libraries,
or to any other noncommercial
interpersonal seed sharing
activity, for that matter. This is
a clarification because the law
includes “giving away” in the
definition of “sell.” The purpose
of the bill is to prevent the kind
of situation that has cropped up
in other states like Pennsylvania, where state regulators have
shut down small seed libraries
housed in public libraries. To
check out existing seed libraries in Illinois, visit seedlibraries.weebly.com
MODERN FARMER
Spring Lease Specials
2012 CIH MAG 260
2014 New Holland T9.390
Sus Axle, Lux Cab, HD HYD, 50’s
3 year 250hr lease
231 hours, PTO, Lux Cab
3 year 250hr lease
$16,950
$19,950
2009 CIH TM200
48.5’, ACS harrow, 3 year lease
$6,950
BEARD IMPLEMENT www.beardimplement.com
COMPANY
Beard Implement Co., Since 1937.
Proudly Serving the Backbone of
our Community; The Farmer.
216 W. Frederick St.
Arenzville, IL 62611
217-997-5514
2298 St. Hwy 123
Ashland, IL 62612
217-476-3386
200 Decatur St.
Barry, IL 62312
217-335-2346
Case IH and CNH Capital are registered trademarks of CNH America LLC. www.caseih.com
9

March 27, 2016 - Journal Courier

Transcription

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