One way to help clean up the Chesapeake Bay is to put more land into agriculture, according to a new report just out from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. This is a surprise. Chesapeake Bay supporters have long contended that agriculture is the bay's biggest problem. And it is. In spite of the huge improvements in the past decade, most of the nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment still choking the life out of the bay comes from farm runoff.
  The report issued jointly Wednesday with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture says that a switch to biofuels crops could help clean up the bay, provide 18,000 jobs in the bay watershed and produce 500 million gallons of USA-grown fuel, enough to supply the Washington metro area for six weeks.
  Winter cover crops like rye and barley, permanent stands of switchgrass and plantings of fast growing trees like willow and poplar could be used as feed stocks for ethanol production. The problem right now is infrastructure - processors aren't going to build expensive plants without a steady supply of feedstocks, and farmers aren't going to plant feedstocks without a steady market.
  The Associated Press reported on the new way of thinking in a story published yesterday. You can read the New York Times version here: 
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/20/business/AP-US-Chesapeake-Biofuels-Maryland.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=farming&st=nyt 


     Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the farm pond.  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/on-the-hunt-for-a-mega-shark/5dy5z238

     










     Quick - What's the net present value of each cow in your herd?
     Say...what...?? 
  If you plan to keep a cow in your herd for three years, what's she worth today? How much would she be worth if you kept her for six years? What's she worth today if she's milking 20,000 pounds of milk and milk is selling for $16.50/cwt? What if you're getting $10.00/cwt? $15.47?
  Net present value is one way financial geeks set the worth of an annuity. Dr. David Galligan (we're not going to call him a geek here, but take a look at his website) is a veterinary economist at the University of Pennsylvania - he has both a veterinary degree and an MBA. He DOES think of a cow as an annuity, something that has an initial cost, operating expenses, and a residual value at the end of a given period of time. 
  Galligan has developed a fascinating website to help farmers answer questions like these, and he's posted it online where anybody can use it for free. I spent about 20 minutes with the site. I was, frankly, bewildered, but stumbled around enough to see that I could put a dollar value on a cow by taking into account a mind-numbing number of variables. I think it would take a week or two or more to become proficient at using what he calls the net present value of a dairy cow. That website is here: http://dgalligan.com/cownpvnew.html
  You might also want to check out Galligan's regular website here:  http://dgalligan.com/
  The Economist ran a story earlier this month, cleverly titled Ecownomics, on Galligan's work  which you can read here:  http://www.economist.com/business-education/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15207866

     The little winery that could took top honors - the Governor's Cup - with a 2008 gewurztraminer that bested 327 other entries in the 2010 Pennsylvania Farm Show wine competition. Tod and Jean Maspeaker own and operate Briar Valley Vineyards and Winery in Bedford, producing just 4,000 gallons of wine annually. Their winning entry had a spicy note, a touch of fruitiness and a good mouth feel. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres wrote a report on the winery, which you can read in our current edition, or you can check it out here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2743

  
     Dude...what if your prescription changes? http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/behold-the-permanently-bespectacled-man/1abjjzeb1

     Petri pork promises pigless meat. There's a consortium of of publicly funded research institutions in the Netherlands that are working on turning pig stem cells directly into meat without the bother of that whole raising-the-pig-feeding-the-pig-hauling-manure-slaughtering-the-pig-and-cutting-up-the-pig thing. According  to Mark Post, a biologist at Maastricht University who is involved in the In-vitro Meat Consortium, their nascent technology has produced a meat-like substance that's more like a scallop than a pork chop. It's firm, but a little squishy and wet.
  The stem-cell technique could also be used on other meat animals - chickens, turkeys, cattle and sheep, for example. Or you could grow your own tiger meat. Maria Cheng, a medical writer for the Associated Press wrote a story about petri meat for the Seattle Times. She aske dPost what the artificial stuff tastes. Actually, he said, nobody's eaten it yet. Cheng's story is here:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010802371_apeumedpetripork.html



     Milk price up $4/cwt this year? Could be, according to Dr. Mark Stephenson, a Cornell University dairy economist who sees hopeful signs of an industry turnaround. But good news in the milk check might be partially offset by bigger numbers in the feed bill. Early indicators were that corn annd bean harvests were hindered by bad harvest season weather, but the USDA on Tuesday said total harvest volume was considerably higher than expected. So, who knows? Stephenson made his comments in a conference call with farmers, lenders and academicians all over the Northeast. Front page news for Lancaster Farming readers, of course, and you can check it out in the edition due in your mailbox tomorrow. Or you can read it here:  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2748


     Udder nonsense. Or: one more reason Woody Allen is no longer relevant.
 http://www.newyorker.com/humor/2010/01/18/100118sh_shouts_allen

     Some Iowa legislators are behind a move to amend the state constitution to remove the word "idiot" from the document. They also want to get the plow out of a soldier's rear, said plow mandated by a section of the constitution which says that the Iowa state seal shall embody "... a field of standing wheat ... a lead furnace and pile of pig lead ... the citizen soldier, with a plow in his rear, supporting the American flag and liberty cap with his right hand, and his gun with his left ..."

     In the constitution, people with mental disabilities are referred to as "idiots," and Iowa voters are being asked to change the constitution in the fall election to remove the offensive language. Former lawmaker Darrell Hanson would also like to get that plow out of the soldier's rear. It's been there for more than a century, and he feels it's about time.

     The "idiot" part, for some reason, made me think of a number of our insanely partisan lawmakers here in Pennsylvania as they went through the latest budget debacle. It also made me think of a great use for a plow. A four-bottom. At least.

     If you haven't been to the Pennsylvania Farm Show yet, you've got just tomorrow and Saturday left. I was there last night to cover the auctioneer's bid calling contest and the antique tractor pull. The tractor pull was noisy and colorful and I got some pictures. I was glad I didn't get a number for the bid contest, because I was on the verge of buying just about everything. Got my baked potato on the way out. Got some cider and a maple sundae, too. And a grilled portabello sandwich from the mushroom growers. It was barely okay, and made me regret not going with my first impulse, which would have been a big cup of those deep-fried thingies, or my second impulse, which would have been the mushroom salad.

     Your First Amendment at work. Did somebody mention "idiot?"  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/haitian-ambassador-responds-to-pat-robertson/6lzybvm

     If you want to know everything about the science and the art of growing lavender, there are any number of books you can consult. This isn't one of them. If, on the other hand, you want a fascinating and sometimes scary tour of the female psyche, then pick up The Unlikely Lavender Queen, a memoir by Jeannie Ralston. The glamorous Ralston was leading the glamorous life of a freelance writer in glamorous New York City when she met a rough-hewn sturdy guy by the name of Robb who was a freelance photographer with glamorous assignments for National Geographic. That meeting was pretty much when the glamour stopped and love began.
     Seems that between his globe-hopping assignments, Robb wanted to go back to his native hill country Texas, turn an old barn into an architectural showpiece and oh-by-the-way grow lavender by the acre, a crop on a par with speared tobacco when it comes to hand labor.
     Unlikely is a tale of perseverance, a sometimes desparate search for knowledge, astute marketing with a focus on getting to know the customers, and a dastardly neighbor or two. Although she was born in the South, Ralston became a hard-driving, fast-living, career-minded New York City woman who thought tough, acted tough and talked tough. The tough talk, in fact might be a little much for some Lancaster Farming readers, but I know there are others who, like me, will enjoy this story.
     You can buy it at any online book seller. I found a used copy on Half.com for about $8 including shipping. Or, you can actually get this book for free. If yours is the first email to reach me with your name and address, I will send you this book with my compliments. This offer does not apply to anybody who works at 1 East Main St. or 8 West King St.. (You know who you are.) 


     I'm going to the Pennsylvania Farm Show tomorrow night. I'm going to have a baked potato for supper. And I'm not going to leave the potato growers' stand until they give me their secret recipe.


     Would I do this just to get into the Consumer Electronics Show? It Depends...   http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/tased-for-fun-at-ces/1abql3wt3

     Newspapers aren't dead. They're just kind of right-sizing. Here at Lancaster Farming, with our 55,000-and-growing subscription base, we think we're right-sizing upwards, but a lot of daily papers are shrinking. With the Internet pulling ad dollars and attention away from print, dailies have cut budgets, staffs and capital expenditures in hunkdered-down survival mode.
  But they're still doing the best job out there at gathering and delivering the kind of local news that the country absolutely needs. People still look to print for local police reports, job openings, city council battles, obits, grocery ads, gallery openings, teen-of-the-week features - just about any kind of local coverage you can think of. Look on the Internet for that kind of coverage and you'll find a black hole. 
  Or you might find something on the Net, say, about a hot zoning issue, but you won't know whose axe the "reporter" is grinding, and you can be almost certain that the story hasn't been vetted by an editor who's seen it all a dozen times or so.
  And when the Net does get a story right, chances are it was picked up from a newspaper.
  But don't take my word for it. Michael Liedtke, an Associate Press writer reporting from San Francisco, published a story this morning abouut a study last year by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. The study monitored 53 media outlets - newspapers, television and radio stations and Web-only operations. The study said what we in the newsroom have pretty much known all along. If you'd like to read about the study, go here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/11/AR2010011100546.html?wpisrc=nl_tech


     Want a hot cup of something hot for these frigid days and nights? Not sure what you want? Check out the hot stuff in the Home on the Range recipe feature in Section B of our current edition. I'm going to try the caramel apple cider because it's got cream in it and whipped cream on top. Yes, I have made a New Year's Resolution, but I never really specified which year.


     Like...dudes...what in the world were you thinking?  
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/surfers-catch-biggest-wave-ever/1ab0g6f1u

     Wanna shoot a pig? Go West, young man. Wild pigs live in 56 of California's 58 counties, and the open season on wild pigs is 365 days a year. The bag limit is as many as you can kill.
  Feral pigs are a problem all over the state, but there are some limited hunting areas in state forests and wildlife areas. One such is the 2,150-acre wetland in the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area in Solano County. 
  The state's fish and game department is issuing permits to allow for limited-entry hunts as a way to control the population. They are scheduling a drawing for 24 two-day permits, but you need a valid California hunting license, you can only hunt with bow-and-arrow or a shotgun with slugs, and there's a pig-a-day bag limit. You have to apply by postcard no later than February 12.
  I doubt if many Lancaster Farming readers are going to be heading to California for a pig hunt, but the state's approach to feral pigs might be something to think about as the numbers of these pests grow in parts of the East.

     Do my eyes deceive me? No. That really is a Spotted gilt there under the Sumpreme Champion banner last week at the annual gilt show and sale at the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex. The show was held a week early this year, because of concerns that visitors to the show might deliver a human-to-pig dose of the H1N1 virus to the stars of the show.  Lancaster Farming editor Dave Lefever paid a day-after-New Year's visit to the show and prepared a report for our edition due in your mailbox tomorrow. Or you can read his story here:  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2731

     I always think I'm something when I climb a silo to take a picture.   http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/base-jumpers-leap-from-dubai-tower/6h1iu15

  








      Over the last three decades, many of Afghanistan's farmers have perished in wars or they've fled the land. Their skills have gone with them. Once a major exporter of dried fruits, nuts and exotic crops such as pomegranates, Afghanistan is now known mainly for growing poppies for the opium trade.
     The U.S. Army is trying to teach Afghan farmers how to better manage their tiny farms, often just an acre or less, as well as introduce farming concepts to people who've never tried to produce their own food. One surprising find, according to Col. Martin Leppert, who oversees the Army National Guard agribusiness effort, is that yields were being drastically reduced by over-fertilization.
     The soldiers pictured here, many of whom grew up on Midwestern farms, are showing Afghani farmers how to whitewash the trunk of a fruit trees as a pest control measure.
     An Indiana National Guard unit recently returned from an 11-month mission to Khowst province, on the Pakistan border. They trained 50 farmers in each of Khowst's 13 provinces in things like pruning techniques, drip irrigation, and seeding practices. The goal is to help subsistence farmers actually sustain their families, then develop the expertise to grow and market things like apples and wheat beyond their needs.
     There's a story about the Army's work in yesterday's Washington Post by AP writer Rick Callanan. You can read it here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/06/AR2010010600282.html

     There was another farm show this week in York, Pa., a week ahead of the Pennsylvania Farm Show in Harrisburg.  With no livestock, no commodity queens, very few kids and food that made it easy to stick to your New Year's resolutions, the annual Keystone Farm Show was nevertheless a big draw for farmers who wanted to see lots of big equipment under one roof. Which was actually six roofs at the York Expo Center, plus a lot of stuff outside. Yours truly drove to the show, talked to some people, took some pictures and wrote up the experience for our issue due out Saturday. The combine shown here was one of the bigger draws.

     Shouldn't these kids be doing their homework?  http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/gundam-stop-motion/20bnh38e

     And then there was this story in the New York Times about...about...what was I saying? Now they're saying that middle age stretches from your 40s until sometime in your 60s, so I suppose that I'm still middle aged, but just ever so barely. And actually, if forgetfulness, distraction and an occasionally fuzzy connection with reality are hallmarks of advancing age, then I've been a really old guy since I was about 12. 
  But even though I might forget your name, or what I had for lunch, or whether or not I had lunch, my brain is okay, according to Barbara Strauch whose book, The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain, will be out in April. Strauch covered some of her main points in an article in last Thursday's New York Times.
  What she says, I think, is that you don't really forget all the stuff you think you forget, it just gets tucked behind other stuff, and if, for example you forget Brad Pitt's name, it might come rushing back to you if you get into a conversation about cherry pits, tar pits, or armpits. Or if you forget Angelina Jolie's name...well, who could forget Angelina Jolie?
  One suggestion Strauch has for the next time I "forget" something is to go silently through the alphabet until I come across a sound that unlocks the thing I'm trying to remember. (Okay, I just tried that trick to try to remember Einstein's first wife's name - I recently read Walter Isaacson's excellent biography of the genius who was in a class of his own for forgetfulness - and I couldn't come up with her name. Went all the way from A to Z. But I remembered that his second wife was his first wife's cousin, and that he had to promise his first wife all the money from his Nobel prize - this was years and years before he got the prize - if she'd agree to a divorce. I remember the juicy parts.)
  Anyway, I took heart from Ms Strauch's thoughts, and if you're the average 57-year-old farmer, I thought you might, too. And I'm going to buy her book when it comes out. If I can remember.
  The article is here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/education/edlife/03adult-t.html?partner=rss&emc=rss 


     72,000 beef cattle could be headed for Oswego, New York, and the community is concerned. Colorado-based Bion Environmental Technologies envisions a closed-loop system for the herd, which would minimize odors and water usage. Manure from the herd would be used to produce ethanol, and the enterprise would create 600 new jobs. Opponents are concerned about the effects on the land, the nearby fishing streams, whether the jobs would go to local people or to low-wage workers from other places, and the impact on the community in general. Lancaster Farming correspondent Jeanne Sergeant wrote about the issue in our current ediition, or you can read it here:  http://www.lancasterfarming.com/node/2723 


     This guy should stay off Red Bull. Forever.  
http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/pastrana-sets-world-record-backflips-into-harbor/1ab7838iw

     European Union farmers have long enjoyed more generous subsidies than any other region in the world. Trade negotiators find this frustrating, as do some of the EU countries themselves. In its fifth decade, the agricultural subsidies program is a bedrock of European Union spending, now totaling 55 billion euros ($79 billion), almost half of the group’s budget. The pie chart shows how they split up the largess.
  It amounts to a huge redistribution of income to farm interests from taxpayers. But most farmers get the crumbs because payments are typically based on land size: 80 percent of beneficiaries receive only about 20 percent of the payments. Put another way, the top 20 percent of rural enterprises (they're not all farmers or even agricultural) get 80 percent of the take.
  The current formulas were decided upon in 2005 by French president France, Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder behind closed doors. They conspired to protect the subsidies from any cuts until 2013, which left British prime minister Tony Blair hopping mad.
  We're a lot closer now to 2013, and a lot of EU folks are thinking it's time for real reform in ag subsidies. New York Times writers Stephen Castle and Doreen Carvajal were in Brussels recently to report on the issue. You can read their story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/30/business/global/30subsidy.html?scp=5&sq=farming&st=cse


     What do you think of spreading manure on a frozen, snow-covered field that slopes towards a stream that empties into a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay? Not a good idea, really. One of Lancaster Farming's letter writers witnessed such an act and told us all about it in a very literate and civil way. You can read his letter on the editorial page of our current edition.


     If I could do this, I wouldn't.   http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/guy-blows-up-balloons-with-ears/uf7mk72j