American Ag Movement 35th reunion
Had quite a road trip last week. Took a carload of former AAM (American Ag Movement for the youngsters reading this) tractorcade participants down to the 35th reunion of the tractorcade to D.C. in Lubbock, Texas. It was hosted by Texas Tech’s Southwest collection. The intention was to get them together to hear their stories, and record them and their mementos for posterity. It was extremely successful. The Southwest collections administrator, Andy Wilkinson, is an old friend of mine and I was able to help him a little setting it [...]
Amazing Grazing project kicked off July 1
Project Directors' Meeting Mercedes Taylor-Puckett and Mary Howell travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, July 8-10, 2013 to attend the North Central Risk Management Education Center Meeting for the project leaders of the 2013 grants. NCRMEC is funded by USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture. This meeting was to train the project directors regarding the various grants that were awarded. These grants provide training to help farmers and ranchers learn new strategies to manage complex and growing agricultural risks. The center funds results-based, producer-focused, competitive grants annually to provide producers with [...]
Kansas City Tour gave insight into science, research side of agriculture
Kansas Farmers Union hosted a tour of three Kansas City facilities that impact agriculture every day: USDA’s National Grain Center, Kansas City Board of Trade and Region 7 EPA Science and Technology Center. The day started off at USDA Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS) National Grain Center, where they determine the standards for grain grading and measurements for the U.S. “FGIS was born to oversee that process (U.S. Grain Standards Act) and insure that there was integrity in the grain grading process,” Mary Alonzo, the Center’s director, said. “What we [...]
President’s Report: July 2013
The KCC held a public hearing on July 11 in Topeka on Westar Energy’s proposed rate increases on residential (8.77 percent) and small business (6.18 percent) customers to the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC). At the same time they are proposing to cut rates to medium general service (6 percent) and industrial (8.3 percent) customers. Not to mention the two ‘special contract customers’ that they are going to decrease by 15.1 percent. They didn’t list those companies in this and didn’t mention who they were until they were specifically asked that [...]
Food Hub Development Workshop: Aug 29
The second workshop in the Food Hubs and Co-ops: How local family farms can feed our communities series will be offered August 29, 2013, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. in the Douglas County Fair’s Dreher Building, 2110 Harper St, Lawrence, KS. The workshop will provide farmers, community organizations, and local governmental entities with information on the multiple phases of food hub development. Using the Wisconsin Food Hub Cooperative as a case study, the workshop will explore best practices in food hub development and outline the project phases including: identifying opportunities [...]
Central Kansas tours to feature agritourism, wildlife, history, stargazing
Kansas Farmers Union invites everyone to attend a day of tours in the Pawnee Rock, Great Bend, and Larned areas on Saturday, Aug. 10. The morning will start at 9 a.m. at the Pawnee Rock State Historic Site at Pawnee Rock. According to the Pawnee Rock website, many of the Plains tribes reportedly used it as an observation point from which they could track and swoop down upon buffalo herds and wagon trains. At times, travelers on the Santa Fe Trail regarded it as the most dangerous place they had [...]