Record Crowd Wraps Up Small Grain Field Days

It was a near record turn out at the last 2012 Small Grain Field Day at the Piedmont Research and Extension Station near Salisbury on Tuesday. Dr. Randy Weisz and his team had to do some last minute modifications to the program…more than two inches of rain since Sunday forced the crowd to stay in the pole barn with fields too wet and muddy to tour. Weisz was disappointed that growers weren’t able to tour the plots:

“We haven’t had a field day with this many plots, there are about 1500 plots that we will be harvesting. The data will be available for the growers. If they want to get that information, it will be ready in July, they can email me (Randy Weisz) and I will provide it to them.”
 

Rough estimates were that about one quarter of the state’s small grain producers attended one of the field days this spring.
 

Farm to School Program Gets Financial Boost
 

On Tuesday, Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation, along with North Carolina Department of Agriculture announced a grant to benefit the NC Farm to School program. North Carolina Ag commissioner Steve Troxler explained that the larger transportation fleet will allow the Farm to School program to expand, according to Troxler:

“Now we can move more products from the Farms to the Schools. By expanding this Farm to Schools program, we are going to bring more schools into the program, but we are also going to bring more farmers into the program. We have 75 farmers not participating in the program and I would like this to increase dramatically. I look forward to the day when I can say we went past $2 million. I think we can do that.”
 

75 farmers and 76 school systems participate in North Carolina’s Farm to School program.
 

Consumer Prices in April Steady
 

The prices consumers paid for goods did not change from March to April. The Labor Department reports cheaper gas offset small increases in food and clothing. Economist Gus Faucher says the reality is no change can be seen as a positive for the economy.
 

USTR Leaving Obama Administration in January
 

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk says if President Barack Obama is elected to a second term – he will not be part of it. The former Dallas Mayor says he will leave office in January no matter the outcome of the election.
 
 

Producers Still Have Time to Sign-Up for DCP and ACRE

Enrollment for the 2012 Direct and Counter-Cyclical Program and the Average Crop Revenue Election Program ends June 1st. USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator Bruce Nelson says producers who want to participate in either program must enroll their eligible farms and need to do so before the deadline.